Please allow me to share my excitement of spending FC miles to book my dad into F on an Air China (CA) return flight from Beijing! 
75k FC miles and c.£600 lighter (which I think is excellent value 
), with e-ticket in hand from VS, and seats booked with CA, I can finally relax. My dad is a man that enjoys working more than anything else, and it took quite some persuasion for him to join my mum and nan (who already booked revenue fares in Y) to visit me (and hubby) in a couple of months’ time, but for a shorter period so that he can get back to his work 
.
Booking CA rewards with FC miles has been something that I have been trying for a few months now; initially I wanted to get all three of them on that, but after too many phone calls with FC and then my family, my mum and nan decided to book themselves some tickets
. I’m really pleased to have pulled it off though, even if it’s only for one person this time 
. I wanted to share a few lessons learned from the process, in case it would be of help to any v-flyers.
1) You know this already, but the FC agents are terribly inconsistent, especially on something like this which they don’t see everyday. I’ve been told very different things on how to book partner airline flights by different agents, which at times have been confusing. Do make sure you try speaking to different people, and I always make sure I note down their name and extension should something turn out to be incorrect.
2) You can use your FC miles to book for others to travel. Despite what one agent told me, with CA you don’t need to be travelling yourself.
3) The VS website says the LON-PEK-LON route is the only route available. You are allowed to do this the other way round i.e. PEK-LON-PEK
4) VS staff don’t have a calendar of availabilities for partner awards, at least with CA; instead, you need to give them a date that you have in mind, and pax details, to enable them to “request” availability online. This is pretty instant these days, and only takes a few minutes before a response comes back.
5) CA reward fare classes are O for F (75k FC miles return plus taxes) and I for J (63k FC miles plus same taxes), and my understanding is that they are released far in advance, rather than closer to the date. I have basically not had much issues with finding availability in either F or J, for as many as 3 people. This could be because CA operates 2 return flights between LHR and PEK per day, the timing for all of these are decent.
6) The FC miles for each return journey will need to come from one single FC account, i.e. you cannot split the return and have two FC accounts pay for one sector each (which is the case for VS redemptions). I was misinformed on this 3 times, which resulted in OH transferring his Amex MR which later turned out to be a waste of time. I complained and received some FC miles though.
7) Once the request for availability comes back confirmed, FC agent calls the FC helpline to get the miles deducted (this was taken instantly from my FC account), and takes your payment for the taxes in GBP. A PNR for both CA and VS will be offered. From what I can tell this is the only time you will get the CA PNR, so it’s important to note it down then.
8) You get double the miles on the payment if you use a VS credit card. Also as the flight doesn’t originate from the UK, there’s no credit card fee to pay!
9) The poor chap in the VS ticketing office
then send you the e-ticket. It was promised to be within 24 hours, but in my case (to my surprise and relief) it came within 5-6 hours .
10) I made sure that a call was made to CA to confirm the ticket and reserve seats. As the ticket won’t be purchased via airchina.com, you cannot actually reserve seat or view your reservation on their website. I have read some issues with these reward tickets booked via partner airlines (namely United) so a phone call put my mind at rest.
That’s it! I hope it could help someone one day. I had great trouble finding out more about these (other than the odd post on FT), and am really glad that it’s finally worked out ok. From what I can tell the F is a decent product, albeit clearly not worth the £6k price it demands.
Now, any tips on where to take visiting friends and family to in the UK?
My parents have been once already, and seen some of London, Cardiff, and Pembrokeshire. They like natural beauty more than museums/cultural stuff, so my current thinking is Edinburgh followed by the Highlands, and maybe the lake district, followed by some casual strolls in the Surrey hills (we live in Surrey).
75k FC miles and c.£600 lighter (which I think is excellent value ), with e-ticket in hand from VS, and seats booked with CA, I can finally relax. My dad is a man that enjoys working more than anything else, and it took quite some persuasion for him to join my mum and nan (who already booked revenue fares in Y) to visit me (and hubby) in a couple of months’ time, but for a shorter period so that he can get back to his work . Booking CA rewards with FC miles has been something that I have been trying for a few months now; initially I wanted to get all three of them on that, but after too many phone calls with FC and then my family, my mum and nan decided to book themselves some tickets
. I’m really pleased to have pulled it off though, even if it’s only for one person this time . I wanted to share a few lessons learned from the process, in case it would be of help to any v-flyers. 1) You know this already, but the FC agents are terribly inconsistent, especially on something like this which they don’t see everyday. I’ve been told very different things on how to book partner airline flights by different agents, which at times have been confusing. Do make sure you try speaking to different people, and I always make sure I note down their name and extension should something turn out to be incorrect.
2) You can use your FC miles to book for others to travel. Despite what one agent told me, with CA you don’t need to be travelling yourself.
3) The VS website says the LON-PEK-LON route is the only route available. You are allowed to do this the other way round i.e. PEK-LON-PEK
4) VS staff don’t have a calendar of availabilities for partner awards, at least with CA; instead, you need to give them a date that you have in mind, and pax details, to enable them to “request” availability online. This is pretty instant these days, and only takes a few minutes before a response comes back.
5) CA reward fare classes are O for F (75k FC miles return plus taxes) and I for J (63k FC miles plus same taxes), and my understanding is that they are released far in advance, rather than closer to the date. I have basically not had much issues with finding availability in either F or J, for as many as 3 people. This could be because CA operates 2 return flights between LHR and PEK per day, the timing for all of these are decent.
6) The FC miles for each return journey will need to come from one single FC account, i.e. you cannot split the return and have two FC accounts pay for one sector each (which is the case for VS redemptions). I was misinformed on this 3 times, which resulted in OH transferring his Amex MR which later turned out to be a waste of time. I complained and received some FC miles though.
7) Once the request for availability comes back confirmed, FC agent calls the FC helpline to get the miles deducted (this was taken instantly from my FC account), and takes your payment for the taxes in GBP. A PNR for both CA and VS will be offered. From what I can tell this is the only time you will get the CA PNR, so it’s important to note it down then.
8) You get double the miles on the payment if you use a VS credit card. Also as the flight doesn’t originate from the UK, there’s no credit card fee to pay!
9) The poor chap in the VS ticketing office
then send you the e-ticket. It was promised to be within 24 hours, but in my case (to my surprise and relief) it came within 5-6 hours . 10) I made sure that a call was made to CA to confirm the ticket and reserve seats. As the ticket won’t be purchased via airchina.com, you cannot actually reserve seat or view your reservation on their website. I have read some issues with these reward tickets booked via partner airlines (namely United) so a phone call put my mind at rest.
That’s it! I hope it could help someone one day. I had great trouble finding out more about these (other than the odd post on FT), and am really glad that it’s finally worked out ok. From what I can tell the F is a decent product, albeit clearly not worth the £6k price it demands.
Now, any tips on where to take visiting friends and family to in the UK?
My parents have been once already, and seen some of London, Cardiff, and Pembrokeshire. They like natural beauty more than museums/cultural stuff, so my current thinking is Edinburgh followed by the Highlands, and maybe the lake district, followed by some casual strolls in the Surrey hills (we live in Surrey).
