ANA (NH) Redemptions using VS Flying Club points - thread locked Sept 2022
Dec 9, 2019, 11:09 am
#811
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: IAD
Programs: Skyteam Gold - Hilton Diamond - Marriott Platinum - Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 42
How many miles did you end up using in total and how much in taxes for your round trip.
I'm looking to do the same April/May 2020 also.
Enjoy your trip.
I'm looking to do the same April/May 2020 also.
Enjoy your trip.
Dec 9, 2019, 11:36 am
#812
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
Yeah - I'm just gonna have to check and check and check
Dec 9, 2019, 12:41 pm
#813
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 14
It was 240,000 VS miles since ORD and IAH are considered Central/Eastern USA so 120,000 miles RT per person. Taxes and fees totalled $533.70. It was an amazing redemption value especially since right now through December amex has the 30% bonus on transfers to VS!
Dec 9, 2019, 4:28 pm
#814
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 790
Saw very limited F options out of JFK to NRT and vice versa, but they were there, on United.com for mid to late 2020. 4 days later - poof. Obviously the AMEX bonus effect.
Just a reminder to not wait, especially if you're solo traveling. ORD seemed to have more. Did not check IAD or West Coast.
Just a reminder to not wait, especially if you're solo traveling. ORD seemed to have more. Did not check IAD or West Coast.
Dec 9, 2019, 6:18 pm
#815
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: IAH
Programs: HH Diamond, Bonvoy something
Posts: 126
Cheers on the seats, but don't fret about the NRT lounge. While nice, it is nothing worth making an extra trip for. HND will have everything you need plus give you more time in the morning since you don't have to make as long a trek to NRT.
Dec 10, 2019, 7:30 am
#816
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: SoCal
Programs: UA Plat, National Exec Elite
Posts: 833
There is one day I'm eyeing (my preferred day, actually) where literally every US flight has 1 F seat. I already have a ticket on a non-preferred day.
If I seek 2 F seats, would you recommend just paying the $50x2 to change to the preferred date now but on separate flights, and keeping an eye on if a second single seat pops up (is that likely?), or just keeping the non-preferred date and keeping an eye on 2 seats to pop up on any of the flights?
The fact that all the flights have 1 seat is kinda annoying
If I seek 2 F seats, would you recommend just paying the $50x2 to change to the preferred date now but on separate flights, and keeping an eye on if a second single seat pops up (is that likely?), or just keeping the non-preferred date and keeping an eye on 2 seats to pop up on any of the flights?
The fact that all the flights have 1 seat is kinda annoying
Dec 10, 2019, 3:43 pm
#818
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
They keep filling up 1 seat at a time... all of these flights were available and we're not planning on coming back until 11/6/2020, which is 332 days from today - Virgin wouldn't hold the flights until the return flight was available for booking.
Dec 10, 2019, 6:09 pm
#819
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 335
Book a dummy return to lock in the outbound. Lots of discussion on this thread about how and why to do it.
Dec 11, 2019, 8:25 pm
#820
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
How long does it usually take ANA to show the reservation? I guess we need to pick the seats through ANA
Dec 11, 2019, 8:32 pm
#821
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 335
Congrats!
As soon as you receive an email confirmation from VS with e-ticket numbers, you should be able to go to ANA's site and select seats. (Note, as you can read elsewhere on flyertalk, ANA combines first and middle names, so you'll need to do the same to find your reservation.)
As soon as you receive an email confirmation from VS with e-ticket numbers, you should be able to go to ANA's site and select seats. (Note, as you can read elsewhere on flyertalk, ANA combines first and middle names, so you'll need to do the same to find your reservation.)
Dec 11, 2019, 8:36 pm
#822
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
Congrats!
As soon as you receive an email confirmation from VS with e-ticket numbers, you should be able to go to ANA's site and select seats. (Note, as you can read elsewhere on flyertalk, ANA combines first and middle names, so you'll need to do the same to find your reservation.)
As soon as you receive an email confirmation from VS with e-ticket numbers, you should be able to go to ANA's site and select seats. (Note, as you can read elsewhere on flyertalk, ANA combines first and middle names, so you'll need to do the same to find your reservation.)
Thanks so much for your help, you made this experience so less painful than it could've been!!
Dec 12, 2019, 8:52 am
#823
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Atlanta
Programs: DL PM, Hertz PC, HH Dia
Posts: 246
NRT lounge is worse than the Polaris lounge you can visit on the other end of the journey. It's a pretty standard business class lounge - there is a first class section but it's not special.
Dec 12, 2019, 11:49 pm
#824
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 101
TLDR - I was able to get the flight but the trip had to be a few days shorter. Even though it was about 5 days shorter than we wanted, the flight is part of the experience so 11 days is still good - I'll still be looking for open seats until we leave.
