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Lifemiles serious booking problems - Beware (old legacy thread)

Old Aug 17, 2013, 12:43 am
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Last edit by: Tokyoite
Please do your homework before buying Lifemiles. It is what it is... for some that's useful, for others it's not.

Biggest complaints are about
- mixed class bookings are available but now many of the suitable connections dont show
- not being able to book anything that isn't available online (there are work-arounds, see screenshot method below)
- the quality of the call center (English speaking agents are scarce, you might get thrown in a loop with call transfers within their call center)
- no stopovers (>24H) or open jaws, but you can book one way awards
- no reservations on Certain subsidiaries of Star Alliance carriers (Lufthansa Cityline, Germanwings)

Problems with ticketing / lack of confirmation screen or email
- write down the confirmation number shown on the screen after confirming your purchase.
check here: http://serviciosenlinea.avianca.com/...doReserva.aspx

Sometimes, even if you cannot see the PNR, the record may have been created, so better to call them and give them flight details you were trying to book. They can find the PNR from those details.
- ticketing usually takes place within 10-15 min of booking
- but it may also take up to 2 days
- if miles have been deducted from your account and a temporary authorization has been placed on your CC, you're probably fine even if you did not see a confirmation screen
- if no e-ticket number is visible on checkmytrip.com after two days, you should contact LifeMiles. You can expedite the ticketing by emailing with your booking reference to: [email protected] after you have booked, especially if you have booked last minute flights, and need ticketing straight away

Screenshot method.
So, on a date you are looking for in the future, there is availability for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK. But not LAX-NRT-BKK.
It may be a case of the LM system not offering the through connection.

Take three screen shots - two 'available' screen shots for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK and the 'not available' screen for LAX-BKK.
Send them all off with a scan of your passport page (PDF) and LM will make the booking manually for you.

Send to these two email addresses, and CC yourself (just for your records)
[email protected]
[email protected]

Sample email:
====
Email topic: Urgent request for booking Lifemiles Award
====
Dear Sirs,

I have tried several times, over several days, but the following itinerary does not show on the website.
Please see the three attached screenshots I took just now.
Please do the manual booking First Class/Business class for xx,000 miles. (*Know how many miles the whole award should cost-here, to avoid surprises once ticketed)

The availability is only 1 seat for this date, so please process this request urgently before it is gone.

Los Angeles (LAX) - Bangkok (BKK)
Saturday August 11th 2018
NH 175 connecting to NH 807
(*Provide the specific flight numbers you want, to avoid surprises once ticketed)

My passport copy (Number xxxx, expiry 20xx/xx/xx, Nationality xxx) is attached in this email.

LifeMiles Number: xxx
First Name: xxx
Last name: xxx
Date of Birth: Month, date, year
Gender: Male/Female
Email: xxxx
Phone Number: +1-xxxx

Regards,
XXX
=========
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Lifemiles serious booking problems - Beware (old legacy thread)

Old May 21, 2019, 8:23 am
  #1261  
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Originally Posted by moops380
If this was too easy to use and user friendly, it would likely go away quickly. This is a blessing in disguise. LH F for these prices is very good. The screenshot method seems tedious and I haven't tried it, but has anyone successfully booked mixed carriers via phone that do not appear online recently? also economy from us1 to eur1 for 20k all the time is pretty great, just hard to book mixed carrier.
You cannot book something via the phone unless it also appears on line. The call centre has the same booking/search engine that we do.

If it appears on line for individual sectors, but not the full itinerary, you'll need to send off screenshots.

If something appear on line but errors out during the booking process (for example a connection AMS-FRA-DEL-SYD on LH/AI/AI appears on line, but if you try to book it it gives you an error), you can ask the call centre to manually book it.
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Old May 21, 2019, 8:41 am
  #1262  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 742
Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
You cannot book something via the phone unless it also appears on line. The call centre has the same booking/search engine that we do.

If it appears on line for individual sectors, but not the full itinerary, you'll need to send off screenshots.

If something appear on line but errors out during the booking process (for example a connection AMS-FRA-DEL-SYD on LH/AI/AI appears on line, but if you try to book it it gives you an error), you can ask the call centre to manually book it.
Thanks for the info. How quickly can screenshot method be employed. What if I do that then call right away for a flight 24 hrs away. What if I am with my colombian friend who can do it all in spanish?

