House

Just had my first experience of calling DC, which went surprisingly well. There was a minimal wait (slightly confused why they see the need to remind us twice to use the website before actually connecting us) and the agent who answered was friendly and eager to help.

Not surprisingly given the recent changes to call centre provision, the agent seemed a bit inexperienced (though I did give him a fairly complicated request involving multiple alternative dates, and several secondary airports in Brazil). Having the airport codes to hand was helpful!

He came up with abundant cash+miles availability on the dates I wanted, though all the options he gave me involved the dreaded Varig LHR-GRU nonstop on a clapped-out MD11. I pressed for alternative carriers (which when booking LH awards usually results in a wide range of options being offered) but was basically told no.

I want to take a slightly less direct route (LON-GRU via FRA on LH or LIS on TP) to get a lie-flat business class seat, but am not sure how best to go about it. My options seem to be:

1. Ask for an award from FRA-GRU rather than LHR-GRU.
2. Insist on departing from LCY(served by LH) or LGW (served by TAP) to eliminate the RG nonstop.
3. Send in a request by fax or email (can I even do this?) with lists of ideal flight combinations in order of preference.
4. Keep phoning up until I get what I want.

I had also thought about paying more miles and flying F (but RG do offer F out of LHR, so this really gets me nowhere).

Any ideas on the best course of action? Thanks as always for your help!

Also, am I right in assuming that I'm allowed only one stopover in addition to the destination point, i.e.:

LHR-GRU(Stopover)-GIG(destination)-LHR is OK

LHR-GRU(Stopover)-IGU(destination)-GIG(Stopover)-LHR is not allowed.

NickB

You can get around the stopover issue by booking two oneways instead of a return.

jbfield

These rules seem to have been relaxed so no need to book two singles. See bapilot2b's post yesterday:
Spending miles query: Hong Kong via Singapore?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum_frame...sprune=7&f=499

House

Thanks for the good news!

Now, before I go through the process of booking this, do DC normally let you put award bookings on hold (I need to check the dates one last time before proceeding)? Or must I buy the ticket on the spot?

LH are very good about this and will often let you put award bookings on hold for up to a month before proceeding to pay and issue the ticket.

stut

Yes, they will, but only for a couple of days.

Volvic

I was given 24hrs, and after pointing out the presence of a weekend in the middle (expiring something like Saturday at 13:00) I was able to obtain almost 72 hrs. They were kind and professional ! ^