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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 644523 times)

Offline ludmila

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1040 on: April 05, 2019, 05:17:06 PM »
Any trend or idea when they fail to deduct?
Random.
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Offline WhiteSocks

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1041 on: April 13, 2019, 11:50:32 PM »
On Friday I had between 3-7 seats available on LGA-CMH for Apr 30 via BA, I checked Motzeh Shabbes and none are available. is that normal? Chances of becoming available again?
Had the same thing on the return segment a day later.

Offline ludmila

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1042 on: April 14, 2019, 01:50:17 AM »
On Friday I had between 3-7 seats available on LGA-CMH for Apr 30 via BA, I checked Motzeh Shabbes and none are available. is that normal? Chances of becoming available again?
Had the same thing on the return segment a day later.
Someone booked the seats? No one can tell if will become available again, good luck.
I was the Best,still the Best, and will always be the Best.
Pele Good,Maradona Better, George Best.

Offline WhiteSocks

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1043 on: April 14, 2019, 08:08:46 AM »
Someone booked the seats? No one can tell if will become available again, good luck.
Not that I know of. I wud be surprised that someone booked up all seats in one day of 6 flights.
Same thing with the return had 7 seats on BA on each of the flights - now there is 0

Offline yelped

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1044 on: April 14, 2019, 08:57:32 AM »
Not that I know of. I wud be surprised that someone booked up all seats in one day of 6 flights.
Same thing with the return had 7 seats on BA on each of the flights - now there is 0
Check on AA if they still show saver space. If they do, then call BA to book.

Offline WhiteSocks

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1045 on: April 14, 2019, 08:46:56 PM »
Interesting, but it came back into inventory today. booked it. thanks all for your help.

Offline ludmila

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1046 on: April 14, 2019, 10:11:22 PM »
Interesting, but it came back into inventory today. booked it. thanks all for your help.
Glad it worked for you.
I was the Best,still the Best, and will always be the Best.
Pele Good,Maradona Better, George Best.

Offline KSMH

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1047 on: June 23, 2019, 10:55:45 PM »
Any1 with recent dp for CX award availability YVR-JFK? Do they release consistently?

Showing J9 and F3.
Always praying for delayed baggage.

Offline israshot

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1048 on: June 23, 2019, 11:47:29 PM »
Any1 with recent dp for CX award availability YVR-JFK? Do they release consistently?

Showing J9 and F3.
According to Driving Rain on FT, every Sunday around 1030pm est they release seats for the 2 upcoming weeks.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/990738-aa-award-cathay-pacific-cx-ka-availability-etc-master-thd.html
Paragraph 5c)

Offline KSMH

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1049 on: June 24, 2019, 12:15:20 AM »
According to Driving Rain on FT, every Sunday around 1030pm est they release seats for the 2 upcoming weeks.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/990738-aa-award-cathay-pacific-cx-ka-availability-etc-master-thd.html
Paragraph 5c)
I have read the FT forum, but there are reports that, due to the glitch, award availability release patterns have changed.
Always praying for delayed baggage.

Offline Savingsbeast

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1050 on: July 12, 2019, 05:01:35 AM »
I see award availability on AA but not on BA. Is there anything I can do to get it?

Offline KSMH

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1051 on: July 12, 2019, 08:00:37 AM »
I see award availability on AA but not on BA. Is there anything I can do to get it?
PUTPAC
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Offline davidrotts63

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1052 on: July 12, 2019, 08:11:00 AM »


I see award availability on AA but not on BA. Is there anything I can do to get it?

Saver? Available as single segments? Searching BA as single segments?
If you answered yes to all 3 then:
PUTPAC

(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline Savingsbeast

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1053 on: July 12, 2019, 08:46:36 AM »
Saver? Available as single segments? Searching BA as single segments?
If you answered yes to all 3 then:
What is saver, and how do I see whether it's saver or not?
By "single segments" you mean one-way in each direction? If so, then yes to the last two.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2019, 08:49:41 AM by Savingsbeast »

Offline chinagel

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1054 on: July 22, 2019, 02:51:05 PM »
Is there a way to search award flights to a region on AA?

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1055 on: July 22, 2019, 09:45:52 PM »
(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline S123

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1056 on: October 27, 2019, 10:48:45 PM »
Dp, I found lots of availability for aa jfk to mia direct on the app when the website was showing none

Offline mochjas

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1057 on: October 28, 2019, 03:01:42 PM »
Dp, I found lots of availability for aa jfk to mia direct on the app when the website was showing none
availability with who?

Offline S123

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1058 on: October 28, 2019, 03:05:02 PM »
Aa, online showed nothing available and on the app had tons of direct for 13k

Offline SpartanDoc

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1059 on: November 08, 2019, 02:22:24 PM »
For anybody who is interested in travel to Australia, LOTS of First and Business availability on Qantas opened up (to/from Melbourne) for January 28 - February 12 time frame.