flyoff

Hi,
I am considering using my BMI miles up by transferring over points from Amex MR. I would travel from London and would like to visit Hong Kong and Bangkok and probably Cambodia or Vietnam in business next Summer. I would book the flights as singles to receive a stopover both ways.

There will be 3 people travelling. In my experience this is a problem, even when flying regionally in the Far East as Singapore and Thai airlines only seem to offer a maximum of 2 seats. Looking at availability, SK only seem to offer 2 seats while LH and LX offer more seats.

Is there a thread on this board that I have missed, or can someone guide me on the likelyhood that if I book 2 mile tickets whether another one may appear later. I think I read that SQ sometimes offer another seat almost immediately. I know this will be not guaranteed but any insights would be gratefully received. I have considered splitting up on the regional flights but would prefer to stay together on long haul sectors.

Swiss Tony

It can be done

I was picking round on dates for the summer and managed to find 4 C seats to BKK on LH and 4 coming back on OS without too much difficulty at the end of August.

Summer 2011 I also took the family (2 adults, 2 kids and an infant) on C class awards BHX-FRA-KUL//SIN-FRA-BHX, but we did book 11 months out!

I just think you need to ensure that you don't end up with the cart before the horse where the taxes, plus the opportunity cost of the MR's you're going to transfer over, end up dictating the agenda.

flyoff

Thanks Swiss Tony. It seems to be the regional flights that prove the major issue. Availabilty for 3 seems impossible on Thai and Singapore. As you suggested looking at airlines who are doing multiple hops, such as LH, Ethiopian (BKK-HKG) within the Far East is an option. I am trying to avoid LH if I can as I wasn't impressed with them last Summer in business LHR-FRA-BKK-KUL. Whatever dates I try I can never get more than 2 seats on SIN and BKK on any route that I have tried and I suspect, perhaps wrongly that there may be additional inventory that they are hiding.

I will be using your advice on no transferring any Amex MR points until I find a viable route.

Mogensen

I'm listening in on this thread as well. I am in a similar situation. Looking for 3 seats in business class from somewhere in europe to HKG, BKK, KUL, SIN around january 1 2013.

I seem to recall having read somewhere about Thai automatically releases extra seats once the 2 seats we can see have been taken (of course only if they have planned for more to be released) I am however fearing this tactic, as I am not sure Mrs. Mogensen would be too happy about flying with our 3 year old alone in case the extra award space doesn't turn up and I might need to take another flight .

I am off on ZRH-DXB tomorrow on another BMI award in C (with the family) I also hope swiss is better than lh in c. (will report back...)

Oxon Flyer

I've made 3 separate redemptions for 3 seats in C on TG in the last 12 months, and on each occasion an extra seat was released as soon as the first 2 were booked. The key point for this tactic is to make sure the same flight has an extra seat in Y (or preferably F ) available, so if the extra C seat doesn't pop up then at least you'll all be flying together. Of course you could always pack off Mrs M on a separate flight instead.....

flyoff

Oxonflyer, you have given me the confidence to take a risk and try booking a TG flight. Were your flights short or long haul flights?

Oxon Flyer

2 Long : AKL-BKK & LHR-BKK; plus BKK-HKT.

Mogensen

In your experience how far out does thai release Award Seats?. Looking for a january 1-3 2013 flight the expected short bmi "Window of opportunity" I am worried I might have to "accept" what ever I can get.

mfhstid

If you search you'll find a thread on this forum which very usefully lists standard release times across Star Alliance carriers. From memory, TG releases seats at a relatively early stage - around 350 days IIRC.

The problem, however, is that although seats are released, they don't necessarily appear on ANA, Aeroplan or CO. That is the case at the moment, with no TG seats on any route visible after 27th October (see this thread on the TG forum).

The only way round this is to call the ICC. I've just spent an age on the phone to Pune booking a variety of TG and SQ flights, none of which were visible in any of the standard search engines. So you may find flights for January become bookable in the next few weeks.

EsherFlyer

I for one made that comment about TG a year ago in the 'share redemptions' thread.

You can always book 2 seats, then hold that booking while making the next. Then pay for both once booked. The agents usually quote a 3-4 hour that they will hold for.

flyoff

Esherflyer, thank you for the good advice about holding the first booking to check if another seat is released. I will now plan an itinerary using some of the Thai flights I have been looking at which only show 2 seats available.

Zooty

Would that be just the one extra seat released, or a pair? I'd need four seats (2 adults, 2 kids) for my redepemtions and I think three together would go down less well than two

EsherFlyer

I don't think many people have made redemptions for groups over 4 (I'm sure some have, just can't recall them), so the general evidence is that if you book 2 then 2 more often appear. If you do the same perhaps check afterwards whether ANA is still showing 2 free, and tell us?

EsherFlyer

No problem.

The other important part is that the agent terminals seme to cache some info. When making my 2+2 AC booking the other day the agent saw 2 and I saw 4 on Expert Flyer. He booked 2, so I saw 2 remaining. But he couldn't see these when I asked him to check again. So I did a HUACA to a different agent who could see them straight away.

Of course the first agent may have been doing something lazy, but seemed on the ball generally.

Oxon Flyer

IIRC, another 2 were released, but I can't be certain as I was only looking for 1 more.