Looking to trade Thai Airways miles (enough for any round trip biz class fare)

[tsrk]

Hi everyone, not sure if this is allowed but I want to give it a shot as otherwise it will be a big waste of miles for me :( 

 

I used to fly on Thai quite a bit for work but as I'm heading back to US next month to start an MBA, I won't have much use for them (besides domestic United flights which are horrible value with Thai miles)

 

I have 113k miles on Thai, with a gold promo where I can buy a mileage ticket for 50% off, so basically enough miles for any first or biz class round trip ticket on Thai itself (the 50% promo isn't valid on partners like United, ANA).

 

The miles required with 50% promo are posted by Thai here:

https://thaiairways.s3.amazonaws.com/rop/Gold%20and%20Platinum%20Discount%20AIR%20Award%20Chart%20on%20THAI%20Year%202019%20%282%29.pdf

 

I want to see if there's anyone here who would be interested in making a trade (cash or other) for these miles. Best value would be using them for a round trip between Europe and Australia, but given this is a Thai forum, probably more likely is Thailand round trip to Europe or Australia. Too bad for me they don't fly to US anymore or I could use it myself.

 

If anyone is interested please shoot me a PM. Happy to exchange identity documents to the extent needed to trust each other for any transaction we agree on. If interested to meet in person, I may be in Thailand next weekend (of the 27th).

[RAZZELL]

Can't you use your miles on a codeshare on a Star Alliance carrier to USA?

 

It is a bit complicated and convoluted but miles can be transferred or gifted to someone else on the OP's "Award Nominees" List.

 

What sort of $'s are you thinking about?

 

 

RAZZ

Edited July 21, 2019 by RAZZELL

[tsrk]

1 minute ago, RAZZELL said:

It is a bit complicated and convoluted but miles can be transferred or gifted to someone else on the OP's "Award Nominees" List.

 

What sort of $'s are you thinking about?

 

RAZZ

Yeah I'm thinking I'll need to add the person to my nominees list (currently empty) and book from there. Or just give access to my account.

 

For $s will depend I guess on how the miles are being used but I'd say I'm hoping for around 50% of the cash price of the ticket. Hopefully around $2k if we can use it for a ticket worth $4-5k (RT to Europe for example). But definitely willing to negotiate based on what seems reasonable, given I won't get much more than $1k out of it if I have to use the miles on United.

[thedemon]

This is an old scam.

[tsrk]

1 minute ago, thedemon said:

This is an old scam.

Not a scam, but I know it looks that way. I'm happy to share documents and meet in person. Can even show my MBA docs etc.

[tsrk]

12 minutes ago, RAZZELL said:

Can't you use your miles on a codeshare on a Star Alliance carrier to USA?

 

Just noticed this edited into your post -- Yes I can use on Star Alliance but the value is crap. For example would spend my 110k miles for an economy seat round trip Asia-USA, and biz class would cost 192k which I don't have. Star alliance is a separate chart which they post here:

https://www.thaiairways.com/static/common/pdf/royal_orchid_plus/Redeeming/Star_Alliance_Chart2.pdf

[Skallywag]

17 minutes ago, tsrk said:

Too bad for me they don't fly to US anymore or I could use it myself.

 

Thai Airways has many flights listed from Bangkok to Los Angeles on their website? 

 

 

[tsrk]

6 minutes ago, Skallywag said:

 

Thai Airways has many flights listed from Bangkok to Los Angeles on their website? 

 

 

I think you were trying to copy the results but it didn't come through?

 

Anyway I'm guessing you're seeing codeshare flights which don't fall under the Thai 50% off award chart, so those ones I don't have enough miles for biz class tickets (and economy is horrible value for partner award chart, see my prev post).

 

If I'm not wrong, Thai isn't even allowed to fly to US currently because of some FAA requirement issue.

 

You can see for example (in the screenshot attached) that part of the flight is "operated by EVA Air"

Edited July 21, 2019 by tsrk

[Odin Norway]

A business class ticket long haul round trip cost 130 000 miles with thai.I just burned one myself being a gold member.I could take 70 000 of the of you to help you out but not for more then the ticket would cost me to buy in cash. You also still need to pay the tax on any ticket so its not much in it anymore.The rules changes every year.You can give away your miles but not your 50% promo

Edited July 21, 2019 by Odin Norway

[tsrk]

2 minutes ago, Odin Norway said:

A business class ticket long haul round trip cost 130 000 miles with thai.I just burned one myself being a gold member.I could take 70 000 of the of you to help you out but not for more then the ticket would cost me to buy in cash. You also still need to pay the tax on any ticket so its not much in it anymore.The rules changes every year.

