Some people are just not appreciative or critical of others, but I appreciate what you are postings!

I think that's alittle drastic. I think LM can still be very interesting as long as the 2 for 1 promotion keeps going.

I'm not really surprised by the number of fixes. Programming and architecture of big IT systems is what I do and the level of quality really is laughable at AV. Guessing by some of our corporate clients (even a couple of airlines), they probably have a small IT department, with 2-3 developers who don't have a lot of experience. Some of the stuff there (like trusting user input) is really the work of someone who doesn't have a clue.

Here's what I think happened:
- DOT contacted AV, who is now forced to respond
- the response to DOT can't really be handled by one of their clueless support agents but from someone who actually knows a thing or two
- the smart(er) person looks at the ticket and sends an angry email to the Head of the IT department (with the High Priority icon as well :)) and copying one of the VPs
- the Head of the IT department gathers his two or three minions and says "come on guys... fix this... this is making us look stupid"
- so the devs take the route and check the bookings of this guy and take a look at what he did to get this dangerous route
- they also study what the hell "cabotage" is
- after a few hours, the lead developer maps out an "architecture" on how to prevent these types of bookings

My best guess is that they just inserted a couple of IF statements, which prevented some combinations, especially when selecting a carrier.

I wouldn't be surprised if this quick hack also disabled a couple of perfectly valid (non-tricked) routes.


Someone mentioned "costs of fixing it" in the old thread. The costs to fix their entire system really was minimal. And I'm talking about hours here, not days, weeks or months - even for someone who's clearly an amateur programmer.

What happened? Away from my computer for a few days and tons of boomerangs are gone... :(

Not tons, but all of them.

Ok, this is new to me.
Booked a well known tricked route and got the message "could not process credit card payment ...bla bla... please call our call center".

PNR created, miles are still there.

Obviously I don't want to call. Anyone had this before ? Will the reservation just be canceled if I don't call and thus no payment will go through ?

Any help appreciated

What about some research by yourself first?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avian...lifemiles.html

Yes the reservation will not go through. You'll need to wait for the seats to come back (if they do) and try again.

Folks, this thread can only flourish if the topic is adhered to. Several personal digs have been removed. Please set aside past animosities that sullied the old thread.

Thanks for your co-operation and understanding.

Prospero
Senior Moderator

nah, some still work, just not the absolutely cheapest ones, but you can still get some good savings.

My guess is that the IF statement guys only killed what has been booked (multiple times) or what could get them into additional trouble with the DOT

FYI: UA airport station at SUSHI is compiling a list of no-show PNR'S where CANDY was dropped. What they plan on doing with that info is not yet known.

What is known: 163 no-shows this year to date ALL originating from NA ALL ticketed in 202 stock (TACA) :eek:

Word of advice: Make sure if you are booked to CANDY you actually eat CANDY.

I'll keep the thread posted when my UA contact provides more 411.

Added: Pineapple to Candy no shows 241 YTD again all ticketed on TACA

Hmmmm...

Expect to see UA pushing for Candy to be recoded to match UAs zoning I would guess.... this sort of investigation will not lead to nothing, there will be consequences....:(

Just an info: 10% more expensive starting Oct 1st '14
 

LifeMiles just emailed a reminder today that included information about upcoming price rise of 10% starting on October 1, 2014.

Avianca is selling LifeMiles for $30 per 1,000 miles purchased (or per 2,000 miles during 2for1 promo), so it will be for $33 per 1,000 miles from Oct 1st.

And the current 2 for 1 promo finishes in three days.

received an email today from LM proactively re-booking my candy eating kitty route. On it, had the LM contact number and told me to ask for the lifemiles back room. When I called, they politely explained it violated US laws (with no mention of cabotage...guess they dont know the terminology). They offered me the pineapple route with the old business class with no other options other than cancel. Since this booking is for my elderly parents, i need the lie flat business class seat, so I requested to cancel and refund. The nice lady explained to me that it can take up to 72 hours to process, but there will be no cancellation fee of $50 per ticket. The whole call took 32 minutes, of which the first 14 or so was waiting to be transferred to the right department. So it was rather painless.

Let me put it a bit more bluntly than my nice colleague oliver2002.

The reason the "Rebooted v2.0" thread exists is because it was deemed useful by the value of information imparted and degree of participation, so we (Senior Moderators) agreed a "Rebooted v2.0" thread would preserve the function without the vitriol.

