Two point Five days in Melbourne

part 2

How I found the airfare to get me to Melbourne for a feeding frenzy

This is the usual starting point for me - search the airlines direct to see whats on offer then of to Orbitz to see what they come up with and then Skyscanner is next inline. Skyscanner seems to find fares sometimes that Orbitz cannot. 

Well it worked skyscanner found the same fares as the airlines were offering but at a cheaper price. You cannot book on skyscanner they are a travel search engine. The deal they found was through BYOJET. I had not used them before but the who process worked and the E-Ticket arrived promptly with booking references for both airlines. So you can then go to the airlines website to select seat etc. The Virgin fare type was not upgradable but the Qantas fare was.

It's easy to check by going to these pages and entering your details

Virgin : http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/specials-offers/upgrademe/premium-bid/

Qantas : http://www.qantas.com/travel/airlines/upgrade/global/en

You can go onto Qantas website and request an upgrade using points only well in advance but I find the amount of point required is a little high and not the best use of the points. My sector was CNS-MEL and it would have cost 20,000 points. I decided to wait and see if I got the invitation email to bid for an upgrade, which is a $ value + amount of points.

Indeed I got the email and I put a bid in. The minimum points was 4,000 so I left it as that, the starting $ value was $210. I put a bid in at $215 and the bid was accepted. 

I value my points/miles at A$15 per 1,000 and that's how I work the numbers for my cost value analysis.

This made the whole Two point Five days end rather nicely...

Insideflyer have done a deal with LifeMiles

BUY LIFEMILES AND RECEIVE A 150% BONUS

How will it work out with the Australian Dollar the way it is?

LifeMiles are bought in US dollars so it does hurt with the conversion right now.

From lifemiles & Insideflyer sites the buy price is US$38.94 per 1000 netting you 2500 miles (there is a minimum purchase amount of 100,000 miles or US$3894.00 approx AU$5525.00) 

A few things to take note of if you are interested:

#1 - Only registered InsideFlyer members are eligible. So signup now

#2 - You must purchase between 100,000 & 150,000 LifeMiles.

#3 - You have from now until Tues Oct 6, 2015 to register for this launch promotion on InsideFlyer

#4 - You must be a registered member of LifeMiles by Tues Oct 6 to be eligible.

#5 - You will be able to buy LifeMiles thru Mon Oct 12  (there are restrictions)

There are other terms and conditions on Lifemiles (*I have included the link below) which make it a little confusing as to the time limitations on purchasing. 

I will update when I have access to the deal:

YES IT WORKS AND THEY HAVE EXTENDED THE DEAL 

https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/tra/pro/proinsideflyer.aspx

American Express 

&

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Program

Click on the card >> << To apply today

This is my referral link

.....

Updated 21 September 2015

Firstly - The 4 things that makes it a great deal for me 

- 110,000 Velocity points :  Apply by and be approved by 30 September 2015, spend $1000 on the card in the first 3 months of card membership. (applying directly to american express gets you 100K, apply by a referral link gets you the 110K and the referrer gets a referral bonus) 

- 1 free return domestic flight with Virgin each year
list of routes here: AMXACQ1994_FlightMap_v4

- 2 single entry passes to Virgin Domestic lounges per year
lounges listed are Brisbane,Sydney,Melbourne,Perth, Adelaide and Canberra

- Ability to convert your points to (SQ) Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer Miles

(converts at 1.35 VA to 1 SQ mile)

110K will get you 81,481 SQ Kris Flyer Miles once converted – VA points don’t expire, SQ do expire after 3 years so transfer when you are going to travel. 

To fly from Brisbane to either London or Barcelona one way with SQ in Business Class will cost 80,750 miles (booking online discount applies) + $502 in taxes

So effectively if you absorb the application fee ($349) into this flight it will cost $851
** not bad at all I say **

There is the usual other benefits you get with the card like spend and earn Velocity points, complimentary insurances for overseas travel and purchase protection.

.....

I have been following the application of a college as well as my application to verify that all that is offered is received and in a timely manner.