What ticket would you use it for and how much would it normally cost in cash? Also do you have a rough number on the tax?

 

I assume the 130k miles you're referring to is without the 50% deal.

[RAZZELL]

2 minutes ago, tsrk said:

What ticket would you use it for and how much would it normally cost in cash? Also do you have a rough number on the tax?

 

I assume the 130k miles you're referring to is without the 50% deal.

Gone up:

 

https://www.thaiairways.com/en_TH/rop/Redeeming/Redeeming_Award-Air_Awards_onTHAI-01-RoundTrip.page

[Odin Norway]

2 minutes ago, tsrk said:

What ticket would you use it for and how much would it normally cost in cash? Also do you have a rough number on the tax?

 

I assume the 130k miles you're referring to is without the 50% deal.

Yes the 130k is without the 50%.I just used my own 50% for next week on ticket because the prices from Europe now is 37-38kbth for a normal economy.The tax on the economy

only is at least 10k bth. I paid 16k bth to use my points on a business class. In 2 weeks the prices calms down again to around 28-30k cash.Of course that is on my route.

[tsrk]

4 minutes ago, RAZZELL said:

Gone up:

 

https://www.thaiairways.com/en_TH/rop/Redeeming/Redeeming_Award-Air_Awards_onTHAI-01-RoundTrip.page

Yes but the miles cost for redeeming one ticket as Gold is 50% of those amounts due to their "gold award" system. The link I posted is directly from their gold award email. Sorry I should have made it more clear.

 

Here's a screenshot of the email.

 

 

[tsrk]

1 minute ago, Odin Norway said:

Yes the 130k is without the 50%.I just used my own 50% for next week on ticket because the prices from Europe now is 37-38kbth for a normal economy.The tax on the economy

only is at least 10k bth. I paid 16k bth to use my points on a business class. In 2 weeks the prices calms down again to around 28-30k cash.Of course that is on my route.

Just to clarify, biz class to europe is 28-30k THB round trip? Curious which destination?

 

Thanks for the details though. Hopefully I can find someone who can use the miles for a higher value flight since it seems the ones I checked (Stockholm, London, Europe) cash prices are a bit higher.

[Odin Norway]

3 minutes ago, tsrk said:

Yes but the miles cost for redeeming one ticket as Gold is 50% of those amounts due to their "gold award" system. The link I posted is directly from their gold award email. Sorry I should have made it more clear.

 

Here's a screenshot of the email.

 

 

I know very well you have 1 ticket every year you can use only 50% but that 50% you can not give away. That is for you only so for others only the points can be used.

[Odin Norway]

4 minutes ago, tsrk said:

Just to clarify, biz class to europe is 28-30k THB round trip? Curious which destination?

 

Thanks for the details though. Hopefully I can find someone who can use the miles for a higher value flight since it seems the ones I checked (Stockholm, London, Europe) cash prices are a bit higher.

Around 30k bth is only economy price low season from feks Scandinavia, Frankfurt or Switzerland. Business class now was 3911 euro. haha.That would be 130k points and tax on top.I would never pay for a business ticket with cash on Thai. Any other airline is much cheaper

[tsrk]

7 minutes ago, Odin Norway said:

I know very well you have 1 ticket every year you can use only 50% but that 50% you can not give away. That is for you only so for others only the points can be used.

Not sure where you are getting that info, and also can't say for sure that you're not right (as I haven't ever used the 50%), but in the email it says: "You may redeem this award until the end of 2019 for yourself, or for an Award Nominee."

Edited July 21, 2019 by tsrk

[tsrk]

Just now, tomazbodner said:

You can put anyone in nominee list and as long as you have gold status you can do that without fee (if that wasn't changed yet) else it costs... 15,000 miles or 100$ to change nominee if all 5 are already filled in.

 

Note though that miles only cover the fare and not any taxes or surcharges. On a flight to Vienna, taxes and surcharges on my ticket reached nearly 18000 baht, and some other airlines flew there for barely any more all inclusive.

 

It's of course allowed to hand award to nominee, as long as you understand it only covers the fare. Unfortunately TG loves to change the rules all the time, usually not in favour of anyone trying to earn or use mileage.

Yeah the fees are more than I realized... anyway still I feel like better value can be used by someone else with the gold award than by myself on star alliance flights. I may have to ask for less $ given the additional fee. That's honestly fine by me if I come out ahead in value to what I would get redeeming on United.

 

My nominee list is empty so no problems there.

