Worthless AMEX 50% discount (...but with a happy ending)
Jan 12, 2011, 4:55 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: ARN (& LHR)
Programs: SK*G, SF Bioklubben Guldmedlem :-)
Posts: 29
Worthless AMEX 50% discount (...but with a happy ending)
Here's a little story of my recent experience dealing with SK/AMEX award booking...
Last week I got the go-ahead from my boss to clear some of the saved vacation time that I have collected but never got the chance to spend. My girlfriend I decided to do a longer trip to the US, staying with some friends in LA and San Diego and with stopovers in NYC and IAD.
I used the excellent ANA tool and started looking for C-rewards in april/may/june/july from anywhere in Scandinavia to all the SK destinations in the US. I found one (1) date outbound to the US with 2 open award seats in C and NOT A SINGLE DATE with open award seats back to Scandinavia. Well, thinking the Y-product is not so bad on SK we decided that we could do a mix of C and Y. After checking the SK web for awards in Y we found plenty of availability for our target dates.
So I called up the Estonian(?) call center that handles the AMEX 50% discount bookings and this is where the fun(!) started. Turns out that the AMEX discount does not allow mixed booking classes and no open jaws. This makes the IC discount voucher TOTALLY worthless since it's impossible to find any availability if you are 2 pax that want a premium cabin and of course you can't do gate upgrades on award tix.
This put me into "whatever!-screw-the-cheap-bloody-SK" mood and got straight back online with the ANA-tool and came up with this ITN:
ARN- LAX (via LHR on SK-C and NZ-C award) 12 days in CA and NV
LAS-EWR (CO-M paid) 4 days in NYC
JFK-ARN (via FRA in LH-C on the A380, LH-C award)
Taxes: ~1700SEK/pax and 1100SEK/pax for an overnight red-eye in coach LAS-EWR.
The trip set me back 220k EB-points for 2 pax - but what the he**, let them burn! EB points are close to worthless anyway unless you get lucky on cheapo long haul tix and buy gate upgrades.
LH is a killer in taxes but since this would be my maiden trip (in premium cabin) on the A380 it's totally worth it
It will also be kind of fun trying out the C-cabin on the NZ 777.
Called up the SK service center and the CS-rep picking up the phone was like "Yeah, yeah. Let's see how well that will go" when I told her that I knew all the flight#, open seats, dates, connection times and all. I was very humble and not at all pushy so I find it very interesting that the attitude of the rep was “Don’t try to teach me how to do my job!” when I in fact had everything on paper – all she had to do was to enter the info and tell me the taxes, issue the ticket and that would have been it.
There was couple of things that I had to fight for - she insisted that there was zero availability from NYC to FRA on my date, turns out she was trying from EWR not JFK even if I clearly told her "New York - JFK", I guess some SK staff thinks that EWR is the only airport serving NYC. We also wanted a connection from LAX to NYC on the award ITN but this would add a stopover and of course SK does not allow that on *A awards I realized that I had read here on FT about that rule so I had to admit defeat on that one. We went with the coach on CO from LAS instead.
I’m very happy that we were able to get a trip we wanted in the end. I’m sure that there’s better ways to get better value for 220k EB-points but for us it will be a first in NZ-C and a first in LH-C on the A380 and now, with only some change left on the EB account I will have to sit down and reconsider if EB is the way to go. I have 14 month as EBG still to go so perhaps this makes it the perfect time to start looking into other FFP's to switch the Asia and US trips over to.
And yes – I would like some cheese with all that whine
Last week I got the go-ahead from my boss to clear some of the saved vacation time that I have collected but never got the chance to spend. My girlfriend I decided to do a longer trip to the US, staying with some friends in LA and San Diego and with stopovers in NYC and IAD.
I used the excellent ANA tool and started looking for C-rewards in april/may/june/july from anywhere in Scandinavia to all the SK destinations in the US. I found one (1) date outbound to the US with 2 open award seats in C and NOT A SINGLE DATE with open award seats back to Scandinavia. Well, thinking the Y-product is not so bad on SK we decided that we could do a mix of C and Y. After checking the SK web for awards in Y we found plenty of availability for our target dates.
So I called up the Estonian(?) call center that handles the AMEX 50% discount bookings and this is where the fun(!) started. Turns out that the AMEX discount does not allow mixed booking classes and no open jaws. This makes the IC discount voucher TOTALLY worthless since it's impossible to find any availability if you are 2 pax that want a premium cabin and of course you can't do gate upgrades on award tix.
This put me into "whatever!-screw-the-cheap-bloody-SK" mood and got straight back online with the ANA-tool and came up with this ITN:
ARN- LAX (via LHR on SK-C and NZ-C award) 12 days in CA and NV
LAS-EWR (CO-M paid) 4 days in NYC
JFK-ARN (via FRA in LH-C on the A380, LH-C award)
Taxes: ~1700SEK/pax and 1100SEK/pax for an overnight red-eye in coach LAS-EWR.
The trip set me back 220k EB-points for 2 pax - but what the he**, let them burn! EB points are close to worthless anyway unless you get lucky on cheapo long haul tix and buy gate upgrades.
LH is a killer in taxes but since this would be my maiden trip (in premium cabin) on the A380 it's totally worth it
It will also be kind of fun trying out the C-cabin on the NZ 777.Called up the SK service center and the CS-rep picking up the phone was like "Yeah, yeah. Let's see how well that will go" when I told her that I knew all the flight#, open seats, dates, connection times and all. I was very humble and not at all pushy so I find it very interesting that the attitude of the rep was “Don’t try to teach me how to do my job!” when I in fact had everything on paper – all she had to do was to enter the info and tell me the taxes, issue the ticket and that would have been it.
There was couple of things that I had to fight for - she insisted that there was zero availability from NYC to FRA on my date, turns out she was trying from EWR not JFK even if I clearly told her "New York - JFK", I guess some SK staff thinks that EWR is the only airport serving NYC. We also wanted a connection from LAX to NYC on the award ITN but this would add a stopover and of course SK does not allow that on *A awards
I realized that I had read here on FT about that rule so I had to admit defeat on that one. We went with the coach on CO from LAS instead.I’m very happy that we were able to get a trip we wanted in the end. I’m sure that there’s better ways to get better value for 220k EB-points but for us it will be a first in NZ-C and a first in LH-C on the A380 and now, with only some change left on the EB account I will have to sit down and reconsider if EB is the way to go. I have 14 month as EBG still to go so perhaps this makes it the perfect time to start looking into other FFP's to switch the Asia and US trips over to.
And yes – I would like some cheese with all that whine
Jan 12, 2011, 5:10 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Stockholm
Programs: SK EBS, FB Ivory, AA
Posts: 20
I had the same experience being told that the 50% discount did not apply to mix of classes - at least that was what the first female agent said. When I called again the male agent offered to book me in different classes, which I ended up not doing since I had found availability in the same classes out- and homebound.
See thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sas-e...-system-2.html
See thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sas-e...-system-2.html
Jan 12, 2011, 7:22 am
#4
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: New York
Programs: Cutting down :-(
Posts: 604
Wow. That makes burning miles from EB just as expensive as with most airlines in the US. And the earning on EB in economy is awful in comparison. 
Just another reason never to credit cheap economy to EB, or fly cheap economy on SK.
Just another reason never to credit cheap economy to EB, or fly cheap economy on SK.
Jan 12, 2011, 8:13 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,962
heh I would be happy to get a 50% discount coupon since I use only SAS flights fro my scuba trips but of course they are NOT offered to us lowly Finns... 
