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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 589680 times)

Offline Dan

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #140 on: February 25, 2014, 05:18:25 PM »
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline DBK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #141 on: February 25, 2014, 05:20:24 PM »
Oy oy oy

LX-Swiss  LH-Lufthansa. F-First
Still learning all the abbreviations  :-\

Offline DBK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #142 on: February 25, 2014, 05:21:16 PM »
http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=10531.0
Not all the airline codes and abbreviations are listed in that thread I've looked

Offline chucksterace

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #143 on: February 25, 2014, 05:21:52 PM »

Not all the airline codes and abbreviations are listed in that thread I've looked

GIYF
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #144 on: February 25, 2014, 05:22:03 PM »
No offense but it sounds silly for you to be arguing with people who know their stuff
Who was I arguing with exactly?

Offline Dan

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #145 on: February 25, 2014, 05:22:18 PM »
Not all the airline codes and abbreviations are listed in that thread I've looked
Sorry, meant to give you
http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=13317.0
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Ergel

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #146 on: February 25, 2014, 05:23:21 PM »
Who was I arguing with exactly?
Sorry, my bad.
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #147 on: February 25, 2014, 05:23:30 PM »
GIYF
Google is not always so helpful with it but will check first for next time

Offline DBK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #148 on: February 25, 2014, 05:24:11 PM »

Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #149 on: February 25, 2014, 06:01:38 PM »
Same mileage program.
Because they are.  Each airline's own system limitations and blockings notwithstanding.

so back to my original question can I always get BA to book me AB flights that I see on QY and AA Milessaver?

Offline Dan

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #150 on: February 25, 2014, 06:04:43 PM »
QF, sure.
Might take several PUTPACs.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #151 on: February 25, 2014, 06:13:53 PM »

Might take several PUTPACs.
= 5 hours  :P
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Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #152 on: February 25, 2014, 06:18:43 PM »
Same mileage program.
Because they are.  Each airline's own system limitations and blockings notwithstanding.
Why will EK release some F to JAL and not to AS?
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Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #153 on: February 25, 2014, 06:29:44 PM »
Read the quote again.
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline MEIR613

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #154 on: February 25, 2014, 07:30:16 PM »
Why will EK release some F to JAL and not to AS?
They release it to all, just the question if the airline isn't blocking it.

Way OT - Needed LGA-ORD-DLH on UA booking with AC.

Online, AC didn't show the ORD-DLH leg and when I called they saw that leg, but not the LGA-ORD.

Booked LGA-ORD online and the rep added the ORD-DLH leg.

Anything can happen.




Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #155 on: February 25, 2014, 09:29:23 PM »
Why will EK release some F to JAL and not to AS?
That's because AS seems to block certain cabins on certain routes if they don't have AS metal leg attached.
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #156 on: February 25, 2014, 09:51:03 PM »
That's because AS seems to block certain cabins on certain routes if they don't have AS metal leg attached.
Block or bug?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #157 on: February 26, 2014, 12:53:48 AM »
Will I be able to book Cathay Pacific (90K RT in J, as per the US award chart) with US miles after 3/31? Same question goes for all other AA partners, will I be able to book them with US airways miles with their current award chart?
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #158 on: February 26, 2014, 09:01:38 PM »
im trying to find a flight from BWI to DTW using Avios. nothing is coming up on BA.com cuz AA doesn't fly direct. even with a stopover in PHL however, which AA does do, i still cant seem to get a positive search result. can someone pls direct in this process? TIA for your help!
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #159 on: February 26, 2014, 09:03:47 PM »
im trying to find a flight from BWI to DTW using Avios. nothing is coming up on BA.com cuz AA doesn't fly direct. even with a stopover in PHL however, which AA does do, i still cant seem to get a positive search result. can someone pls direct in this process? TIA for your help!
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