VLtone

Hi All,

I posted something in the US Airways pre-merger forum as well but thought this might be a good spot to ask questions as well...

I just called into US Airways Dividend miles to try and book a trip from PHL/JFK/LGA to LUN (Lusaka, Zambia) using miles - departing Aug 17 and returning on Aug 25. The person I spoke with was only able to find coach but no luck with First or Business class - she said she tried many different airlines with no luck.

I'm not in panic mode yet as I realize these things are difficult to book but I'm definitely a little concerned.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

dbuckho

Suggest you go on united.com and start looking for individual segments to see if you can piece together a route? For example, there are only a couple *A options into LUN. One of them is ET so I checked ADD-LUN and there is business saver availability on Aug 18 (and that route is open in general). From there look at the ADD wiki page to see routes from there and then searched FRA-ADD? ET has business saver availability Aug 17 FRA-ADD. Then how do you get to FRA? Looks like LH has business saver PHL-FRA on the Aug 16.

If using UA miles you could book this online via doing a multi-city itinerary. Have not used the US Airways site in a decade, so not sure if you can do that online or would need to call?

In general if you play around with the individual routes in *A long enough you can get where you need to go. Just did the same for my mother in-law WAS-BUD traveling in late August/return early September. Websites and agents could not find a route. Took some work but found 2 business savers DTW-FRA, then was able to connect a regional UA flight IAD-DTW and the last hop FRA-BUD. Not the most direct way, but they are happy to be using their miles.

VLtone

So to clarify - it sounds like I will have much better luck with figuring out the route and then just telling them what it is verbatim? Not to sound rude but why aren't they able to do that? Isn't that their job?

Adam1222

yes you will have to do some of your own legwork. as to whether it's their job, it's arguable. they are not personal travel agents. they are booking agents and generally only will offer what you ask for and what the computer shows them. some people pay others to arrange award travel for them, and you can find services by searching on this forum if you are unable to do the legwork specified above.

ORDnHKG

They are able to do that, but you have to tell them. I mean did you only ask them to check PHL/JFK/LGA to LUN in F/C class ? Did you tell them you don't mind making one or two or three stops ? Did you tell them to check for an entire week or even two weeks of dates ? or just one specific date ? or multiple airlines ?

Without any further instructions from you, most agents will just look for the shortest route and the least stops, as most people unlike us, they just want to get on a flight and get to the destination as fast as possible, they wouldn't care even if it is flying in Y, so the agents are trained to do that.

Also, some agents are more helpful than the others, so if you didn't get what you want, don't give up, hang up and call again. Sometimes you may not get a good agent not til you have called the 5th time, so you have to be patient and flexible, but the best advice is do your homework ahead.

mbece

Check other threads -this is the way to go when booking awards using DMs on *A carriers. It of course would be better if they agents were competent enough to so this own their own, but most of the time you have to spoon feed them your flights.

VLtone

Phew - scheduling a trip to remote Africa using miles is NOT easy to book and to get there on First class is basically impossible. Kind of frustrating considering I had always imagined that there would be enough carriers on *A to make this happen. I did manage to find 1 itinerary for 2 business class seats - going to hold onto that and see if I can't find anything better...

As of right now it's JFK > CAI > ADD > LUN all on business class - this is after doing a pretty massive amount of research on my end and also talking to 3 separate people at US Air.

Adam1222

Might be too late for this, but note that Brussels Airlines availability is often the best to Africa, and does *not* show up on United.com, though it does on ANA and Air Canada.

First Class is very difficult to get all the time, but particularly in your case for a few specific reasons. One, there are only two Star carriers you could fly that have First Class -- United and Lufthansa. Of those two, Lufthansa rarely releases First Class award space until 14 days before flights. United does not offer First on all of its transatlantic flights
For Business Class, there are more options, but it's late to be booking for peak summer travel.

You don't say what carriers you are on, but I'm assuming some combo of Egypt Air and Ethiopian. In that case, it might be worth keeping your eye on availability over the next month or so and paying a change fee if more direct and/or better airlines become available.

Good luck!

VLtone

That is pretty much correct. The only things that are coming up are typically routed through Egypt via Egypt Air. I can't seem to get anything which goes through Europe or Turkey.

I was thinking about calling back and just asking them for something very specific and seeing when it is actually available. I was thinking I would just say I want the JFK > ZRH > JNB for First Class on Swiss and just try and go through many different dates until it's available. Maybe do the same thing with Turkish.

I just want to do this with a First class cabin as it's for a honeymoon and hell, I earned the miles.

Adam1222

Congrats on the wedding!

Swiss First Class simply isn't available on Star Alliance bookings unfortunately. (At all) Turkish does not have any First Class anymore (It briefly did when leasing certain Jet Airways aircraft).

Alas, just calling and asking them to check routes will just waste everyone's time. If it's not available on ANA/Aeroplan, it is not going to be available to the US agents. (They have a hard enough time finding flights that *are* available, and there is some "phantom" availability online that does not exist in real life.)

VLtone

Thanks very much.

It sounds like going first class to Africa is impossible - unless there is something I haven't thought of. The "good ones" (Lufthansa, Swiss) seem to not offer it and the remainders seem to only have business. Why even list the mileage requirements if it's not possible?

If anyone else has some ideas - I'm all ears. Otherwise I'll take what I can get.

Adam1222

Yeah, airlines have been cutting back on their first class routes as people don't really pay a premium over business on a lot of routes. (Lufthansa just announced its getting rid of F on a number of routes.)

United does have First on some of its routes to Europe. It also has First on IAD-DOH/DXB, and you could connect to Ethiopian there. Unfortunately it does not offer First on IAH-LOS (Lagos).

A lot of people book business and then monitor Lufthansa availability, switching to First at the 14 day window.

VLtone

Pretty much what I'm planning at this point. Either that or just wait til March 31 and try to book through Oneworld. Don't think I can get to Lusaka through any of their carriers but that's a whole nother story.

VLtone

I think I'm going to try to switch up my strategy on the phone today and just see if I can just try and get to Zurich, Frankfurt, Brussels or Istanbul. If I can, then try to get to Johannesburg afterward.

If I could get through Zurich then I can take Swiss First (I know that Frankfurt won't allow F since it'll go through Lufthansa).

Haven't tried this yet and think it might work and allow me to fly a nice airline and connect to a city which is safe to walk around in.

Adam1222

Again, you cannot book Swiss First using US Airways miles. As of January 1, in fact, booking Swiss First awards has been restricted to elite members of Miles & More.

Since you didn't believe me last time, check out this blog post. http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...nd-hon-members