edta450

Hi,

Does US allow to book *A award with outbound F and return J(or any combination of different classes)?

TIA

lt1GM

Yes, but you have to pay the mileage of the highest class of service for the *entire* itinerary. In this case, you'd pay F miles all the way.

AZ Travels the World

Though, in this example, they will upgrade you to F class the other way, should seats open up between the time of ticketing and the first flight (assuming it's an available class-of-service). It doesn't happen automatically, though. You have to keep checking.

jonman21

I just booked a mixed class *A awards reservation through US Airways...

Economy Class from SFO->HKG on SQ, and Business Class from HKG->SFO via NRT on NH, and I wasn't charged business class for the entire itinerary.

I was charged 60,000 miles for the one-way business, and 30,000 miles for the one-way economy. 90,000 miles total.

I was told if I had chosen a economy class both-ways itinerary, I was told I'd be charged 60,000 miles total.

AZ Travels the World

That's good to know! ^

The situations I've had in the past involved a particular segment among multiple segments in one direction. For example, in your trip, on the return, the HKG-NRT might be available in business, but the NRT-SFO isn't. So, to get the first leg in business, you pay the higher mileage amount and hope that the second leg opens up so that you can be moved up.

However, as an example, if one were able to book First Class in one direction and Business in the other, and were happy with that, it's good to know that they adjust the mileage requirements accordingly. Thanks!

jonman21

Sure, glad to help!

Yeah, I see what you mean about the multiple classes in one direction and being charged the highest class.

kudzu

There have been postings here of the near impossibility of booking *A awards through US these days...what has your experience been like in securing these...was the telephone hold time long, agent helpful, etc?

Thanks.

jonman21

This was my first time booking a *A award through US Airways...and I learned how to do it from all the great people here on FlyerTalk! :-)

The key was MOST definitely the *A award search engine on ANA's website:
https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/p_per/sky_...SearchLogin.do
(You've gotta apply for a free Mileage Club membership to get a number and password)

That site is a freaking godsend. I found all the info I needed for the dates I needed to travel...and that really helped because I didn't need to ask the agent for any help in finding seats (which would've probably been a nightmare) -- all I needed the agent to do was book the reservation I found for me. I saw Economy seats available for the SQ flight but no business class seats....and then I saw Business class seats available for the return flight on NH if I stopped over in NRT.

Then, I called the US Airways DM Phone #.

The first agent I talked to said the *A reservation system was down, so call back in a few hours. Okay.

I called back a few hours later, hold times were reasonable. Maybe 5-10 minutes. I told the agent the itinerary I wanted to redeem miles for -- she surprisingly asked me, "wait, how do you know there's a business ticket available on NH from HKG->SFO via NRT?" because she originally assumed she was going to reserve SQ roundtrip on Economy for me. Hehe.

Anyway, I gave her my credit card and DM info, and she told me that the ticket would cost me 90,000 miles (60,000 for the business one-way and 30,000 for the economy one-way). She had the seats booked within 10 minutes and said I'd be delivered the paper tickets within a week. (This was last Tuesday, I got my paper tickets in the mail today).

The thing I had to watch out for was that the agent originally had the departure date mixed up...I wanted the 1:30am departing flight from SFO on early Fri morning, August 17th. Apparently when she entered 8/17 into the system, it interpreted that as meaning the Saturday morning August 18th flight. So she had to go back and re-enter the flight as leaving Thursday, August 16 in order to pick up the 8/17 flight. Weird.

Also, the agent told me that they were having problems with their reservation system the past week or so, so she recommended that I call each airline (SQ and NH) individually and make sure that they had my seats reserved.

I did that after I got off the phone with her, and both flights were confirmed on NH & SQ.

Pretty much a smooth experience, mostly thanks to the ANA site. Hope this helps!