Jan 17, 22, 6:12 pm
Last edit by: italdesign
Please do your homework before buying Lifemiles. It is what it is... for some that's useful, for others it's not.
Biggest complaints are about
- mixed class bookings are available but now many of the suitable connections dont show
- not being able to book anything that isn't available online (there are work-arounds, see screenshot method below)
- the quality of the call center (English speaking agents are scarce, you might get thrown in a loop with call transfers within their call center)
- no stopovers (>24H) or open jaws, but you can book one way awards
- no reservations on Certain subsidiaries of Star Alliance carriers (Lufthansa Cityline, Germanwings)
- no availability showing at all on the website (try logging out and logging back in)
Problems with ticketing / lack of confirmation screen or email
- write down the confirmation number shown on the screen after confirming your purchase.
check here: http://serviciosenlinea.avianca.com/...doReserva.aspx
Sometimes, even if you cannot see the PNR, the record may have been created, so better to call them and give them flight details you were trying to book. They can find the PNR from those details.
- ticketing usually takes place within 10-15 min of booking
- but it may also take up to 2 days
- if miles have been deducted from your account and a temporary authorization has been placed on your CC, you're probably fine even if you did not see a confirmation screen
- if no e-ticket number is visible on checkmytrip.com after two days, you should contact LifeMiles. You can expedite the ticketing by emailing with your booking reference to: [email protected] after you have booked, especially if you have booked last minute flights, and need ticketing straight away
Screenshot method.
So, on a date you are looking for in the future, there is availability for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK. But not LAX-NRT-BKK.
It may be a case of the LM system not offering the through connection.
Take three screen shots - two 'available' screen shots for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK and the 'not available' screen for LAX-BKK.
Send them all off with a scan of your passport page (PDF) and LM will make the booking manually for you.
You need to have 40% of the miles in your account for them to make the booking. On some occasions, credit card points do not transfer over immediately. In such cases also send screenshots of the points being debited from your credit card. In some cases the LM account will immediately show the points transferred in the account activity section. Send a screenshot of that as well.
After a day or two, you will get a reply via email saying the matter has been escalated to an internal area. The next day someone will call you from 305 447 2819 and will process the payment over the phone. You will need to set a PIN which you can do in your online LM account (under the account access section of your online profile).
Send to these two email addresses, and CC yourself (just for your records)
[email protected] (invalid as of July 2022)
[email protected]
Sample email:
====
Email topic: Urgent request for booking Lifemiles Award
====
Dear Sirs,
I have tried several times, over several days, but the following itinerary does not show on the website.
Please see the attached screenshots I took just now.
Please do the manual booking First Class/Business class for xx,000 miles. (*Know how many miles the whole award should cost-here, to avoid surprises once ticketed)
The availability is only 1 seat for this date, so please process this request urgently before it is gone.
Los Angeles (LAX) - Bangkok (BKK)
Saturday August 11th 2018
NH 175 connecting to NH 807
(*Provide the specific flight numbers you want, to avoid surprises once ticketed)
My passport copy (Number xxxx, expiry 20xx/xx/xx, Nationality xxx) is attached in this email.
LifeMiles Number: xxx
First Name: xxx
Last name: xxx
Date of Birth: Month, date, year
Gender: Male/Female
Email: xxxx
Phone Number: +1-xxxx
Regards,
XXX
========
Biggest complaints are about
- mixed class bookings are available but now many of the suitable connections dont show
- not being able to book anything that isn't available online (there are work-arounds, see screenshot method below)
- the quality of the call center (English speaking agents are scarce, you might get thrown in a loop with call transfers within their call center)
- no stopovers (>24H) or open jaws, but you can book one way awards
- no reservations on Certain subsidiaries of Star Alliance carriers (Lufthansa Cityline, Germanwings)
- no availability showing at all on the website (try logging out and logging back in)
Problems with ticketing / lack of confirmation screen or email
- write down the confirmation number shown on the screen after confirming your purchase.
check here: http://serviciosenlinea.avianca.com/...doReserva.aspx
Sometimes, even if you cannot see the PNR, the record may have been created, so better to call them and give them flight details you were trying to book. They can find the PNR from those details.
- ticketing usually takes place within 10-15 min of booking
- but it may also take up to 2 days
- if miles have been deducted from your account and a temporary authorization has been placed on your CC, you're probably fine even if you did not see a confirmation screen
- if no e-ticket number is visible on checkmytrip.com after two days, you should contact LifeMiles. You can expedite the ticketing by emailing with your booking reference to: [email protected] after you have booked, especially if you have booked last minute flights, and need ticketing straight away
Screenshot method.
