johnep1

I think the $50 processing fee is non-refundable.

If you wanted to improve the trip, you could change the routing for no fee. As for the 11 segments, I'd just tell anyone who questioned it that the booking agent said it was okay because that was the only way to get to your hometown.

thyeri

Lol.. no way!
The itinerary is illegal and it will be canceled as soon as an agent catches it!

johnep1

The FTer with that award had asked if they could just cancel and get their miles back for free since they're CP. I replied to that and also added that they could try to amend the booking instead of canceling it. If given any resistance, they can then say that the booking agent approved it because that was the only way to get it done.

I have booked many "illegal" US award tickets over the years, as have quite a few people here. I believe there have been instances where a rogue agent cancels an award because it's against the rules, but I think 99% of the time you're in the clear once the award is ticketed.

thyeri

Don't really agree here.
By "illegal routings" booked by lots of people here, we are talking of too many stopovers, backtracking, charged the wrong amount of miles...
But not an itinerary that involves 11 flight segments.

I have been following this thread for about 14 months and I don't recall anyone who ticketed an itinerary involving 11 flights. I still even can't understand how this itinerary could have been ticketed at the first place.

I understand it can be hard for US agents to understand the map of the world, but not to count the number of flight segments. It seems obvious that there are more than 8 segments...

pjs91015

As I said in the post, the agent called to get approval. We originally had me leaving out of MDT and back to SCE. She went to call someone and she came back and said that we could not do that because there was a stopover and you cannot have an open jaw and a stopover. She then said she was going to call and see if they will open up seats out of SCE. She got those seats. I would be surprised if when she was having these conversations that the others could not count either. I think that they gave me a break because they could not get any *A carriers into JFK easily.

travelpye

Thank you all on this thread! I was very happy to secure business class seats on Air NZ for our flights from LAX-AKL and back this summer! I had no knowledge about Star Alliance award bookings prior to finding flyer talk and this thread about one year ago. You guys have been a great help!

The observation: it appears that Air NZ is opening up 2 "I" seats exactly 4 months in advance on some AKL-LAX routes. I had been able to secure only coach on that portion when I booked our flights in September, so I kept a close eye on availability the last few weeks. During this time, I noticed that pattern was consistent. So, for example for a flight on the 25th, I noted seats became available around 8AM US ET time on the 24th, and for the 23rd, seats became available on the 22nd and so on. All this was 4 months out. I was looking in Feb. for June travel. (I was using expert flyer to check.)

If this pattern holds true, I hope knowing this can benefit someone else looking for this availability.

IMH

Thank you. That could turn out to be extremely useful information.

ghostboy

Good find - I just checked ExpertFlyer and 2 "I" seats showing AKL-LAX on 6/28 & 6/30.

eponymous_coward

Yeah, but SE Asian C > US F/Y. Plus the lounges you're chilling in between legs in SE Asia are better overall (save the Envoy lounge in PHL, which I hear is very nice- but I don't think they give full body massages ), plus the East Coast of the US tends to have ATC snafus that throw wrenches into travel plans more often than SE Asia would (and that would be my major concern- something going pear-shaped on those short domestic legs could make things quite messy).

sailrob81

Just booked in C: MEL-BKK-FRA-HEL // IST-SIN-MEL. Taxes $127 pp.

A simple booking but it is exactly what I wanted. The agent got bit caught up when I asked for all the booking references in addition to the USAirways one (TG, TK, SQ & LH) but in all about 45 mins which is pretty good.

pschafer

I was booking an award the other day (SYD-YVR-SYD) for 330 days out with any available routing. I got the leg SYD-ICN-YVR in C with no issues but there was NO availability in C for a dummy same day return (ie just holding something so I could change to my desired date when the booking window opened.

Now the agent on the phone offered to look around (ie not just use the flights I suggested) and she offered an AC flight (YVR-SYD) on a date which was more like 340 days out. I was totally surprised as, while AC allows bookings out to 355 days, US does not (cannot really). I did not take this flight as it was not my desired date but am now wondering if it would be possible to book an AC award for dates up to 355 days? (Other airlines also allow booking out to 355 days e.g. OZ and some One-World airlines, not that One-World is relevant to this thread). This of course would be a real leg-up for such airlines as their own members can grab these award seats many days before other *A members get a look-in.

goliath

Where does US state that they don't allow bookings (or can't make them) more than 330 days out on *A flights?

There are several airlines releasing their award seats more than 330 days out (NZ at 360 days, SQ at 354 days, LH at 360 days and LX at 340 days just to name a few). That these airlines release their seats at a given time doesn't necessarily mean that they only allow reservations on other carriers within the same timeframe.

I.e. LX releases their seats at 340 days out, but you can book an NZ award ticket 355 days out using LX (M&M) miles.

pschafer

Good point Goliath, I was making an assumption that US could not do this (book past 330 days on another *A airlines) as I have struck this issue using AA to book on QF.

Has anyone had success making such an award booking on US - if possible, it could really help snag those really hard to get awards.

Thanks.

Richey66

Is this ok routing?

SYD-BKK-FRA-HAM // FCO-NYC(stopover) // YVR-AKL-SYD
will buy separate tickets HAM-FCO and NYC-YVR

Surgee

no. its not ok. You don't have a stopover, you have 2 surface segments, which is not allowed.