Often1

What are the terms & conditions of your ticket and fare bucket for your award class? Those will answer the knotty questions. Likely not a problem, but why not go to the source?

redtop43

This is a bit related to another thread I posted.

My wife travels to OTP every year. She usually leaves in early August and stays about 2-3 weeks. She has some flexibility in both directions. She is also flexible about routing. Mostly she flies RDU to a US gateway (in the past it's been PHL, JFK, DTW - obviously these have not all been *A trips), over the water to AMS, CDG, FRA or MUC, then to OTP.

Let's say I had 100K US miles and ample time to book. Is it reasonable to expect that I would be able to find a J ticket for her without onerous fees?

Also, does US permit stopovers? Would she be able to travel YYZ-CLT (stopover) CLT-OTP OTP-CLT (stopover) CLT-YYZ?

I have 90K points now, expect to get 10K more in the Grand Slam promotion, and would be happy to burn them on this particular redemption. I know I couldn't book it until at least September, and in practice until the Grand Slam points post, and that's fine.

rtb

I'm interested in the US Airways 100% bonus promo but have a few questions.
I'm planning on taking a trip from the states to Japan then to Europe and back home this August. If I buy 50,000 miles which ends up being 100,000 can I somehow use those miles for the airfare to Japan? Would they or can they be converted to other airline points? Don't even know if US Airways goes outside the US so if anyone has any other ideas please let me know. I apologize as i'm new to airline points. Thank you!

redtop43

I can't answer all your questions but I can answer a few.

1) Your points cannot be converted to other airlines without very signficant fees and/or degredation. You would lose probably 65-80% of their value if you tried to convert them.
2) You can use USAir points to book awards on Star Alliance carriers. You have to book through USAir, and availability will be limited of course. I don't know how many points you would need or what routes etc. you would find. But yes, under the right conditions, you could use USAir points to book flights on other Star Alliance airlines, including for example United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa.

PittDoc

As many on this forum would say, please read the first post. Then a few more. Try searching this thread for the three letter code of your desired destinations (enclose in single quotes like 'LHR' for London and 'NRT' for Tokyo) to find pertinent postings. In addition to the Star alliance (*A) airlines listed above, there are many Asia-based airlines in the Star Alliance. Plan months to a year ahead, be highly flexible on routes and dates and set aside some time for planning. One last rather radical tip, one that is rarely mentioned here, try CALLING US AIRWAYS - tell them what you are looking for. If you are flexible and plan far enough ahead they could save you hours on this uber-long thread.

eponymous_coward

You cannot arbitrarily choose what your destination and stopover are- your destination is your furthest point of travel (except for some cases where US may allow you a <24 hour transiting layover en-route where the transiting connection point is further away, on a published routing: for instance, FRA-BKK-HKG is allowed as a routing since *A publishes this as a legitimate routing for FRA-HKG on the *A website, even though this means you are transiting South Asia on a North Asia itinerary). ICN is over 2200 miles closer to YYZ than HKT is. HKT is your destination on that itinerary, ICN is a <24 hour transiting layover. Be prepared to pony up the mileage for a South Asia award.

Air Rarotonga

One stopover or one openjaw only per ticket.

More information on post #1 on this thread.

sddjd

Newbie with regard to Dividend rewards, and have a question regarding redeeming miles and the associated difficulty.

With regard to the 100% bonus promo, we're considering purchasing 50+50 each with the intent to redeem biz seats on LH, SFO/LAX-MUC (or Frankfurt) in the spring of 2013. Alternately, perhaps purchasing coach & upgrading w/Div miles. However, I'm wary of how likely this may be in practice.

In comparison, we could purchase AAdv miles (no similar bonus) to supplement our balance there and go that route, etc.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

bevoinva

You shouldn't have too much difficulty redeeming for business or coach class on LH.

The issue is with F seats. LH only releases F inventory within two weeks of departure.

Unless your travel plans are more than a year away, you can easily check to see if the award inventory is available before you invest in the mileage purchase. I have found the following link to be extremely useful in finding *A award availability.

http://www.awardtravelr.com

GaryZ

Excellent advice from bevoinva!

However, I still like ANA and other sites over awardtravelr.com (maybe just a personal thing, but now and then discrepancies between them).

benny248

I don't know about business class, but first class is very difficult. Lufthansa has restricted availability significantly, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is the US Airways often can't see availability even when AC, UA & NH all see LH availability.

While some on this board have claimed there is a technical problem, I feel we're going down the same road as United a few years ago with Starnet blocking. If US won't address the issue, I would avoid buying miles unless you have flights on hold already (or have been told by US that the flights are available). Who knows what they will block next?

thomwithanh

Coach? No problem.
Business? Possible with some advance planning.
First? Very difficult unless it's very close in to departure.

DCdeacon

As with all award travel, the more flexible you can be with your dates and routings, the easier you'll be successful.

thaidai

sweet route show avl on Ana sight cant book OZ flts?YYZ_MUC_CPH_HKT s/o HKT ICNICN_NRTAKL_NRT_FRA-YYZ

wheresmybagba

Upgradable coach fares are only those booked in the most expensive fare classes - seriously expensive - not a good option.