Author Topic: ANA redemption on United  (Read 85857 times)

Offline Mikeoracle

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ANA redemption on United
« on: October 15, 2009, 01:39:05 PM »
Since Continental will be joining *A in a week I was wondering if anyone worked out any new starwood redemptions to get to Israel on CO? Obviously transfering *wood-CO is not worth it because of the 2-1 rate but what about any other airlines in the *A program that you can transfer 1-1 and have a good chart and availability for redeeming on partner/*A airlines?

UA I know to stay away from because of their starnet blocking, what about any other partners?
   
I started with ANA (*wood to ANA is 1-1) and as far as I can tell you need to use 2 or more *A to redeem a *A award but their chart looks very good. They go according to the total mileage flown on the award trip i.e. JFK-TLV-JFK = 11,355 mi so you go to their chart and see that the 11,001~14,000mi range would be
60,000pts for Economy, (50,000 *wood)
90,000pts for Business, (75,000 *wood)
140,000pts for First  (115,000 *wood)
    The problem is that since you need to use 2 or more *A members on a *A award you cant just redeem on CO EWR-TLV-EWR non stop on business for 90,000pts or 75,000 *wood points, you would need to use CO + another *A airline. One option would be to use CO non stop one way and the other way use Swiss air with a stop?  Or maybe CO one way combined with US airways non stop to/from PHL on one of the legs (a little bit of a hassle to land at a different airport than departure)
Anyone else research this or have any info or comments on maximizing *A awards to TLV with CO esp utilizing *wood points?

(I hope I wasnt too confusing, I can clarify if anyone has any questions)
« Last Edit: September 11, 2014, 11:25:12 AM by jj1000 »

Online eli1571

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2009, 01:44:44 PM »
Y not just add an additional flight after ur tlv - jfk on another *a partner and just don't show up for it

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2009, 02:07:28 PM »
Y not just add an additional flight after ur tlv - jfk on another *a partner and just don't show up for it
+1.
EWR-PHL/IAD ought to do the trick.
Just make sure the additional flight is on a different day!
Also be sure to check how much their fuel surcharge is.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2009, 02:07:35 PM »
I thought of that- i.e. EWR-TLV-EWR-PHL first 2 legs on CO and last on US airways or something like that and just skipping the last segment but there is a rule that says;
"Routes cannot pass through the country or region of departure en route to another destination."
It sounds like this rule is to prevent this idea- if someone knows otherwise let us know.
the ANA webpage with all the rules and award charts are at;
http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/general/e/amc/reference/tokuten/teikeiair_1.html

Dan, there is also a rule;
No stopovers or ground transportation within the country of origin are permitted on international routes (itineraries that include 2 or more countries).
I think this also prevents your idea.
 

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2009, 02:44:32 PM »
I thought of that- i.e. EWR-TLV-EWR-PHL first 2 legs on CO and last on US airways or something like that and just skipping the last segment but there is a rule that says;
"Routes cannot pass through the country or region of departure en route to another destination."
It sounds like this rule is to prevent this idea- if someone knows otherwise let us know.
the ANA webpage with all the rules and award charts are at;
http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/general/e/amc/reference/tokuten/teikeiair_1.html

Dan, there is also a rule;
No stopovers or ground transportation within the country of origin are permitted on international routes (itineraries that include 2 or more countries).
I think this also prevents your idea.
 
Well at any rate you could fly
EWR-TLV on CO and then
TLV-PHL on US and
PHL-EWR on CO/US.
at the 60K/90K rate.

Still need to see what the fuel surcharge is to see if this method is better then transferring SPG to US or another *A carrier.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2009, 03:06:42 PM »
Doesnt that last PHL-EWR leg violate the rule i mentioned;
"Routes cannot pass through the country or region of departure en route to another destination."
or is this not considered passing through?

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2009, 03:15:53 PM »
Doesnt that last PHL-EWR leg violate the rule i mentioned;
"Routes cannot pass through the country or region of departure en route to another destination."
or is this not considered passing through?
Dunno, call and find out about that and the fuel surcharge and let us know!
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Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2009, 03:56:03 PM »
I will try to call once CO is officially part of the *A so I can get real info. If this works then I think we found one of the better ways to redeem starpoints to Israel on Business without having to deal with FB/KLM type hars to get awards.

