Risky Air China LifeMiles Award

Old Nov 25, 2018, 9:07 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
I don't see why you should cancel it today, if the 24-hour period has passed. But watch the reservation like a hawk and have a Plan B...

Phone reps are getting better for simple things like cancellations. But the whole system is a bit strange - read the thread on cancelling Lifemiles awards.
The thing I'm afraid of is if my PEK-JFK Air China flight its cancelled while I'm in China, where I'm most helpless. But, this article offers some reassurance:

https://princeoftravel.com/blog/air-...ns-to-aeroplan
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Old Nov 25, 2018, 9:51 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
LOL, I was the one who gave another poster the advice to get a checkmytrip account.

Are you saying I should get TravelSky instead? Will the CA confirmation number from that be different than the one provided by checkmytrip?
Ahh my bad, confused the two handles. I guess my comment was for @IAH2MEL then.

TravelSky is the reservation system Air China uses and it will not accept a PNR reference from an airline using Altea reservation system like Avianca. Your advise is correct that via CheckMyTrip (it is basically a "front end skin" for travelers to pull up Amadeus Altea PNRs) when retrieving the booking in question from LM that somewhere in that PNR should be the Air China booking reference #.

You then take that Air China booking reference and go to their website and try to pull up the reservation and do the seat assignment. How well that will work on CA website I'm not sure as I have never flown with them and never used their website. In principle, it should work though and even if not you can now call their reservations for a seat assignment using the newly obtained CA booking reference #.

Last edited by demue; Nov 25, 2018 at 10:13 pm
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Old Nov 25, 2018, 10:10 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
What kind of savings could I have gotten if I opted to buy miles in 5k and 2k increments, instead of just topping out my award with miles?
You said you paid $381.15 for 12,000 miles correct? Any taxes or fees included in that amount?

Normal price is 33USD per 1,000 mls, but the price per mile for the option to buy miles during the booking process improves when you move towards buying 50-60% of the needed miles for the trip and comes down to 1.5cents per mile that way.

In this sale, you could have gotten the required 12K mls by buying 5k mls and getting 140% bonus (ignore the 145% option floating around for simplicity) for 1.375cent per mile. This sale was the first one where getting the high bonus, e.g.140%, was offered even for small amounts of miles starting with 1,000 mls. Usually the highest bonus only triggers when you buy 101,000 mls or more. YMMV.
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Old Nov 25, 2018, 10:36 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by demue
You said you paid $381.15 for 12,000 miles correct? Any taxes or fees included in that amount?

Normal price is 33USD per 1,000 mls, but the price per mile for the option to buy miles during the booking process improves when you move towards buying 50-60% of the needed miles for the trip and comes down to 1.5cents per mile that way.

In this sale, you could have gotten the required 12K mls by buying 5k mls and getting 140% bonus (ignore the 145% option floating around for simplicity) for 1.375cent per mile. This sale was the first one where getting the high bonus, e.g.140%, was offered even for small amounts of miles starting with 1,000 mls. Usually the highest bonus only triggers when you buy 101,000 mls or more. YMMV.
$381.15 is inclusive of all fees and taxes.

So, in other words, I would not have actually gotten a discount on the miles I purchased? Instead, I would simply have been credited 140% of the miles I purchased into my account (e.g. purchase 10k miles for $330 and get 14k miles deposited into my LifeMiles account)?
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Old Nov 25, 2018, 10:41 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by demue
Ahh my bad, confused the two handles. I guess my comment was for @IAH2MEL then.

TravelSky is the reservation system Air China uses and it will not accept a PNR reference from an airline using Altea reservation system like Avianca. Your advise is correct that via CheckMyTrip (it is basically a "front end skin" for travelers to pull up Amadeus Altea PNRs) when retrieving the booking in question from LM that somewhere in that PNR should be the Air China booking reference #.

You then take that Air China booking reference and go to their website and try to pull up the reservation and do the seat assignment. How well that will work on CA website I'm not sure as I have never flown with them and never used their website. In principle, it should work though and even if not you can now call their reservations for a seat assignment using the newly obtained CA booking reference #.
I think I already have everything Air China needs to retrieve my booking. I have an e-ticket number, and a 6-digit Air China letter code that I got from CheckMyTrip (which is different than the 6-digit LifeMiles letter code). It's just that CA's website sucks, and doesn't accept anything I type into it, no matter what it is.
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 12:33 am
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
$381.15 is inclusive of all fees and taxes.

So, in other words, I would not have actually gotten a discount on the miles I purchased? Instead, I would simply have been credited 140% of the miles I purchased into my account (e.g. purchase 10k miles for $330 and get 14k miles deposited into my LifeMiles account)?
Nope, you purchase 10k miles and get 10K + 14k mls bonus so 24k mls into your account. The bonus is 140% on top of purchased miles not 40%.

