Wow, this is pretty cool.
Two people whom I much like and respect — Wendy Perrin (Perrin Post/Conde Nast Travel) and Steve Belkin (Competitours) — are teaming up to give away 2 business class award tickets to anywhere in the world.
To enter you just need to leave a comment over at Wendy’s blog with your best success story using miles or points, and the lesson you learned from it.
All this is a great way that Steve is promoting his Competitours, an amazing race-style trip/competition that sounds like lots of fun.
Planning ahead for bus. class trip to Thail., using mileage award from United on Star Alliance partners.
I booked a Jan. 2010 trip from LAX to Thail. in mid March ’09. I wanted to fly Thai Air (TG) or Singapore Air (SQ), since they seem to be #2 and #1 in the Asian market, in terms of inflight food & service. I was very fortunate in securing a bus. class seat on SQ to BKK, and return flt. on TG. The inflight service on both airlines was superb. TG has really improved their food & service inflight to compete with SQ’s fine reputation. Both airlines offered advance booking of entrees on your long flt. segments, via “book the cook,” online. And they both offered flat beds. Airline lounge access was included, and both bus. class lounges offered very good services, and excellent variety of food to enjoy.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to use airline miles from one airline to another airline alliance partner. But the key is to be flexible with your dates of travel, and try to book it 9-10 months ahead. I realize that it’s difficult to do that with tight work schedules; it can always be adjusted as you get closer to your dates of travel. Being flexible in accepting two different airlines within the alliance group helps you get the dates that you really prefer. Reading Conde Naste annual travel issue (where they rank airlines by class of service & 6 different factors) can help you find the two best airlines within a travel alliance.
I had booked a cruise down the Nile and wanted to use my miles to get me to Egypt. Several calls produced “nothing available” on the outbound within my time frame. However, half a dozen calls later, a very helpful agent suggested that I take the daytime flight from Washington Dulles to London, arriving so late that I had to overnight. Then, I had my choice of flights the next day (I was surprised that I didn’t have to take the first flight out the next day), which allowed me to take a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. That, although it necessitated another overnight, made it possible to fly on to Cairo the next morning. Overall, not the best itinerary and it took one extra day, but I got there in time.
What I learned was to keep trying. Keep calling. Keep a list of the names of the agents, so in case you get the same one again, you can simply say “excuse me” and move on. Keep asking for creative ideas from the agent. Sooner or later, you will hook up with an agent who sincerely wants to be helpful. Listen to the agent and ask lots of questions to help her help you. An award ticket is there for the persistent.