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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 664555 times)

Offline HoKo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1100 on: May 16, 2023, 12:08:27 PM »
Is there a better option than avios for booking AA to chicago?

I assume that you already checked the price that American is charging for the flight?

Offline chevron

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1101 on: June 02, 2023, 12:56:19 AM »
Curious if awards were much lower a few months ago? .
I'm flying LHR to Miami July 13 AA direct. When I put it on hold it was 54,000 points +$200. I forgot to pay and was then 65k *ouch* now it's 72.

I'm curious if few months ago this would have been 35,000?

Offline shloim4334

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1102 on: July 09, 2023, 05:04:59 PM »
Not sure it's the right thread but I didn't see where I can post my question:
I Booked Royal Air Meroc TLV-CMN with AA points, but when I called up AA to add an infant to the reservation, the rep told me that they can't add the infant by just paying the taxes, but I need to book an actual ticket with a seat for the infant. I tried contacting Air Meroc, but they claim that because the ticket was booked via AA, I can only add the infant through AA.
Any idea how to procced without paying for another seat?

Thanks in advance

Offline arflights

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1103 on: July 09, 2023, 09:53:10 PM »
Not sure it's the right thread but I didn't see where I can post my question:
I Booked Royal Air Meroc TLV-CMN with AA points, but when I called up AA to add an infant to the reservation, the rep told me that they can't add the infant by just paying the taxes, but I need to book an actual ticket with a seat for the infant. I tried contacting Air Meroc, but they claim that because the ticket was booked via AA, I can only add the infant through AA.
Any idea how to procced without paying for another seat?

Thanks in advance

Call AA again. (after that again.)
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Offline Gvann

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1104 on: July 21, 2023, 08:11:44 AM »
Not sure it's the right thread but I didn't see where I can post my question:
I Booked Royal Air Meroc TLV-CMN with AA points, but when I called up AA to add an infant to the reservation, the rep told me that they can't add the infant by just paying the taxes, but I need to book an actual ticket with a seat for the infant. I tried contacting Air Meroc, but they claim that because the ticket was booked via AA, I can only add the infant through AA.
Any idea how to procced without paying for another seat?

Thanks in advance

I once had a situation i booked through AF for an alitalia flight and did not add infant because they don’t let online. At the airport went to alitalia desk to add, they said i had to go the non existent air france desk to add, after an hour of searching for a desk that didn’t exist and checkin almost closing for the flight, i went back to alitalia and told them “just issue him a brand new ticket please i need to get on this flight” expecting them to issue him a seat for 400 dollars, they printed me a lap infant seat for 40 dollars. So it is definitely possible with the right leshonos, just don’t know exactly what changed between that hour that they couldn’t do anything and the hour that they could. But they did it without any contact with air france, so worst case scenario you can try at the airport with *plenty* of time before departure

Offline cokeboycott

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1105 on: December 13, 2023, 08:56:40 AM »
I'm also new here. Maybe someone can give me some guidance.

I have miles on Royal Air Maroc and I would like to use them to book a flight from JFK to Phoenix, preferably on AA.
I have searched on both airlines but come up with nothing. What am I doing wrong?


Not sure it's the right thread but I didn't see where I can post my question:
I Booked Royal Air Meroc TLV-CMN with AA points, but when I called up AA to add an infant to the reservation, the rep told me that they can't add the infant by just paying the taxes, but I need to book an actual ticket with a seat for the infant. I tried contacting Air Meroc, but they claim that because the ticket was booked via AA, I can only add the infant through AA.
Any idea how to procced without paying for another seat?

Thanks in advance

Offline baron

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1106 on: January 11, 2024, 07:47:08 PM »
Quote
BA.com doesn't show availability very well, but some flights definitely are searchable there.
Is this still the case?

Offline Mendel72

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1107 on: February 16, 2024, 05:55:39 AM »
Does Qatar treat AA Domestic First as First or Business class?

Offline arflights

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1108 on: February 16, 2024, 03:31:17 PM »
Does Qatar treat AA Domestic First as First or Business class?

Business class.
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Offline mendoul

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1109 on: June 24, 2024, 06:04:05 PM »
Hey

It may off topic
My aa miles are expiring in 4 days

What can i do to extend them

Thank you
mendy

Offline jomaster28

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1110 on: November 29, 2024, 09:47:49 AM »
Would it make sense that an Award with BA Avios is available and it is also available on Qatar but Finnair website is not showing anything available? Any Ideas.