May 26, 2014, 8:47 am
Last edit by: SingaporeDon
Every forum on Flyertalk has a personality. A forum gains a personality through user input over time, and Lifemiles is a very definitive example of how users have developed a unique community.
While Flyertalk boards actively encourage sharing of info, the Lifemiles community has developed and thrived via obscuring of certain data elements. It may not be easy for new participants to break through the codes and gain knowledge of the program's quirks, but the overall board community has adopted this unique approach. And frankly, that is not going to change overnight.
If a FT member wants to participate on this board, then they will need to respect other users. Hence, posts that run counter to this community's standards, will be removed.
While Flyertalk boards actively encourage sharing of info, the Lifemiles community has developed and thrived via obscuring of certain data elements. It may not be easy for new participants to break through the codes and gain knowledge of the program's quirks, but the overall board community has adopted this unique approach. And frankly, that is not going to change overnight.
If a FT member wants to participate on this board, then they will need to respect other users. Hence, posts that run counter to this community's standards, will be removed.
C1 North America
C1.5 Caribbean, Bermuda
C2 Europe
C2.5 Middle East
C3 Asia
C4 South America
C5 Africa
C6 Oceania
2X, 3X: in the context of this LifeMiles thread, 2X and 3X refer to any 2nd and 3rd legs of a one-way award ticket.
LifeMiles' Star Alliance Award Chart
LifeMiles' old Star Alliance Award Chart (before Oct 15 2014) // Table of changes
Cash & Miles redemptions: the price per mile purchased during award booking varies significantly depending on how many miles are purchased. The "sweet spots" are between 38% and 58% of the total mileage required, where miles are purchased for 1.5 cents. See here for some examples.
Beware of Cabotage: LifeMiles has been known to issue tickets that constitute Cabotage, and at least one instance of denied boarding has been reported, stranding the passenger. An easily-seen example is travel on Copa from LAX to SJU (via PTY).
Understand Cabotage: Departing country 1, transiting country 2, returning to country 1 (no stopping) *is* cabotage (example: depart JFK, connect in YYZ to return to ORD, or depart Miami, connect in Bogota, return to San Francisco). On the other hand, departing country 1, going to completely unrelated country 2, and ending up in country 3, is not cabotage. So if you fly JFK-JNB-ZRH, for instance, this is completely not cabotage.
Availability: Seeing availability for *A award seats elsewhere is no guarantee they are accessible on Lifemiles. For instance award space shown on ANA often is not accessible on Lifemiles. Similarly, finding award space on single legs doesn't mean you'll get award space on the combined itinerary. And no, there is no way to overcome that.
Screenshot Method
Send email to [email protected] with attached screenshots on Lifemiles website of each individual leg showing availability. Also, screenshot showing no availability as one booking. Include passenger names, gender and DOB and copy of passenger passport. They will either call you for payment or email the itinerary and give you 3 days to call up and make payment by CC.
NOTE: This previous thread has been closed; it can be read here LM F and J routes (and the occasional trick-it)
LM F and J routes (and the occasional trick-it) Rebooted v2.0
Jun 6, 2016, 11:49 pm
#2326
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: AY Platinum, UA Premier Platinum, OneWorld Emerald, VA Platinum
Posts: 558
Reading between the lines you can book a mixed class via screenshot if you use points for the higher (highest) class on all legs.
What you can't do is a screenshot booking with mixed class and pay mixed class points as per the booking engine functionality.
What you can't do is a screenshot booking with mixed class and pay mixed class points as per the booking engine functionality.
Jun 6, 2016, 11:51 pm
#2327
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: AY Platinum, UA Premier Platinum, OneWorld Emerald, VA Platinum
Posts: 558
I had 3 attempts to get a MEL-RNO award with the screenshot message in the last week. I finally got the following (which is the 1st response I could understand):
Greetings Mr. jmoorfoot.
We can assist you with a manual booking procedure but only when you send us screenshots of the flights available on the same cabin. Additionally, it will be required that you send us the color scanned image of the passengers' passports.
We appreciate your valuable time and look forward to your response.
Kind regards,
I was able to get the redemption when I dropped the LAX-RNO leg as it was only available in Y.
Greetings Mr. jmoorfoot.
We can assist you with a manual booking procedure but only when you send us screenshots of the flights available on the same cabin. Additionally, it will be required that you send us the color scanned image of the passengers' passports.
We appreciate your valuable time and look forward to your response.
Kind regards,
I was able to get the redemption when I dropped the LAX-RNO leg as it was only available in Y.
