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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 591930 times)

Offline theyankel

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1020 on: December 01, 2018, 10:55:24 PM »
request for assistance:
i have 6 j seats on hold jfk-gru and gig-jfk both using aa. two sepearte res. 57,500x6 twice
problem is now that i dont have enough aa for 6 r/t. what would be my second best choice? i need 3 o/w. is it best to use ba? cx? qf? japan? preference is least yq.
thanks

Offline YesThatsMe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1021 on: December 26, 2018, 10:37:01 AM »
Is there any way to expand J availability on AA?

Need MAN-PHL, AA metal, only Y on saver.

2 weeks out.

Offline lubaby

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1022 on: December 26, 2018, 01:49:44 PM »
Is there any way to expand J availability on AA?

Need MAN-PHL, AA metal, only Y on saver.

2 weeks out.
Maybe with a married segment (HC).

Offline YesThatsMe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1023 on: December 26, 2018, 01:50:29 PM »
Maybe with a married segment (HC).

Great idea, whats a good HC, or way to find a good HC??

Offline lubaby

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1024 on: December 26, 2018, 01:54:59 PM »
Great idea, whats a good HC, or way to find a good HC??
MCO working for 12/31. Can try that for your dates, or maybe MIA/DFW/BOS.

Offline YesThatsMe

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1025 on: December 26, 2018, 04:19:01 PM »
Even w/o MCO it works 12/31.

And routing through LGW.

I don't understand why a HC would open a closed award, does it ever?!

Offline yelped

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1026 on: December 26, 2018, 05:15:01 PM »
Married segments.

Offline farmbochur

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1027 on: January 22, 2019, 07:16:51 PM »


Has AA started blacking out saver availability within 2 weeks?

I've been monitoring PIT-NYC over the last couple weeks. There seems to consistently be plenty of availability for many dates, but it all disappears once I'm within 14 days.



Same for PIT-NYC

2 week blackout seems back in effect
Risk is opportunity

Offline Yehudaa

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Offline farmbochur

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1029 on: February 17, 2019, 08:05:17 PM »
Looking to redeem AS For CX J/F JFK-YVR.
Do I have to PUTPAC?
Risk is opportunity

Offline a mirrer

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1030 on: February 18, 2019, 05:52:50 AM »
Looking to redeem AS For CX J/F JFK-YVR.
Do I have to PUTPAC?
yes

Offline JMS

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1031 on: February 18, 2019, 04:22:38 PM »
Does a canceled AA Saver ticket (AA metal booked with Avios) automatically go back into Saver inventory?

Offline mochjas

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1032 on: February 18, 2019, 04:26:56 PM »
Does a canceled AA Saver ticket (AA metal booked with Avios) automatically go back into Saver inventory?
no

Offline Yoel F

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1033 on: April 04, 2019, 06:36:10 PM »
I booked today 7 AA flight with BA Avios. Round Trip LGA to DCA
I need another 4 tickets for the same flight. BA does not have access to more. Other partners do show a lot of availability, but, i don't have points with them (Quantas, AA.com)
I found it thru Etihad, but they ask for much more points (25K vs 15K) and much more fees ($28.75 vs. $11.20). Per ticket. In addition Amex transfer from Amex to Etihad is down now. So, i put it on hold with via Etihad. i need to call them back once i can transfer points and want to take it.
I wonder what my other options might be, i have Chase and Amex points.

Any suggestions?
Thank you


Offline PNWBear

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1034 on: April 05, 2019, 10:29:36 AM »
I have had success with BA’s availability replenishing IF the AA flight has consistently wide-open availability.  For example, booked the last 3 available seats one day on an AA flight, and went back 24hrs later to find it had replenished back to 7 available seats for BA.

Offline Yoel F

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1035 on: April 05, 2019, 10:49:23 AM »
Thank you.
I did that and it kept replenishing every few hours.
i did another 4 one way.  That they had only 1 for the way back and then they had another 3 on the way back. so, i ended up getting all i wanted in a matter of less then 24 hours.
Interesting, they missed to charge the Avios on the last 2 bookings. So, when i made the last, i asked them about the one before and they charged it, now i realized that on the last booking, they didn't charge, the Avios were transferred from Amex and they sit with BA now.

Should i do anything or just wait and see?


Offline PNWBear

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1036 on: April 05, 2019, 10:53:29 AM »
I’ve never had a mistake deducting Avios for bookings.  That is definitely strange.  I’d wait and see if it corrects itself.  I wonder if it was caused by so many bookings in such a short window of time?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1037 on: April 05, 2019, 04:22:35 PM »
I’ve never had a mistake deducting Avios for bookings.  That is definitely strange.  I’d wait and see if it corrects itself.  I wonder if it was caused by so many bookings in such a short window of time?
Had BA fail to deduct for bookings more than once.
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Offline PNWBear

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1038 on: April 05, 2019, 04:25:20 PM »
Wow!  Must be more common than I am aware of.  Crazy.

Offline KSMH

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #1039 on: April 05, 2019, 04:45:54 PM »
Any trend or idea when they fail to deduct?
Always praying for delayed baggage.