No more premium cabin awards in advance?
May 11, 2019, 11:49 pm
#31
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 712
I randomly checked TG premium seats via United and Avianca out of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for the remainder of this month. Available some but not every day for the next ten days, thereafter nothing, and nothing I could find in June. I also checked seats out of Milan and Rome - also some TG premium seats in the next few days, thereafter only Economy. Months later out also fruitless
May 12, 2019, 12:28 am
#32
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: TK E+, RJ S, AZ E
Posts: 1,869
No they didn’t. TG did.
Good for you. Most of us are not that lucky.
BTW you also get a superior product as a side effect.
May 12, 2019, 7:47 pm
#33
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Lifetime *G (MP), Lifetime PE (Bonvoy)
Posts: 1,465
As someone else posted, it's not the airline whose miles you are using but the airline you're flying with that determines the availability. Untied seems to have a significant problem with its reservations systems which for a couple of months couldn't connect with either TG or SQ redemptions and still can't connect with SQ redemptions. Europe redemptions are the same - I can't find a Europe/Australia J redemption that isn't with Air India (waste of points) or Air China (almost ditto) for one or more legs at any time of any month
May 14, 2019, 1:36 am
#35
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: WLG/BKK
Programs: TG*G, NZ*GE, QF G, Accor Gold
Posts: 10,207
Are you looking on THAI’s system to burn ROP miles, or are you after a partner redemption on TG?
May 15, 2019, 1:21 pm
#37
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Gold (prev. Ex Plat for 10 years); DL Plat; UA Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,339
I was able to book SYD-BKK in mid-July. Was searching for and found one seat in F. Availability was scarce, but there. J was a bit more plentiful but still scarce on dates I needed.
May 15, 2019, 2:09 pm
#38
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: TK E+, RJ S, AZ E
Posts: 1,869
May 16, 2019, 12:24 am
#39
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,461
May 21, 2019, 6:03 am
#41
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 2,866
The Death of Star Alliance Business & First Awards
I am burning up the last of my THAI miles. Many months ago booked from the US ANA first to NRT, then THAI first to BKK and THAI business to KTM & return. My traveling companion wants to return a few days earlier. There are some THAI business and Air China first options. Asiana first is now gone, United never has anything in saver in advance, ANA now has much less first and business to the US. I think credit cards bonuses have killed premium travel awards.
May 21, 2019, 9:32 am
#42
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,392
Airlines have also determined that selling a glass of lemonade for a million dollars because you only have to sell one (and then giving the rest of the lemonade away to people who use miles) isn't a particularly good model for making money in competitive markets when you make $0 from an empty seat, and very little from a mileage redemption (some costs or accounting expenses off the books). They have a better understanding of how to price F/J to sell it at market-clearing, profit-maximizing prices in an era of big data and analytics.
But yeah, it would be better if awards were reserved for MEEEEEEE. Just MEEEEEEE.
Anyways, I'm flying TATL J for well under 1k one way in less than 2 months. SQ TPAC J for $1400 one way this winter. At those prices mileage redemptions are marginal at best unless you have a very low valuation of miles to cash. My alternative to that SQ TPAC J ticket would have been burning 62,500 AS miles instead of earning 25,000 AS miles (so I'm spending less than 2 cents per mile for that ticket- and I can find 2 percent cashback cards). So I say go with the flow and find cheap J/F fares at times/places when the airline will cut you a deal.
But yeah, it would be better if awards were reserved for MEEEEEEE. Just MEEEEEEE.
Anyways, I'm flying TATL J for well under 1k one way in less than 2 months. SQ TPAC J for $1400 one way this winter. At those prices mileage redemptions are marginal at best unless you have a very low valuation of miles to cash. My alternative to that SQ TPAC J ticket would have been burning 62,500 AS miles instead of earning 25,000 AS miles (so I'm spending less than 2 cents per mile for that ticket- and I can find 2 percent cashback cards). So I say go with the flow and find cheap J/F fares at times/places when the airline will cut you a deal.
Last edited by eponymous_coward; May 21, 2019 at 9:39 am
May 26, 2019, 10:27 pm
#43
Join Date: Apr 2018
Programs: ANA & ROP
Posts: 13
I using ExpertFlyer looking for award for F in March 2020 from Tokyo to Europe for my wife and my son and found nothing. However, when use ROP search for March, I found quite a lot open spaces but you have to book by ROP miles.
Finally, I have booked 2 F tickets for Tokyo-BKK-LHR and return from CDG-BKK-Tokyo. This itinerary is cost 230,000 miles per person however if I am booking same itinerary from Oct 1, 2019, it will cost 480,000 miles per person!!!!
May 27, 2019, 11:16 pm
#44
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Bangkok
Programs: TG ROP Gold, SQ KF Gold, Marriott Ambassador Elite, Accor ALL Plat., Shangri-La Jade, GHA Plat.
Posts: 127
This is getting borderline ridiculous.
I'm trying to book an F ticket with my miles to any European destination offering F class.
I'm especially interested in BKK-CDG-BKK. Well guess what? Nothing opened AT ALL from next week onwards until the end of the year.
Same debacle to LHR
I'm not even bothering to check FRA...
Very clearly they want to discourage people from racking up cheaper award flights in F class before the miles devaluation coming on Oct 1st. Very disappointing.
EDIT: Actually I can see just a few dates to CDG... but not a lot. I'm assuming they only open 1 F class seat open for award redemption. Not a great deal. I'm thinking of just booking a round trip as a place holder right now before the crazy mile devaluation.
I'm trying to book an F ticket with my miles to any European destination offering F class.
I'm especially interested in BKK-CDG-BKK. Well guess what? Nothing opened AT ALL from next week onwards until the end of the year.
Same debacle to LHR
I'm not even bothering to check FRA...
Very clearly they want to discourage people from racking up cheaper award flights in F class before the miles devaluation coming on Oct 1st. Very disappointing.
EDIT: Actually I can see just a few dates to CDG... but not a lot. I'm assuming they only open 1 F class seat open for award redemption. Not a great deal. I'm thinking of just booking a round trip as a place holder right now before the crazy mile devaluation.
Last edited by Disinto; May 27, 2019 at 11:52 pm
May 29, 2019, 6:53 am
#45
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,228
The real issue for me is that I can't just risk it and book closer to the time. Most of my award trips using TG connect to other airlines. In the past, I could book a TG/OZ or TG/NH or TG/BR connection 10 months out. If I have to wait until 2 weeks before flying for the TG seats to open up, those OZ/NH/BR award seats are highly unlikely be available.