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That's what I'm afraid of. Apparently Japan Airlines is filing bankruptcy Tuesday. They are the major asian carrier on the oneworld alliance that includes BA and American Airlines. Rumor has it that Japan Air may leave oneworld and join Delta's international alliance. Meaning my plans to use the BA 100,000 miles for asian travel may be severely limited.
Cathay Pacific is still part of oneworld and they fly to a lot of places in Asia.
Jimnjana, we were able to sign up for the 50K+50K card by calling 888-593-5212. There is no working web link for the 50K+50K card, only the 30K card.
We were able to use BA points to purchase our Cathay Pacific FF flights at Xmas time without any problem. Also their fees are low, unlike BA.
__________________ I be a girl, he's a boy. Think I maybe FIRED since July 08. Mid 40s, no kidlets. Actually am totally clueless as to what is going on with DH.
We were able to use BA points to purchase our Cathay Pacific FF flights at Xmas time without any problem. Also their fees are low, unlike BA.
Good to hear about Cathay Pacific. I'll have to look more into where they fly for my BA points. From a quick read a while back at flyertalk forums they made it sound like JAL leaving the oneworld alliance would really hurt potential rewards flights in Asia.
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Please do not take anything I say or imply as legal advice or engineering advice directed to you. Anything I say is intended to be of a general informational nature. Contact your own attorney for legal advice and your own engineer for engineering work. Pardon the CYA and don't sue me please.
Well I would assume that it would become more difficult as there will be less seats available for flights to Asia. I know that on the West Coast Cathay goes out of both SFO & LAX to Hong Kong. From there you can connect to virtually anywhere in Asia.
__________________ I be a girl, he's a boy. Think I maybe FIRED since July 08. Mid 40s, no kidlets. Actually am totally clueless as to what is going on with DH.
Well I would assume that it would become more difficult as there will be less seats available for flights to Asia. I know that on the West Coast Cathay goes out of both SFO & LAX to Hong Kong. From there you can connect to virtually anywhere in Asia.
I just checked and had a really hard time finding round trip flights even to/from Hong Kong, Cathay's hub. And that was from JFK and LAX, not even my own home airport.
__________________
Please do not take anything I say or imply as legal advice or engineering advice directed to you. Anything I say is intended to be of a general informational nature. Contact your own attorney for legal advice and your own engineer for engineering work. Pardon the CYA and don't sue me please.
Hmm, there are a bunch of flights from LAX (my home airport) to HKG, or are you saying that you had trouble finding award tickets for that? In fact, I know people who are flying to HKG using Cathay next month.
I had an unnerving call with Chase about 10 mins back. I received my card in the mail and called to activate it, the CSR activated it and congratulated me on "30000 miles". I informed him that I should have been awarded 50K and he told me that offer ended Dec 11th. We went back and forth and eventually he said he wasn't sure I signed up for this card using the 50K web link around Jan 9th, when it was working so who knows! If I only get 30K, I'm canceling the card right away. We'll see what happens, I'm going to make my first purchase tomorrow.
Hmm, there are a bunch of flights from LAX (my home airport) to HKG, or are you saying that you had trouble finding award tickets for that? In fact, I know people who are flying to HKG using Cathay next month.
I had trouble finding reward tickets.
Seems like flights through American Airlines (using BA points) are fairly easy to get. No problem finding East Coast to Hawaii flights with just 1 short layover. Seem to recall AA flights to South America were similarly available.
__________________
Please do not take anything I say or imply as legal advice or engineering advice directed to you. Anything I say is intended to be of a general informational nature. Contact your own attorney for legal advice and your own engineer for engineering work. Pardon the CYA and don't sue me please.
One thing I have found with frequent flyer flights, is often it is the first leg that causes the problem. For example, when we lived in San Diego, if I tried to get a FF flight from SD to Australia on Qantas there would never be any availability. However, for those same days could always get availability on the LAX to Australia leg. Even though the flight from SD to LAX would have a Qantas flight number, it was a codeshare with American and they never seem to have availability on that leg.
Other thing I have found is it is often the class of travel. Normally I will find seats in economy or first but nothing in business.
