I've flown this a couple times (tpe-icn-hel) but the overnight at ICN on the way out and having to book separate tickets on the way back kinda sucks. The prices for AY ex ICN are very cheap though. Really wish AY would start TPE....

You can upgrade anyone directly after booking. It is easy to check upgrade availability online. Given availability the ticket is updated usually in less than 30min after you request the upgrade.

More information can be found in the dedicated upgrade thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finna...pgrades-6.html

Actually the overnight in ICN was quite an eye-opener - Incheon is a real city! :) They have good hotel options (Hyatt just at the airport, Sheraton Grand, etc) so I didn't even go to SEL, but stayed in Incheon. But trying to get food at 4 pm - now that's a challenge! :)

If possible, you could also try to do AA runs to the US since all AA flights earn at least 100% on AY.

For example there's "always" good deals between TYO-JFK.

Thanks for the link, will do some studying.

The JV is much deeper cooperation than just codeshare. The participating airlines (BA, AY, IB and JL) agree prices together and share revenues for the flights between Europe and Japan. That's why the usual AY ticket scheme is not available for flights to/from Japan.

off-topic, but I've always wondered how this is allowed. I guess this combination was not deemed to have marketplace dominance in either Europe or Japan & vicinity...

Cartel laws do not seem to apply to airlines...

That's why all airlines JV need to be cleared by competition authorities. In this case, it must have been deemed that there was enough competition from ANA+LH JV and other carriers.

I received AY Plat for the first time, 3 months before my tracking period ends. My account stated that I have a gold card gift that expires 31.12.2017. I thought that I get only one giveaway gold card when I achieve Platinum, and that it should expire in the end of my real Platinum tracking period (=31.12.2018).

I asked Plat CS about this, and they confirmed that this giveaway gold card that I have now expires 31.12.2017, but on 1.1.2018 I will get another giveaway gold card that expires 31.12.2018!

Am I the only one who didn´t know this already? One more reason to update your Gold for Platinum.

Interesting opportunity, though. You could potentially give it to separate persons - even 3 months AY Gold and softlanding to Silver seems worth it to some.

I don't think it is the validity of the gifted card, is it?
It is the action to gift a card that is valid for 3 months, but the gifted card is a normal 12m card.

Correct, I can gift 2 gold cards, both of which have 12months validity. So 2 different persons can benefit.

Yes, this is really nice. Once my wife's first gifted Gold expires next month, I still have the other one waiting and will give it to her - so two years of Gold time for her due to my decision of going for Plat last fall!

My situation looks like this:

Tracking period ends 31JAN. I will be 19702 points short of Platinum at that time.

My options are:

1) Transfer 60k award points into 20k tier points

2) Fly HEL-DEL-HEL for €548 and spend 4 hours at DEL airport. This would be a first for me – I've never flown same-plane returns although I tried once. This would get me 20k tier points and 20k award points.

3) Fly TLL-HEL-DEL-HEL-TLL and take the ferry HEL-TLL for €455 and €16 respectively, throw away the HEL-TLL leg, 22 813 tier and award points.

I'm kinda leaning towards option 2 here although I'm definitely no fan of DEL, having visited the city once. But the gain here would be 80k award points for €548+€44 (eVisa), right? I've been reading Intuition's terrific Delhi Deli trip report over and over again...

A couple of questions:
- Can you eat the food at the lounge, or will you get Delhi belly?
- Does AY cater the DEL-HEL flight from HEL or from DEL?