Red259

I'm trying to book an award on NH with layover in Tokyo flying F from SE asia (well J for the SE asia to Tokyo portion) back to NY. I read somewhere that its better to do two totally separate tickets to minimize the taxes. Is there any truth to this? Is there any benefit to booking the two flights at the same time?

blitzen

Hi,

i just booked JFK-HND round trip on ANA. It looks as if on our trip we will end up in Okinawa at the end.
- could I change this to an open jaw ticket JFK-HND and back Okinawa-JFK?
- would I call Virgin Atlantic or ANA?

thanks,
Marc

merridius

- not sure, but people have done open jaws before if you read some of the posts on this thread.
- VS

ssg10

Hi,

I heard about 120k RT for ANA LAX-TYO F class using Virgin Atlantic points.

- If I book for a trip, what is the charge for changes of any trip dates? How long is the ticket good for?

I came from AA system, which award ticket is good for 1 year after issuance and no charges to change dates. How about VA?

- Also, how is the availability these days? Looking for trip around august to september time frame.

- Is using ANA website enough to look for availability?

craigthemif

Read the thread on partner rewards. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgi...vs-points.html

If by some miracle you get reward seats in ANA F, you are not going to want to change dates.

I don't mean to be harsh, but if you come to VS Flying Club thinking in terms of easy, flexible, sensible, etc. when dealing with partners, you are going to be disappointed.

ssg10

Thanks for the hint. That is pretty discouraging But, thanks for the heads-up.
I assume it is near impossible to book for ANA F via VA, then?
Then, I would rather not waste my time.

craigthemif

People have reported that ANA can occasionally be booked. (unlike SQ and some other partners)

But as I understand it, VS has no direct access to partner inventory. Sometimes an agent might get on the phone to the partner airline and confirm something relatively easily. Other times they simply send an e-mail to the partner airline and promise to call you back within 48 hours. You also can't book a partner within 7 days of departure, which means no access to any last-minute award seats opening up.

There are also no award holds, so you have to commit to converting a big pile of credit card points without any assurance that you can still get the flights you want.

Flying Club works when you want to fly on Virgin Atlantic. For everything else, you need to be a dedicated travel hacker with lots of patience and perseverance - and you wouldn't dream of changing a partner reward once you managed to get one.

blitzen

Use united to look for saver award availability and if that is available call Virgin. Worked for me but I called a couple weeks back when the inventory was just released (aka next March/April)

ssg10

Can we book ANA F class from north america to oceania via asia stopover with VS mileage? I notice ANA itself allows stopovers from North America to Oceania via Asia, which is crazy deal, I think. (using ANA mileage)

SilverChris

I thought the current pricing scheme is on a per-segment basis? In other words, stopovers don't matter now as they're basically just two one-ways?

ssg10

Thanks. So VS is per segment RT basis? If I want to use VS mileage to book ANA F class from LAX-HND/NRT-CGK, then it would cost me 2 award bookings?

Thanks for any clarificiation

ssg10

I just checked United.com and it has some ANA F availability for August-September 2017 time frame. Is this bookable via VS?

tonykline1947

It's easily booked as long as UA search shows availability. I booked 2 round trips in F. The problem is that VS agents have very poor training when it comes to booking partner awards. Be prepared to HUCA, get NH locator and verify on NH side.

Despite all the headaches it's still a great deal for 93k Amex MRs.

s0ssos

Just booked today, much easier. Maybe I got lucky with an agent (she said she made 4 NH bookings recently), 17 min 40 seconds total, and I was on hold for at least 5 minutes before.
Immediately booked, she also gave me the NH confirmation number.

s0ssos

May be hard, as there is no F to Oceania.