Sunday, 2 February 2014

an important rule of award travel: check back frequently for new availability

the most important rule, of course, is when you don't like the answer you're getting, you should hang up and try your call again. because more often than not, the agent isn't very clear on the rules themselves. or they are overly hopeful that the system will passively work out the kinks to your reservation without any further encouragement.

the scenario
i had booked an aeroplan award to asia. the itinerary at the time was:
london, ontario to chicago (yxu-ord) on united (ua), economy
chicago to singapore on united, business class (with same-plane stop in hong kong)

on the return, i had:
singapore to hong kong on singapore airlines, economy class
hong kong to beijing on air china, economy class
beijing to vancouver on on air canada, business class

i paid 125,000 miles and $323 in taxes for that ticket.

what made me think about changing my flights
my dad was playing around with some of his award tickets, and he said that he had lucked out and found business class space for his air canada award flight. because he had paid for a business class redemption, they were able to upgrade him on the same flight for free.

i was telling this to my friend over dinner one night, and he said that i should keep on checking back. he said that business class space opens up over time and that i should keep on looking for business class space on the return. "you already paid for it," he reminds me.

and so approximately two weeks before my departure date, i took another look. and then i found this for the return:
singapore to osaka on singapore airlines, business class
osaka to seoul on asiana, business class
seoul to vancouver on air canada, business class

the times were a bit different, and it let me eliminate the need for a hotel in singapore on my return. and i was okay with that.

on making changes, and on following the golden rules:
i immediately called aeroplan, and they were able to protect space and make the change for me. i paid an additional $102 in taxes and $94.50 in change fees. it didn't change over right away. they said "ticketing" needed to confirm it. they didn't call me back like they were supposed to. apparently, they were just sitting on it. for a whole week. and the award space was showing up as gone. so i called back to make confirm what had happened. the second rule happens even after you book your flight or make changes: keep checking to make sure they actually made the changes. just because you give them your credit card and just because you lose the points in your account, it isn't a guarantee that they book the tickets. you would think that it is, but it isn't.

and the agent, on wednesday (departure date for the award was sunday), kept telling me to wait a few more days. "ticketing" would work it out by then. she found award space on a different routing, all in business class, but less convenient timing, and she asked if i wanted to switch to that one instead. she couldn't guarantee me that the same problem that happened with my original change wouldn't happen again. so then i chose to employ the first golden rule in a different form: keep asking for a manager until you get one. i think i ended up saying, "thanks, can i please speak with your manager?" five times in tandem until she finally relented. the manager came. and then it was fixed.

the value per aeroplan point went up!
so what happens to the overall value of the award? initially, i had calculated an award value of 4.13 cents per aeroplan point redeemed. for an additional $196.50 in taxes, i got a fully business class itinerary. the asking price was $6530 on united's website using similar airlines. i paid out $519.50 in taxes and change fees for my "free ticket", so really, i saved $6,010.50. because i spent 125,000 points, each point was then calculated to be worth 4.81 cents per mile. a slightly better valuation.

if you think that business class tickets are overpriced, you may choose to value it at 75% of the revenue ticket cost. in this case, my overall rate of return drops to 3.60 cents per mile. still not too bad.

lessons learned:
  1. check back frequently to see if more business class reward space opens up
  2. check back frequently to make sure that your tickets are actually booked if changes need to be made
  3. managers tend to have more power in getting things done than the first person you speak with on the phone

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