Loose EK routing rules using AS miles (outed by blog)
#31
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS
Posts: 15,027
I start to wonder if this Sam guy is a liar.
#32
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Treasure Coast, FL
Programs: DL Diamond, Marriott LT Plat, HH Diamond, Avis Preferred Plus, National Executive
Posts: 4,578
#34
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
Also note that the trip was taken back in March. The website is trying to gather a following. It wants to encourage users to sign up for specific cards after they enter in data about where they'd like to travel. It seems like a more elaborate tool to push credit card sign ups. The website also wants you to input your budget and what not. Guessing this data could then be sold to make even more money. Much like the MMS and TPG apps.
#36
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
$60,000 he is saying would be the cash price equivalent. He disclosed in the write up that he spent 100k each way which is in line for USA to Asia.
#37
Join Date: Sep 2001
Programs: Alaska Tanzanite 100K
Posts: 3,858
It most certainly was nothing more than a blogger wanting/demanding/paying for attention.
Besides my superman airline job, I also am a correspondent for **********.com . We've had a few paid advertorials - and I've even been paid by ******** to write a story on them comparing A380 and 777 business class. While I had 100% editorial control over the article, I was required to hit certain points, which I did. I can also tell you that ** was not overly thrilled when I said I preferred the 777 business class to the A380 for the fact the 777 had more consistent service, same FA's, etc. I did tout the bar and shower for F, but felt the 777 was a better product. ** then rolled back a bunch of their planned "linking".. which is what this guy did.
thankfully **********.com doesn't rely 100% on credit card links, but other links and the fact we also have a ****** service, ***** planning service, and ****** following service. So that pays for the blog, which gets heavy attention from ALL the major news sources and ***** gets asked to speak or attend many, many airline and industry events.
(I edited out names to protect the innocent and make sure I'm not pushing **********.com on here!)
Besides my superman airline job, I also am a correspondent for **********.com . We've had a few paid advertorials - and I've even been paid by ******** to write a story on them comparing A380 and 777 business class. While I had 100% editorial control over the article, I was required to hit certain points, which I did. I can also tell you that ** was not overly thrilled when I said I preferred the 777 business class to the A380 for the fact the 777 had more consistent service, same FA's, etc. I did tout the bar and shower for F, but felt the 777 was a better product. ** then rolled back a bunch of their planned "linking".. which is what this guy did.
thankfully **********.com doesn't rely 100% on credit card links, but other links and the fact we also have a ****** service, ***** planning service, and ****** following service. So that pays for the blog, which gets heavy attention from ALL the major news sources and ***** gets asked to speak or attend many, many airline and industry events.
(I edited out names to protect the innocent and make sure I'm not pushing **********.com on here!)
#38
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Austin, Texas
Programs: Airline nobody. Sad!
Posts: 26,062
#39
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
Here is a copy of his itinerary:
https://cdn.topmiles.com/images/mytrip/USD300-proof.jpg
He spends no longer than 24 hours in each city except for his stopover in Dubai.
Both tickets look like they were originally booked and then had changes made. So he is actually lying when he said he got these itineraries by playing around on their website.
Theory: He called in to book a basic award ticket (Asia-USA & USA-Asia). He then called back to get segments added. He then called in several times to ask for segments to be added or perhaps knew someone that is an Alaska agent who could make changes to the itinerary once it was created by someone else?
Notice the change in amount of taxes due. The original was ~$47 and the new was ~$82.
https://cdn.topmiles.com/images/mytrip/USD300-proof.jpg
He spends no longer than 24 hours in each city except for his stopover in Dubai.
Both tickets look like they were originally booked and then had changes made. So he is actually lying when he said he got these itineraries by playing around on their website.
Theory: He called in to book a basic award ticket (Asia-USA & USA-Asia). He then called back to get segments added. He then called in several times to ask for segments to be added or perhaps knew someone that is an Alaska agent who could make changes to the itinerary once it was created by someone else?
Notice the change in amount of taxes due. The original was ~$47 and the new was ~$82.
#40
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS
Posts: 15,027
And what idiot would publish both the confirmation code and family name?
#41
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS
Posts: 15,027
Here is a copy of his itinerary:
https://cdn.topmiles.com/images/mytrip/USD300-proof.jpg
https://cdn.topmiles.com/images/mytrip/USD300-proof.jpg
#42
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,738
The loophole would be booking a Asia-USA ticket and then calling back and adding in segments to get that to work. If you got the right agent to preform the search and the system allowed it... it really wouldn't matter what the website shows. The main rule is that you either have to start or end your travel in the USA.
The itinerary was Photoshopped. I did notice that the image of the Alaska Air card at the bottom of the page was cut off and the personal info was covered, but there is no indication that he faked the itinerary.
#43
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
Read that post by TheBOSman again, but this time, very carefully, with attention paid to ALL the words and what was said and NOT said.
If you think things like this aren't possible, you obviously have never booked an AV or US award ticket with similar kinds of crazy routings to get around rules or exploiting loopholes. For instance, back in the day, people would use the fact that Russia was considered in Asia on the US award chart at the time to get ICN-FRA-DME-FRA-ICN in LH F for 40,000 miles. US didn't have any maximum permitted mileage on award itineraries at the time (so I've seen awards issued JFK-FRA-JNB(stop)-PER(dest)-SIN-HKG-ICN-JFK, for instance).
Is the penny dropping yet?
If you think things like this aren't possible, you obviously have never booked an AV or US award ticket with similar kinds of crazy routings to get around rules or exploiting loopholes. For instance, back in the day, people would use the fact that Russia was considered in Asia on the US award chart at the time to get ICN-FRA-DME-FRA-ICN in LH F for 40,000 miles. US didn't have any maximum permitted mileage on award itineraries at the time (so I've seen awards issued JFK-FRA-JNB(stop)-PER(dest)-SIN-HKG-ICN-JFK, for instance).
Is the penny dropping yet?
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Oct 29, 2015 at 5:27 pm
#44
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS
Posts: 15,027
Read that post by TheBOSman again, but this time, very carefully, with attention paid to ALL the words and what was said and NOT said.
If you think things like this aren't possible, you obviously have never booked an AV or US award ticket with similar kinds of crazy routings to get around rules. For instance, back in the day, people would use the fact that Russia was considered in Asia on the US award chart at the time to get ICN-FRA-DME-FRA-ICN in LH F for 40,000 miles. US didn't have any maximum permitted miles on awards at the time.
Is the penny dropping yet?
If you think things like this aren't possible, you obviously have never booked an AV or US award ticket with similar kinds of crazy routings to get around rules. For instance, back in the day, people would use the fact that Russia was considered in Asia on the US award chart at the time to get ICN-FRA-DME-FRA-ICN in LH F for 40,000 miles. US didn't have any maximum permitted miles on awards at the time.
Is the penny dropping yet?
If I call Alaska and started feeding the rep segment by segment starting with SIN-MEL the rep will refuse.
If I start with SIN-DXB-MIL-JFK the rep will oblige. But if I try to change SIN-DXB to SIN-MEL-XYZ-DXB why should the rep oblige?
#45
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
Are you quite certain of that?