The Timeline to date 

- Colleges application in 28 July 2015 and approved. 

- Card received 06 August 2015, activated, 1st item charged to the card.

- Complimentary domestic flight loaded into Velocity account on American Express system   06 August 2015.

- 2 lounge passes loaded and backdated to 28 July 2015 into Velocity account on American Express system and verified on Velocity program.

- My application in 08 August 2015 and confirmed 10 August 2015.

- Referral bonus loaded into colleges Velocity account on american Express system.
- Received referral bonus in Velocity account 18 August 2015
- 110,000 loaded onto Amex system 16 August 2015
- I have now received my card 28 August 2015, with a letter arriving 4 days earlier saying that there was a delay with sending out cards and 10 days have been added to the 3 month minimum spend period.
-110,000 loaded  onto my account in Amex system 02 September 2015
-My 1st referral activated there card 09 September 20

-Amex system seems to us a 4 day period to load passes, flights & points. This has been the case until the most recent applicant which I referred. neither of us have received points allocation at 4 days but have received passes and flights.
-I contacted Amex at 5 days to ask what was there system of allocation and all they said is they would check it out and manually force the points allocation. At 7 days and neither account has been adjusted.
-Colleges Velocity account credited with 110,000 19 September 2015
-My 1st referral account loaded with 110,000 18 September 2015 

As the process moves I will edit the page . 

If you use my referral link please let me know as deals like this get both you and me closer to our next redemption flight. I'd also like to say thanks for the help.

The start of the referral link looks like this www316.americanexpress.com The www316 looks weird but this is how American Express generates the link. I was unsure of it's validity at the time and I checked it out to be 100% safe and correct, then I proceeded.

As part of the application process you are asked if you have a American Express card. This is a card that originated from American Express direct

Frequent Flyer Talk

going overdrive today

Just been watching sunrise 7 and saw that they were interviewing Ben Schlappig from One Mile at a Time. He will be back on tomorrow.

There is a great offer to earn Velocity Point with Virgin Australia

Click the banner and it will take you to further info about the offer

the card's annual fee is $349

personal gross annual income of $65,000 required

only require to spend $1000 in the 1st 3 months

To make an offer good for me:

If  the calculation of A$15 per 1,000 points (miles) is greater than the annual fee then it's a goer.

I'm prepared to buy points (mile) at up to A$19 per 1,000 depending on the program

Vietnam Airlines business class Australia to Europe

I was just doing a random search for flights out of Australia into Europe (as you do) on a cool winters day in #cairns #fnq 

picked random days departing  15 September 2015 returning 30 days later

flying business class 

The search came up with AUD $4062

WOW

Hey : better do a search to see if I can get a few days in Ho Chi Minh on the way over to break the journey. The fare moved to $4219 - a little increase of $157 

Break the journey on the way back as well - add another $158 to $4377

WOW

If you are going to travel these distances travel business class. It's not just the comfort in flight its the access to lounges along the way. This makes spending time at airports a lot more civilised

For those who are interested 

You land at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh

The aircraft type you most likely be travelling on are the Airbus 330 on one sector over and the other a Boeing 777

If you discover some great finds in the FBP world please let me know

tweet me at @ascns

Life Miles 

Have done it again

LifeMiles is the frequent flyer program for Avianca and TACA

Condition : you must be a member prior to 19th December 2014

If you were a member you would got an email on 1st December offering a sweetener, for that day only if you purchased you would receive a bonus 25% on top of the 100% offered

A purchase of 66,000 miles netted 128,500 miles

Now that's getting in a nice position for 2015 

Here is what LifeMiles has done for me so far

The past year I have redeemed equivalent to 255,000 miles using miles (150,000) and pay (105,000) method allowing me to travel the following flights in business class

(taking a companion on one flight)

1 seat : Singapore (Singapore Airlines)  Shanghai (Air china) Sydney

2 seats : Tokyo (Lufthansa) Frankfurt (SAS) Oslo (SAS) Tromsø

1 seat : Copenhagen (Swiss) Zurich (Swiss) Tokyo