Messages

1

Credit Cards / Re: Credit Card Retention Bonuses

« on: July 20, 2012, 08:35:09 PM »

Yeah, I called about 5x about my card, but they'd only let me downgrade to the Sapphire. Since we don't have a Freedom, worked out perfectly! So easy to transfer points to my UR acct... and we still keep the same "usage" since we'll just make AUs on each other's accts

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Credit Cards / Re: Credit Card Retention Bonuses

« on: July 20, 2012, 08:19:47 PM »

Just hit ~1 year for wife and mine AOR, so called in for retention:

Citi AAdvantage Plat: was offered 3500 pts after $1000 spend, or +2 miles/dollar spend (for 3 mile/dollar net) for next 6 months, up to 10K pts max. Took the +2 miles offer, and just got another +2 miles/dollar on gas, groceries, groceries, restaurants until Oct, up to 2500 miles. That's 5 pts/dollar for those categories, ridiculous!! Also found out that I don't actually have to pay the annual fee since I'm a Citigold customer. Thought it was dead, but I just got charged $0 for annual fee.

Chase Sapphire Preferred x2: Nothing on mine, just paid the fee. Downgraded wife's to Freedom (other reps wouldn't let me, but one did!).

Amex PRG x2: 10K pts right away, 7.5K more after $1500 in 3 months. Practically pays for the fee, nice!

3

Up In The Air / Re: Award booking ticketed, but no record found?!

« on: May 22, 2012, 06:24:04 PM »

Thanks, seems like a frequent problem judging by the number of similar threads on Flyertalk -_- Been on the phone with United resolving the issue.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS confirm with partner airlines!

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Up In The Air / Award booking ticketed, but no record found?!

« on: May 22, 2012, 03:59:50 PM »

Hi all,

wanted to ask you all for advice what to do in my situation. Booked a SFO-JKT-HKG-SFO trip for my parents that went through a few date changes, but was finally ticketed and confirmed over the phone.

Parents went on the first leg of the trip alright (SFO to layover in NRT), but there, the next legs (NRT to JKT on Singapore) could not find them in the system. United had no record of any of the rest of the flights either. The parents are off in NRT figuring it out right now; I'm not sure how it was resolved... but I can see all the flights/legs on the United website correctly.

My question: what can I do here to ensure the subsequent legs won't be troubled, and what can I get from United to make up for this ridiculous amount of trouble?

Thanks for your help!

5

Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 16, 2012, 05:17:33 PM »

You're making a mistake. It seems there's only 1 spot and by using the 2BM you managed to trick the system (or the agent who overrode the system) into giving you another spot.

Ah, interesting. I assumed the search engine/results was at fault instead of thinking I "tricked" it into doing something special. Good to know!

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Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 16, 2012, 03:12:24 PM »

re: wolf & AJK, I'm not sure anymore what your guys' understanding of my issue is/was, so here's my summary and I'm out of this discussion.

Search one-way flight SFO-JKT for 2 pax  = only 2PM flight available
Search same flight....for 1 pax = 2PM and 10AM flight available
My question: does that mean (as it looks) that there's only 1 award space available on the 10AM?

so I 2BM'ed the 10AM flight, and I got 2 spaces.
Conclusion: seems like there's more availability than it looks at first glance.

Why is it that way? (I think this was Wolf's question). I have no idea. 2BM worked for me, so YMMV.

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Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 16, 2012, 01:13:38 PM »

Aha, not as simple as you implied it was. Interesting that the phone rep still put you on the flight if there was no inventory, though they definitely have the ability to override inventory if they feel like it.

Ah, sorry about the misunderstanding. I actually got all that I ticketed for online; I just happened to have to change one of the stopover flights because my parents asked for a change of date. Luckily, that flight was wide open (all green on the surrounding date/times too).  So, minus my mistake, the 2BM worked like a charm.

Except now...I'm going to have to start searching for 1 space at a time and second-guess myself 

8

Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 16, 2012, 01:05:17 PM »

Yup, both of them succeeded, and ticketed. Even changed a  flights on one of them because I clicked on the wrong date, and it was fixed on the phone.

Wolf was correct, actually. I searched for "2 travelers" and it didn't show all the available spaces that I saw when I searched for "1 traveler". Not sure why, but I did end up having to do 2BM and I got both spaces ok.

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Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 15, 2012, 02:55:35 AM »

Update, booked SFO-JKT-HKG-SFO on the CO website with 2BM. Works fine

10

Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 15, 2012, 12:56:38 AM »

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the Continental phone locator? I'm also looking around a lot, but can't seem to find the "fare class" option on the CO search results. Is it for the paid seats results?

Also, this ticket's for this June/July, so I'm not too worried about fees for a while.

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Up In The Air / Re: Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 15, 2012, 12:39:04 AM »

Oh interesting, I've never read about 2BM for award tix before! Will think about giving it a try... I guess worse come to worst, I can just change the tix for free on CO.

Yeah, I'm trying to do award bookings for my parents. They're planning on SFO-JKT-HKG-SFO, but their HKG-SFO legs will be on different dates. It would probably be best just to PUTPAC, but wanted to make sure what's possible before I call.

12

Up In The Air / Award space open for 1 traveler on search, but not two?

« on: January 14, 2012, 10:30:33 PM »

Hi all,

I'm looking to book tickets for 2 passengers on Continental. When I search for 1 traveler on the CO engine, it shows me some additional spaces I don't see when I search for 2 travelers. Do you happen to know if that's an accurate representation (only 1 space available on that flight) or would the agent be able to book two if I call in?

Thanks for the help!

13

Credit Cards / Re: Purchase anything on vente-privee get a $20 Amex Statement credit= free stuff!!!

« on: December 28, 2011, 12:11:45 PM »

Purchased on Saturday, all my main cards got the $20 credit... but my additional cardholders didn't.  Sent SM to Social Media and was told i'd have to wait 8 weeks before SMing again -_-

14

Up In The Air / Re: discount aeroplan tickets

« on: December 12, 2011, 12:32:33 PM »

Plug in your exact itin into ITA for a breakdown of the taxes.
Nice looking trip BTW.

Ah, always finding more and more uses for ITA. Thanks!

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Up In The Air / Re: discount aeroplan tickets

« on: December 12, 2011, 12:06:13 PM »

Just booked this morning, discount worked out fine.

SFO -> HKG (4 days) -> CNX, BKK -> SFO
For 75,000 miles and ~$200, multiplied by 2 for me and the wife

Anyone know how to read fare calculations?
14JUN12SFO UA ICN R0.00OZ HKG R0.00TG BKK Q4.23R0.00TG CNX
R0.00/-BKK UA TYO R0.00UA SFO R0.00NUC4.23 END ROE1.00
XT105.75YQ8.80BP32.60US2.50AY6.40OI22.60TS15.40HK5.00XA7.00XY
5.50YC13.10SW XF4.50SFO4.5