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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 666131 times)

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #100 on: February 20, 2014, 05:56:11 PM »
whats the the most efficient way to search Air Berlin flights(that will be available on BA avios site) nyc to tel aviv?
Qantas. By segments.

Offline Ez

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #101 on: February 20, 2014, 07:31:08 PM »
whats the the most efficient way to search Air Berlin flights(that will be available on BA avios site) nyc to tel aviv?

AA or Quantas

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #102 on: February 20, 2014, 07:34:46 PM »
Air Berlin doesn't show award availability?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #103 on: February 21, 2014, 09:21:32 AM »
AA or Quantas

I believe Dan earlier said AA is no good because it shows "phantom flights"?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #104 on: February 21, 2014, 09:38:08 AM »
I believe Dan earlier said AA is no good because it shows "phantom flights"?
Correct.

Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #105 on: February 21, 2014, 10:55:01 AM »
Qantas. By segments.

do I need to set up a Qantas FF account
is there a certain category of Air Berlin flights  that i am looking for in order for them to appear on BA avios?
By segments you mean search each leg separately?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #106 on: February 21, 2014, 05:01:44 PM »
do I need to set up a Qantas FF account
is there a certain category of Air Berlin flights  that i am looking for in order for them to appear on BA avios?
By segments you mean search each leg separately?
Yes.
No.
Yes.

Offline intgesh

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #107 on: February 23, 2014, 02:06:10 PM »
I was looking to go to Israel for the summer using Avios. When I applied for the BA card, ~Dec, there was availability on AB, though sparse. By the time the points posted to my account there wasn't any left (I've only searched on AA, not Qantas). Then on Feb 11, I was searching and voila! there were 2 tickets JFK-DUS-Tlv for late July! I promptly snatched them up, obviously. I'm still looking for the return portion, for which there seems nary an option for the entire month of August.
My question is, is there a pattern as to how AB releases their award availability? Are the two tickets that i found, which weren't there one day and were there the next, due to some other reason, such as a cancellation? Admittedly, I've never searched on QF, are they helpful in showing flights that DON'T show up on AA, or only in revealing the phantom flights on AA to be false?
Thank you.

Offline Dr Moose

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #108 on: February 23, 2014, 02:09:26 PM »
Did you try searching segment by segment?
Hey there! I am using DansDeals Forums.

Offline intgesh

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #109 on: February 23, 2014, 02:12:23 PM »
Did you try searching segment by segment?
As in DUS-NYC, TXL-NYC? Yes, I could do it in my sleep, I've searched so many times!

Offline mgarfin

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #110 on: February 23, 2014, 03:21:43 PM »
Looking for a one way TLV-NYC In right after Purim in  Business lots of elal opening to Europe but cant find a single AA saver from any connecting cite.

Is it to late or too early?

only other decent option would be 2 stoops with AB and first 2 are not Business but still pay 67k

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #111 on: February 23, 2014, 03:25:57 PM »
Looking for a one way TLV-NYC In right after Purim in  Business lots of elal opening to Europe but cant find a single AA saver from any connecting cite.

Is it to late or too early?

only other decent option would be 2 stoops with AB and first 2 are not Business but still pay 67k
Did you call AA?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline mgarfin

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #112 on: February 23, 2014, 03:56:38 PM »
Did you call AA?

No
But is it possible I don't see on line availability but phone rep will see ?

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #113 on: February 23, 2014, 04:59:47 PM »
Of course. Just tell them they shoul check all possibilities with stop overs, Jet, etc..
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline mgarfin

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #114 on: February 23, 2014, 05:02:07 PM »
Of course. Just tell them they shoul check all possibilities with stop overs, Jet, etc..

nothing avl

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #115 on: February 23, 2014, 05:03:34 PM »
You called?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline mgarfin

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #116 on: February 24, 2014, 01:08:27 PM »

Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #117 on: February 25, 2014, 09:19:55 AM »
Yes.
No.
Yes.

Here is the problem and I have verified this with BA.  Just because there are AB flights showing on Qantas does not mean they are available for BA avios booking.  Qantas shows AB flights most days of the month; that does not mean they are all available on BA avios.  In fact very few are.  BA avios does not have to make every AB flight available for reward flights

So when we check on AA or Qantas and see AB flights that does not help in securing the flight.  I tried before booking AB flights with BA rep and he saw flight but said no award seats; so back to the original question how can one see AB flights that will be available on BA avios

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #118 on: February 25, 2014, 10:53:51 AM »
Here is the problem and I have verified this with BA.  Just because there are AB flights showing on Qantas does not mean they are available for BA avios booking.  Qantas shows AB flights most days of the month; that does not mean they are all available on BA avios.  In fact very few are.  BA avios does not have to make every AB flight available for reward flights

So when we check on AA or Qantas and see AB flights that does not help in securing the flight.  I tried before booking AB flights with BA rep and he saw flight but said no award seats; so back to the original question how can one see AB flights that will be available on BA avios
BS. DROPR. If it's available to partners like QF, it's available to BA. End of story. Just a question of finding the right rep who will book it for you. Did you ask for a long sell or speak to a supervisor?

Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #119 on: February 25, 2014, 01:37:29 PM »
BS. DROPR. If it's available to partners like QF, it's available to BA. End of story. Just a question of finding the right rep who will book it for you. Did you ask for a long sell or speak to a supervisor?

excuse me
what makes you so sure?  do you speak from experience?  Qantas shoes BA flights most days on the month in march for example.  BA avios does not have honor them.  AB award flights do not have to be released in the same capacity to BA and Qantas.