I am just trying to get the best manual process together for something like rdu-ewr-muc-hel UA/LH.

I have had struggles with LM in the purchasing and transfers from citi. took 2 months for the miles from citi to appear (+25% bonus). and the more recent transfer to friends things still billed me about $2k in pending charges that would have been lost if i didn't check (i double clicked it and hence double billed but only got miles once). They said 30-90 days for the refund but it came in about 2 wks. Had to open cases each time but they did make me whole. Also did have the help of a Colombiana to help in more than one circumstance.

I just hope UAs changes on 'saver' fares don't mess this up. Things like CHS-IAD-CMH for 7.5k are really great (esp last minute) and I won't be able to travel how i have (for the past ~8 yrs lots of last minute one ways) if this goes away.

Cheers.
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Old May 21, 2019, 9:49 am
  #1263  
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Originally Posted by moops380
Thanks for the info. How quickly can screenshot method be employed. What if I do that then call right away for a flight 24 hrs away. What if I am with my colombian friend who can do it all in spanish?

I am just trying to get the best manual process together for something like rdu-ewr-muc-hel UA/LH.

I have had struggles with LM in the purchasing and transfers from citi. took 2 months for the miles from citi to appear (+25% bonus). and the more recent transfer to friends things still billed me about $2k in pending charges that would have been lost if i didn't check (i double clicked it and hence double billed but only got miles once). They said 30-90 days for the refund but it came in about 2 wks. Had to open cases each time but they did make me whole. Also did have the help of a Colombiana to help in more than one circumstance.

I just hope UAs changes on 'saver' fares don't mess this up. Things like CHS-IAD-CMH for 7.5k are really great (esp last minute) and I won't be able to travel how i have (for the past ~8 yrs lots of last minute one ways) if this goes away.

Cheers.
The only thing you can do for urgent bookings is to mark your email with the screenshots as ‘urgent’ in the title.

The call centre will not connect you to the screenshot booking department. They won’t even follow it up for you while you wait. They’re completely separate. Speaking spanish won’t change this,

If your booking is that close in it may not get processed in time.

Screenshots used to be done overnight, but now can take up to 10 days (which is quite normal now). Most of us have tried to speed that up, without success. They’ll get around to it when they get around to it.
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Old May 21, 2019, 3:13 pm
  #1264  
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Plat, UA Gold
Posts: 609
i just booked a flight last week and the milage was not deducted from my account, but there's still a pending charge on my credit card. I received the email confirmation as well as the record locator. but united has no segments in the reservation. Has any one else seen this before? Do I just book again? My flight is in a couple of days, so i need to decide soon!
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Old May 21, 2019, 3:48 pm
  #1265  
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Originally Posted by bbmatt
i just booked a flight last week and the milage was not deducted from my account, but there's still a pending charge on my credit card. I received the email confirmation as well as the record locator. but united has no segments in the reservation. Has any one else seen this before? Do I just book again? My flight is in a couple of days, so i need to decide soon!
If you have a record locator you can call Avianca and select (eventually) option '3' for Lifemiles, then option '1' (which is something like 'program information, but actually gets you through to the call centre).

Ask them to rerieve the booking and see what's happening. If you book twice you run the risk of the same error happening, or a duplicate in which the airline cancels one or both bookings, or being left with two bookings and having to pay the cancel fee on one of them.
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Old May 21, 2019, 8:44 pm
  #1266  
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,219
Originally Posted by bbmatt
i just booked a flight last week and the milage was not deducted from my account, but there's still a pending charge on my credit card.
I booked a flight last week and the mileage was not deducted until today, 5 days later.
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Old May 21, 2019, 8:50 pm
  #1267  
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,219
Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
You cannot book something via the phone unless it also appears on line. The call centre has the same booking/search engine that we do.
One tiny exception to that: I had a situation in which a phone agent could see more options on the route I was booking than I could see online. That is, when I could see N flights on a particular airline on that route on that day, he saw N+1.
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Old May 22, 2019, 2:53 am
  #1268  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 100
Ok now so after the email that I sent straight to their CEO, Lifemiles finally decided that they wanted to be rid of me by getting me satisfied - they gave me two straight calls yesterday (first one at 3am!) and offered several options, which I accepted one of them and ticketed this morning. I can only assume that the email address I guessed was a right one so he got straight onto it - well done Matthew!

