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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 591762 times)

Offline Agoldsc1

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #880 on: May 01, 2016, 03:36:01 PM »
Alaska allows a free stopover even on a one way for their own metal.
E.g if you're flying NYC-SEA. you can stay in SEA for awhile and then go to LAX

You mean NYC-LAX with stopover in SEA?

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #881 on: May 01, 2016, 05:49:41 PM »
You mean NYC-LAX with stopover in SEA?
yes, but in this case I was focusing on the trailing stopover.

Offline Agoldsc1

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #882 on: May 03, 2016, 10:30:01 AM »
How do I search for availability on AA to redeem Etihad miles? Does there need to be Super Saver?

Offline Joe4007

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #883 on: May 03, 2016, 10:43:19 AM »
How do I search for availability on AA to redeem Etihad miles? Does there need to be Super Saver?
Saver is good enough.

Offline Agoldsc1

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #884 on: May 03, 2016, 10:58:03 AM »
Saver is good enough.

Thank you. Then I need to call Etihad to book, or can it be done online?

Offline Joe4007

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #885 on: May 03, 2016, 10:59:34 AM »
Thank you. Then I need to call Etihad to book, or can it be done online?
Need to call.

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Offline Agoldsc1

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #886 on: May 03, 2016, 11:17:42 AM »
I noticed that Etihad's chart for AA doesn't include Israel. No surprise there, but I'm wondering: a) is it even possible to book a ticket to TLV using Etihad points, and b) if it is, would it be considered part of the Middle East or Europe?

Offline high end hobo

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #887 on: May 03, 2016, 12:15:41 PM »
I noticed that Etihad's chart for AA doesn't include Israel. No surprise there, but I'm wondering: a) is it even possible to book a ticket to TLV using Etihad points, and b) if it is, would it be considered part of the Middle East or Europe?
well AA doesn't fly to Israel, so...
you can use EY to book SN to TLV

Offline Agoldsc1

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #888 on: May 03, 2016, 12:18:36 PM »
well AA doesn't fly to Israel, so...
you can use EY to book SN to TLV

I know, and their redemption chart is great, but availability is very rare.

Offline BCL

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #889 on: May 06, 2016, 03:23:42 PM »
Flying from YEG-NYC RT, what is the best use of AA miles? Most AA fights are 2 stopovers. Are there partner airlines with less stops?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #890 on: May 06, 2016, 03:54:25 PM »
Nope. Best bet is WR to YYZ and then AA to NYC.
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #891 on: May 09, 2016, 02:49:00 PM »
Nope. Best bet is WR to YYZ and then AA to NYC.
Thanks. Pardon my ignorance, what is WR?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #892 on: May 09, 2016, 04:00:30 PM »
CX Agent telling me they can't see my desired AA flights available.

BA sees the flights, QF sees the flights, and AA.com sees the flights, as well as expert flyer.

I waited so long on hold for this, not willing to give up.

How can I get them to see this availability?
I remember when a coke was a nickel, and you could buy VRs in OD.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #893 on: May 09, 2016, 08:55:27 PM »
CX Agent telling me they can't see my desired AA flights available.

BA sees the flights, QF sees the flights, and AA.com sees the flights, as well as expert flyer.

I waited so long on hold for this, not willing to give up.

How can I get them to see this availability?
HUCA or try feeding them the flight numbers and tell them to search each one separately

Offline itsyehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #894 on: May 09, 2016, 09:53:48 PM »
HUCA or try feeding them the flight numbers and tell them to search each one separately

Both of those didn't work, I even tried the Cantonese line in HK.

Gotta be an IT glitch, they're seeing only partial availability. They saw other flights same day, just not the ones I needed.
I remember when a coke was a nickel, and you could buy VRs in OD.

Offline itsyehuda

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #895 on: May 11, 2016, 01:57:09 PM »
Why would CX block some American award space and not all?

What they could see based on what BA and QF see had no pattern other than they saw less space.
I remember when a coke was a nickel, and you could buy VRs in OD.

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #896 on: May 12, 2016, 03:34:46 PM »
Wondering if the price is a good deal to redeem:
2 adults
flight in biz class on miles for 100k + taxes
or
cash for $1930

(AA miles)

TIA

Offline lubaby

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #897 on: May 12, 2016, 03:36:29 PM »
Wondering if the price is a good deal to redeem:
2 adults
flight in biz class on miles for 100k + taxes
or
cash for $1930

(AA miles)

TIA
How much are taxes?

Offline stmark

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #898 on: May 13, 2016, 09:24:55 AM »

Offline lubaby

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #899 on: May 13, 2016, 10:39:48 AM »
$22.40
So you'd essentially be getting a value of 1.9-2.3+ cpp on the redemption (depending on how many miles are earned from the cash ticket).

Now that value is pretty decent compared to the minimum redemption value* you should be getting for personal use, there are certainly much better values you can get (3.5-5.5++ cpp in J or 5-15+ cpp in F).

*TPG currently values AA points at 1.5 cpp.