I had a couple questions, thanks for all the posts above btw...

Formerly AC elite, then switched to SQ (even though I never fly Singapore)...now OZ has piqued my interest.

I don't fly much domestically in Canada anymore, so earning 0% there which was a problem originally, now no longer is. I don't love going from 100% on the UA cheap fares down to 50%, but the 2 year qualification window makes it a lot easier to qualify.

So there's pros/cons on both sides.

What I wanna know...

1) What are the surcharges like? The redemption rates are pretty solid from the chart, but if the surcharges are through the roof then it kinda stinks. Also do they apply to all airlines? At AC they only apply to some, but then AC also seems to block some of the others, but you can USUALLY get around them.

2) Is the availability of the awards pretty good? Or does OZ seemingly block stuff like AC does?

3) In the qualification it doesn't mention anything about spend or OZ segments. I wanna double check that, no need to ever fly OZ to actually qualify right?

4) My other big question is, regarding the qualifying. I'm not sure if I'm reading it right. So does the qualification period begin on day 1 of signup? If so, no point in signing up now. Or does it begin the day you credit your first flight like SQ? That makes more sense. Also, and this is a big one, is the status valid for 2 years like TK? Or is the status valid for just 1 year, but you've got 2 years to qualify?

Thanks very much gang. I'm pretty satisfied with SQ and qualifying with them, but the redemptions appear to be more expensive, their chart has some sweet spots, but overall it's just average.

Also! Forgot 1 more.

5) What's with this 3 legs only an award tickets? Does that mean no multi-city? If I wanna go say...YVR-HKT. YVR-SEA-ICN-HKT isn't valid? It would have to be YVR-ICN-HKT or SEA-ICN-HKT? How about stopover rules etc. I'm happy to read myself if someone can point me in the right direction, couldn't find this stuff on the website.

1. Fuel surcharges are outrageously high for almost every airline. 2 definite exceptions to this are Air Canada and United, so try to book their flights.

2. They don't necessarily block, but availability isn't 100% the same as what you'll see on the United website for example.

3. No other qualifications other than 40,000 in 2 years.

4. 2 year period starts the day you signup so wait until your first flight. Status is good for 2 years + the rest of the original qualifying period if you qualify early.

5. Technically, you're allowed 8 segments per one way award. However they are very stingy in terms of MPM (maximum permitted mileage). Just today I spent over an hour on the phone trying to unsuccessfully book a *A award that is under the legal MPM requirement but was 5 segments long, and 2 agents overpriced it and wouldn't budge citing the MPM rule. So YMMV. The website has some basic info on award rules, but not much.

Awesome, thanks for all the answers zeer0!

I'm a bit bummed about the fuel surcharges. Funny though that they don't apply to AC, cuz that's who I'm usually trying to avoid now. Are the surcharges high on OZ themselves?

4. Already signed up...IDIOT!!!! *smacks self* I wanted to sign up to try a dummy booking to check out potential YQ myself and mileage (cuz I'm still not sure I understand how the mileage is charged) then found out I couldn't even check that stuff since you need to call for all partner bookings (which sucks btw)

5. Do you have a link to that info? Again, don't mind reading for myself but I found their site to be a bit of a maze.

Now, new question, since you seem pretty knowledgable...

I don't get how the mileage is charged. The award chart seems pretty self explanatory. USA/Canada to Northeast Asia 80,000 return. Cool. But then if you check their explanation page (I forget the name) it just confuses me more. Jeju-Seoul-Miami...they say it's 90,000 points showing 40k between Seoul-Miami and then another 5k to Jeju. I can't make sense of that. Unless, they are saying Jeju is Southeast Asia which I have a REALLY hard time believing.

The next example is even more confusing...it seems to indicate you can do the same route, Jeju-Seoul-Miami and have a stopover in NY instead of just a connection. Cool. Except then they charge you full freight as if you had just booked 2 separate tickets.

As I see it, YVR-SEA-ICN-BKK should cost 90,000. But are they trying to charge per leg? Thus making this routing 12,500 + 80,000 + _______ (whatever the ICN-BKK cost is)?

No need to call... just go to this page http://flyasiana.com/I/ko/Redemption...I&BIZType=STAR and use google translate... more info in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asian...gs-online.html (kinda outdated - you can't force an english version of that site any more, and you can pay with a non-Korean credit card online...)

