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 7, 2014, 2:27 pm
#783
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BTS
Posts: 611
Which leads to another ( non astronomically based) question about availabilities which is of a somewhat statistical nature.
One would expect a somewhat random distribution of availabilities, though a bit forward sloped curve, sometimes interrupted by some Close-In dates being available because last minute unsold seat are put into system by the relevant carrier(s). I can understand those. Sometimes however as example, there may be No availabilities for say the entire calendar months September and October, but then suddenly there are three days of availability within one week in November, then No availability for entire calendar months of December and January but then suddenly on February 1 there are three, and on February 2 and 3 there are two on each day and then nothing for rest of calendar month of February followed by availabilities almost every day in calendar month of March ( Clustering). Likewise the probability of an longer dated availabilities in the middle of a calendar month should be near equal to availabilities during the first 3 to 4 or last 3 to 4 days of a calendar months. However, if there are availabilities in a given calendar month I see a concentration in the first 3-4 day as well as the last 3-4 days of the calendar month.
Passenger booking patterns always follow a continuous upward sloping curve and while I am taking into account seasonal changes in schedules, there must be some non-automated i.e manual intervention to remove entire sections of periods of time, most of which also seem unrelated to major holidays. A statistician among us should be able to prove non-randomness as well as non-continuity. Does anyone recognize this pattern too and agree or disagree.
One would expect a somewhat random distribution of availabilities, though a bit forward sloped curve, sometimes interrupted by some Close-In dates being available because last minute unsold seat are put into system by the relevant carrier(s). I can understand those. Sometimes however as example, there may be No availabilities for say the entire calendar months September and October, but then suddenly there are three days of availability within one week in November, then No availability for entire calendar months of December and January but then suddenly on February 1 there are three, and on February 2 and 3 there are two on each day and then nothing for rest of calendar month of February followed by availabilities almost every day in calendar month of March ( Clustering). Likewise the probability of an longer dated availabilities in the middle of a calendar month should be near equal to availabilities during the first 3 to 4 or last 3 to 4 days of a calendar months. However, if there are availabilities in a given calendar month I see a concentration in the first 3-4 day as well as the last 3-4 days of the calendar month.
Passenger booking patterns always follow a continuous upward sloping curve and while I am taking into account seasonal changes in schedules, there must be some non-automated i.e manual intervention to remove entire sections of periods of time, most of which also seem unrelated to major holidays. A statistician among us should be able to prove non-randomness as well as non-continuity. Does anyone recognize this pattern too and agree or disagree.
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
Sep 7, 2014, 2:53 pm
#784
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
I am pretty sure it is much simpler than this ... basically, when the engine finds space on A-B and B-C but shows A-C as unavailable it just means that the A-C search timed out before it could get to the A-B-C route and those particular airlines / flights which works for A-B and B-C. You can sometime help this by specifying the departure time - remember you can set that value to anything you like
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
Sep 7, 2014, 6:47 pm
#786
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
and tell him that circle is an infinite number of connected straight lines. What a ..
Thanks for an intelligent and well thought out response.
Yes, specifying time ( to the minute) sometimes helps as does specifying carrier. Not sure it explains all the "strange patterns" though or rather lack of pattern(s).
Tomorrow I will re-read and and think carefully about what you wrote.
Thanks again for reading my post carefully. ^
I am pretty sure it is much simpler than this ... basically, when the engine finds space on A-B and B-C but shows A-C as unavailable it just means that the A-C search timed out before it could get to the A-B-C route and those particular airlines / flights which works for A-B and B-C. You can sometime help this by specifying the departure time - remember you can set that value to anything you like
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
Yes, specifying time ( to the minute) sometimes helps as does specifying carrier. Not sure it explains all the "strange patterns" though or rather lack of pattern(s).
Tomorrow I will re-read and and think carefully about what you wrote.
Thanks again for reading my post carefully. ^
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Sep 8, 2014 at 8:23 am
Sep 7, 2014, 7:28 pm
#787
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Austin, Texas
Programs: Airline nobody. Sad!
Posts: 26,062
.
Sep 7, 2014, 8:43 pm
#788
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: 10^7 mm from Ȱ
Programs: Hyatt D/HHonors D/ SPG P/ Marriott P/ IHG P/ UA 1K/ AA EXP/ DL D
Posts: 1,976
I am pretty sure it is much simpler than this ... basically, when the engine finds space on A-B and B-C but shows A-C as unavailable it just means that the A-C search timed out before it could get to the A-B-C route and those particular airlines / flights which works for A-B and B-C. You can sometime help this by specifying the departure time - remember you can set that value to anything you like
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
This is also the reason why forcing the airline helps to add availability on A-B when the *A search shows everything as sold out, or why specifying the time helps sometime; when the search is restricted the engine gets to the desired route before timing out.
When the OP managed to book A-B-C-D it was just because the engine managed to get to it before timing out. There could be tons of reasons for that such as diff order of routes it checks, some routes returning results faster etc
Actually, this non-deterministic behavior makes quite a bit of sense for a non-deterministic problem = searching possible routes based on a graph with many nodes and unpredictably many valid paths. It is fairly "basic" graduate level computer science
Sep 8, 2014, 12:45 am
#789
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
Sep 8, 2014, 9:49 am
#791
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
What about using the built-in override algorithm to deliberately triggering default output. Creates some rather interesting availabilities.
Sep 8, 2014, 11:33 am
#792
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: AZ FA+, A3 G, AB G | IHG RA, HGP D, FPC P, Accor P, BW D, HH D, Eleva, GHA P, 1862 Voyager
Posts: 1,852
Sep 8, 2014, 11:46 am
#793
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: AZ FA+, A3 G, AB G | IHG RA, HGP D, FPC P, Accor P, BW D, HH D, Eleva, GHA P, 1862 Voyager
Posts: 1,852
Sep 8, 2014, 5:49 pm
#794
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BTS
Posts: 611
(1) I'm pretty sure here or in the original thread there is a screenshot of how to do it (I actually reuploaded those and fixed the img urls after accidentally deleting the originals from imgur)
(2) just like with tricks we talk about here, you either get it (almost) right away or you need a 2 min youtbe video tutorial, which, of course, I'm not gonna do ...
... it just makes me laugh every time someone says how terrible the multi-city tool is ...
Sep 9, 2014, 8:28 am
#795
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: IC Royal Ambassador, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 486