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In general, search on AA.com for award availability.

BA
If you want to book a flight with Avios, it is known from Dan's Knowledgebase that BA.com doesn't show availability very well, but some flights definitely are searchable there. Nonetheless, it's easier to just search AA.com, and if you find a MileSAAver availability, check BA.com to see if it shows up there, too. If it does, book it there. If it doesn't, you can always call up BA and reference the flight you found. Note that there is usually a very long hold time before BA picks up, and they will charge a phone booking fee. If the flight was unsearchable on BA.com, try fighting that fee, but YMMV.

IB
IB availability will not show up on AA.com You can call AA to find IB availability, but it's hard without being able to browse dates and have to ask the rep to check flights over the phone. Searching on Qantas.com will show IB flights - supposedly if they appear there, they can then be booked by calling AA.

OneWorld Explorer [OWE] The OWE has officially been cancelled [4/8/14] as part of the latest AA no-warning changing to its award program. Here's what the OWE looked like:
This is an around-the-world [RTW] award that is calculated not by the mileage cost of specific flights, but rather by the actual distance travelled on your trip. It is especially valuable for flying business class, as the difference in miles needed between coach and business is not very great on longer trips. See this chart to see the different tiers of how many miles it costs to travel different distances. You can take up to 16 segments on a trip, but there are MANY rules to follow when booking such an award.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time when planning this trip. (Personally [@Yehuda], it took 2 months with a few weeks of break in the middle from frustration.) Availability changes everyday, so you need to constantly check back to see if flights you needed are now available. It will also likely require changing your itinerary/order of stops numerous times. An itinerary can be held for 5 days (and can be extended past that on Day 5, if they are willing to rebook each flight for you, getting you another 5 days), but itineraries with IB flights can usually only be held for 24 hours. You will find that you will have to use hub airports since you're limited to OW partners. You will not find a flight from CDG-FCO without either stopping off in LON or MAD - both of which are out of the way. It's unfortunate, as it adds unnecessary distance miles to your trip, but it can be done. Remember that BA flights have high YQ, IB/AB have semi-high YQ, US/AA have very little YQ. (Unsure about other airlines, as my trip was TLV-Europe-NYC, so those were the only airline I had to work with.) You should check flight availability, again, on AA.com but the ticket must be booked on the phone (and they will charge a $25 phone booking fee, but again, try to fight it since this ticket cannot be booked online - although, honestly, by the time you've ticketed, they will likely have helped you out with much more than $25 worth of time). Technically, you can book it with any OW partner, but the odds are you probably only have enough AA miles to book this trip. AA reps definitely know about this award, although most have never booked it before. You will find that after calling so many times, you'll know more about the rules than they do. Once you have your perfect itinerary, they will have to send it to their rate desk to price it out. This can take ~24 hours. Because it takes time, if you have IB flights on the itinerary, they will make sure IB allows the flights to be held for longer than 24 hours, but confirm this with the rep before you hang up. Once it's priced out, you can pay for it. You can use 2 or more AA accounts to pay for it, but they will require each account to have enough miles to pay for 1 ticket. (e.g. If it costs 80K pax and you have 2 pax, they won't ask you to have 1 account with 160K in it, but they will require 2 accounts with at least 80K in each.)

Feel free to contact @Yehuda with any questions regarding the OWE.

« Last edited by AJK on July 27, 2014, 04:45:43 PM »

Author Topic: One World Award Search Tips  (Read 591777 times)

Offline stmark

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #900 on: May 13, 2016, 11:09:41 AM »
So you'd essentially be getting a value of 1.9-2.3+ cpp on the redemption (depending on how many miles are earned from the cash ticket).

Now that value is pretty decent compared to the minimum redemption value* you should be getting for personal use, there are certainly much better values you can get (3.5-5.5++ cpp in J or 5-15+ cpp in F).

*TPG currently values AA points at 1.5 cpp.

Thanks so much!!