Here's my experience so far:
The booking process on the phone was half and half - the 331 days booking in advance is a huge disadvantage vs other partners, but the 110,000 from the WC cannot be beat. We used the 30% bonus transfer from Amex so it only cost us 170,000 MR points total. The phone service was excellent when we had agents who knew their stuff about ANA bookings, which were about 3 out of 6 calls; the ones that were not familiar with the ANA bookings really threw a curve ball to our plans. One had stated that all of 2020 ANA first class bookings were not "released" until January 5th, 2020, to which we were like "then... what about bookings for January 6th?" - the others simply could not find the bookings even though they were right in front of our faces as available on United's website.
Speaking of United's website - it's extremely inconsistent. The award seats simply show up and disappear - for example, when I would check LAX to TYO (for all Tokyo airports), it would not find any available bookings. However, when I put in LAX to HND or LAX to NRT, the bookings would show up - which made the already difficult searching even more difficult. The 30 day calendar is excellent (providing that your search parameters are correct), and while the search engine isn't the best, it's certainly not the worst. Other Star Alliance sites like Avianca has to be checked at 1 day increments.
Once we found a booking, we called up VS Flying Club and we got someone who definitely knew what they were doing - gave them the dates and flight numbers, and they found it with no problem. Moved the Amex points over which took literally 30 seconds (some blog sites claim 2 days but is not true - however, we signed up for VS Flying Club and linked it to our Amex accounts a while ago), called them back, and it was done instantly. Got my confirmation email, and all was good.
I'm hoping by our trip time the Centurion Lounge at LAX is open.
Here's my experience so far:
The booking process on the phone was half and half - the 331 days booking in advance is a huge disadvantage vs other partners, but the 110,000 from the WC cannot be beat. We used the 30% bonus transfer from Amex so it only cost us 170,000 MR points total. The phone service was excellent when we had agents who knew their stuff about ANA bookings, which were about 3 out of 6 calls; the ones that were not familiar with the ANA bookings really threw a curve ball to our plans. One had stated that all of 2020 ANA first class bookings were not "released" until January 5th, 2020, to which we were like "then... what about bookings for January 6th?" - the others simply could not find the bookings even though they were right in front of our faces as available on United's website.
Speaking of United's website - it's extremely inconsistent. The award seats simply show up and disappear - for example, when I would check LAX to TYO (for all Tokyo airports), it would not find any available bookings. However, when I put in LAX to HND or LAX to NRT, the bookings would show up - which made the already difficult searching even more difficult. The 30 day calendar is excellent (providing that your search parameters are correct), and while the search engine isn't the best, it's certainly not the worst. Other Star Alliance sites like Avianca has to be checked at 1 day increments.
Once we found a booking, we called up VS Flying Club and we got someone who definitely knew what they were doing - gave them the dates and flight numbers, and they found it with no problem. Moved the Amex points over which took literally 30 seconds (some blog sites claim 2 days but is not true - however, we signed up for VS Flying Club and linked it to our Amex accounts a while ago), called them back, and it was done instantly. Got my confirmation email, and all was good.
I'm hoping by our trip time the Centurion Lounge at LAX is open.
Dec 13, 2019, 12:24 pm
#825
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: LAX
Posts: 177
My recent experience
Transfer from AMEX was instant with 30% bonus miles. I transferred enough to cover for 4 round-trips LAX-TYO (totaling in 440,000 VS miles).
Picked up the phone and called VS Club. It was 3 am in Scotland and the rep was very friendly. No waiting time at all. I had all flights prepared from a search on United for 2 pax so the booking went swiftly although the payment process had some hick-ups...
First 220,000 points were redacted from my VS account and I was able to see that on the website while on the phone. So far so good. Then there were some issues with the payment using AMEX Platinum. I had to repeat my credit card info 3 times while the rep was trying process the payment. Eventually she was satisfied and gave me the ANA reference so I could select seats.
The day after I checked my AMEX statement online and saw 3 identical charges that were pending which was kind of expected (after another 2 days there was only one that went through). However, when checking the VS account all points were intact. It was like the booking never happened!
Wonder if the points were deducted but then returned automagically when the first payment didn't go through? Either way I'm considering these points as lost if they will (rightfully) be deducted again at some point in time. Anyone else with data points regarding "free" points bookings with VS?
Picked up the phone and called VS Club. It was 3 am in Scotland and the rep was very friendly. No waiting time at all. I had all flights prepared from a search on United for 2 pax so the booking went swiftly although the payment process had some hick-ups...
First 220,000 points were redacted from my VS account and I was able to see that on the website while on the phone. So far so good. Then there were some issues with the payment using AMEX Platinum. I had to repeat my credit card info 3 times while the rep was trying process the payment. Eventually she was satisfied and gave me the ANA reference so I could select seats.
The day after I checked my AMEX statement online and saw 3 identical charges that were pending which was kind of expected (after another 2 days there was only one that went through). However, when checking the VS account all points were intact. It was like the booking never happened!
Wonder if the points were deducted but then returned automagically when the first payment didn't go through? Either way I'm considering these points as lost if they will (rightfully) be deducted again at some point in time. Anyone else with data points regarding "free" points bookings with VS?