{"id":6543,"date":"2014-11-06T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/?p=6543"},"modified":"2024-06-19T07:22:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T11:22:47","slug":"gave-us-airways-1700-nothing-even-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/gave-us-airways-1700-nothing-even-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Hacking Lessons (How I Gave US Airways $1700 for Nothing, Not Even Flights)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You’d think that planning a trip with from South America to Australia\/New Zealand (just a wee little hop across the pacific ocean \u2013 in the same hemisphere and everything) with US Airways frequent flyer miles<\/a> three months in advance would have been easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t. In fact, it was impossible. <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what happened, and how you can learn from my (sordid) experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post was originally published in 2014. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content. <\/em>
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Rule #1: Use Miles for Long-Haul Flights in Business Class<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I discovered the virtues of frequent flyer miles in 2010 after capitalizing on a US Airways promotion that resulted in enough frequent flyer miles to fly long-haul around the world in business class. Since then, I’ve become something of a flight snob, ensuring that most if not all of my long-haul flights are in business class \u2013 for less than the price of equivalent economy tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was my plan this time around too (in fact, the original article I drafted on this topic was entitled \u201cHow I Saved Over $10,000 on Business Class Flights\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My plan was to fly from Peru<\/a> to Australia\/New Zealand for a two month reprise down under, a place I’ve been itching to revisit for the last few years since living there on and off from 2008-2010. The timing was perfect; I’d escape the worst of the rainy season in Peru and enjoy summer down under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had 60,000 US Airways frequent flyer miles from years gone by; not enough for the trip, but I knew that I could purchase the extra miles needed and still pay way less than I would to book the trip with cash \u2013 even in economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after two full weeks of award-booking tribulations, speaking to 15 different US Airways agents and eating up over 12 hours of talk time (not to mention the time I spent on hold, the dropped calls, and so on), I had to concede that my plan was flawed.<\/b>

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Rule #2: Get Help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I abhor booking flights \u2013 with miles or otherwise. The whole industry is shrouded in a veil of mystery that makes it overly difficult to find the right flights at the right prices when paying cash, and often to find any flights at all when paying with miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a smattering of miles across five different airline accounts, I didn’t even know where to begin in finding an itinerary that would ultimately deliver me from Peru to Australia\/New Zealand. Do I go open jaw? Or create a stopover? And how do I find flights with seats available?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I enlisted some help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Max Frankel of Max Points introduced himself to me with uncanny timing. (Lucky for me, and unlucky for him once we dug our teeth into my grandiose plans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received a free Flight Finder consultation from Max, but even taking into account the expense of using an award booking service, the savings (would have been) substantial.

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Rule #3: Book as Far in Advance as Possible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I would have thought that booking an awards ticket three months in advance was such stellar planning (and so unlike me) that it would be a cinch. Turns out that award seats for flights to Australia and New Zealand \u2013 in the height of their summer holidays<\/i> \u2013 fill up 11 months in advance. So any logical routing you could imagine was impossible. Max had to do some very fancy footwork using his magic flight comparison searching abilities to find an itinerary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why couldn’t I just call the airline and have them do the searching, you ask? Because most agents don’t have the creativity or patience to explore all <\/i>the options with their partner airlines, and their search engines are less superior to what Max Points and other award booking services can provide.

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Rule #4: Get Creative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eventually however, we found an itinerary that was going to work; it involved flying through Brazil and Doha enroute, and through Kuala Lumpur and Brazil on the way back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slightly out of the way? Yes. But I didn’t mind, because it created opportunities for some interesting layovers and a stopover in Brazil. In business class it’s far from a hardship, with not only the ability to catch some proper shut-eye on the luxurious flights, but also to wile away the hours between flights in the comforts of fancy airport lounges.

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Rule #5: Buy the Extra Miles You Need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, with these flights on hold and an assurance from the (6th<\/sup> thus far) US Airways agent I spoke to that the itinerary was valid, I took advantage of a US Airways promotion and spent $1,700 (after taxes) on the extra 60,000 miles required to book the trip. (To put this purchase into perspective, if I paid in cash I’d have spent over $2,400 for the flights in economy, and this purchase ensured I’d get there in business class \u2013 which would have cost $6,500-$12,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where things got really ugly.<\/i>

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Rule #6: Hang up and Call Again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After purchasing the miles, I gleefully called US Airways to ticket the itinerary we had on hold. \u201cNo can do,\u201d they said. The itinerary wasn’t valid, but they couldn’t exactly tell me why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I thanked them, hung up, and called back with the hopes of getting a different story from another agent (this is standard practice in frequent flyer mile circles). The next agent concurred that the itinerary wasn’t valid, but gave me a different reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next four agents gave me different reasons again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the excuses I got for the itinerary not being valid included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n