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A couple weeks ago I wrote about my unfortunate experience booking, then cancelling an Avianca LifeMiles award booking for 90k points on ANA First Class. I think the program offers some of the most competitive First Class redemptions in the market, not just to Asia, but also to Euroep. Hello, Lufthansa First. Battling some IT issues is worth it to me, and I thought I’d offer up my experience getting a ticket booked that wouldn’t show up on the website.
The itinerary I wanted:
- LAX-NRT-BKK
- LAX to NRT in ANA F
- NRT to BKK in Thai F
While both flights would show up when searching independent of one another, they wouldn’t pair up on the site. This took my inquiry to FlyterTalk where, ironically, the example listed as a workaround was my exact routing. It’s also worth noting that the pairing, and thus the routing, was available out of other US cities like Chicago, Houston, and Chicago. It was just LA, that for whatever reason, wouldn’t pair up on the site.
I submitted the following email along with screen caps of each segment available, the pairing unavailable, and my passport. One thing I’ll note is you need to give your country of residence as well as a phone number. We left these off the first email we sent and they requested it, which delayed ticketing. I also attached my DL number because that is the document that is listed on my account, if yours is your passport, that should suffice.
To support@lifemiles.com
Good day,
I have tried several times, over several days, but the following itinerary does not show on the website. LAX to NRT to BKK on….Please see the three attached screenshots I took just now. Please do the manual booking First Class class for 90,000 miles.
The availability is only 1 seat for this date in first class, so please process this request urgently before it is gone.
Los Angeles (LAX) – Bangkok (BKK)
Date of Travel
Ticketed in First Class please, arriving ( give the date )
Each flight number
LifeMiles Number:
First Name:
Last name:
Date of Birth: mm,dd ,yyyy
Gender:
Email: corresponds to your accountAttached is my passport:
- Number:
- Exp:
- Nationality:
Phone:
Country of Residence:
Driver License –
I mentioned that we had to submit with additional information. Once that information was submitted, we received the following email:
The booking was ticketed within 24 hours. However, I will stress this: You need to call in and pay for the taxes and fees. If your account is short the miles, you’ll be charged for the miles you’re short as well ( I’m assuming you could transfer them in as well) If you don’t do this within 48 hours, they ticket will be released.
It ended up being quite simple…now I just need another matching itinerary 🙂
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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