BEST WAY TO SPEND MILES

Hello all - Between hubby and I we have 450,000 miles and want to fly to Auckland via Shangai, probably Upper with VA and then Business with ANZ. So many options to spend the miles.... If I go all the way Upper/Business using miles, I have to pay around £1,000 in taxes. So, as a general rule of thumb, which option is the best value for miles, ie
100% miles, then pay the taxes OR
Purchase a seat in PE, then use miles to upgrade to Upper OR
Purchase an E seat and upgrade to Upper OR
Use Miles plus Money
So many options??
Many thanks
Sandy

Most people here would say either upgrading S (PE) or M (Economy) fares to G (UC) will provide the most cash equivalent value per mile.

However, you have nearly half a million miles, which VS could devalue at any point (by, for example, increasing the number of miles you need to redeem for a particular sector). So buying the entire trip in miles would be a good hedge against that. And you have the miles to burn!

I'd avoid 'Miles plus Money' altogether.

The real issue, though, is that you're going to run into trouble trying to redeem your VS miles on ANZ, especially on that route, and especially in any cabin other than economy. Give FC a call and see what they say, but my guess is they will not find any availability on ANZ.

Good luck and report back!

Hi

Forgive me for being potentially a wet blanket here, but the sentence with 'ANZ' 'Business' and 'reward' doesn't compute. I spent several months trying any date possible to get ANZ reward seats in Business, and failed - and I've managed First class redemptions in Malaysian, Singapore (before they changed the rules) and ANA

I also know other V-Flyers have also been disappointed that theoretically you can get ANZ business rewards but can't in practice...

Peter

Hi Folks - many thanks for your reply. We wish to fly on 4 - 26 Feb next year and I spoke to Virgin yesterday and asked when I could book these flights with miles. They stated this Thursday to which I replied, so if I phone at 5 minutes past midnight on Thursday, I should be able to grab an Upper with VA and Business with ANZ and the answer was Yes...... so standby and I will report back..

Sandy

Hi Folks - many thanks for your reply. We wish to fly on 4 - 26 Feb next year and I spoke to Virgin yesterday and asked when I could book these flights with miles. They stated this Thursday to which I replied, so if I phone at 5 minutes past midnight on Thursday, I should be able to grab an Upper with VA and Business with ANZ and the answer was Yes...... so standby and I will report back..

Getting a miles booking with ANZ? In business class? Have we seen the hens teeth?

Or is that just on the ANZ LHR to LAX route?

...so if I phone at 5 minutes past midnight on Thursday, I should be able to grab an Upper with VA and Business with ANZ and the answer was Yes......

Sandy

Absolutely, yes, you should be able to book those flights, according to the rules, but my guess is that when you call up there will not be any VS reward availability on ANZ.

Nothing would make me happier than to be proven wrong, though! So: fingers crossed and good luck to you! I look forward to finding out what happens...

By the way, I think VS also has it wrong with the dates: isn't airline inventory only released for purchase 330 days in advance (i.e. not quite 11 calendar months)?

For example, today you'd only be able to book travel up to 15 February, 2016. To book your flight on the 26 February, 2016, you'd need to call up VS on (or after) 1 April this year.

There's also nothing stopping you checking right now if there is VS UC, or ANZ Business reward availability on your outward leg (4 Feb, 2016).

Another good luck on the NZ J award seats from me. Like Peter I think I gave VS ( several times) about a calendar year of dates to play with and they came back with nothing ( and not just LAX -AKL either) .

DL

SandyT

This is one of the best things about being a V-Flyer - the sharing of information. I'd be delighted if you do get your ANZ business class seats - they're a great airline and I like their business cabin - great wine selection also

Let's wait until Thursday.

Peter

PS - and to answer NYLON not all airline are on a 330 day cycle - I've found some are 336. The website Boarding Area says
"American can access schedules 331 days prior to travel. Their partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas all load schedules 350 – 360 days out"

PS - and to answer NYLON not all airline are on a 330 day cycle - I've found some are 336. The website Boarding Area says
"American can access schedules 331 days prior to travel. Their partners British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas all load schedules 350 – 360 days out"

Ah, good to know, thanks!

SandyT should be able to get a sense of availability on VS and NZ for the outbound sectors already then.

