GoldCircle

And continuing on from the 2006/07 thread - here is the 2008 "Please report your successful redemptions using Diamond Club miles" thread...

EsherFlyer

Not sure the route will set the thread alight, but I thought I'd post mainly because it was my first redemption and I learned a few things along the way that might interest less seasoned users.

Heathrow-Palma (Majorca) for May 2008. 2 adults, 2 children. w/e flights.

Depart just before final week of school term, return two weeks later at end of half-term. Popular time to travel, and EasyJet, Thompson, etc. are showing suitably high prices.

bmi online redemption showed no availability, but thought I'd call up and ask anyway. Was told it was full, but they'd put a request in for seats to be released. Was also told that if the seats weren't released but I made Gold in the near future then call back as they would then almost certainly get me on (probably made this comment as I was high-ish Silver).

Anyhow seats were released and (despite a bit of minor confusion and annoyance relating to me trying to change the timing of the outward flights) they were ticketed shortly afterwards. Very pleased as LHR is a much better airport for us, the actual flight times are better, and I'm looking forward to being on a 'proper' plane.

So the things I learned are:

1a) It's worth calling even if the online system shows no availability.
1b) Especially (it seems) if you have Gold.
2) Children under 12 go at 75%, while the 'budget' airlines seemed to want full price. That seems fairer in some way and I like it.
3) Request separate outward and inward flights so you can adjust them more easily.
4) It seems very cheap on cash+miles. Even if I'd have had to purchase all the miles to do the redemption from the bmi site it would have compared very favourably with the pure cash price from the other airlines.
5) It makes up in some small way for having to be away from home to earn the miles.

Airframe

Hi. I am trying trying to book my first cash and miles award and am using the ANA tool as recommended. ^

To my suprise I appear to have found availability when searching for 4 x premium seats across the pond both outward in UA Biz and inbound on UA First on dates that work for me. I have also found connecting flights at both ends also according to the tool.

(I know UA is not the best service in the sky but I doubt I will find any alternate for the number of seats I hope to snag.)

My first question is how accurate is the ANA tool when searching for more than 1 seat ?

Also if you travel the main transatlantic leg outbound in UA Biz is it possible to get the domestic connection in US First as or do they book you into eco ?

Thanks

Tiger_lily

IIRC, UA Biz books into domestic first.

ANA is usually pretty accurate. Make sure that you have all the flight numbers handy when calling India. Build up your itinerary sector by sector, otherwise the call centre will simply say that flights from A to B are not available without checking connections via an intermediate point.

redshift27

It is accurate.

You should get US First for the connection.

NickW

I believe the upgrade only occurs for the bmi gold member plus a guest traveling with the member, in any case.

spk1234

I'm astonished at the number of successful redemptions listed here. I have been trying to book 3 business seats to 'anywhere warm' in February since last May with no luck. Having finally managed to bypass the useless call centre I was told that no business seats are available for redemption on long haul and that their release is at the whim of the 'revenue team'.

There are loads of business seats available on the flights I have investigated, but none for redemption. It's interesting that one of the new UAE partners - Ethihad?, Qatar? - mention on their reward scheme site that 'if there is a seat, it is available for remption'. If only the rest of the Star Alliance was the same!

cmcbugg

I don't know if you are referring to bmi redemptions only which do seem a bit harder to come by - but if you are talking about redemptions across *A then you shouldn't have had any problem finding something that far out.
For example - just looking now on ANA tool at some random dates in Feb - I can see at least 3 business redemption seats on the LHR-LAX route on UA or NZ.

edit - ok I missed the 'anywhere warm' bit - LAX may not exactly be warm

spk1234

Agreed -BMI seems to be the hardest and may be I've just been unlucky.

What is the 'ANA Tool'?

rtwflyer

From the 'Definitive Guide to the BMI mastercard & redeeming BMI miles'
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649735

Checking Award Seat Availability:
So, you've got your miles, you know where you want to go, now how do you check *alliance award class availability? This is an obscure process, but definitely worth it, as it makes calling BMI to book your award flights much much easier:

Join All Nippon Airways (ANA) frequent flyer club called the ANA Mileage Club --> http://www.anaskyweb.com/us/e/amc/index.html

Once you’ve registered they’ll email you your Mileage Club number straight away (as well as send you a nice pack in the post within a few weeks). Once you’ve got that number, go here --> https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/p_per/sky_...SearchLogin.do and login. Then click on the middle blue bar on the right “Star Alliance flight awards”, and search for the flights you want. NB Make sure you search sector by sector, it struggles with the concept of stopovers! Also it struggles with LHR-JFK (now no longer served by *A), but it will be fine if you do LHR-FRA and FRA-JFK for example. NB: The ANA tool will check *A availability for all airlines except Swiss (LX). When you see the results page, an orange box with a circle in it signifies that there is award availability on the selected flight (table row) and class (table column).

To check Swiss availability, you need to have a Miles&More account with at least 3k miles in it. Alternatively, if you have an under-18, they can sign up to M&M without the 3k minimum. ALternatively, if neither of those options work for you, head over to the FT Miles&More board, and politely ask for an award availability check. The friendly guys on that board are always happy to help and check availability through their account.

cmcbugg

I would hate to suggest anyone use there hard earned miles on TAP - but you can still find 3 business rewards seats from LIS-GIG (14 Feb) - and return GRU-LIS (27 Feb) - and there seems to be enough seats to connect from LHR (in economy).

So it is possible to find something - a lot more choices would have been available last May.

dodgeflyer

Why? Are they that bad?

Airframe

Can anyone please confirm how long can you hold a cash and miles award redemption for before you need to ticket ?

I think I read somewhere in the past 48 hours but have done a search and cannot find confirmation of this.

Thanks

More Champagne Sir?

Yes, 48 hours.

rtwflyer

I'd like to know if TAP are that bad too! Planning a redemption to S America and looking for advice on this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=774642