LHR/MEL/Europe FF

no problems. Just curious the previous time did you ask if they had actual ticket number against the booking? R/L and seat is good, but I did that one time on SQ (booked through US) and when we had even ordered a special meal i finally asked about ticket numbers and they said 'no'! Then they advised me to call US pronto because SQ is supposed to be 'instant' ticketing for awards.

Fingers crossed for you this time but if you have not experienced OZ F then it is good. The only pity was that there was no special lanes for security at ICN for F (or J for that matter) and I was stuck in a queue for 30 mins. A plea to ground staff was unsuccessful because they couldn't understand what I was asking for (basically a walk through of security...)

jprudon

I've been unsuccessful 2 years before to find FF seats on flights in/out of Nairobi. I'm going during prime safari season to see the migration, so that is part of the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions or idea as I prepare to try again for a third year? Many thanks!

Air Rarotonga

There are may different flights to NBO with Star Alliance... i.ex.:

- ZRH LX NBO
- BRU SN NBO
- IST TK NBO
- CAI MS NBO
- JNB SA NBO

Most chances to Fly PHX - East Cost - Europe/S.Africa - NBO... But i guess you need to be flexible with dates to fly to NBO... good luck!

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

I can confirm this - friends of mine have just booked their second trip to NBO in the space of 18 months!!

First time they booked business class on Turkish outbound (ex China) and returning via brussels on SN and then Lufthansa.

This upcoming flight they have booked Swiss First both ways.

Recommendation for seats is to books as early as possible!!


ps I had the new voice recognition system yesterday!! It managed to get my reservation despite my accent. Although as it was a partner award I still had to give it all again to the res agent. Total call time was only 14 minutes... for a simple Asia point to point. But not bad!

eponymous_coward

Option 1:

Flight in C (90K+taxes)

SEA-ICN OZ C (overnight stop < 24H)
ICN-HKG TG C (destination)
HKG-BKK-FRA TG C (<24 H stop in BKK)
FRA-SEA LH C (<24 H stop in FRA)

Option 2 (120K+taxes):

Flight in F (longhaul segments, shorter ones in C or domestic F) (90K)

SEA-NRT-ICN UA F (overnight stop < 24H)
ICN-HKG TG C (destination)
HKG-BKK-FRA TG F (<24 H stop in BKK)
FRA-IAD LH F (<24 H stop in FRA)
IAD-ORD-SEA UA C/F (UA 763 C on IAD-ORD, dinnertime flight, UA 752 F on ORD-SEA)

Various data points I am mulling over:

The connections on the UA flights to NRT/ORD aren't impossible, but they are relatively short during wintertime (making me go "hmmm, do I really want to get stuck in a UA hub during irops and have to fight my way out?").

My last West Coast->NRT trip I did not sleep well in UA F, even with getting up stupid early to catch a flight to SFO, as a daytime flight. (I napped pretty soundly in LH F coming home on a daytime flight, though, and got a solid 6+ hours on an LX F overnight flight. I prefer night flights for getting sleep.)

I sat in the TG C seat on my BKK-DPS flight (same model/manufacturer as the OZ C seat on SEA-ICN). It seemed OK for what it was. Not sure how much napping I'd get in it, though (didn't try it out for that, since this was also a daytime flight).

I value US DM miles at 1.5 cents a mile or so, meaning that Option 2 has a imputed cost of ~$450 more or so than Option 1. That could buy substantial amounts of massages in Bangkok or scotch (instead of what I'd be served in the FCL).

And before you ask, no, NH or OZ F for the TPAC segment are not viable options, as far as I can tell. Changing after I buy the tickets might be possible, but will run $150+additional taxes (plus trying to get to SFO/LAX might be problematic). I did note some SEA-YVR-ICN options (sadly, no YVR-HKG, which I'd probably consider my preferred choice to get to HKG).

The short stops in ICN, BKK and FRA are a feature in my view, not a bug.

Thoughts?

Milano Suprano

Trying to book 4 J tickets the maximum days out (330+). Agent just told me that I must book entire trip at one time and can't book just the outbound and inbound in 2 weeks time when that day become available for awards.

Is this true?

I have never encountered it before on other carriers awards. Would make it quite tough to snag some premium cabin awards if that's the case.

utpharmdoc

It's true unfortunately. Too bad us does not allow one way awards like ua/co and AA...

Milano Suprano

AS for example only allows round trip awards as well, but when booking 330 days out they will book the one way now, then the return later when the return date is 330 days out.

Just seems ludicrous that I can't add the return when its available... Its still just round trip ticket.

Nicksta

But, I believe the trick is to book the return based on availability, have the award held, and wait for the desired seats to open up. Somehow, you have to perpetually re-confirm that the itinerary remains on hold, though.

Milano Suprano

Has anyone actually successfully been able to do this? Other ideas?

I've tried searching for this but haven't been able to find anything. I would have thought many of you would be trying to score the best seats 330 days out and have a work around?

4 J tix from west coast to Africa can be difficult, but its really gonna be a real challenge for me to get it with a decent routing if I'm going to have to book the entire thing at one time instead of piece by piece.

pschafer

What I do to "get around" this 330 day issue is book my outward bound trip at 330 days and put this itinerary on hold for a couple of days - then call back and book a "dummy" return and ticket the whole itinerary. Then when my desired return date opens up I cough up the $150 change fee and change the "dummy" return to my actual required date. I consider the $150 to be "insurance".

Also, not sure if you are aware that some airlines (even within *A) have booking windows greater than 330 days; however, as far as I have been able to ascertain US will let you book up to 336 days out (but these few days can help when looking for scarce award seats).

Examples of such airlines are: AC, NZ, CA. I use the Aeroplan site to search for such awards. It means of course that members of these airline programs get first look-in when booking awards solely on such airlines. Another factor is that not all airlines necessarily release awards on the edge of their booking window - there are various posts on this forum giving some insight into when various *A members are likely to release (additional) award seats - by experimentation I have found that AC and NZ (not sure about others) seem to follow these guidelines.

ghostboy

Called today and made the change back to OZ201, connecting to HKG on OZ723. Then onto BKK the following morning on TG601 in F. So I called Asiana, armed with my ticket number and airline record locator to get seat assignments. Scored 2K on the outbound, then they could not see my ICN-HKG leg, despite my itinerary from US Airways showing the flight as confirmed....grrrrrrr.......now back on the phone with US Air. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end!

AZ Travels the World

I've been through this repeatedly with US and OZ. In my case, if I waited 24 hours, the systems sync'd and the missing segments always showed up for OZ. Some people at US know this, most (naturally) don't.

Then, if you sign up for an Asiana account, you can do the seat assignments on their website (BUT, your name has to be exactly the same on both your account and your reservation, or the Asiana website will choke on it. It's a pretty temperamental beast.)

ghostboy

Thank you! After 53 mins on hold, I saw your response and hung up the phone. I'll see what tomorrow brings; perhaps save myself time (i.e. avoid calling US Air again), and sign up for an Asiana account.

Appreciate your advice; thanks again.

AZ Travels the World

You're welcome. Hopefully it will save you the pain and suffering.

My first couple of times, the US agents insisted that everything was confirmed, but OZ couldn't see a particular segment. So the US agents went through the process of completely reissuing the tickets (which, as you're probably experiencing, is a big deal for some agents).

After bouncing back and forth between US and OZ one OZ agent told me that, in reality, they did not have a ticket number for the itinerary anyway, that those always come later from US, so she suggested I wait a day or two and see if it straightens itself out.

It did. And it has on the occasions since. Let us know if it works out for you tomorrow. Good luck.