Risky Air China LifeMiles Award
Mar 27, 2019, 4:06 pm
#31
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 1,654
Trying to book award flight on Air China using Lifemiles now. What a PIA. Website returns an error. Called Lifemiles service, and been on hold on and off for over 1 hour (while the CS person is on hold to some other line as well). What a mess.
Hoping to use up my miles and not to deal with LM again. Their "low price" is a ruse, that is not really worth an effort.
Hoping to use up my miles and not to deal with LM again. Their "low price" is a ruse, that is not really worth an effort.
Mar 28, 2019, 1:18 am
#32
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,403
Trying to book award flight on Air China using Lifemiles now. What a PIA. Website returns an error. Called Lifemiles service, and been on hold on and off for over 1 hour (while the CS person is on hold to some other line as well). What a mess.
Hoping to use up my miles and not to deal with LM again. Their "low price" is a ruse, that is not really worth an effort.
Hoping to use up my miles and not to deal with LM again. Their "low price" is a ruse, that is not really worth an effort.
LM does have lots of glitches, but once you get the hang of it it can be very rewarding.
Mar 28, 2019, 6:11 am
#34
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,403
Mar 28, 2019, 4:11 pm
#35
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: USA
Programs: AA Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 310
Thanks for the advice. I was able to call in, confirm the booking, and select my seat without issue. When I asked about the password, she had no clue what I was trying to say so I wasn't able to set any protection on my itinerary. It sounded like to make any changes, I'd have to go through Lifemiles anyways?
Mar 29, 2019, 1:25 am
#36
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,403
Thanks for the advice. I was able to call in, confirm the booking, and select my seat without issue. When I asked about the password, she had no clue what I was trying to say so I wasn't able to set any protection on my itinerary. It sounded like to make any changes, I'd have to go through Lifemiles anyways?
Mar 29, 2019, 8:24 am
#37
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: USA
Programs: AA Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 310
Correct - LM would have to process the cancellation. While we used to hear reports of awards on Air China being cancelled, maybe that was through other programs where it is easier to cancel (can be done online). I dare any scammer, no matter how dedicated, to have the patience to go through the cancellation process via the Columbia call centre
Mar 29, 2019, 6:34 pm
#38
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 134
I was hoping to book my seat online. This way I would know for sure that I got a particular seat, rather than just a promise over the phone.
I also took advantage of the LifeMiles sale, but I still ended up paying $381.15 for 12,000 miles. That's more than 3 cents a mile! I feel like I didn't get a discount at all.
Note: I already had 60k miles. The F CA award cost 72k miles. I opted to "pay with money and miles" at the end of the transaction. Did I not get the discount because I purchased the miles this way?
I also took advantage of the LifeMiles sale, but I still ended up paying $381.15 for 12,000 miles. That's more than 3 cents a mile! I feel like I didn't get a discount at all.
Note: I already had 60k miles. The F CA award cost 72k miles. I opted to "pay with money and miles" at the end of the transaction. Did I not get the discount because I purchased the miles this way?
Apr 21, 2019, 6:30 pm
#39
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS AA
Posts: 205
Oh, if you are paying mixed miles and cash, please just review a bit math, they are very strange, I remember it was around a range of pay 40% by money or something was actually the cheapest, so please do not just pay 10% or 60%, find the best place to pay. Also, for lifemiles, I think it is really an "investment". You know it well and you plan it ahead of time, you knew how to get the cheapest price for miles and you know how to deal with their crap system and service.
Apr 28, 2019, 7:53 am
#40
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
I have a friend who booked Air China F. We did a couple of things to help confirm their tickets. If you have the ticket number you can do a check from Air China's website. You can go to www.airchina.us and select "Check my booking" and in the box on the lower right there is language in red with a link to page you can check non-Air China purchased ticket using the E-ticket number:
Note: Inquiries here can only be supported for tickets purchased via this website. If your ticket was not purchased through this website, and you need to inspect the ticket, please click here.
The link sends you to this page, Ticket Validating
We used the ticket validating page on Air China's website to validate the ticket. We did not have to use the TravelSky link on that webpage although I suspect the ticket validating page uses TravelSky.
The passenger name format has to be entered in a particular format or it will not work, "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME" or "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME". There is a thread on FT about the name format necessary.
Air China: how do I check my booking?
If you only have the Lifemiles confirmation code and not the ticket number you can use the Avianca mobile app to pull up the reservation using the confirmation code and it will show you the ticket numbers. IIRC, pulling up the res on the main avianca.com website did not show the ticket numbers, only the mobile app showed the ticket numbers.
We also used CheckMyTrip to confirm the booking. Everything looks good.
The problems people mentioned earlier in the thread that some had trouble with a couple of years ago was primarily with United tickets on Air China, not LifeMiles tickets. United used to allow anyone to cancel a ticket online with only the PNR and the suspicion was some insider contact at a Chinese travel agent was cancelling the tickets so a Chinese mileage broker could book a last minute award ticket for a client. Cancelling a LifeMiles ticket cannot be done online and for most also involves paying a large cancellation fee. I do not recall any trouble with cancelled Air China tickets on LifeMiles and I am not worried about that.
Note: Inquiries here can only be supported for tickets purchased via this website. If your ticket was not purchased through this website, and you need to inspect the ticket, please click here.
The link sends you to this page, Ticket Validating
We used the ticket validating page on Air China's website to validate the ticket. We did not have to use the TravelSky link on that webpage although I suspect the ticket validating page uses TravelSky.
