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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 589666 times)

Offline Dan

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #40 on: June 13, 2013, 02:12:16 PM »
USA-EU = 50K in J plus EU-TLV = 30K in J

80K pricing as two awards, likely because your LHR portion is viewed as a stopover.
Bingo.

More or less than 24 hours in LHR?
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 meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #41 on: June 13, 2013, 02:53:27 PM »
More or less than 24 hours in LHR?
Right.
Thanks.

Scratch what I said.

It should be 67.5K if there is less than a 24 hour stop over.
Funny, after I fixed the date to <24hrs it prices for 70k.
But 2.5 AA בני ובינך מה היא, not gonna make an issue about it.
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Offline MEIR613

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #42 on: June 13, 2013, 02:56:41 PM »
Funny, after I fixed the date to <24hrs it prices for 70k.
But 2.5 AA בני ובינך מה היא, not gonna make an issue about it.
Screenshot?

Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #43 on: June 13, 2013, 03:00:21 PM »
Screenshot?
My second mistake in one day.

Scratch what I said.

What happened to the old good meshugener??
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Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #44 on: November 11, 2013, 05:34:59 PM »
If O/D remain the same, is there any change fee for changing routing/partners with AA miles?

(Also, mods, can we get this stickied, like the *A thread?)
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 meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #45 on: November 11, 2013, 08:50:41 PM »

(Also, mods, can we get this stickied, like the *A thread?)
+1
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Offline Drago

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #46 on: November 12, 2013, 04:12:33 AM »
If O/D remain the same, is there any change fee for changing routing/partners with AA miles?
Didn't we have a passionate argument about this topic earlier in this thread?

Somewhat different, but they told me that changing carriers (at least btw OW and partner carriers) would incur a fee despite no change to O/D.
I requested to know where it says this, but they just told me to call in.

That's accurate.

Etc.


Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #47 on: November 12, 2013, 08:19:35 AM »
Yeah, I've since confirmed same again. 
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Offline ayman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #48 on: December 02, 2013, 07:40:53 PM »
Can I book a BA award ticket with a stopover online?
Buy discounted gift cards from me.
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Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #49 on: December 03, 2013, 03:41:32 AM »
Can I book a BA award ticket with a stopover online?
Yup.

Offline philbenjoe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #50 on: December 05, 2013, 02:27:16 PM »
does anybody know if aa flies from CLE to YUL? dont seem to be able to find anything using BA or searching ita etc TIA
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Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #51 on: December 12, 2013, 03:29:09 PM »
It does not fly non-stop, no.
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 Dan

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #52 on: December 12, 2013, 03:54:27 PM »
does anybody know if aa flies from CLE to YUL? dont seem to be able to find anything using BA or searching ita etc TIA
Woul have to be via LGA, JFK, or ORD.
PUTPAC or book as sep tickets.
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 philbenjoe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #53 on: December 13, 2013, 03:13:47 AM »
united has a monopoly here...i didnt find anything under $700 or 35000 points and $133 in taxes and fees...
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Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #54 on: December 13, 2013, 05:08:37 AM »
united has a monopoly here...i didnt find anything under $700 or 35000 points and $133 in taxes and fees...
Did you try a hidden city yet?

Offline Ergel

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #55 on: December 13, 2013, 10:00:42 AM »
united has a monopoly here...i didnt find anything under $700 or 35000 points and $133 in taxes and fees...
Taxes and fees is $58 you'll pay on all flights from Canada. Other $75 is close in booking fee.
Should be 20k united points of you find low availability
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #56 on: January 14, 2014, 11:58:46 AM »
I'm looking for a flight with AA using BA Avios from EWR(or NYC) to BUF and nothing comes up at all. Do they fly this route? I'm trying to go from EWR to Toronto but need a rental so thought it would be a lot cheaper going to BUF and renting in the US then in YYZ(also saves the $55 on the return). Any ideas? Thanx
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #57 on: February 05, 2014, 05:08:54 PM »
After trying to put together a OneWorld Explorer for 2 days, I have found that I can only truly find award availability by calling AA. aa.com won't display all partner airlines. ITA has been a letdown as each time I find a flight there that technically works, there's no availability when I call AA. Any ideas for searching for award avail other than calling? It's so much easier to search on your own.

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #58 on: February 05, 2014, 05:09:26 PM »
KVS
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #59 on: February 05, 2014, 05:12:32 PM »