Isn't Virgin 336 days? I'm sure I've seen that number on their website when talking about reserving seats.

abraxias

It could well be - with Virgin I start looking about a week before I think I can book, and calculate it from that

Peter

Hey

It's Thursday! - what did Virgin say? - Did you manage to get any ANZ business seats?

Peter

Apparently still too early - trying later today, the chap seemed hopeful......
Will report back tomorrow

But it's not too early to know about the outbound sectors. They should be able to tell you now the availability for your 4 Feb flights.

Blood, sweat and tears, mostly the latter. You folks are correct in stating that trying to get a business class seat with ANZ with miles is like hens teeth. I have phoned Flying Club every day for the last 16 days (interesting each agent tells a different story). Anyways, they have to put through a miles seat request to ANZ and the majority of the time, the request comes back as "unconfirmed" which means no. However, occasionally over the last couple of weeks the request comes back "pending", so we all get excited only to be told when I phone back later that day, that it is now "unconfirmed". Honestly!!!!! So I have given up on this, as my life is worth much more. So just to remind you all that I was trying to go LHR - PVG (PE with money on Virgin), then PVG-AKL (Business Class with miles on ANZ). Any 21-25 days in February 2016, so my dates are very flexible.

So different tactics now, which I honestly thought would be a lot easier..... How wrong was I?? LHR - PVG (UC with miles on Virgin), then PVG - AKL (PE with money on ANZ). For some reason the UC miles seats to Shanghai have not been released yet (Jan and Mar have been released, but not Feb) - but no-one can tell me why????? "Just keep checking the website", they say.
I clearly was naïve to think that as I had saved my miles for 18 months for my dream trip, that finding a seat on a virgin plane would be so damn difficult..... I will keep trying though.
Sandy

Sandy

I'm disappointed for you - and myself, because if you'd succeeded (and I hoped you would) then I'd be after seats on ANZ myself. Good news is that PE on ANZ is really nice - no doubt you've looked at the website - and the selection of NZ wines is the same as business.

I;m not an expert, but Chinese New year is in Feb - but it's not a whole month - anyone else got any ideas?

Peter

For some reason the UC miles seats to Shanghai have not been released yet (Jan and Mar have been released, but not Feb) - but no-one can tell me why????? "Just keep checking the website", they say.

Hi Sandy. Usually it's not difficult to redeem miles on the LHR > PVG route, but February is Chinese New Year, and I think they might be withholding reward tickets in anticipation of this. However, another v-flyer who frequently flies to/from PVG said there's a good chance they may release rewards seats for February at some point. We're also considering travelling via that route in February so I'm keeping an eye on it.

Sorry about the ANA redemptions being such a frustration. I saw someone over on flyertalk mention that after no joy with trying to get ANA rewards through UK FC, they called FC in HKG and they were able to secure seats for them. Perhaps something to consider if your PVG tickets become available?

[honey lamb]

At last my flights are booked. I spent two hours on the phone with a great chap from Flying Club. We searched on all ANZ business class flights to AKL from Shanghai, Hong Kong, LAX and SFO for all days in February 2016 and everyone came up unconfirmed. So we gave up, but he had an idea!!! So I have now booked Business Class from KUL to AKL with Malaysia Airlines using my Virgin Miles, so am now looking at booking PE seats on BA from LHR to KUL. We got there in the end, but not flying with Virgin strangely!!

At least you got it all sorted in the end, now sit back and look forward to your trip.
Always worth remembering collecting miles is akin to a carrot on the end of a stick and doesn't always work in the customers favor - that's why its so worthwhile seeking information from this forum, so many knowledgeable people on here - someone usually has the answer or an alternative idea for you.

Alas, the saga does not end there... I have an E ticket in my hand confirming my Malaysian Airlines flight and booked my connecting flights accordingly. All was fine, until I phoned up Malaysian Airlines to book my seat and was told today that I have no reservation!!! Virgin Airlines somehow forgot to book my reservation, they just issued me a ticket - you couldn't make it up. So, we are now starting again and they have to request a "miles" seat from Malaysian Airlines and we all have to wait 24 hours to see what happens. - The roundabout starts again......................

Oh dear, that's very bad, is there something odd going on?

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