Problems booking Business award to BKK
Sep 2, 2023, 7:59 am
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: Aeroplan, Miles ‘n More, Thai Royal Orchid Plus
Posts: 320
Problems booking Business award to BKK
I’’m still trying to book Business flights Nov.28 to March 5 BER to BKK using miles. Please bear with me as I’m a bit of a newbie in the rewards game. I did book this same route successfully for this past June and the experience was seamless — I had my choice of LH, OS and LX flights from the outset and got LH out and OS return. This time I’m getting no Business availability at all and often only LH flights in Premium Economy, some days OS but still only Premium Economy.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
Sep 2, 2023, 10:25 am
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 12,264
Searching for award seats to BKK for travel in June is much easier than looking for the same seats in November (start of high season, whereas June is low low season).
The business class award seats to BKK are gone long time ago and unlikely to come back, unless you wait until around 1 week before departure to see if LH Group releases last minute seats. Some flexibility with travel dates will also significantly improve your chances of success.
If you book award tickets in Prem. Economy I doubt you will be able to upgrade (cash or miles) subsequently, but I may not be updated on this.
To book with other Star Alliance Partners you need to call M&M
The business class award seats to BKK are gone long time ago and unlikely to come back, unless you wait until around 1 week before departure to see if LH Group releases last minute seats. Some flexibility with travel dates will also significantly improve your chances of success.
If you book award tickets in Prem. Economy I doubt you will be able to upgrade (cash or miles) subsequently, but I may not be updated on this.
To book with other Star Alliance Partners you need to call M&M
Sep 2, 2023, 12:37 pm
#20
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: PRN
Programs: LH HON* || HH Diamond || Accor Gold
Posts: 1,386
I’’m still trying to book Business flights Nov.28 to March 5 BER to BKK using miles. Please bear with me as I’m a bit of a newbie in the rewards game. I did book this same route successfully for this past June and the experience was seamless — I had my choice of LH, OS and LX flights from the outset and got LH out and OS return. This time I’m getting no Business availability at all and often only LH flights in Premium Economy, some days OS but still only Premium Economy.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
Sep 2, 2023, 12:43 pm
#22
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: PRN
Programs: LH HON* || HH Diamond || Accor Gold
Posts: 1,386
I’’m still trying to book Business flights Nov.28 to March 5 BER to BKK using miles. Please bear with me as I’m a bit of a newbie in the rewards game. I did book this same route successfully for this past June and the experience was seamless — I had my choice of LH, OS and LX flights from the outset and got LH out and OS return. This time I’m getting no Business availability at all and often only LH flights in Premium Economy, some days OS but still only Premium Economy.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
My wife and I have 300,000 miles to burn so we’d like to use them up. Cash and Miles seems like a really bad deal — we’d burn all of our miles and only get €1000 reduction.
I did call the M&M call centre and was told to “try again mid-August.” Well that’s come and gone and still no joy.
So what’s a good strategy? Book the Premium Economy and try to upgrade? Use my miles for flights on another Star Alliance carrier ie THAI or Turkish? (And how do I go about booking that? Through the M&M call centre?) Will Business availability start to loosen up closer to the flight date?
I’m just about to throw in the towel and just pay cash for the tickets because there are other aspects of our trip that depend on the flight dates and I don’t like this uncertainty.
Is it a better strategy to book the return flight, say, in January, and just go for the outbound flight now? (I’d have to book an LCC to somewhere in SE Asia for visa purposes.)
Dear moderators, I know I have a similar thread on my quest from several months ago. Please don’t merge this one.
Sep 3, 2023, 12:42 am
#23
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 7
I had the same problem couple of month ago, wanted to book M&M award Europe (Prague) to South East Asia, finally booked PE with Swiss to Singapore and C from KUL with Turkish, if I remember well there was almost zero availability in C for BKK/SIN, reasonable # of seats for KUL with Turkish
Sep 3, 2023, 5:32 am
#24
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: WAW
Programs: LH SEN *
Posts: 1,237
Sep 3, 2023, 9:13 am
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2005
Programs: Aeroplan, Miles ‘n More, Thai Royal Orchid Plus
Posts: 320
Thanks to everyone. I’m grateful for all the insights. I bit the bullet this morning and booked the flights as normal pay-with-cash Business tickets. Outbound with OS, return with LH. Total cost: €6600.
Maybe we’ll get another chance to burn up all those miles…
Maybe we’ll get another chance to burn up all those miles…
Sep 3, 2023, 10:41 am
#26
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Stoke on Trent, UK (MAN ), BUE, BKK, DBV
Programs: LH HON***,UA,BA.EK Gold,AV.
Posts: 12,352
As others said, better pricing if you just go ex BUD or ARN or other *A carriers & with dynamic award pricing, threatened award tickets will just get even less value than now….
Sep 5, 2023, 1:02 am
#28
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 289
Sep 5, 2023, 1:12 am
#29
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: WAW
Programs: LH SEN *
Posts: 1,237
Award ticket is X fare, and upgrade with miles (in the upgrade table) from X is not possible. For example, you can upgrade Business Class P, Z, C, J, D but X is not mentioned.
Please share your experience with upgrading award ticket with miles "difference".
Last edited by andywaw; Sep 5, 2023 at 1:19 am
Sep 5, 2023, 1:27 am
#30
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: PRN
Programs: LH HON* || HH Diamond || Accor Gold
Posts: 1,386
I can confirm that I was able to place a bid for “l” ticket that was accepted and rebooked into “O”. At the airport I was once able to benefit from a paid airport upgrade offer from C to F that stayed in “I” but I was seated in F cabin.
Last edited by olm022; Sep 5, 2023 at 2:01 am