Oddly enough, for us, we can find flights to Asia from West Coast but can never get flights we want to South America.
__________________ I be a girl, he's a boy. Think I maybe FIRED since July 08. Mid 40s, no kidlets. Actually am totally clueless as to what is going on with DH.
I have read about that strategy - that is, book a cheap domestic ticket to the Cathay/Qantas/other hub, then book the reward ticket from the hub to your ultimate destination.
__________________
Please do not take anything I say or imply as legal advice or engineering advice directed to you. Anything I say is intended to be of a general informational nature. Contact your own attorney for legal advice and your own engineer for engineering work. Pardon the CYA and don't sue me please.
I often found the first leg would be so inconvenient if you were able to get the FF booking. For example, Qantas would leave LAX at 11.30 p.m. but the FF flight would leave SD at 2.00 p.m. which is ridiculous as they would have flights going empty every hour.
If you do book your ticket separately make sure you leave plenty of room for the connection and try and do it on the same airline that your FF flight is with.
__________________ I be a girl, he's a boy. Think I maybe FIRED since July 08. Mid 40s, no kidlets. Actually am totally clueless as to what is going on with DH.
Hmm, there are a bunch of flights from LAX (my home airport) to HKG, or are you saying that you had trouble finding award tickets for that? In fact, I know people who are flying to HKG using Cathay next month.
I had an unnerving call with Chase about 10 mins back. I received my card in the mail and called to activate it, the CSR activated it and congratulated me on "30000 miles". I informed him that I should have been awarded 50K and he told me that offer ended Dec 11th. We went back and forth and eventually he said he wasn't sure I signed up for this card using the 50K web link around Jan 9th, when it was working so who knows! If I only get 30K, I'm canceling the card right away. We'll see what happens, I'm going to make my first purchase tomorrow.
Hmmm, when I called, I specifically asked for the 50/50 card and the guy said wait a second, and came back on the phone and said yes... that is correct and he also said it several times during the discussion. Hope I'm not in the same boat.
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JimnJana
Former DINKS now DRINKERS (Dual Retirement Income No Kids Early Retirees)
A tip for others looking at potential itineraries. I think one of the reasons I was having a hard time finding available flights using rewards points was that I was looking really far out (like September 2010) thinking availability would be best really far out. Apparently, just looking at some example cities, the availability around March-April seems to be the best (2-3 months out), then tapers off further out. I think it is something to do with them releasing more seats as the flight date gets closer, after they know how full the flights will really be during that time. Yield management. Hard to do accurately 9 months ahead of time. I had always heard it was easiest to book FF tickets way out, but that may not necessarily be true.
__________________
Please do not take anything I say or imply as legal advice or engineering advice directed to you. Anything I say is intended to be of a general informational nature. Contact your own attorney for legal advice and your own engineer for engineering work. Pardon the CYA and don't sue me please.
Hmmm, when I called, I specifically asked for the 50/50 card and the guy said wait a second, and came back on the phone and said yes... that is correct and he also said it several times during the discussion. Hope I'm not in the same boat.
Yeah, I'm not worried. It looks like it was just that one uninformed CSR since I got an introductory email from Chase with my name on it that said 50k miles will be deposited into my account.
BTW, I think you were stating earlier that you wanted to get a second card to get more miles? FYI, the terms of service of the card states that the 50K award is only for first time card holders.
Yeah, I'm not worried. It looks like it was just that one uninformed CSR since I got an introductory email from Chase with my name on it that said 50k miles will be deposited into my account.
BTW, I think you were stating earlier that you wanted to get a second card to get more miles? FYI, the terms of service of the card states that the 50K award is only for first time card holders.
Thanks. The more I thought about it, the more I figured I wouldn't bother with another one.
__________________
JimnJana
Former DINKS now DRINKERS (Dual Retirement Income No Kids Early Retirees)
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I signed up for this card using the 50K web link around Jan 9th, when it was working so who knows! If I only get 30K, I'm canceling the card right away. We'll see what happens, I'm going to make my first purchase tomorrow.
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