So one thing I noticed is how they can see far more availability in their back-end especially on SQ, as none of the flights they offered to me are available online!

I ended up booking BR-SQ NGO-TPE-SIN-SYD with options also given for SQ KIX-SIN-SYD and none of the SQ flights were available on LM at the time of checking (both a couple days ago and yesterday/today).

Ended up on SQ231 so guess I'll give them a rest for now!

Ps. One of my friends who also had issue with LM (they also refused to ticket his requests from MEL to FRA and return, despite no issues with all the flights) received a proactive call from LM last night, I can only assume as an aftermath of what I sent, and they ticketed his itinerary without a single change.

Cheers,
Michael
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Old May 22, 2019, 3:22 am
  #1269  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
Originally Posted by eamond
Ok now so after the email that I sent straight to their CEO, Lifemiles finally decided that they wanted to be rid of me by getting me satisfied - they gave me two straight calls yesterday (first one at 3am!) and offered several options, which I accepted one of them and ticketed this morning. I can only assume that the email address I guessed was a right one so he got straight onto it - well done Matthew!

So one thing I noticed is how they can see far more availability in their back-end especially on SQ, as none of the flights they offered to me are available online!

I ended up booking BR-SQ NGO-TPE-SIN-SYD with options also given for SQ KIX-SIN-SYD and none of the SQ flights were available on LM at the time of checking (both a couple days ago and yesterday/today).

Ended up on SQ231 so guess I'll give them a rest for now!

Ps. One of my friends who also had issue with LM (they also refused to ticket his requests from MEL to FRA and return, despite no issues with all the flights) received a proactive call from LM last night, I can only assume as an aftermath of what I sent, and they ticketed his itinerary without a single change.

Cheers,
Michael
Care to share the email address you used to contact them? PM me if you want to.
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Old May 22, 2019, 3:23 am
  #1270  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,212
So if LH F being offered ex-USA and F on ANA, or have they shut that down?
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Old May 22, 2019, 3:24 am
  #1271  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 100
Originally Posted by NWplatinum


Care to share the email address you used to contact them? PM me if you want to.
PM'd you

Cheers
Michael
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Old May 22, 2019, 4:33 am
  #1272  
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Originally Posted by NWplatinum


Care to share the email address you used to contact them? PM me if you want to.
Please please please everyone!!!

Don't mess this up and have the screenshot option taken away all together.
@ eamond - glad it worked out. Yes SQ is sometimes offered at times as a fall back. This is why, even though flights may not be processed quickly, it usually works out in the end.

I'd hate to see this come to the end with people going in hard and heavy and threatening DOT and all sorts of other action like they have on mistake fares.

Last edited by LHR/MEL/Europe FF; May 22, 2019 at 5:27 am Reason: fixin spelling
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Old May 22, 2019, 5:31 am
  #1273  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,835
Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Please please please everyone!!!
LOL wishful thinking
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Old May 22, 2019, 5:47 am
  #1274  
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I don't know why some folk have to ruin everything? The screenshot method isn't perfect, but it gets results 99 times out of 100. Even if you have to wait 10 days.

If people start emailing the CEO if they don't hear back immediately, or start demanding extra attention, LM can just pull the whole screenshot thing. They're under no obligation to provide it.

If we need evidence - just look at what happened to mistake fares.

Edit: I should probably edit this to make the distinction between BIS Avianca flyers and those of us that purchase discounted miles.

For those of us purchasing miles LM has never made any representation that flights - other than those showing on their website - will be made available. The screenshot method is a way to accommodate those of us looking for more complex itineraries.

If you are an BIS avianca flyer - I agree you should rightly expect you FF program, as a star alliance member, to provide you with some sort of decent award program that you can use in the same way as other major programs
wheresmybagba likes this.

Last edited by LHR/MEL/Europe FF; May 22, 2019 at 8:29 am
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Old May 22, 2019, 6:29 am
  #1275  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 100
deleted

Last edited by eamond; May 22, 2019 at 6:37 am
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