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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 591728 times)

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #660 on: April 01, 2015, 03:15:59 PM »
Using what points?
37.5k BA or 32.5k AA OW

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #661 on: April 01, 2015, 03:38:00 PM »
I for some resin thought they did. What's the best way to book first class, and any tips for flying with an infant?
Check the infant thread.

Lots of space on CX F.
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Offline SrulyP

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #662 on: April 01, 2015, 11:10:25 PM »
Check the infant thread.

Lots of space on CX F.

Do i need to use BA to book on CX F or can I book using AA miles?

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #663 on: April 01, 2015, 11:32:45 PM »
Do i need to use BA to book on CX F or can I book using AA miles?
37.5k BA or 32.5k AA OW

Offline SrulyP

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #664 on: April 01, 2015, 11:33:48 PM »


I cant see anything on AA and i do see it on BA. is there a good way to search?

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #665 on: April 01, 2015, 11:38:11 PM »
I cant see anything on AA and i do see it on BA. is there a good way to search?
Use BA.com to search, but if you want to use AA miles to book it, you need to call AA to book it, AA can't book CX online.

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #666 on: April 06, 2015, 05:00:57 PM »
I found some IB availability on their website that wasn't showing up on Qantas, but when I tried to get it to price, it kept giving me an error message. Is this normal?

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #667 on: April 08, 2015, 09:46:44 AM »
I found some IB availability on their website that wasn't showing up on Qantas, but when I tried to get it to price, it kept giving me an error message. Is this normal?
I'm still having this same issue. Anyone else have/having problems with Iberia's website?

Offline Drago

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #668 on: April 08, 2015, 04:17:23 PM »
I'm still having this same issue. Anyone else have/having problems with Iberia's website?
Why are you using Iberia's website?
And IB shows availability for higher mileage that partners won't have access to. BA may be a better bet to search.

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #669 on: April 09, 2015, 06:37:08 AM »
Why are you using Iberia's website?
And IB shows availability for higher mileage that partners won't have access to. BA may be a better bet to search.
I thought that maybe Iberia might show some regular-priced availability through their own site that they don't show on partners, similar to how some other airlines would. Is that correct?

I just don't really like BA's search engine- too many frustrating experiences :)

Offline alonw

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #670 on: April 19, 2015, 11:54:03 PM »
Hello,

Can someone show me how I can use 1 set of miles to book multiple destinations with extended stopovers.
I am in Australia. Want to leave CNS to HNL on 6/2, then HNL to LAX on 6/16, then LAX to MIA 7/7. I know if I book all of that together in 1 flight its 37,500 AA miles. If I try to do multiple destinations it gives me different miles for each leg of the trip.


Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #671 on: April 20, 2015, 12:15:27 AM »
Hello,

Can someone show me how I can use 1 set of miles to book multiple destinations with extended stopovers.
I am in Australia. Want to leave CNS to HNL on 6/2, then HNL to LAX on 6/16, then LAX to MIA 7/7. I know if I book all of that together in 1 flight its 37,500 AA miles. If I try to do multiple destinations it gives me different miles for each leg of the trip.

This is doable with JAL miles, not AA.
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 alonw

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #672 on: April 20, 2015, 12:22:15 AM »
This is doable with JAL miles, not AA.

What is JAL? I only have AA and BA miles :(

Offline alonw

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #673 on: April 20, 2015, 12:28:08 AM »
What is JAL? I only have AA and BA miles :(

Ok, sorry, a quick google search helped. How can I move these miles to JAL? Is that possible and is there a way to do it if once I arrived I asked to extend?

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #674 on: April 20, 2015, 12:31:46 AM »
Ok, sorry, a quick google search helped. How can I move these miles to JAL? Is that possible and is there a way to do it if once I arrived I asked to extend?

Cannot transfer AA/BA to JL. SPG transfers to JL.

Your routing will require separate awards for each segment using AA/BA.
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 Dave A

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #675 on: April 21, 2015, 12:00:17 AM »
I'm searching Iberia's website for a OW ORD-TLV in Y and it's telling me I can book for 32.5k Avios + $ 132.97 ... is that normal?  Considered a good deal?  (Apologize if the answer is in another thread ... been working on accumulating points the past few months but new to booking with those points...thanks)

Offline ilherman

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #676 on: April 21, 2015, 12:05:22 AM »
I'm searching Iberia's website for a OW ORD-TLV in Y and it's telling me I can book for 32.5k Avios + $ 132.97 ... is that normal?  Considered a good deal?  (Apologize if the answer is in another thread ... been working on accumulating points the past few months but new to booking with those points...thanks)
Yes.
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Offline philbenjoe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #677 on: April 21, 2015, 01:24:09 PM »
Which airports in Europe should I search for flights leaving TLV if I'm using avios? Thanks.
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Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #678 on: April 21, 2015, 01:46:21 PM »
Which airports in Europe should I search for flights leaving TLV if I'm using avios? Thanks.
TXL/MUC/LHR/VIE

Offline Dave A

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #679 on: April 21, 2015, 02:43:36 PM »
I'm searching Iberia's website for a OW ORD-TLV in Y and it's telling me I can book for 32.5k Avios + $ 132.97 ... is that normal?  Considered a good deal?  (Apologize if the answer is in another thread ... been working on accumulating points the past few months but new to booking with those points...thanks)

Yes.

Any way around the 90-day Iberia Avios account rule (for Avios transfers)?  I want to transfer UR to BA Avios and then transfer those to Iberia.   Thanks.