It is time to move on from past animus and upset. If this truly can't be done and the thread becomes maintenance intensive, disruptive and, we must reconsider discipline for members who are incapable of moving on to a more productive realm; I would personally hate to do that, but it is up to each and every of us.

Thank you for your understanding. Travel safely and well.

JDiver, Senior Moderator

Yet, you get to pay 55% more miles than usual, for example.

Maybe it'll be a good idea to not use your UA MP# if you don't intend to eat the candy. Or your account may get blacklisted for hidden city ticketing.

I think your lm number is already attached to the ticket no?

In my experience your statement is incorrect.

I booked SQ J from SIN-FRA on the A380.
After inputting my credit card details I got the credit card error.
I called lifemiles, held for about 5 minutes whilst they checked and was told that I'd receive the e-ticket in the next 24 hours.

2 hours later, the e-ticket arrived.

caveat: I am Spanish and had no problems communicating. Experiences in English may vary.

Calling when booking a tricked itinerary is a bad idea.

Obviously the poster is referring to adding your ua number after booking. For recognition as a UA elite

Some people attach other FF numbers to their reservations to try to take advantage of elite benefits, etc. In this case, it might not be the best idea.

No tricks needed.
SQ 77W and 388 J space shows up pretty frequently on the search, without forcing dates or carriers.

Suites needs tricks though, so I hear.

I'm still seeing C2 to C1 very happily

Except the original question was

IMHO the now unavailable boomerangs have nothing to do with a change of LM's internal award space search algorithm.

Every (!) boomerang that used to been available on LM could be found in the Amadeus timetable so it was my conclusion that LM uses the Amadeus timetable for route search and then checks class availability on the segments found within that timetable.

When you now search for the same boomerangs in the Amadeus timetable, they are gone.


To verify my hypothesis, I did just a random search for "forced carrier" boomerangs within the Amadeus timetable and did found for example a C3-C2-C2.5...
... and: This boomerang still shows up in LM.

Final conclusion:
LM did not change anything within their algorithm...
BUT...
Amadeus changed it's timetable search algorithm.

Was that supposed to be coded?

Totally pathetic attempt if so. Seriously this thread may as well cease to exist. Everything is known. Nothing is new, and the sad attempts at coding are just giving it all away.

You're smart enough to recognize code, good for you :) Now I'd advise using the same intellect in making sure your youtube videos aren't more shaky than an earthquake ;)

Sorry, missed that :(

For the sake of clarity:

The credit card error appears on both tricked an non-tricked itineraries.
In my experience, a phone call quickly clears things up and ensures that you are ticketed.

However, if your itinerary is tricked, it is best not to call. You should wait 2 days and if you still see no e-ticket. If no ticket, move on.

Any guesses as to why Amadeus changed?

is it possible to book suites with LM?

how to search the Amadeus timetable for boomerangs?

Expertflyer shows also non of the "old" bummerangs anymore.

This change may be a result of the investigations of DOT...

I disagree. Many of the boomerangs were between one side of the USA and another in Canada, so that's not relevant to the DOT. For the few that were actual cabotage routes, so few were likely booked that I doubt they cared. However, I think it's significantly more likely LH simply decided it didn't want its cabins full of LifeMilers - as they were the only ones flying these insane routes - and they probably refiled their schedules.

I have a route on my screen now in Lifemiles which only shows up in Amadeus if you force the airline. On Lifemiles it shows up unforced, and the reason might simply be that there is a much shorter route served by TAM, which LM must avoid.

This route is a boomerang, but not an exact one in the sense Cx-Cx, but rather nearly Cx-Cx.

Before I was able to pre-pend another flight to this route, so that it truly was Cx-Cx. This other combination doesn't show up anymore, as the additional flight is on another airline, so you can't force it.

Note this has nothing to do with cabbage, nothing with UA, LH or Kitty, nothing with C1.

There have been changes, and I can buy the idea that they have happened outside LM, but right now it's very difficult to say what these changes were.

Totally agree.

LM was pulling from the Amadeus system. The DOT likely confronted LM. LM probably told them this is not our fault; we are just pulling from the Amadeus system. Then they must have gone to the source - Amadeus and or LH as far as the boomerangs were concerned.

Yes.

I guess when DOT confronted LM, they showed the schedules, and LH somehow found out and refiled schedules. That's sad. :(

Me too. I'm showing a legal boomerang that doesn't show up on ExpertFlyer. I'm not sure if it's phantom or not.

IMHO ExpertFlyer does not use the Amadeus timetable. KVS's Timetable method does.