ASK DOMINIC Email
dominic.lalk@
businesstravellerasia.com for advice on your travel queries
Our family of three has approximately 320,000 miles with Aegean Airlines (A3). We are based in New
Dominic
Sebastian Lalk has logged more than 2 million air miles in over 10 years of frequent travel and is ready to put his industry expertise at your disposal to answer your travel queries.
Zealand and want to spend the miles by flying business class return from Auckland (AKL) to Xi’an (XIY) for two weeks on or about March 1. Unfortunately, whenever I call
the Aegean redemption hotline in Greece, I am told that there is no availability in either X (economy redemption) class or I (business redemption) class. I have played around with the dates, but have always received the same frustrating ‘no’ for an answer. I have since decided to take matters into my own hands. Do you know of an easy-to-use method or tools to see availability on Air New Zealand and Air China in the X and I booking classes for specific flights and dates, please?
Richard Ball, Auckland
There are a few options out there that should be able to help you. To begin with, try
expertflyer.com. The website, conceived by travel professionals and airline enthusiasts, was designed to meet the needs of the frequent flyer, the airline loyalty programme "elite tier" passengers, professional travel managers, and the occasional air traveller looking for the best values.
Expertflyer.com lists all available
booking classes on a large number of airlines. It tells you exactly how many seats are available in each booking class, and also gives you info on how many award redemption seats are left. As such, when I checked, I could see award redemption availability for AKL to Shanghai (PVG) in March on ANZ and then onward to Xi’an on Air China. In fact, the website provides you with a third award option – premium economy – under redemption designator ‘A’. Another way to check upgrade or
redemption availability is through the member pages of select frequent flyer programmes. For instance, All Nippon Airways (ANA) has something dubbed the "ANA Tool" for frequent flyers. After successfully logging in, ANA Mileage Club members can search for award seat availability on most Star Alliance airlines as well as the likes of Virgin Atlantic and Qatar Airways. United Airlines provides a similar service for its MileagePlus members. However, you must have miles in your account before you can access the service. In your case, being an Aegean loyalist complicates things somewhat. I’m afraid you have no choice but to keep ringing the Miles & Bonus hotline to get your bookings confirmed. Do log on to
expertflyer.com first though, check award availability and if there is, be persistent. Good luck.
I am a Lufthansa Miles & More gold card holder based in Hong Kong and have travelled on Turkish Airlines
three to four times a year during the past two years because they offered much better fares than Lufthansa. I have read in your magazine
repeatedly that many passengers have had disappointing experiences flying with Turkish Airlines. Until recently, I was not one of them and in fact have often defended the airline when colleagues and friends spoke against it. Nevertheless, my patience with them is beginning to run out as well. On my last three flights with them
I was unable to reserve my seats in advance when I booked online. As a result, when I got to the airport all seats had been taken up and I was forced to cram into a middle seat. I get slightly claustrophobic in narrow environments, especially on lifts and planes, and think advance seat selection is without a doubt an area for improvement for Turkish Airlines. J.Tsang, Hong Kong
Funnily enough, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I, too, fly Turkish
quite regularly back to Europe and have always been rather satisfied with the overall experience. During my interactions with the airline I have learnt that Turkish only uploads seat maps three months prior to a flight’s departure. Turkish said the reason for that was that it frequently changes the aircraft type deployed on routes and, therefore, doesn’t want to take seat reservations it later might not be able to honour. As I’m sure you know, there’s no priority seat selection for Star Alliance gold status holders at Turkish Airlines. Therefore, as time-consuming as it may be, I advise you ring up the local Hong Kong office at +852 2861 3111 exactly three months ahead of your departure to secure the best seats in the house. I’ve never had any issues following that method.
34 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 Visit
www.businesstraveller.asia
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