StarAllianceGold

I'm trying to book a return to Vegas with three internal Zone 3 flights tacked on.

The spend your miles booking engine on flybmi.com shows multiple cabin availability on the way out and business class on the return.

I called India and the guy there could only see economy seats on the way out and no availability at all on the way back.

The agent suggested I book the flights online, which is reasonable advice, but if I book it all in one go over the phone I'd save miles (as some/all of the internal flights would count as stop-overs).

Anyone have any suggestions/thoughts? I tried the usual trick of calling back to get another agent, but got the same guy!

jim739

Unfortunately the only way is to call, I really wouldn't want to waste my miles like that on internal US flights.
You could try searching on the ANA website for award availability which has tended to be accurate for me with bookings; this would also bring up availability for United flights, or you could possibly do NZ LHR-LAX with their great business class and then do LAX-LAS with United. If you don't have access to the ANA tool I can search for availability for you if you PM me the dates.
Sometimes calling back does work, but if you keep on getting the same guy its a real pain. I've found that the staff in the Indian call centre don't seem as clued up on the rules compared to the staff before the change, I've had some problems but have only made one booking since the call centre change so haven't had as much experience.
Thanks

crowe

Definitely keep calling, there are one or two agents who are really good.

Also point out to them that you've checked availability online (ANA or bmi) - I've had them change their minds about availability once I've said that!

Good luck with it

StarAllianceGold

Thanks for the advice crowe and jim739,

I called back this morning and spoke to a different agent who explained that they had business availability from MAN > LAS but only economy from EDI > MAN.

Obviously yesterday's agent felt that travelling in biz was as important on the 45 min flight as on the 10 hour one (flybmi.com awards engine said that EDI > MAN had business availability - so there was still an inconsistency between call centre and web).

So hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the flights confirmed


PS. Either its a coincidence or they've only got one guy on the line after 6pm. I spoke to the same guy three times last night and once tonight.

jim739

This point is what really annoyed me when I last attempted to make a booking.
I wanted to do ORD-LHR-MAN in biz (knowing that there was availability in biz with UA from the ANA tool), was told ORD-LHR no problem, but I couldn't go upto MAN after because LHR-MAN was economy only and ORD-LHR was only available in biz and not economy, i.e. he was implying that the route has to be all the same class which is just not the case
Good luck with getting the flights anyway

Frequent_Flyer1

Also experienced quite a funny story concerning this. Wanted to book MXP-FRA-BKK-... in F, and the first lady I had on the phone from the call center insisted that there would be no availability. When I questioned this I found out that she was looking for First Class on the MXP-FRA leg too.

jamojdm

I've found its always best to build up each leg of multi-leg trips seperately. Know what flights are available in each class by doing a bit of research and you will have no problems. If they tell you something that isnt true like MAN-ZRH isnt operated by SQ, just emphasize that you know best


Jamo

Airman Biggles

Would be very grateful for more info re ANA web site tool - do you have to be an ANA member to view this info?
Many thanks.

jamojdm

Just sign up to the ANA frequent flier program and it allows you to search star alliance award availability

More info on http://www.anaskyweb.com


Jamo

Airman Biggles

Thanks for this. Have signed up, logged in from anaskyweb.com but cannot determine where to check for Star Alliance availability. Have tried the Star Alliance Upgrade process but can't seem to get that to work. Thanks.

jamojdm

Once logged in under ANA milage club click on Award Reservation. This takes you to a new page, enter your account details again, click next. On the next page click Star Alliance Flight Awards


Jamo

DarrenT

I always keep the page below bookmarked... just log in there, and on the following page it gives you all the options.

https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/p_per/sky_...SearchLogin.do

StarAllianceGold

Glad to report that I managed to get the flights booked

Had a bit of confusion about the stopover rules where they wanted an extra 35,000 miles and a couple of hundred quid over what I had calculated, but managed to sort that by taking one of the legs out of the award booking and paying Ł60 for it on Expedia @:-)

It was thanks to the ANA tool (and flybmi.com) that I knew which flights were available. The tool is fantastic - makes it so much easier to find flights. I hope ANA don't catch on that we're all joining their club simply to use the tool!

jamojdm

Can I ask what the original route was? Never heard of leg restrictions before on Zone 1 - Zone 3. Starting to sound like the Indian call centre is being overly strict?


Jamo

StarAllianceGold

The way the agent explained it you're entitled to one stopover on the outward leg and another stopover on the return.

I've still got some doubts about whether I actually needed to drop one of the flights, but was determined not to waste 35,000 miles.

Itinerary is/was:

EDI > MAN > LAS

LAS > YVR (less than 24 hours after arriving in LAS - which counts as a transfer rather than a stopver)

The way the agent explained it is that arriving in YVR concludes the outward journey.

YVR > SFO (SFO counts as a stopover)

SFO > LAS (this is the leg I had to remove, as bmi were treating it as a second stopover on the return journey which therefore required more miles/cash)

LAS > MAN (no miles availability for the return flight to EDI, so I'll need to buy that separately too)