Redemption hell
 

I may have the chance of attending a conference in San Francisco in September. Lucky me.

However, I expect the company will say I need to fly down the back as it's not a chargeable piece of work. I was thinking as I have a load of BMI miles I could use them to fly in C or F and as long as the cost is less than the Y ticket the travel agent could get I could reclaim the taxes as the company saves as well.

Now assuming BD revenue management release me some EDI-MAN-ORD and ORD-MAN-EDI seats then all I need to worry about is the ORD-SFO and SFO-ORD legs.

I can get an outbound ORD-SFO leg (according to ANA) but cannot find anything for SFO-ORD on the return part of the trip that gets in before the BD ORD-MAN flight departs.

My departure date is 20 Sep and my return date is 26 Sep.

I've put the start and end destinations into staralliance.com and put every routing offered by that into ANA with no luck.

EDI-MAN-ORD is coming in @ £232.90 in taxes and charges (£345.70 miles+cash)

ORD-MAN-EDI is coming in @ $253.58 in taxes and charges ($458.98 miles+cash). I can buy SFO-ORD on united.com for $245.50

yes, those pounds and dollars signs are correct.

So, some questions:

1 - Can anyone offer any alternatives, any valid routing considered?

2 - Does anyone know how much adding ORD-SFO to EDI-MAN-ORD will add to the redemption booking (even a rough figure) and again how much will adding SFO-ORD to ORD-MAN-EDI add to the redemption booking so I can get my figures ready.

3 - Is there anyway to get UA to release a seat on the return leg (I assume the answer here is no) or do UA release seat later?

4 - If I need to buy a ticket for SFO-ORD on UA will the through check my bags to EDI or will I need to reclaim in ORD. Would this be a painfull process?

Thanks for any help

LL

Those dates, and with only a quick scan of ANA, shows no availabilty on more direct routings at the moment, as you said, but with some point to point checking, the following in C/F is available.

EDI-FRA (LH C) - JFK (LH F) - SFO (UA F)

At least JFK-SFO is the UA PS F product with slopy lie flats and, of course, the FRA FCT.

There is availability :

F 9/26(FR) UA100 San Francisco Washington,D.C.(IAD) 12:45 20:56 752
F 9/26(FR) UA924 Washington,D.C.(IAD) London(LHR) 21:41 10:00+1 777
C 9/27(SA) BD054 London(LHR) Edinburgh 11:05 12:30 319
or
C 9/27(SA) BD056 London(LHR) Edinburgh 12:50 14:15 ER4

and also on a couple of earlier departures from SFO on the same day on the same route, only these are C in SFO-IAD and F IAD-LHR.

What with the FCT on the way out, thats you sorted then. :)

45 min connection in IAD is pushing it a little don't you think? The earlier departures would obviously counter that though :)

I should add that the reverse itinerary is also available for the return on the 26th.

Cheers Guys,

Your ANA powers are considerably better than mine. I'll get on the case with those routes after some sleep I think.

so sayeth ANA, and seconded by united.com with the endorsement "connecting to"

and a nightcap too
 

how about :

9/26(FR) UA(F) UA010 San Francisco New York(JFK) 10:25 19:08 757
9/26(FR) SQ(F) SQ025 New York(JFK) Frankfurt 21:05 11:15+1 744
9/27(SA) LH(C) LH4940 Frankfurt Edinburgh 12:00 12:55 733
or
9/27(SA) LH(C) LH4942 Frankfurt Edinburgh 16:35 17:30 735

Lucky you. Suite dreams. :D

ANA is incapable of showing routings with more than 1 change. You need to search leg by leg for any options which would involve 2+ changes.

Looks like EDI-FRA-JFK-SFO and reverse is the way for me to go.

Will I get to use the FCT @ FRA if I travel in SQ F JFK-FRA and then in C to EDI?

AFAIK it's inbound in F on LH metal only

Sadly, no.

Not a huge problem as I will get the FCT on the way out and not getting it on the way back is a small price to pay to sample another carriers F product.

Anyone care to take a guess at what the taxes will be? The cheapest Y ticket I can get is currently £575 so assuming the taxes are less than this I should be fine. I'm estimating the taxes at about £400.

Once I get the ok from the boss I will get this booked up.

Deleted.

(I am still taking lessons on how to read properly ;) )

If Livilion comes back JFK-FRA on LH, it's yes you can. If it's SQ, as is the intention, then it's no you can't.

It may have changed, again, but IIRC the latest is; you have to walk over there yourself coming off LH F, transferring to LH C, i.e no limo to meet you at the gate on arrival.

Correct Oxon Flyer ?