V-Flyer

On another forum, I've outlined the outcome, but I wanted to go into more detail here.

My wife and I got some juicy SFO-NRT-SFO tix in ANA F (220k VS miles and £350, all-in), which I put on hold for 48 hours.

Then the fun and games began: how to tag on our 18-month old as an infant-in-arms. Basically everything I've read online says it's not possible on a VS miles redemption. But I like a challenge!

1) The first VS agent tried to add our son to our PNR. Nope, it wasn't possible, as it just threw out the entire booking. The advice was to call ANA and add it on as a cash booking.

2) I called ANA, and sure enough the agent was happy to add on our son for a mere 10% of the adult cash basis fare. My mind had already started whirring when the agent said: "one thousand and four hundred... pounds." I thought a cash fare in ANA F return might be expensive, but not £14k expensive!

4) Right, I thought, in that case I'll give the little blighter his own seat in F! We've got the miles to burn, and it'll be way, way cheaper. Wrong! ANA has a blanket ban on under-twos having their own seat in all F cabins across the entire fleet. I don't blame them, to be honest! Imagine an all-infant F cabin!

5) So, back to VS I go, and to a new agent. It should be possible, the agent said, if we create an entirely separate booking with its own PNR. I didn't think an under-two could have their own 'floating' booking without an adult ticket. Again, I was wrong!

6) The agent confirms and holds the infant's booking under a separate PNR. Bingo! Instead of £1,400, it was £43 and 14k VS miles.

8) Now for the magic. When I as ready to pay the taxes/fees and deduct the miles for all three of us, the infant's PNR was merged into ours.

9) Result: one PNR, two adults, one infant-in-arms, all in ANA F, SFO-NRT-SFO; and 234k VS miles, and £393 poorer.

10) And one bonus point. Assuming you can find the availability, VS uses the same redemption policy for partner airlines as it does for itself. So if you're VS Gold, for example, you can change for free (plus any tax difference).

A fantastic result NYLON, well done for hanging in there and pushing forward trying different options. It definitely pays off.

Enjoy the flights

joeyc wrote:A fantastic result NYLON, well done for hanging in there and pushing forward trying different options. It definitely pays off.

Enjoy the flights

That's the truth, for sure. I get a sense some VS phone representatives love the challenge, and some get exasperated by it.

I understand both sides!

Thanks, joeyc!

Congrats, I'm jealous! I'm saving my miles for F redemption on ANA for the Olympics but I have a feeling there will be no availability. Please tell me I'm wrong!

ILikeSoton wrote:Congrats, I'm jealous! I'm saving my miles for F redemption on ANA for the Olympics but I have a feeling there will be no availability. Please tell me I'm wrong!

I reckon you'll be OK as long as you've got your miles ready, and start looking as soon as flights are released (i.e. about 11 months ahead of time), so I guess by August 2019.

You cannot redeem one-ways, so what I suggest you do is grab the first fares on dates which roughly work. Most likely this would involve an outbound which is good for you, and an inbound which might be slightly too early for you (as those tickets won't have been released yet). Then keep searching until, hopefully, your inbound comes up. Phone up VS and change the inbound date for £50 (or free, if you're VS Gold at that point).

The reason to do it this way is that if you keep waiting for the 'perfect' dates (i.e. the later inbound), you are likely to have lost your outbound availability.

And if your 'perfect' inbound doesn't come up, at least you've got a trip in the bag. And if you really don't want to go at all, just cancel outside of T-24 for a full refund of miles and taxes/charges, less £30 cancellation fee.

NYLON wrote:I reckon you'll be OK as long as you've got your miles ready, and start looking as soon as flights are released (i.e. about 11 months ahead of time), so I guess by August 2019.

Thanks for the info. I assume Expert Flyer is the best way to monitor availability? Was the United website also a resource?

ILikeSoton wrote:

NYLON wrote:I reckon you'll be OK as long as you've got your miles ready, and start looking as soon as flights are released (i.e. about 11 months ahead of time), so I guess by August 2019.

Thanks for the info. I assume Expert Flyer is the best way to monitor availability? Was the United website also a resource?

I find the United website perfectly fine, to be honest (and free). Pick your routing and say your dates are flexible; you can see two months at a time. You can then filter by Reward Saver space, which is the inventory VS has access to.

Great result, well done.

oldboy wrote:Great result, well done.

Thanks!

Managed to bag a one way F reward using 60k VS miles on ANA HND->LHR for early February. United website works well, as others have mentioned here. And only £125 for taxes / fees!

Currently sat in the Singapore Silver Kris first class lounge in T2. Have been able to bag LHR-HND-LHR in F with VS miles. Couple of points:

- the united website is very useful as others have stated
- originally I couldn't get a return to London, so booked J to CDG. By monitoring the united website, I have seen they release J and often F seats 10 days before the departure date. Being gold I was able to change the CDG flight to LHR for free
- the United first lounge appears to be no more. The signs have been taken down and their reception directed me to the Singapore lounge.