Offline jackofall

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #901 on: May 23, 2016, 06:19:20 PM »
I would like to book MAN-PHL OW on AA metal i don't have AA points. I do have UR and MR, which program should I transfer/book with?
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #902 on: May 23, 2016, 07:23:17 PM »
I would like to book MAN-PHL OW on AA metal i don't have AA points. I do have UR and MR, which program should I transfer/book with?
Probably not a very good redemption unless you're flying J class.
only option I can think of is Mr to Cathay.
BA would incur high YQ

Offline jackofall

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #903 on: May 23, 2016, 08:10:07 PM »
Probably not a very good redemption unless you're flying J class.
only option I can think of is Mr to Cathay.
BA would incur high YQ
TY
Any better suggestions for flying OW direct is greatly appreciated.
TIA
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Offline itsyehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #904 on: May 23, 2016, 11:30:24 PM »
TY
Any better suggestions for flying OW direct is greatly appreciated.
TIA

He meant transfer to CX and book AA metal.

Their rates are actually pretty good on some routes. And low YQ. However, see above where I encountered an issue where CX doesn't see the full OW availability

If they see your flight you're in luck though.

JFK-LHR was 45K roundtrip in Y as opposed to 60K with AA (peak)
I remember when a coke was a nickel, and you could buy VRs in OD.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #905 on: June 16, 2016, 06:04:45 PM »
Any specific airline best to use when flying from nyc-las?(meaning the least miles used?)which award program would be best choice to use? Thanks!
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Offline itsyehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #906 on: July 06, 2016, 11:34:01 AM »
Any specific airline best to use when flying from nyc-las?(meaning the least miles used?)which award program would be best choice to use? Thanks!

All the legacies would be at 12.5K OW for coach.

JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin would be variable based on ticket prices.
I remember when a coke was a nickel, and you could buy VRs in OD.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #907 on: July 13, 2016, 11:48:27 PM »
Looking for the cheapest 1 way ticket in points for flight from TLV to NYC on Saturday night 8/20 or early sunday morning 8/21(if i gets into NYC before 4PM). Least amount of points?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #908 on: July 16, 2016, 04:21:06 PM »
Looking for the cheapest 1 way ticket in points for flight from TLV to NYC on Saturday night 8/20 or early sunday morning 8/21(if i gets into NYC before 4PM). Least amount of points?
Wrong thread. post in Award ticket masterthread

Offline rediplus

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #909 on: October 07, 2016, 11:47:25 AM »
any way to avoid close in fee on AA.Com ?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #910 on: October 09, 2016, 04:35:23 PM »
any way to avoid close in fee on AA.Com ?
No publicly known method.
Don't PM me asking for an allegedly existing secret method

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #911 on: December 14, 2016, 06:19:26 PM »
Looking at a connecting flight from YYZ-PHL-MIA on 1/09. Only available when choosing one seat. Is it likely a second seat will open as soon as I book current one?
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #912 on: December 15, 2016, 09:33:56 AM »
Looking at a connecting flight from YYZ-PHL-MIA on 1/09. Only available when choosing one seat. Is it likely a second seat will open as soon as I book current one?
'likely' idk, but AA usually releases more award seats last minute

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #913 on: December 15, 2016, 02:21:23 PM »
I don't wanna pay a close-in fee...
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #914 on: December 15, 2016, 05:24:07 PM »
I don't wanna pay a close-in fee...
Ever heard of BA or AS?

Offline Thingywingy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #915 on: December 15, 2016, 09:18:50 PM »
What's AS?
I am sometimes accused of overthinking things. I am still mulling over whether that accusation has merit.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #916 on: December 15, 2016, 09:35:55 PM »
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline hiima

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #917 on: December 20, 2016, 01:03:07 PM »
Alaskan Airlines

Alaska Airlines
...sorry

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #918 on: January 03, 2017, 07:25:54 PM »
Anyone ever heard of this:
If a passenger is ticketed on CX and then the passenger put another CX award ticket on hold for the next day since he may need to change the flight however he will be officially flying during the time of the ticket on hold both tickets may cancel out since it's a duplicate? DROPR?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #919 on: January 03, 2017, 08:24:29 PM »
Any pattern behind QR releasing space?