The passenger name format has to be entered in a particular format or it will not work, "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME" or "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME". There is a thread on FT about the name format necessary.
Air China: how do I check my booking?
If you only have the Lifemiles confirmation code and not the ticket number you can use the Avianca mobile app to pull up the reservation using the confirmation code and it will show you the ticket numbers. IIRC, pulling up the res on the main avianca.com website did not show the ticket numbers, only the mobile app showed the ticket numbers.
We also used CheckMyTrip to confirm the booking. Everything looks good.
The problems people mentioned earlier in the thread that some had trouble with a couple of years ago was primarily with United tickets on Air China, not LifeMiles tickets. United used to allow anyone to cancel a ticket online with only the PNR and the suspicion was some insider contact at a Chinese travel agent was cancelling the tickets so a Chinese mileage broker could book a last minute award ticket for a client. Cancelling a LifeMiles ticket cannot be done online and for most also involves paying a large cancellation fee. I do not recall any trouble with cancelled Air China tickets on LifeMiles and I am not worried about that.
Apr 28, 2019, 9:04 pm
#41
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 1,654
I have a friend who booked Air China F. We did a couple of things to help confirm their tickets. If you have the ticket number you can do a check from Air China's website. You can go to www.airchina.us and select "Check my booking" and in the box on the lower right there is language in red with a link to page you can check non-Air China purchased ticket using the E-ticket number:
Apr 29, 2019, 1:19 am
#42
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393
Apr 29, 2019, 9:45 am
#43
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: USA
Programs: AA Gold, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 310
I have a friend who booked Air China F. We did a couple of things to help confirm their tickets. If you have the ticket number you can do a check from Air China's website. You can go to www.airchina.us and select "Check my booking" and in the box on the lower right there is language in red with a link to page you can check non-Air China purchased ticket using the E-ticket number:
Note: Inquiries here can only be supported for tickets purchased via this website. If your ticket was not purchased through this website, and you need to inspect the ticket, please click here.
The link sends you to this page, Ticket Validating
We used the ticket validating page on Air China's website to validate the ticket. We did not have to use the TravelSky link on that webpage although I suspect the ticket validating page uses TravelSky.
The passenger name format has to be entered in a particular format or it will not work, "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME" or "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME". There is a thread on FT about the name format necessary.
Air China: how do I check my booking?
If you only have the Lifemiles confirmation code and not the ticket number you can use the Avianca mobile app to pull up the reservation using the confirmation code and it will show you the ticket numbers. IIRC, pulling up the res on the main avianca.com website did not show the ticket numbers, only the mobile app showed the ticket numbers.
We also used CheckMyTrip to confirm the booking. Everything looks good.
The problems people mentioned earlier in the thread that some had trouble with a couple of years ago was primarily with United tickets on Air China, not LifeMiles tickets. United used to allow anyone to cancel a ticket online with only the PNR and the suspicion was some insider contact at a Chinese travel agent was cancelling the tickets so a Chinese mileage broker could book a last minute award ticket for a client. Cancelling a LifeMiles ticket cannot be done online and for most also involves paying a large cancellation fee. I do not recall any trouble with cancelled Air China tickets on LifeMiles and I am not worried about that.
Note: Inquiries here can only be supported for tickets purchased via this website. If your ticket was not purchased through this website, and you need to inspect the ticket, please click here.
The link sends you to this page, Ticket Validating
We used the ticket validating page on Air China's website to validate the ticket. We did not have to use the TravelSky link on that webpage although I suspect the ticket validating page uses TravelSky.
The passenger name format has to be entered in a particular format or it will not work, "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAME" or "LASTNAME/FIRSTNAMEMIDDLENAME". There is a thread on FT about the name format necessary.
Air China: how do I check my booking?
If you only have the Lifemiles confirmation code and not the ticket number you can use the Avianca mobile app to pull up the reservation using the confirmation code and it will show you the ticket numbers. IIRC, pulling up the res on the main avianca.com website did not show the ticket numbers, only the mobile app showed the ticket numbers.
We also used CheckMyTrip to confirm the booking. Everything looks good.
The problems people mentioned earlier in the thread that some had trouble with a couple of years ago was primarily with United tickets on Air China, not LifeMiles tickets. United used to allow anyone to cancel a ticket online with only the PNR and the suspicion was some insider contact at a Chinese travel agent was cancelling the tickets so a Chinese mileage broker could book a last minute award ticket for a client. Cancelling a LifeMiles ticket cannot be done online and for most also involves paying a large cancellation fee. I do not recall any trouble with cancelled Air China tickets on LifeMiles and I am not worried about that.
Unfortunately for me, it does not show seat information despite selecting the seat via phone. And also the app doesn't allow you to pull the reservation into mobile wallet, which would have been nice for obsessive checking/paranoia.
Apr 29, 2019, 10:07 am
#44
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 1,654
If you had read my whole post you would have seen I was not checking on that page. I only referenced that page to show that you could get to a page to check a LifeMiles ticket from there and I explained how to do it. The page I used to check (listed in the original message) is Ticket Validating . This link was able to check and verify LifeMiles tickets issued with a 202-xxxxxxxxxx ticket number (TACA) when entering the passenger name in the correct verifcation format linked in the original message. YMMV if you have a 134 ticket. But the tickets purchased on the LifeMiles website my friend has were issued as 202 tickets and are able to be checked at the second level Air China Ticket Validating page I linked to, so no, that link does not only work for 999 tickets.
Apr 29, 2019, 12:27 pm
#45
Join Date: Jan 2010
Programs: UA, AS
Posts: 2,393