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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 664879 times)

Offline zemz2005

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #920 on: January 10, 2017, 12:52:41 PM »
i tried to book trave on BA from Phily to Fort Lauderdale. The sight is showing 22,500 miles each way. I though this was 7,500 miles for that segment?

Offline lubaby

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #921 on: January 10, 2017, 12:56:46 PM »
i tried to book trave on BA from Phily to Fort Lauderdale. The sight is showing 22,500 miles each way. I though this was 7,500 miles for that segment?
Sounds like you're seeing Business pricing.

Offline zemz2005

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #922 on: January 10, 2017, 01:02:23 PM »
Your price quote

You require an additional 22500 Avios to make this booking with Avios & money. You can purchase more Avios at a cost of . Avios can be purchased in multiples of 1,000.
You may purchase up to or be given 35,000 Avios in one calendar year (Jan-Dec).
Purchase Avios
Start a new search
PriceYour Avios: 0
Avios   22500
Inclusive total   $ 16.80
Details of your baggage allowance and any applicable charges are lower down this page
Your flights

Outbound - Tuesday 10 January 2017
15:30 10 Jan   19:01 10 Jan   John F Kennedy (NY) (New York)   Miami International (FL)   AA0065   American Airlines   Economy

Offline David Smith

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #923 on: January 10, 2017, 01:04:19 PM »
Your price quote

You require an additional 22500 Avios to make this booking with Avios & money. You can purchase more Avios at a cost of . Avios can be purchased in multiples of 1,000.
You may purchase up to or be given 35,000 Avios in one calendar year (Jan-Dec).
Purchase Avios
Start a new search
PriceYour Avios: 0
Avios22500
Inclusive total$ 16.80
Details of your baggage allowance and any applicable charges are lower down this page
Your flights

Outbound - Tuesday 10 January 2017
15:30 10 Jan19:01 10 JanJohn F Kennedy (NY) (New York)Miami International (FL)AA0065American AirlinesEconomy
Your quote is for 3 pax.
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
JTZ

Offline zemz2005

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #924 on: January 10, 2017, 01:17:01 PM »
whoops :o :o :o :o :o

Offline moisheyb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #925 on: January 25, 2017, 08:04:19 AM »
whats the best way to see availability on oneworld for a flight from bkk back to nyc (usa)?
looking to book for 2 on march 29 or so. preferred way to book is with AS or AA.

Offline mochjas

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #926 on: February 08, 2017, 12:16:45 PM »
now that wandr.me doesn't do CX alerts is there any other way to get CX alerts?

Offline jomaster28

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #927 on: June 08, 2017, 04:01:42 PM »
I am looking for JFK - HKG for Dec/Jan. I am looking for First or Business using Alaskan Miles on a Cathy flight.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to search for availability?

Offline mochjas

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #928 on: June 08, 2017, 04:21:45 PM »
I am looking for JFK - HKG for Dec/Jan. I am looking for First or Business using Alaskan Miles on a Cathy flight.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to search for availability?
ba.com

Offline jomaster28

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #929 on: June 08, 2017, 04:39:13 PM »
ba.com

and if it available there than i can call up Alaskan and book with them? Any other Alternatives?

Offline mochjas

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #930 on: June 08, 2017, 04:41:12 PM »
and if it available there than i can call up Alaskan and book with them?
yes

Offline jomaster28

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #931 on: June 08, 2017, 04:50:27 PM »

Offline BCL

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #932 on: June 11, 2017, 04:44:38 PM »
What is the best number to call to book international AAdvantage award?

Offline JunkYardUnz

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #933 on: June 12, 2017, 01:05:01 PM »
AA just released a boat load of saver awards. What's the logic, when do they release them.

Offline moisheyb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #934 on: June 12, 2017, 01:05:31 PM »
AA just released a boat load of saver awards. What's the logic, when do they release them.

What routes?

Offline JunkYardUnz

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One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #935 on: June 12, 2017, 01:18:25 PM »
Phx-Ewr, Las-Phl. Nothing to get excited over, just wanted to know the logic. Was looking for this route for awhile now and just today it all went light green. Nothing worked out for me, my days were still not available.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2017, 01:35:20 PM by JunkYardUnz »

Offline 12HRS

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #936 on: June 12, 2017, 01:21:39 PM »
Thanks to your post I just grabbed lax-jfk for 12.5 BA = $5.60 Cost of flight was $257

Offline cholent

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #937 on: July 06, 2017, 07:30:44 PM »
How would I find out the fuel surcharges for booking ba using jal? Any way other than calling?
Don't ask stupid questions and you won't get stupid answers

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #938 on: July 07, 2017, 04:22:37 AM »
How would I find out the fuel surcharges for booking ba using jal? Any way other than calling?
ITA Matrix

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #939 on: July 18, 2017, 03:47:15 AM »
i was looking into booking avios from jfk to yvr and noticed with ba avios it 75k round trip while in ib avios its 64k round trip in buisness. is there a catch im not seeing?