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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 666294 times)

Offline a mirrer

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #940 on: July 18, 2017, 06:33:58 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?
see here for the pros and cons booking with Iberia versus BA

Offline seeyon3

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #941 on: July 18, 2017, 12:05:23 PM »
see here for the pros and cons booking with Iberia versus BA
thanks

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #942 on: July 18, 2017, 02:11:52 PM »
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?
Nope you should be fine, YQ is only around $10 IINM.
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Offline David Smith

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #943 on: July 18, 2017, 02:25:59 PM »
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?
Only 23k MR more for F, if it's available.
Who do you think you are fooling? You think you are going to pull a quick one on your Creator? Good luck with that.
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Offline tov hashem

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #944 on: August 01, 2017, 11:16:40 PM »
I would like to fly CX from jfk-yvr 8/14 and back 8/17  OW F OW J? Is BA site best to search for it?   Is expert flyer accurate with flight alerts?      Is there a specific timing when to search like midnight or..?    So far both flights have 4 F seats available based on google flights.

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #945 on: August 01, 2017, 11:22:11 PM »
I would like to fly CX from jfk-yvr 8/14 and back 8/17  OW F OW J? Is BA site best to search for it?   Is expert flyer accurate with flight alerts?      Is there a specific timing when to search like midnight or..?    So far both flights have 4 F seats available based on google flights.
What do you plan on booking with?
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline tov hashem

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #946 on: August 01, 2017, 11:22:56 PM »
What do you plan on booking with?
avios

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #947 on: August 01, 2017, 11:23:46 PM »
"JS [is] a fetid cesspool of unvarnished linguistic manure, with lots of useless drivel and post-padding." -Moishebatchy

Offline tov hashem

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #948 on: August 01, 2017, 11:24:35 PM »
BA's website will be fine.
thanks what about other q?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #949 on: August 02, 2017, 07:36:47 AM »
Expert flyer doesn't set alerts for cx. And google flights doesn't show award seats they show revenue seats

Offline tov hashem

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #950 on: August 02, 2017, 07:43:02 AM »
Expert flyer doesn't set alerts for cx. And google flights doesn't show award seats they show revenue seats
i know that google flights only shows revenue seats but It gives me a picture of my chances of will it open to award. Am I  right or wrong??

Offline rollingstone

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #951 on: August 02, 2017, 08:50:07 AM »
i know that google flights only shows revenue seats but It gives me a picture of my chances of will it open to award. Am I  right or wrong??
Wrong

Offline tov hashem

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #952 on: August 02, 2017, 04:11:05 PM »
Wrong
so how do I know how much  F seats are still available?

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #953 on: August 02, 2017, 04:26:39 PM »
so how do I know how much  F seats are still available?
search on BA or QF

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #954 on: August 02, 2017, 09:47:26 PM »
i see that ba dont have access to cx 6 days before flight correct? do they have access over the phone for it?
« Last Edit: August 02, 2017, 10:10:21 PM by tov hashem »

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #955 on: August 03, 2017, 04:35:23 PM »
What's the best way to check prices and availability on Singapore  (miles)

Is there a special number to get though quicker if I need to call? Do I need an account to check availability?

Is it a hopeless dream to find space on swiss metal?

« Last Edit: August 03, 2017, 04:43:34 PM by ADG »

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #956 on: August 03, 2017, 05:50:53 PM »
What's the best way to check prices and availability on Singapore  (miles)

Is there a special number to get though quicker if I need to call? Do I need an account to check availability?

Is it a hopeless dream to find space on swiss metal?
Wrong thread, SQ and LX are Stat Alliance, not One World.
To answer you last question, it would depend totally on route and class.
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #957 on: August 08, 2017, 06:04:29 PM »
Cross-posting from AA Award thread maybe someone new gets alerted by this post.

IB shows seats on its own metal which are available with Avios. Is it guaranteed that AA will be able to find those seats? Also, BA.com does not show those seats either but can book them with exorbitant YQ over the phome. They are not phantom per IB call center.

ba.com also seems to be glitchy today. Anyone else have that issue. no availability on routes that always have something.
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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #958 on: September 01, 2017, 10:43:34 AM »
dos BA allowes free stop over

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #959 on: September 01, 2017, 11:13:14 AM »
dos BA allowes free stop over
ba charges by segment regardless so technically they do offer free stop overs