Last edited by demue; Nov 26, 2018 at 12:39 am
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 12:34 am
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
I think I already have everything Air China needs to retrieve my booking. I have an e-ticket number, and a 6-digit Air China letter code that I got from CheckMyTrip (which is different than the 6-digit LifeMiles letter code). It's just that CA's website sucks, and doesn't accept anything I type into it, no matter what it is.
Yup that's all you need.
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 4:36 am
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
I think I already have everything Air China needs to retrieve my booking. I have an e-ticket number, and a 6-digit Air China letter code that I got from CheckMyTrip (which is different than the 6-digit LifeMiles letter code). It's just that CA's website sucks, and doesn't accept anything I type into it, no matter what it is.
if the ticket is not in CA stock, you have to call them
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 11:33 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by demue
Nope, you purchase 10k miles and get 10K + 14k mls bonus so 24k mls into your account. The bonus is 140% on top of purchased miles not 40%.
I wasn't counting the miles that I purchased. Only the miles I got for free. But, you're right. It would be 24k miles. Too late now, I guess.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 3:02 pm
  #25  
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I have purchased a dozen Air China flights through Lifemiles (all biz class). Never had an issue with cancellation (touch wood!). Seat selection can only be done on line if you purchase your ticket from Air China on line. For LM issued tickets you just call up. Very quick and easy.

When using top up points plus pay, use the slider to carefully determine where the 'sweet spot' is. It's roughly about 42% of the total miles needed for an award. The slider will - when on the far right - jump from USD15 per 1000 mile increments to USD20-30 per 1000 mile increments. That's when you need to click back one level to ensure you're getting the best value. (Not at the far left of the sliding scale the top up points will be more than USD15 per 1000, but somewhere in the middle the incremental price actually goes into the negative.)

The 145% bonus only applies to outright 'buy miles' through the home page of your LM account, and not to top up points during a booking. Still, the difference between outright buy miles at .01375 and topping up at .15 is not huge. So you can minimize any risks by only holding the 42% required, and topping up at time of ticket purchase.
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Old Nov 28, 2018, 11:53 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
For LM issued tickets you just call up. Very quick and easy.
Nope. It's anything but "very quick and easy". I called Air China yesterday, and waited on the line for over an hour. I finally gave up, and decided to email them. That was 24 hours ago. No response yet.

Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
The 145% bonus only applies to outright 'buy miles' through the home page of your LM account, and not to top up points during a booking. Still, the difference between outright buy miles at .01375 and topping up at .15 is not huge. So you can minimize any risks by only holding the 42% required, and topping up at time of ticket purchase.
Again, no. I paid a whopping 3+ cents a mile by topping off. I feel very angry and ripped off right now.
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Old Nov 28, 2018, 1:46 pm
  #27  
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Originally Posted by joer1212
Nope. It's anything but "very quick and easy". I called Air China yesterday, and waited on the line for over an hour. I finally gave up, and decided to email them. That was 24 hours ago. No response yet.



Again, no. I paid a whopping 3+ cents a mile by topping off. I feel very angry and ripped off right now.
I guess it depends where and what time you call. CA's Australian offices for example the wait is short, and the staff are good. (From the other htread I notice you have having some delays with email too... it might be that it is the weekend?)

It's a shame you paid the 3+ cents to top up - but the option to top up for less is there using the slider. This can also be achieved with the screenshot method... at the time you submit the screenshots you indicate how many miles and how many top-up miles you wish to use.
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Old Dec 3, 2018, 10:28 am
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by joer1212
Nope. It's anything but "very quick and easy". I called Air China yesterday, and waited on the line for over an hour. I finally gave up, and decided to email them. That was 24 hours ago. No response yet. Again, no. I paid a whopping 3+ cents a mile by topping off. I feel very angry and ripped off right now.
Try calling the less busy numbers (NON-USA numbers), such as their London/Singapore/Tokyo/Seoul/Sydney English language numbers during business hours. Quite quick and easy!
Their US number is usually jammed.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 11:28 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by LHR/MEL/Europe FF
I have purchased a dozen Air China flights through Lifemiles (all biz class). Never had an issue with cancellation (touch wood!). Seat selection can only be done on line if you purchase your ticket from Air China on line. For LM issued tickets you just call up. Very quick and easy.

When using top up points plus pay, use the slider to carefully determine where the 'sweet spot' is. It's roughly about 42% of the total miles needed for an award. The slider will - when on the far right - jump from USD15 per 1000 mile increments to USD20-30 per 1000 mile increments. That's when you need to click back one level to ensure you're getting the best value. (Not at the far left of the sliding scale the top up points will be more than USD15 per 1000, but somewhere in the middle the incremental price actually goes into the negative.)

The 145% bonus only applies to outright 'buy miles' through the home page of your LM account, and not to top up points during a booking. Still, the difference between outright buy miles at .01375 and topping up at .15 is not huge. So you can minimize any risks by only holding the 42% required, and topping up at time of ticket purchase.
I'm in the same boat (but for a much shorter trip ~3 hour direct flight to PVG). Booked CA metal using LMs. I'm planning to call once I get off of work to get an assigned seat.

How do you watch your reservation? With the new LM site, I can't find where my reservations are located.
[Edit: Have to use Avianca, not Lifemiles to do grab the res.]

Last edited by milesforhire; Mar 5, 2019 at 12:14 pm Reason: Found the answer
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Old Mar 8, 2019, 9:10 pm
  #30  
 
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It would be better to always call Air China to confirm the ticketing, if possible, add a password to avoid other people cancelled your ticket not on your behalf and also good to book a seat as well.
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