Jun 7, 2016, 9:29 pm
#2329
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 291
J. The leg from ICN-RNO showed as mixed on the website, and it was only the final section (LAX-RNO) which was in Y. It appears that as is typical with LifeMiles, that the response depends on which agent you get. All my responses for this redemption came from the same person.
Jul 14, 2016, 6:57 am
#2334
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: PHX
Posts: 4,787
No tricks, straightforward. I am searching for very simple itineraries in C on TK, from USA to continental Europe. LM rarely will seem to put a route together of two segments transiting in IST, even if all segments are available.
It will show me a few dates if I search, say, ATL-TXL. But most dates show as sold out even though there is plenty of availability on the individual ATL-IST and IST-TXL segments. I used to be able to pull these up easily by specifying TK, but I guess something has changed and it won't put them together.
Just SOL if it won't display?
It will show me a few dates if I search, say, ATL-TXL. But most dates show as sold out even though there is plenty of availability on the individual ATL-IST and IST-TXL segments. I used to be able to pull these up easily by specifying TK, but I guess something has changed and it won't put them together.
Just SOL if it won't display?
Jul 14, 2016, 7:19 am
#2335
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,408
No tricks, straightforward. I am searching for very simple itineraries in C on TK, from USA to continental Europe. LM rarely will seem to put a route together of two segments transiting in IST, even if all segments are available.
It will show me a few dates if I search, say, ATL-TXL. But most dates show as sold out even though there is plenty of availability on the individual ATL-IST and IST-TXL segments. I used to be able to pull these up easily by specifying TK, but I guess something has changed and it won't put them together.
Just SOL if it won't display?
It will show me a few dates if I search, say, ATL-TXL. But most dates show as sold out even though there is plenty of availability on the individual ATL-IST and IST-TXL segments. I used to be able to pull these up easily by specifying TK, but I guess something has changed and it won't put them together.
Just SOL if it won't display?
You'll need to send an email to the lifemiles support email address. Attached to the email you'll need three screenshots, one for each sector (showing 'available') and a third for the end-to-end showing 'sold out'.
Send that with all your details (lifemiles number, name, DOB, telephone contact etc etc) and ask them to manually book.
They'll usually get back to you next day asking you to either call them, or they will call you, to take payment.
Jul 14, 2016, 9:40 am
#2337
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: SIN
Posts: 352
Yeah- got for that advise. Fresh data point- just redeemed one award with the screenshot method. The date I requested had segments available individually- the agents couldnt Find those dates and gave me a booking reference for one day before my intended travel date.
Since it was not much of a hassle, I accepted it and called them to make CC payment.
Format of email:
Hi Support Team,
I am trying to book a flight from AAA-IST-BBB, but the flight is not showing up on the website.
On searching for individual segments, both flights are available. Please kindly refer to the screenshots.
Passenger details:
Passenger Name
Gender:
DOB:
Could you please kindly make the booking using miles plus taxes.
Flight 1: LAX-IST
Date
TK76 17:50 to 16:00
Business Class
Flight 2: IST-Blah
Date
TK-blah
Business Class
I am based in Singapore and my phone number is +65 xxxxxxxx
Thank you!
Regards,
ExSin
Since it was not much of a hassle, I accepted it and called them to make CC payment.
Format of email:
Hi Support Team,
I am trying to book a flight from AAA-IST-BBB, but the flight is not showing up on the website.
On searching for individual segments, both flights are available. Please kindly refer to the screenshots.
Passenger details:
Passenger Name
Gender:
DOB:
Could you please kindly make the booking using miles plus taxes.
Flight 1: LAX-IST
Date
TK76 17:50 to 16:00
Business Class
Flight 2: IST-Blah
Date
TK-blah
Business Class
I am based in Singapore and my phone number is +65 xxxxxxxx
Thank you!
Regards,
ExSin
Jul 14, 2016, 2:06 pm
#2339
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
I am trying to book a flight from AAA-IST-BBB, but the flight is not showing up on the website.
On searching for individual segments, both flights are available. Please kindly refer to the screenshots.
Passenger details:
Passenger Name
Gender:
DOB:
Could you please kindly make the booking using miles plus taxes.
Flight 1: LAX-IST
Date
TK76 17:50 to 16:00
Business Class
Flight 2: IST-Blah
Date
TK-blah
Business Class
On searching for individual segments, both flights are available. Please kindly refer to the screenshots.
Passenger details:
Passenger Name
Gender:
DOB:
Could you please kindly make the booking using miles plus taxes.
Flight 1: LAX-IST
Date
TK76 17:50 to 16:00
Business Class
Flight 2: IST-Blah
Date
TK-blah
Business Class
Where is Blah?