So, on a date you are looking for in the future, there is availability for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK. But not LAX-NRT-BKK.
It may be a case of the LM system not offering the through connection.
Take three screen shots - two 'available' screen shots for LAX-NRT and NRT-BKK and the 'not available' screen for LAX-BKK.
Send them all off with a scan of your passport page (PDF) and LM will make the booking manually for you.
You need to have 40% of the miles in your account for them to make the booking. On some occasions, credit card points do not transfer over immediately. In such cases also send screenshots of the points being debited from your credit card. In some cases the LM account will immediately show the points transferred in the account activity section. Send a screenshot of that as well.
After a day or two, you will get a reply via email saying the matter has been escalated to an internal area. The next day someone will call you from 305 447 2819 and will process the payment over the phone. You will need to set a PIN which you can do in your online LM account (under the account access section of your online profile).
Send to these two email addresses, and CC yourself (just for your records)
[email protected]
Sample email:
====
Email topic: Urgent request for booking Lifemiles Award
====
Dear Sirs,
I have tried several times, over several days, but the following itinerary does not show on the website.
Please see the attached screenshots I took just now.
Please do the manual booking First Class/Business class for xx,000 miles. (*Know how many miles the whole award should cost-here, to avoid surprises once ticketed)
The availability is only 1 seat for this date, so please process this request urgently before it is gone.
Los Angeles (LAX) - Bangkok (BKK)
Saturday August 11th 2018
NH 175 connecting to NH 807
(*Provide the specific flight numbers you want, to avoid surprises once ticketed)
My passport copy (Number xxxx, expiry 20xx/xx/xx, Nationality xxx) is attached in this email.
LifeMiles Number: xxx
First Name: xxx
Last name: xxx
Date of Birth: Month, date, year
Gender: Male/Female
Email: xxxx
Phone Number: +1-xxxx
Regards,
XXX
========
Lifemiles serious booking problems - Beware (from January 2022 onwards)
Sep 15, 23, 7:33 am
#677
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: VA
Programs: United Gold, Marriott Gold, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold, Club Carlson Gold, IHG Plat
Posts: 24
Seems the screenshot method does not work smoothly as before. I also tried and received the response "We receive your email; we kindly request you to send it through our Help Center in the following link:https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/en-us and we’re be glad to assist you from such means."
Is this where I should submit the manual or mixed cabin booking request?
https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/...6584987-Claims
Is this where I should submit the manual or mixed cabin booking request?
https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/...6584987-Claims
Sep 15, 23, 7:50 am
#678
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3,799
Seems the screenshot method does not work smoothly as before. I also tried and received the response "We receive your email; we kindly request you to send it through our Help Center in the following link:https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/en-us and we’re be glad to assist you from such means."
Is this where I should submit the manual or mixed cabin booking request?
https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/...6584987-Claims
Is this where I should submit the manual or mixed cabin booking request?
https://helpcenter.lifemiles.com/hc/...6584987-Claims
Sep 15, 23, 6:30 pm
#679
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: in the air
Posts: 30
Updates based on recent experience that diverge from the previous LM manual booking experience:
1) The support form is reviewed by general customer service--this can be a real stalling point (prone to a lot of agent errors and misunderstanding about what manual booking even means)
2) Agent who picks up your request in #1 may gatekeep your request from being forwarded to the correct department due to their incorrect miles calculation. Agents at the frontline will sum the award chart price of each connection even if on a single ticket, and then might slam you with a "you don't have 40% of this super high number of miles"
3) Request is finally escalated to the internal department. They can sit on this for 1 week to 10 days, maybe even more. Calling back doesn't help; frontline agents will "escalate" your request but it has no bearing on outcome. You have no way to contact the internal manual booking department in any way.
4) Out of the blue, a payment link is emailed to you for the taxes. You have to call in for a booking code and itinerary and to figure out the mystery number of miles it will cost. My major gripe lies here--that after this whole process lasting weeks, I was quoted an erroneously high number of miles. There is no way to reach the internal manual booking department by phone or email to discuss a misprice. So, you're stuck at this point, no matter how badly they've messed up (i.e. mispriced award in their favor, wrong connections on your itinerary, etc.). [*] These issues do represent major deviations from what was an already frustrating and lengthy manual booking process. Namely, that now there is no direct communication with the agent who is pricing your award and that for some reason mixed-cabin multiple segment one-way tickets are being priced at the sum of each segment cost. There is no way to contest the calculation. The added time from having the levels of screening agents, inability to talk to manual booking agents directly in any way, and what I believe to be unannounced changes to their method of pricing mixed-cabin multi-segment bookings all affirm to me that LM is making it harder to book savvy redemptions.
