How to redeem miles for flights on Star Alliance ?
Jan 2, 2018, 2:04 pm
#16
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 637
I cannot understand how SQ is pricing these award fees for a trip to Hawaii with my gf. Her ticket priced perfectly:
DEN-OGG; LIH-DEN 35k miles and $5. She lives in Denver, and this is great.
My ticket, is the exact same flights, with adding a tag flight before and after (RSW-DEN and DEN-AUS) resulted in the same 35k miles, but is pricing at $250 in fees
The SQ agent claims the difference is "airport taxes from connecting" but I doubt that. My best guess is that it is pricing my connections as stopovers and adding two $100 fees. Here is my exact routing:
1/23 RSW-DEN 1pm --> 4pm, 1/24 ; DEN-OGG 11:45am -->4:30 pm. This is a 19 hour connection but there is only one flight per day on each of these routes, so this is the shortest possible connection.
1/24 LIH-DEN (8pm-->6:30am +1); DEN - AUS 10:15am. This is a 3:45 connection, which is under their four our requirement
My best guesses are:
a.) the overnight connection in Denver is just something I will have to pay for even though it's the fastest connection possible
b.) The system is incorrectly pricing out the return leg as a stopover because of the date change on the redeye, even though the connection is under 3 hours
c.) Something strange is going on because it is two one-ways and I am flying into and out of different airports on each journey
Any thoughts? Help! Thanks!!
DEN-OGG; LIH-DEN 35k miles and $5. She lives in Denver, and this is great.
My ticket, is the exact same flights, with adding a tag flight before and after (RSW-DEN and DEN-AUS) resulted in the same 35k miles, but is pricing at $250 in fees
The SQ agent claims the difference is "airport taxes from connecting" but I doubt that. My best guess is that it is pricing my connections as stopovers and adding two $100 fees. Here is my exact routing:
1/23 RSW-DEN 1pm --> 4pm, 1/24 ; DEN-OGG 11:45am -->4:30 pm. This is a 19 hour connection but there is only one flight per day on each of these routes, so this is the shortest possible connection.
1/24 LIH-DEN (8pm-->6:30am +1); DEN - AUS 10:15am. This is a 3:45 connection, which is under their four our requirement
My best guesses are:
a.) the overnight connection in Denver is just something I will have to pay for even though it's the fastest connection possible
b.) The system is incorrectly pricing out the return leg as a stopover because of the date change on the redeye, even though the connection is under 3 hours
c.) Something strange is going on because it is two one-ways and I am flying into and out of different airports on each journey
Any thoughts? Help! Thanks!!
I had them price out the LIH-DEN-AUS leg and it was 17.5k + $5. So that wasn't the issue, and I had them book it.
Then I had them price out DEN-OGG, and it also was 17.5k + $5. So simply having the saver RSW-DEN tag flight 16 hours before (smallest possible connection time), added 0 miles and $240 to the reservation. The flight costs about $75 paying cash.
The agent swore up and down it was taxes issued by United, and there was no possible way to see what they were. It makes no sense, but I'm done dealing with it so will just pay for my RSW-DEN leg on the same plane that has saver availability and just be kind of sour about it.
Hope this helps someone in the future
Jan 5, 2018, 7:14 am
#17
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 742
Just following up on this for posterity's sake in case someone else is searching for the same issue.
I had them price out the LIH-DEN-AUS leg and it was 17.5k + $5. So that wasn't the issue, and I had them book it.
Then I had them price out DEN-OGG, and it also was 17.5k + $5. So simply having the saver RSW-DEN tag flight 16 hours before (smallest possible connection time), added 0 miles and $240 to the reservation. The flight costs about $75 paying cash.
The agent swore up and down it was taxes issued by United, and there was no possible way to see what they were. It makes no sense, but I'm done dealing with it so will just pay for my RSW-DEN leg on the same plane that has saver availability and just be kind of sour about it.
Hope this helps someone in the future
I had them price out the LIH-DEN-AUS leg and it was 17.5k + $5. So that wasn't the issue, and I had them book it.
