Questions and Answers

I want to buy business for wife and my baby (he will be 1 year old). I’m flying from Ho Chi Minh to LAX. I’m thinking about buying mileage from mileageclub.com.

But I don’t know which mileage club should I choose (cathay, ana,etc…)? Do you have any recommendation.

Thank you so much

Tianh, are you thinking about buying all the miles you need, or just trying to top off a balance to have enough to redeem for business class?

If your plan is to buy all the miles, I’d instead look at just purchasing the actual ticket. You won’t be constrained by award availability. I don’t know your budget, but almost every day of the year has fares under $3,000 from Vietnam to LAX. Some days get down to $2,200 which is very reasonable. Those prices include Japan Airlines, ANA, Cathay Pacific, etc.

Also try to buy miles directly from the airlines if you choose this path. Third party mileage sales are against airline T&C and if your account gets caught you will lose all your money and miles. Worth paying a little more or waiting for a sale to avoid the hassle.

You might want to read this:
[URL]https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/information-desk/1452582-mileage-award-ticket-brokers-they-legit-consolidated.html[/URL]

There is a genuine risk of you being stop at check-in and denied boarding.

If you want to buy miles to fly on try buying directly from one of the airlines that sell miles legally:
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/02/15/lifemiles-buy-miles-bonus-2017/[/URL]
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/02/07/alaska-bonus-miles-last-chance/[/URL]

Lifemiles is all StarAlliance airlines including ANA, Thai and Asiana. But like all *A partners they only have access to economy on Singapore.
Alaska will get you access to Cathay Pacific, but does not include access to DragonAir flights.

It’s hard to book the flight on Lifemiles. Could I use lifemiles mileage to book flight on different website. Or lifemiles is the only option?

Thank you

hi [USER=2855]@tianh2002[/USER] if you are using lifemiles you will need to use the lifemiles website or their call center (usually frustrating for non-spanish speakers).

I have another question regarding Lifemiles.

I need to book 2 one way tickets from sgn to lax, and from iad to sgn. I will travel with my baby (he will be one year old at that time). So how do I book ticket at Lifemiles with infant?

Thank you so much

Hi [USER=2855]@tianh2002[/USER] I’m not 100% on this but I believe you would need to ticket through Avianca and then contact the operating carrier to add the lap child. Carriers have different rules around costs for lap children, some allow you to pay in miles and other require some percentage of the cash fare (so the earlier you book and the cheaper the cash tickets, the lower your price will be).

From the comment section of this article by mommypoints:
[URL]http://mommypoints.boardingarea.com/2014/03/10/guide-to-booking-award-travel-with-lap-infants/[/URL]

[B]”Mommy Points[/B] says:
[URL=’http://mommypoints.boardingarea.com/2014/03/10/guide-to-booking-award-travel-with-lap-infants/#comment-1889421′] May 6, 2015 at 7:24 am [/URL]
Will be 10% of business class fare. Can call LifeMiles to book or potentially just call the operating carrier directly.”

Also try reading these articles by Travis on this site:
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/09/10/flying-lap-children/[/URL]
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/11/booking-my-unborn-childs-first-airplane-ticket/[/URL]

From Travis article it seems that Alaska does not issue partner infant awards, and Cathay charges 25% of adult ticket prices.