pt flyer

i notice that redemptions for a route I am interested in, MUN to SEA, have gone from typical mileage to highly inflated values. I know there was a previous discussion on this topic, but to be honest, it still didn’t help me understand the situation very well.

Can someone kindly explain why flights post with these inflated amounts to me in a basic way?

Thank you in advance for your time and help.

radtechtraveler

There really is no rhyme or reason for the inflated values on certain flights like the 280k aer lingus business flights

Flying for Fun

It is my understanding (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that EI Saver rate is 60K in J Europe to/from North America. AS has access to 1 less seat than EI so there needs to be 2 Saver Seats available to book one as an award on AS. If there is no Saver availability, you have the option to use 280K for J and AS will purchase a revenue ticket for you.

If you value AS miles at 2 cents each, you are essentially paying $5,600 for your award ticket.

For the same 280K, you could fly CX F LAX/SFO/ORD/JFK/BOS-HKG-LHR or elsewhere in Europe where CX flies return. 185K in J. No F service from SEA.

James

radtechtraveler

i knew someone else would do the foot work for me

beckoa

...because they can

pt flyer

91foxbody

I was pumped to finally start planning a honeymoon with my AS stockpile on Aer Lingus. The redemptions are currently a freaking joke, and now I'm probably going to have to pay massive BA surcharges to get there.

jsguyrus

BA has high surcharges for F and J tickets but have reduced them for Y. Personally I don't mind the surcharge for an F ticket which also allows me a stopover, its still a good value.As far as Aer Lingus they still show lots of 60,000 J availability, the question is, is it real?

91foxbody

Double post

91foxbody

Where are you seeing 60k J? I can't find anything under the 280k mark for the middle of next year.

I'm pretty set on flying J/F since my SO hasn't been out of the country/flown a wide body/etc. Y is pretty boring from west coast to Europe.

I hope we can figure it out, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

beckoa

I've seen 60K on some narrow body flights (ex-PHL for example)

Flying for Fun

BA has also reduced surcharges on J/F awards too. CPT-LHR-YVR all in F is now in the $550 range when it was in the $850 range before. That is, of course, without a LHR stopover which adds a lot more.

James

jsguyrus

Aer Lingus has been a moving target since they first showed up online and availability seems so come and go in mass rapidly. What others have reported is the 60K awards mostly were phantoms although that was never confirmed. Today I see almost no 60K awards so its possible AS eliminated all the phantom space. 280K is a stupid amount to pay for a one way trip to anywhere in J.

nwflyboy

I can confirm that.

Up until very recently, a search on AS showed plentiful J award space to Dublin every day (in fact 4 seats in J on every flight). Encouraging, wasn't it? If you searched in united.com, you would see the same thing. Even more encouraging, no?

Actually, no. Virtually all of that was phantom inventory. If you tried to book it, it would not ticket (typically you would get a message saying that they had to check with their partner, and they would get back to you within 24 hours). Shortly after 9 am Dublin time, you would get a follow-up message informing you that so sorry, the ticket could not be booked.

I confirmed this with multiple attempted bookings using AS miles and also using UA miles. The result was exactly the same - no ticket (so in fairness, the blame should be shared between EI, AS and UA - all three were participating in a pretty significant, willful deception). All that inventory you saw was fake fake fake fake fake.

A few days ago (maybe a week?) all that phantom inventory seems to have vanished overnight. Nothing left but those laughable 280K deals.

Too bad - it looked so promising, but was just a tease.

jsguyrus