Then I had them price out DEN-OGG, and it also was 17.5k + $5. So simply having the saver RSW-DEN tag flight 16 hours before (smallest possible connection time), added 0 miles and $240 to the reservation. The flight costs about $75 paying cash.
The agent swore up and down it was taxes issued by United, and there was no possible way to see what they were. It makes no sense, but I'm done dealing with it so will just pay for my RSW-DEN leg on the same plane that has saver availability and just be kind of sour about it.
Hope this helps someone in the future
max 4hr connection time on Int'l award?
your LIH-DEN-AUS connect under 4 hours?
did you or the agent offer to find a weird routing that would have all the connects within 4 hours? you could maybe do rsw-ord-iah-den or something? If you are elite do a same day change?
Annoying to say the least!
Jan 7, 2018, 1:41 am
#18
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: Krisflyer, BAEC
Posts: 23
Just wanted to check. I called KF reservation to ask about the pricing for a one-way star alliance redemption.
BKK->SIN ->TYO on TG and SQ
I was quoted the sum of the two different award prices, (20+43 = 63k). Just want to check if the operator was correct to do so,and that i was wrong to think that the pricing should just have been 37.5k only?
Also, is there a maximum number of flights that can be made on a one way KF staralliance booking? wondering about the possibility of going from SIN->ICN->TYO-> another destination in Japan.
BKK->SIN ->TYO on TG and SQ
I was quoted the sum of the two different award prices, (20+43 = 63k). Just want to check if the operator was correct to do so,and that i was wrong to think that the pricing should just have been 37.5k only?
Also, is there a maximum number of flights that can be made on a one way KF staralliance booking? wondering about the possibility of going from SIN->ICN->TYO-> another destination in Japan.
Last edited by Jacknabbit; Jan 7, 2018 at 1:53 am
Jan 9, 2018, 7:08 am
#20
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 742
United, LOT, and Eva also up and running. For eur-usa I can only get it to price with an extra $18usd per way that most airlines FF don't charge. Singapore did not charge it previously either on phone bookings. Bummer.Transportation Tax (Domestic/International) (US)-18.30
Jan 9, 2018, 12:38 pm
#21
Join Date: Jul 2017
Programs: KrisFlyer Gold, Marriott & SPG Plat, Hilton Gold, ShangriLa Jade, Enterprise Plat, Taj Gold
Posts: 3,343
Waiting for AI and UK.... But this is good progress.
Now if only they would improve their booking interface as well. I find United's booking interface the best - Information is neatly presented with Y, PE, J & F in a single row so that you don't have to scroll scroll and scroll.
Now if only they would improve their booking interface as well. I find United's booking interface the best - Information is neatly presented with Y, PE, J & F in a single row so that you don't have to scroll scroll and scroll.
Jan 9, 2018, 2:23 pm
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 10,909
not quite - lots of domestic US airport are simply not showing up so it's impossible to search online
it gets rather silly as i can not search lax-ase (aspen) since this destination is unknown to sq however if i look up lax-den a routing lax-ase-den comes up...
it gets rather silly as i can not search lax-ase (aspen) since this destination is unknown to sq however if i look up lax-den a routing lax-ase-den comes up...
Last edited by azepine00; Jan 9, 2018 at 2:29 pm
Jan 10, 2018, 2:06 am
#24
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SIN
Programs: CX DM, SQ KF Gold
Posts: 980
For your case: Have you tried calling the KF call centre? Trying to understand if your itinerary cannot be found at all, or if it is only impossible on the SQ website...?
Jan 10, 2018, 3:00 am
#25
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: Singapore
Programs: Singapore Airlines
Posts: 135
23 out of 27 Star Alliance airlines now searchable, a big improvement! Still only two partner carriers though. Has anyone had any luck finding Virgin Atlantic redemptions through the system? They are hard enough to come by at the best of times.
Jan 10, 2018, 4:12 am
#26
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 742
Hundreds (thousands?) of airport codes/cities around the world are still not loaded, not a UA specific issue. At least they are going in the right direction.
Jan 10, 2018, 5:02 am
#27
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium/LTG, IHG Platinum
Posts: 1,921
This is indeed right direction but painful award searching continues - I might rate SQ just a nose in front of Avianca's Lifemiles' search function at this point in time.