OZ domestic flights are 10k RT. *A Northeast Asia to US is 80k RT. 10k + 80k = 90k. If you have a mix of OZ and *A legs use the *A rate.

OZ doesn't have free stopovers, once you have a stopover they charge it as a separate trip. So yes as you said they charge as if you book 2 separate tickets. Therefore: Jeju-Seoul 10k RT, Seoul-JFK 80k RT and JFK-MIA *A US domestic at 25k RT. Therefore 115k. Pretty sure they have a typo on their page: should probably read
(since Korea - N. America in Y on OZ metal should be 70k RT on the OZ chart)

YVR-SEA-ICN-BKK: if you don't stop over anywhere then it's 90k RT (*A N. America - Southeast Asia). If you stop in ICN then it's 80k RT for YVR-SEA-ICN (*A N. America - North Asia) and 50k RT for ICN-BKK (*A North Asia - Southeast Asia even if you're on OZ metal, since you have *A flights on the itinerary) - so 130k RT.

Ok I'm learning lots here, thanks much Truncated, for your non-truncated response!

Just so I'm clear, if you have a mixed OZ/*A itinerary you're only dinged if you take a domestic Korean flight? So lets say, SEA-ICN (OZ, no stop) then ICN-BKK (TG) you're only getting charged the *A rate which is 90k RT?

How long is a "non stopover"? On AP and international connection can be 23:59 without being called a stopover. Any chance OZ has something like that?

Thanks much for all the help and links. Seems like this is a pretty good program, good redemption rates, but with some holes. I guess all the FFP are like that, upsides and downsides, just gotta find the one that works for you. I've already bailed on AC, I've got Star Gold via SQ right now, but haven't redeemed for anything yet...now OZ is looking appealing because I've already got some flights booked for later in the year that I think will get me like 50% of the way to gold.

Looks like I'm gonna have to make myself a spreadsheet weighing it all out!

Yes — but I tend to stay away from mixing OZ and *A flights on the same itinerary, since OZ has a bunch of weird surcharges for flights on their own metal for their own members (e.g. additional 50% more miles to redeem during the high season, additional 10k miles OW for premium cabin redemptions on flights with Business Smartium) which make the mileage calculation more complicated/expensive. (e.g. the website won't let me price out LAX-ICN-SIN on OZ/SQ in J although the equivalent itinerary in Y comes out at 90k as expected.)

Alnd yes, transfers are anything <24:00.

Aight, sounds good, thanks.

Could you elaborate? I'm just not seeing a way online. Their website is... tricky. I can't even attempt to see how much my flight would cost in dollars.

I also booked an award flight. Thru United. If I log into my Asiana FF account, it does not show any reservation. If I go under "My Reservation" and put in my Confirmation # and other info, then the reservation pops up, but there's no link anywhere to change seats that I can see. I can see the seats I have. I called yesterday and got the phone agent to assign me seats, but it appears he gave me seats that don't recline so I'm on the phone now on hold trying to get another agent. It'd be much easier to do it online like the recording on the phone says, but I'm just not seeing it.

Are there any "Where to sit on a ...." threads for the 777 and A380?

Just hit 40k miles on my asiana club membership but my status has not changed to Diamond yet. Does anyone know how long it would take for the system to recognise the change in status?

AFAIR 1 day

If you've been flying OZ metal, and are just a couple of hundred miles over 40k, you may not actually have the requisite status miles. From memory, I think you get an extra 5% for miles accrued on OZ. So you may be under 40k status miles, and not yet diamond.

Indeed. On the full website you can see a section that shows you just your status miles, not award miles. I don't think the app shows this.

I have a quick question.. I'm not familiar with OZ's seat assignment policies. I have a future flight (W class, 016 ticket) on a 333 GMP-HND. A very nice agent told me that they can only advance-assign seats from row 20 backwards, and the seats forward of row 20 would be available at the gate.

Is that correct? Does being UA *G have any bearing on the situation? Thanks!

Probably false — I can pick as far front as row 15 on the A333 (for ICN-SIN, GMP-HND), with rows 11/12/14 blocked. But FWIW all my tickets are on OZ stock (mix of K, S, W and T, which doesn't seem to have any bearing on what seats you can pick). Would probably try calling again.