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
Nov 12, 2014, 9:05 am
#1277
Join Date: May 2013
Location: west coast best coast
Programs: TINDER GOLD, STARBUCKS GOLD, COSTCO EXECUTIVE!!
Posts: 3,989
with United in the mix??? that's just asking for trouble... I've seen certain US territories to Cuba which by reading the Cuba forum seem to haven been flown without issues.
Just for kicks, I did search and find space ex-Cuba to the US on CM... but don't wan't to risk it...
Just for kicks, I did search and find space ex-Cuba to the US on CM... but don't wan't to risk it...
Nov 12, 2014, 3:10 pm
#1278
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Germany / Thailand
Programs: M&M/S SPG livetime gold, but not running behind status & points anymore! Now only book value for $
Posts: 3,090
the only one comes in mind is now 27k !
Nov 12, 2014, 6:09 pm
#1280
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Which as I've said before is a huge overstatement of the scope of this spreadsheet! The spreadsheet was actually set up to share details mainly of Virgin Australia status runs. At some point a LifeMiles tab was added and it contains only very rudimentary details of some miscoded cities, really nothing about creative routings (boomerangs) and is very rarely updated. There is more info posted openly in this thread than appears in the spreadsheet!
Nov 12, 2014, 8:35 pm
#1281
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,838
Which as I've said before is a huge overstatement of the scope of this spreadsheet! The spreadsheet was actually set up to share details mainly of Virgin Australia status runs. At some point a LifeMiles tab was added and it contains only very rudimentary details of some miscoded cities, really nothing about creative routings (boomerangs) and is very rarely updated. There is more info posted openly in this thread than appears in the spreadsheet!
Nov 12, 2014, 11:49 pm
#1285
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 4.4.2; SM-G900F Build/KOT49H) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/38.0.2125.114 Mobile Safari/537.36)
All the stuff out there I've seen (and I can't talk about any Australian spreadsheets in special) has merely historic value. so much has changed that it must be utterly frustrating for a newcomer to wade through all the great defunct routes
All the stuff out there I've seen (and I can't talk about any Australian spreadsheets in special) has merely historic value. so much has changed that it must be utterly frustrating for a newcomer to wade through all the great defunct routes
Nov 13, 2014, 1:20 am
#1286
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: EWR
Programs: Free agent flyer, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 365
Looks like LM has a new results page interface where they can show different mileage rates (presumably like UA does for Saver/Standard awards). I assume this only applies to Avianca-operated flights:
(or at least this is new to me?)
(or at least this is new to me?)
Nov 13, 2014, 1:25 am
#1287
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,838
Nov 13, 2014, 1:46 am
#1288
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Melbourne/Bangkok
Programs: A3*G, QF PLATINUM, BA GOLD, VA GOLD, HH DIAMOND
Posts: 2,245
Nov 13, 2014, 4:19 am
#1290
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607