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
Sep 21, 2017, 5:25 pm
#2746
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
specify airline for better results. Furthermore, check on united, Aeroplan or EF to see if there is premium availability on both flights, so you can pinpoint your searches!
Sep 21, 2017, 7:53 pm
#2747
Join Date: Apr 2016
Programs: NH, JL, SQ
Posts: 164
"The origin/destination entered is not available for the selected airline. Please try with another search"
makes sense though asia-america is cheaper than asia-europe in Y on their chart so i'm not surprised if they want to block it
EDIT: stuff like SYD-TYO on UA is blocked too
Last edited by merridius; Sep 21, 2017 at 10:12 pm
Sep 21, 2017, 10:18 pm
#2748
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 10
Does LM change their award chart rate without notice again? I just did a search on SYD-PEK, it indicates rather than 40000, I have to pay 50000 now. Has anybody found any other changes?
Edit: sorry, didn't realise the change happened back in may.
Edit: sorry, didn't realise the change happened back in may.
Last edited by lanyun89; Sep 21, 2017 at 10:29 pm
Sep 21, 2017, 11:12 pm
#2749
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Sep 22, 2017, 4:11 am
#2751
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Tokyo
Programs: Marriott Plat, HH G,Hyatt E,*A Gold, OW Emerald.
Posts: 3,023
i think they definitely are blocking it, trying BKK-ORD and specifying TK/LH/LX a message pops up: "The origin/destination entered is not available for the selected airline. Please try with another search" makes sense though asia-america is cheaper than asia-europe in Y on their chart so i'm not surprised if they want to block it
EDIT: stuff like SYD-TYO on UA is blocked too
EDIT: stuff like SYD-TYO on UA is blocked too
That's likely the problem. Try specifying Asiana or ANA.
Or, log out, change your country to "Rest of the World", then log in. You should get the old interface.
Last edited by Tokyoite; Sep 22, 2017 at 5:49 am
Sep 22, 2017, 6:06 am
#2752
Join Date: Apr 2016
Programs: NH, JL, SQ
Posts: 164
Sep 22, 2017, 10:22 pm
#2753
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 147
Considering the new site is less welcoming to such out if the way itineraries, do you have a specific need to go through Europe?
That's likely the problem. Try specifying Asiana or ANA.
Or, log out, change your country to "Rest of the World", then log in. You should get the old interface.
That's likely the problem. Try specifying Asiana or ANA.
Or, log out, change your country to "Rest of the World", then log in. You should get the old interface.
Sep 23, 2017, 1:26 am
#2754
Join Date: Apr 2016
Programs: NH, JL, SQ
Posts: 164
if you wait until your login times out and then click "new search" it will bring you back to the old interface is what im seeing
EDIT: on another note, LM blocking asia-europe-US routes are annoying me since i can see availability on united's website with the european *A carriers for the dates i can work with but not the asian carriers...
EDIT: on another note, LM blocking asia-europe-US routes are annoying me since i can see availability on united's website with the european *A carriers for the dates i can work with but not the asian carriers...
Sep 23, 2017, 2:01 am
#2756
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,408
if you wait until your login times out and then click "new search" it will bring you back to the old interface is what im seeing
EDIT: on another note, LM blocking asia-europe-US routes are annoying me since i can see availability on united's website with the european *A carriers for the dates i can work with but not the asian carriers...
EDIT: on another note, LM blocking asia-europe-US routes are annoying me since i can see availability on united's website with the european *A carriers for the dates i can work with but not the asian carriers...
Although how the screenshot works with the new interface, if other flights are showing, remains to be seen (what screenshot do we provide?). LM may come back with an offer of the direct flights trans-pacific.
Sep 23, 2017, 2:19 am
#2757
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: allaroundasia
Programs: LH SEN, SPG Plat.M&S E+
Posts: 222
Sep 23, 2017, 2:45 am
#2758
Join Date: Apr 2016
Programs: NH, JL, SQ
Posts: 164
i just found something VERY interesting... i dont know if this has been documented before
so i was looking for a flight a couple of days ago for 2 and found one which was a good deal, space was decent, with the LM website showing 4-3-3 seats for open for each leg respectively. i stopped at the payment page because i wanted to confirm with my travel companion if the itinerary was fine. he didn't reply me immediately so i surfed away from the payment page. about 10 minutes later i got the OK so i decided to search for the exact same city pair, only this time the award didn't show up so i thought damn i missed out. i searched for 1 person and interestingly the award showed up, this time with 2-1-1 seats available for each leg. i didn't really think about it and went to sleep
today, i thought about it and it seemed suspicious so i decided to try something. i searched for last minute availability for 2 people, and i found a J class ticket with 4 seats open. again, i decided to click through and stopped at the payment page again, and redid the search. lo and behold, the exact same flight was showing now only 2 seats open.
i'm not going to try again and take any more seats away from people so take from that what you will
tldr: i believe once you hit the payment page, LM removes the award space from its website... the original itinerary i was looking at still has not showed up so i don't know whether they ever return the seats
so i was looking for a flight a couple of days ago for 2 and found one which was a good deal, space was decent, with the LM website showing 4-3-3 seats for open for each leg respectively. i stopped at the payment page because i wanted to confirm with my travel companion if the itinerary was fine. he didn't reply me immediately so i surfed away from the payment page. about 10 minutes later i got the OK so i decided to search for the exact same city pair, only this time the award didn't show up so i thought damn i missed out. i searched for 1 person and interestingly the award showed up, this time with 2-1-1 seats available for each leg. i didn't really think about it and went to sleep
today, i thought about it and it seemed suspicious so i decided to try something. i searched for last minute availability for 2 people, and i found a J class ticket with 4 seats open. again, i decided to click through and stopped at the payment page again, and redid the search. lo and behold, the exact same flight was showing now only 2 seats open.
i'm not going to try again and take any more seats away from people so take from that what you will
tldr: i believe once you hit the payment page, LM removes the award space from its website... the original itinerary i was looking at still has not showed up so i don't know whether they ever return the seats
Sep 23, 2017, 3:21 am
#2759
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Germany
Programs: Hyatt Dia, MM, DGAEZ
Posts: 607
So this issue remains the same.
Sep 23, 2017, 4:58 am
#2760
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,210
Its always done that. I found that handy once as the payment failed but they had created a PNR so a call got the ticket issued.