[Odin Norway]

5 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

You can put anyone in nominee list and as long as you have gold status you can do that without fee (if that wasn't changed yet) else it costs... 15,000 miles or 100$ to change nominee if all 5 are already filled in.

 

Note though that miles only cover the fare and not any taxes or surcharges. On a flight to Vienna, taxes and surcharges on my ticket reached nearly 18000 baht, and some other airlines flew there for barely any more all inclusive.

 

It's of course allowed to hand award to nominee, as long as you understand it only covers the fare. Unfortunately TG loves to change the rules all the time, usually not in favour of anyone trying to earn or use mileage.

Last year it was no fees to use points or miles and this year it was ,and new rules comes in October. Never know what they come up with.

[tsrk]

9 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

As you would need to issue ticket for your nominee, you'll pay all incl. taxes. You can't just transfer miles to someone. You go to TG website (or call their call centre) and tell them you want to issue a ticket for xyz flight to particular nominee you already updated in your system. TG may come back and say no available seats in reward tickets class on that flight. But if there is, you'd then need to pay the taxes and surcharges, and get ticket issued. If online, you'd just be charged from your credit card at that moment. If you pay for nominee, you might then have to go to TG office in Silom and bring your passport and credit card used to pay, else passenger might not be able to check-in. When you confirm you paid for it, they'll add a remark that you are not part of the traveling group and that documents have been verified. I truly hope TG got away with this nonsense but last year they were still enforcing it. Once that's done you'll know full price you paid, you'd assume know what full price of ticket costs, and would probably need to give some discount to one buying from you rather than directly from airline.

 

I'd just call them to ask for taxes and surcharges for specific flight first, as they only depend on currency exchange so while they go up and down a few 100 baht per day, at least you get a rough idea of the final price.

 

Good luck.

Hopefully won't have to go that TG office route but if necessary, so be it. I'm really not trying to extract close to full cash value from the ticket but rather some fair price in between, given that it should be a win-win on both sides. I think taxes/fees can be checked online, but for actual booking I guess I do need to call in to use the 50% deal.

[Peterphuket]

Long time Aga I like Thai very much.

But now it looks like a sh*t company.

Shure they change the rules time on time.

Last time in June I had a return flight from BKK-BRU-BKK, I paid more then 46.000thb for this return flight, and guess from BRU to BKK they give me 1437 miles, and from BKK to BRU they give 5747 miles both Y class, But Thai say it was W-claas.

The same happens a couple months before to HKD and back to BKK, one direction they don't give any miles, after complaining you don't get an answer but only a statement with there rules.

I thing I have to finish with this company and change to Emirates, they much more polite, and gives much better service for much lower price.

[tsrk]

19 hours ago, Peterphuket said:

Long time Aga I like Thai very much.

But now it looks like a sh*t company.

Shure they change the rules time on time.

Last time in June I had a return flight from BKK-BRU-BKK, I paid more then 46.000thb for this return flight, and guess from BRU to BKK they give me 1437 miles, and from BKK to BRU they give 5747 miles both Y class, But Thai say it was W-claas.

The same happens a couple months before to HKD and back to BKK, one direction they don't give any miles, after complaining you don't get an answer but only a statement with there rules.

I thing I have to finish with this company and change to Emirates, they much more polite, and gives much better service for much lower price.

Yeah... definitely feel the pain on the lack of info from their customer support on all the mileage issues. That's part of the reason I haven't credited miles to them lately.

[tsrk]

Just wanted to bump this one time to see if anyone is interested, before I use all my points on domestic United flights.

[JamJar]

Just isn't worth it for most. A Thai ticket from UK to Thailand is perhaps £2k. 

Indirect with a ME airline, perhaps £1.45k.

Given that someone mentioned that there was perhaps ฿18k in fees, that is £485.

 

So anyone who normally takes a ME airline won't even offer £1k because that would take it up to what they could pay that themselves and obtain miles/tier points etc.

 

So from Europe, it would have to be someone who valued travelling direct with THAI and who was sure that they would not need to change their dates. 

 

The other way round, you are going to have more difficulty, as it may just be people visiting their respective countries.

 

Your fantasies of a US$4k to US$5k ticket probably put any potential buyers off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tsrk]

I think you guys were right, I was being way overoptimistic on the pricing. Given that it's coming up to my first miles expiring (end of 2019), and I haven't been able to find a use for them yet, I'll just say here that I'd offer my miles (about 110k of them, with the 50% off gold thing) for $1k (USD). Otherwise, I'll end up using them to book tentative economy United trips that I may not use anyway... If anyone has a better use for these, shoot me a message.