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2009, 04:09:07 PM »
I will try to call once CO is officially part of the *A so I can get real info. If this works then I think we found one of the better ways to redeem starpoints to Israel on Business without having to deal with FB/KLM type hars to get awards.
You don't have to wait for that, just see if they let you fly PHL-TLV-PHL-ORD or how they recommend doing it and what the taxes are...
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2009, 07:19:22 PM »
+1.
Just make sure the additional flight is on a different day!
y is that ?

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2009, 12:49:31 PM »
Probably so you can get your luggage as opposed to having it forwarded to the final destination.

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2009, 05:59:58 PM »
Probably so you can get your luggage as opposed to having it forwarded to the final destination.
The truth is on an international flight it's not such a big deal as you have to clear customs...just be sure to be discreet as you snip off the checked luggage tag as you walk on by the airline employees...
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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2009, 03:14:50 PM »
just be sure to be discreet as you snip off the checked luggage tag as you walk on by the airline employees...
well they probably can't do anything about it once u've got ur luggage they can't force u onto the flight can they ?

Offline SuperFlyer

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2009, 03:38:39 PM »
Maybe not the best solution, but Air Canada can be used TLV-YTO.

PS: this rule that only family members are eligible for award tix, do they give a headache when booking?

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2009, 03:43:39 PM »
well they probably can't do anything about it once you've got your luggage they can't force u onto the flight can they ?

I'm not sure that I understand. Either you ask for a stopover of more then 12 hours, so they will offload your luggage, or you luggage will be forwarded immediately to the next aircraft and then, when they realize that you are not on board they will offload them (you might get in trouble doing so).

How do you take your luggage when it's supposed to move on to your next flight?

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #15 on: October 17, 2009, 05:38:42 PM »
Just look back at the previous posts from dan and mike......

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2009, 09:46:39 PM »
Update. After further research I learned the following;
The rule I posted about "having to use 2 or more *alliance members on an award itinerary" actually means that you can EVEN use 2 or more different *alliance members on an itinerary (as opposed to a partner award which you can only use 1 airline- partners or non *A members who ANA partners with like Virgin...).

Additionally I searched award availability on the famous ANA tool (search flyer talk for more info) and found that my calculations were correct and found RT EWR or JFK to TLV on Lufthansa for 60K in Economy and 90K in Business the same with US Air direct flight RT PHL-TLV. I called ANA and confirmed all of the above and I additionally confirmed that the above award is available from NYC-TLV on Swiss air, Turkish Air and Austrian air (basically all *alliance members that fly that route-not all airlines are searchable on their tool so I called to confirm) and will also be available on Continental on a direct flight once they join the *A next week.

As far as taxes and fees go, online it wouldnt give me a $ amount until booking- the ANA agent i spoke to also explained that they are determined at the time of booking, generally US airlines are cheaper with fees ranging between $80-$200  and non domestic airlines have higher fees and can go up to $400 range. These fees change with time and aren't confirmed until the award is being booked. A little bit of research on this seems to show that if you try checking a sample non award booking the breakdown of fees will tell you what part of the fare are the fees and they should be similar to what you would pay on an award itinerary (a good place to check would be on the ITA matrix website, the fares can be broken down to see the surcharges and fees- if you dont know what the ITA matrix is just google it). This info is not confirmed but seems to be in the ballpark range.

Their change/cancellation policy is as follows. Until the award is ticketed (24-48hrs after the award res is made) no fees to change or cancel. After ticketing changes can be made in schedule only (no changes to routing or airline) as long as travel is completed within a year of the booking without any fees. To cancel the ticket they will redeposit the miles into the account minus 3000 miles as a "fee".

I hope the above is helpful :-)

Offline Mikeoracle

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #17 on: December 16, 2009, 02:30:41 PM »
Update,
I called ANA recently to find out what the taxes and fees would be on an award booking on CO EWR-TLV RT and was told it is aprox $100. Not too bad at all compared to the European airlines.

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #18 on: December 16, 2009, 05:02:17 PM »
Maybe not the best solution, but Air Canada can be used TLV-YTO.

PS: this rule that only family members are eligible for award tix, do they give a headache when booking?

Still didn't get an answer.

Offline Dan

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Re: ANA redemption on Continental
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2009, 05:05:23 PM »
Still didn't get an answer.
Call and find out for yourself.
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