Thanks, baggageinhall and NickB. I'll follow your advice and book TK. Reports here on TK service have been positive, and there's an A330 on the IST-LHR sector.

At Ł20 p.p. to change, it looks like a no-brainer. (If LX availability turns up, I'll get brownie points.)

Thanks.

Hi guys,

I'm very new to this place, but I can tell I'm going to be a life-long member. I've got around 35k DC miles, and am trying to get from LHR to Chania in Crete on 23rd July, and back on 1st Aug. I'm sure there's a way for me to use miles - opodo shows a 'BMI' flight on those dates, but I called DC and they denied knowledge of its existence. I also tried ANA, but no joy. Can anybody help? Lufthansa also owns Aegean I believe, so there must be a way to make this work...

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi RuggerMe ane welcome to Flyertalk ^.

The Chania services are seasonal charters, operated by bmi, so are not available for award redemptions.

The Star Alliance timetable is always useful in checking award route options, in this case there's no direct and no one-stop option for Friday 23 July. And if you did manage to find a route (there's one via VIE on Saturdays for example) the surcharges, taxes and fees involved would make it very poor value indeed.

Am I correct in that getting Business/First from LHR to EWR/JFK is harder than finding Rocking horse poo.

I want to go on 01/12/2010 and return 07/12/2010.

Am I wasting my time?

Any takers.

Thanks

Yes.

An update.

Having decided on dates, I was ready to book TK but something has happened to biz availability between IST and LHR with only economy available on our dates. STN service in biz was available from the other airport but wouild have meant schlepping from one airport to the other on arrival in IST so was less attractive.

In the event, there is plenty of F and/or J availability with LX between ZRH and JNB which could have offered LHR/LCY-ZRH-JNB-CPT and return, but taking three flights against a potential nonstop wasn't welcoming, even though I wanted to try LX F. BA in F was an option before the @:-) came on: try VS with DC miles.

That worked. My first DC redemption was very efficient (especially in view of the many other calls they were taking today with the volcanic ash problems). My only concern is that after 2 1/2 hours, I haven't received e-mail confirmation and my miles total is unchanged. Pressure of work, no doubt ...

Can someone check:

19AUG FRA-ICN OZ542
24AUG ICN-HKG OZ723

BMI CSRs tell me both flights are full - yet I do find availability on the ANA tool ..

I know that there is a problem with trying to book SQ flights that are showing as available on ANA but I'm having trouble booking LH flights LHR-MUN (first part of trip to DPS). ANA is showing 2 seats in J on 2 different flights but the ICC is not seeing them - I've phoned twice and got 2 different males!

Are some LH flights kept back for M&M members? The flight I'd like is LH2479 on 9th Feb or the flight before that.

We've increasingly seen this - especially with LH; the seats are visible for about 24-48 hours before being baggable. Keep trying.

Were you replying to my post or to quitecontrary's one?

I was replying to quitecontrary, sorry.

-DSH- I suggest you keep calling. If you get an agent who you feel is competent, try asking her to refresh her screen. When there were IT problems () last year, that sometimes shook the dust from their system.

I'll give them one more call. However, all three agents said the flight is currently waitlisted - which leads me to believe they might actually be right for once. However, even all CPH-FRA flights are waitlisted according to them on that day?

Looking to do MAN-DXB either next weekend (23/24/25 April) or weekend of 6/7/8/9th May. Return on Swiss J or F or mixed. One person.

**BUMP**

Can anyone help with the Swiss redemption above? Obviously this coming weekend is out of the question but what about the 6/7th May?

Thanks!

Get on ANA you lazy sod - they show Swiss flights now

Anyway - 6th is showing availability in F
7th is showing availability in J