Last year we couldn’t seem to get any business redemptions so are trying again this year to get in early. I filled in the redemption form at length for our family and they emailed back saying that none are available. Is it too early for January 2020? The only flights that come up not fully booked or wait list are Perth to Hong Kong via Adelaide.
If we are redeeming for our family and most of the points are in one name, the website tells me we have to pay a fee of US$170 for every 10,000 points to other persons in our redemption group. That is nearly as much as the airfare. What am I doing wrong? If I want to book 5 tickets can I do them all in one transaction and how do I avoid all those fees?
Hi,
I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at Asia Miles redemptions over the past few days, as I’m planning on making a redemption myself. I don’t know where you’re planning to fly, but I’ve been looking at redemptions to and from various destinations in Europe. I can report that there’s fairly good Asia Miles availability … for about 2 days after the seats are released. Seats are currently being released for March 2020, so I’m afraid that in order to get in early, you should have been looking to book your January 2020 tickets about 6-8 weeks ago. Most of the redemption seats for earlier than March 5 are now well and truly gone.
In any case, you’ll find it almost impossible to redeem 5 business class seats on the one flight even during off-peak times and even if you do get in early, let alone during the Australian school holiday peak period.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Maybe move your holiday travel plans to March or April? Or be looking to book no more than 2 business redemptions per flight, and either pay for the others or separate your family into 2 groups?
Regarding the redemption group, I do have some good-ish news. You don’t need to move the points over: the one person with the large number of points can book on behalf of the others in the redemption group without moving the points over to those people. Yes, $170 per 10000 points is prohibitively expensive.
1 Like
Thankyou for the good news on the redemption group, I was thinking I’d have to write them off as a bad transfer. Still might have to if we can’t use them before they expire.
I have been looking at flights Perth to Sapporo since January for late Jan and return mid to late feb, but for a long time the dates weren’t available to book and now it seems I’m too late. Heartbreaking. The airfare costs for premium economy are $700 more than what my cousin paid in June last Yr for Jan19. Thankyou for your info.
No problem. I’m no expert on redemptions to Japan, but here are a couple of my thoughts:
-
January is school holiday time in Australia, and presumably ski season in Japan? In other words, no matter how organised you are and how far ahead you book, I would think that it’s always going to be an uphill battle to get seats, especially for 5 people on the same flight.
-
Be willing to be flexible. You can use Asia Miles on any Oneworld airline that flies to Japan, including Qantas, JAL etc. You can even mix and match (eg. Qantas to Singapore, or Cathay to HK, and JAL the rest of the way). Also it might help if you looked at other destinations to Japan, and got to Sapporo either via a domestic flight or overland.
All the best!
Thankyou. I will research other ways to redeem them on other airlines and routes.