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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 589584 times)

Offline bb1836

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #160 on: February 26, 2014, 09:04:19 PM »
As @davidmal says: "Likes" feed the family

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #161 on: February 26, 2014, 09:07:43 PM »
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline philbenjoe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #162 on: February 28, 2014, 11:06:39 AM »
What's the best way to search for flights using BA avios to TLV with AB or IB? On the BA site I've never been successful. TIA
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Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #163 on: February 28, 2014, 12:47:49 PM »
What's the best way to search for flights using BA avios to TLV with AB or IB? On the BA site I've never been successful. TIA
AA or Qantas.
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Offline philbenjoe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #164 on: February 28, 2014, 01:38:59 PM »
Do I need an account with miles to search?
"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" Dr Seuss

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #165 on: February 28, 2014, 02:04:39 PM »
Do I need an account with miles to search?
No. For QF, you need an account.

Offline intgesh

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #166 on: February 28, 2014, 04:00:31 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.
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Offline Ergel

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #167 on: February 28, 2014, 04:02:31 PM »
BUMP
No pattern on how AB releases award availability. Just got to keep checking
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline itsyehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #168 on: March 18, 2014, 09:39:13 PM »
Can you change a CX C award to F within 24 hours of the flight if you booked using Avios?

If not, my deadline is 1:30 tonight and it's not open yet.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2014, 09:43:44 PM by itsyehuda »
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Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #169 on: March 25, 2014, 08:46:31 PM »
If routing LAX-JFK(stop)-AUH with AA miles, what happens if I take the first leg but after a while in JFK realize I cannot take the second? Do they refund any of the miles or is it forfeited?
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 @Yehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #170 on: March 26, 2014, 09:07:27 PM »
Anyone know of a way to see expanded award availability, similar to how United 1K can?

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #171 on: March 26, 2014, 09:08:10 PM »
If routing LAX-JFK(stop)-AUH with AA miles, what happens if I take the first leg but after a while in JFK realize I cannot take the second? Do they refund any of the miles or is it forfeited?

Answer: Non-refundable.
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 Drago

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #172 on: March 30, 2014, 04:49:39 PM »
Any way to put a alert on a Niki TLV-VIE flight which currently has no award seats available?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #173 on: March 30, 2014, 05:06:39 PM »
Any way to put a alert on a Niki TLV-VIE flight which currently has no award seats available?
WATT.

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #174 on: March 30, 2014, 08:42:26 PM »
Any way to put a alert on a Niki TLV-VIE flight which currently has no award seats available?
Expert flyer?

Note: Make sure they operate a flight on the day you're looking for availability. I was once looking for availability until I realized they don't operate TLV-VIE every day!
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Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #175 on: March 30, 2014, 10:14:27 PM »
Expert flyer sucks. Don't rely on them.
You just keep on checking.
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Offline davidd75

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #176 on: April 01, 2014, 05:08:10 PM »
Anyway to search on AA.com NONSTOP award flights(phil to tlv) simliar to the option United.com has?

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #177 on: April 01, 2014, 05:11:23 PM »
Expert flyer sucks. Don't rely on them.
You just keep on checking.

Go on, I'm listening.
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #178 on: April 01, 2014, 05:15:02 PM »
Anyway to search on AA.com NONSTOP award flights(phil to tlv) simliar to the option United.com has?
Sure. When you see the dates with the green/blue boxes of availability, you can look on the right side and there should be a drop down for Connections or Non-Stop Only.

Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #179 on: April 01, 2014, 05:33:29 PM »
Go on, I'm listening.
Is there anything specific you wish to say?
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