Getting to Shanghai?
Mar 14, 2011 | 11:37 pm
#31
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 6
THANK YOU
Problem Solved:
I just want to thank everyone that took the time to post here. I was skeptical it would work at first, but after following up on the suggestions made here, I likely saved myself close to $1000.
I took the advice to check out US Airways dividend miles program (fortunately I was already a member through my BofA debit card, with 6k miles already racked up) and learned to use ANA for the first time to find specific flights in and out of destinations.
The one thing I would add is don't rule out the people on the phone. The first one I talked to admittedly was awful, but the second one was unbelievably helpful, and when I informed her of a flight I found through ANA, she responded at first it wasn't available, but minutes later had found it through additional searches.
After an hour of using ANA on my end, and her working on her end, I reserved a ticket to go from MCO>YYZ>PVG just 1 day before my required departure, and found one coming back PVG>LAX on the exact day of leaving, with a night layover in LA, followed by LAX>SFO>MCI the next morning. (The necessary complicated routing was one wall I kept running into, and having a good rep on the other end helped a lot here. I basically bought three one way tickets, but they all combined as if it were one round trip).
All that was done for economy dividend miles seating available (I'm still a grad student after all, with student loans etc.) and with my previous miles factored in, I'll only have to buy 27k miles (with 100% bonus) for $742. I was even able to reserve the seats for three days, while I add the miles.
To recap, before getting on flyertalk, one week ago, my ticket would have been $1700+...
Today, my ticket is $742...
So thank you.
M
I just want to thank everyone that took the time to post here. I was skeptical it would work at first, but after following up on the suggestions made here, I likely saved myself close to $1000.
I took the advice to check out US Airways dividend miles program (fortunately I was already a member through my BofA debit card, with 6k miles already racked up) and learned to use ANA for the first time to find specific flights in and out of destinations.
The one thing I would add is don't rule out the people on the phone. The first one I talked to admittedly was awful, but the second one was unbelievably helpful, and when I informed her of a flight I found through ANA, she responded at first it wasn't available, but minutes later had found it through additional searches.
After an hour of using ANA on my end, and her working on her end, I reserved a ticket to go from MCO>YYZ>PVG just 1 day before my required departure, and found one coming back PVG>LAX on the exact day of leaving, with a night layover in LA, followed by LAX>SFO>MCI the next morning. (The necessary complicated routing was one wall I kept running into, and having a good rep on the other end helped a lot here. I basically bought three one way tickets, but they all combined as if it were one round trip).
All that was done for economy dividend miles seating available (I'm still a grad student after all, with student loans etc.) and with my previous miles factored in, I'll only have to buy 27k miles (with 100% bonus) for $742. I was even able to reserve the seats for three days, while I add the miles.
To recap, before getting on flyertalk, one week ago, my ticket would have been $1700+...
Today, my ticket is $742...
So thank you.
M
Mar 25, 2011 | 10:49 pm
#33
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 46,383
We have 5 more days to buy US miles. I booked an amazing ticket for my colleague to fly to Milan in biz class. The total price was $1293. Unfortunately, things didn't pan out (I feel bad about this since he ended up flying SU in Y for the second time in 10 days for the same price) because the toolbar miles don't post instantly. I'm still planning on buying 100k.