[**]I bought a fat stack of miles for the above award. Out of pity/mercy at the least, if anyone has operational economy 3x segments to drive down a J award please PM me and let me know--that's the only way I think I'm going to be able to get fair use out of my stupidly large purchase.
1) The support form is reviewed by general customer service--this can be a real stalling point (prone to a lot of agent errors and misunderstanding about what manual booking even means)
2) Agent who picks up your request in #1 may gatekeep your request from being forwarded to the correct department due to their incorrect miles calculation. Agents at the frontline will sum the award chart price of each connection even if on a single ticket, and then might slam you with a "you don't have 40% of this super high number of miles"
3) Request is finally escalated to the internal department. They can sit on this for 1 week to 10 days, maybe even more. Calling back doesn't help; frontline agents will "escalate" your request but it has no bearing on outcome. You have no way to contact the internal manual booking department in any way.
4) Out of the blue, a payment link is emailed to you for the taxes. You have to call in for a booking code and itinerary and to figure out the mystery number of miles it will cost. My major gripe lies here--that after this whole process lasting weeks, I was quoted an erroneously high number of miles. There is no way to reach the internal manual booking department by phone or email to discuss a misprice. So, you're stuck at this point, no matter how badly they've messed up (i.e. mispriced award in their favor, wrong connections on your itinerary, etc.). [*] These issues do represent major deviations from what was an already frustrating and lengthy manual booking process. Namely, that now there is no direct communication with the agent who is pricing your award and that for some reason mixed-cabin multiple segment one-way tickets are being priced at the sum of each segment cost. There is no way to contest the calculation. The added time from having the levels of screening agents, inability to talk to manual booking agents directly in any way, and what I believe to be unannounced changes to their method of pricing mixed-cabin multi-segment bookings all affirm to me that LM is making it harder to book savvy redemptions.
[**]I bought a fat stack of miles for the above award. Out of pity/mercy at the least, if anyone has operational economy 3x segments to drive down a J award please PM me and let me know--that's the only way I think I'm going to be able to get fair use out of my stupidly large purchase.
Sep 18, 23, 7:56 am
#681
Join Date: Jul 2023
Posts: 56
LM is very good for those who fly very frequently and are fine paying cash for tickets if awards are not available. I never did manual booking and spend over 600k miles in last two years. For me LM is the best price award program on many routes, like United to GRU for 50k miles in polaris.
Sep 26, 23, 7:19 pm
#682
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 151
Received an Expertflyer notification today for an EVA flight in business class. Lifemiles shows no availability on any web platform I use. Space shows available on the United app. I cant wait to be done with Lifemiles. What a waste of time.
Sep 26, 23, 11:36 pm
#683
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Southern Cali
Programs: AA ExPlat, Marriott Titanium, HH Diamond
Posts: 1,972
Have you tried setting the lifemiles search to EVA instead of Star Alliance?
Sep 27, 23, 2:34 am
#685
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO/SJC/OAK
Programs: OZ Diamond (*G), KQ Asante Gold (ST+), Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,493
I think it's phantom space, not a Lifemiles-specific issue. Today united.com has been showing me a ton of EVA business space on all the NA-TPE routes, none of it comes up on any other *A website. I checked ANA and Aeroplan - doesn't show up on either.
Sep 27, 23, 12:29 pm
#686
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: BOS
Posts: 519
Transferred 360K miles to book tickets to Asia, the web sites shows availability and gives me this "e6" error when booking. Customer service was not helpful, they just say they don't see the flights. Unbelievable... I've booked with LifeMiles before so didn't expect to have these kinds of problems.
I submitted a ticket through the help center....
I submitted a ticket through the help center....
Sep 27, 23, 1:18 pm
#687
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: BOS
Posts: 519
Transferred 360K miles to book tickets to Asia, the web sites shows availability and gives me this "e6" error when booking. Customer service was not helpful, they just say they don't see the flights. Unbelievable... I've booked with LifeMiles before so didn't expect to have these kinds of problems.
I submitted a ticket through the help center....
I submitted a ticket through the help center....
Sep 27, 23, 2:50 pm
#689
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 151
Im down to 96k miles. Once I get my last J class redemption to SE Asia Im out. I can just as easily transfer Citi TY points to EVA when I see availability directly with them.
Oct 2, 23, 6:37 pm
#690
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: BOS
Posts: 519
Got a call back from my help desk ticket last week, the award ticket I had wanted was gone but they kept searching and called me a couple times over the last few days. Finally tonight they told me they were able to book the original tickets on Turkish/Thai.got a payment link and had the tickets in my e-mail an hour later. The web site is terrible but I do have to say the people on the phone were very nice (and persistent).
