Topic Wiki

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 665508 times)

Offline SLMYRCB

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #840 on: February 01, 2016, 05:20:55 PM »
It's a real pain searching for JAL F availability. Is there an easier way than BA?
All I need is F availability on any day from NRT to North America (preferably LAX or JFK).
X2, but not nec together.
I know its been posted but there is a TON of AA availability, many days with F6.

Offline LeahB

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #841 on: February 04, 2016, 09:40:32 AM »
I am flying on TAM and BA soon, will get a bunch of points. Can I transfer those points to AA so I con book an ELAL flight?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #842 on: February 04, 2016, 10:25:22 AM »
I am flying on TAM and BA soon, will get a bunch of points. Can I transfer those points to AA so I con book an ELAL flight?
You can credit your points to AA but AA can no longer book El Al flights.

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #843 on: February 04, 2016, 11:08:45 AM »
How far out does JAL load their flights into the GDS?

Bump

Offline LeahB

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #844 on: February 04, 2016, 11:11:56 AM »
You can credit your points to AA but AA can no longer book El Al flights.

So is there any way I can use those points to book a flight on ELAL or SWISS?

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #845 on: February 04, 2016, 11:14:50 AM »
So is there any way I can use those points to book a flight on ELAL or SWISS?

No

Offline LeahB

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #846 on: February 04, 2016, 11:15:44 AM »
Any suggestions what to do with those points?

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #847 on: February 04, 2016, 11:16:40 AM »
Any suggestions what to do with those points?

Credit to AA, use AA for EY, CX, JL, QF.

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #848 on: February 04, 2016, 07:20:18 PM »
Any suggestions what to do with those points?

You can credit your flights to Qantas and use the Qantas points to book Elal flights theoretically, although you'd probably get bad value

Offline Tsg711

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #849 on: February 09, 2016, 08:30:08 PM »
Need to fly to Perth for a wedding. Anyone know which partner airline would charge me lowest points flying on Etihad or Qatar one stop to Perth from NYC? Will I have trouble flying with stamped passport from Israel?  Thanks!

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #850 on: February 09, 2016, 09:30:38 PM »
Need to fly to Perth for a wedding. Anyone know which partner airline would charge me lowest points flying on Etihad or Qatar one stop to Perth from NYC? Will I have trouble flying with stamped passport from Israel?  Thanks!
No airline will let you fly NYC to PER via EY or QR on a single zone based ticket. You'd have to pay for NYC to middle east, then middle east to PER.
You'll have no issues with the Israeli stamps

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #851 on: February 10, 2016, 01:47:12 AM »
Need to fly to Perth for a wedding. Anyone know which partner airline would charge me lowest points flying on Etihad or Qatar one stop to Perth from NYC? Will I have trouble flying with stamped passport from Israel?  Thanks!

Y? J? F?
OW? RT?

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #852 on: February 10, 2016, 01:12:29 PM »
Y? J? F?
OW? RT?
I think it's time you edit the wiki that all requests must include that info

Offline D93

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #853 on: February 10, 2016, 01:15:48 PM »
I think it's time you edit the wiki that all requests must include that info

Go right ahead.

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #854 on: February 13, 2016, 08:08:17 PM »
any free way to search LAN/TAM availability by calendar? thus far i've been using BA which is a PITA because you need to check each day separately 

Offline ADG

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #855 on: February 19, 2016, 01:49:56 PM »
How do i book CX with AA miles?

Offline benjie1305

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #856 on: February 19, 2016, 01:54:27 PM »
How do i book CX with AA miles?

You search BA > call AA > book CX.
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Offline ADG

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #857 on: February 19, 2016, 01:55:29 PM »
You search BA > call AA > book CX.

Thanks
How do i know the price of AA on BA?

Offline benjie1305

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #858 on: February 19, 2016, 02:01:05 PM »
Thanks
How do i know the price of AA on BA?

It isn't AA on BA. You are just searching BA for the space. Use the AA partner award chart to obtain prices.
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Offline Aron27

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #859 on: March 14, 2016, 10:18:11 AM »
Which is the best points to book a flight from San to Lhr on BA?? I checked BA, AA and Iberia and the taxes are all very expensive..