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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 591811 times)

Offline Joe4007

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #300 on: June 06, 2014, 04:47:02 PM »
Angled J to JNB?
Pass and then pass again.
QR angled J isn't nearly as bad as LH or AF angled J but point taken.

This finally makes AA miles relevant for SA awards. QR generally also has good availability.
How about their F. Any good?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #301 on: June 06, 2014, 04:50:40 PM »
How about their F. Any good?
Very good but not "world class" by any means.

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #302 on: June 06, 2014, 04:52:17 PM »
They carved out a QR exception, doesn't negate the rule.

Why?

ETA: Ah, maybe because QR is a one-world member, and EY isn't, and they wanted it to be in line with US.
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline Joe4007

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #303 on: June 06, 2014, 05:06:36 PM »
and they wanted it to be in line with US.
What do you mean?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #304 on: June 06, 2014, 05:06:43 PM »
Why?

ETA: Ah, maybe because QR is a one-world member, and EY isn't, and they wanted it to be in line with US.
That's the working theory.

Offline DBK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #305 on: June 08, 2014, 12:57:31 AM »

Offline Feivish

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #306 on: June 09, 2014, 09:15:24 PM »
Same day award tickets date change, anyway to get it at no cost?

Offline AJK

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #307 on: June 09, 2014, 09:19:44 PM »
One world has 15 different members, with 15 different frequent flyer programs.

Should we guess which you're talking about?
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Offline Feivish

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #308 on: June 09, 2014, 09:56:17 PM »
One world has 15 different members, with 15 different frequent flyer programs.

Should we guess which you're talking about?
Sorry you're right I meant AA.

Offline adamrr

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #309 on: June 23, 2014, 10:25:11 AM »
AA shows award availability in J for jfk to sfo on 8/23 but it doesn't show in EF. am I missing something? for AA15

Offline chucksterace

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #310 on: June 23, 2014, 10:49:52 AM »
AA shows award availability in J for jfk to sfo on 8/23 but it doesn't show in EF. am I missing something? for AA15

It shows only available for Standard award not saver. And by standard it is showing up in EF
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Offline adamrr

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #311 on: June 23, 2014, 11:09:36 AM »
must've been a delay, didnt see aa15 at all

Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #312 on: June 24, 2014, 12:31:54 PM »
Would US allow me to route SYD-JNB-LHR?
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Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #313 on: June 24, 2014, 01:01:10 PM »
Would US allow me to route SYD-JNB-LHR?
You can get away with almost any routing with US but needs to be RT.

Offline nobiggy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #314 on: June 24, 2014, 01:40:37 PM »
I don't know where to post this bit here's my question. 
I want to go from Europe to Australia.
Lufthansa is 100k RT. +$800
United 110k RT. +$400
AA is 90k RT. + $800 since they put me on BA

What's my best way of traveling with the least taxes?

Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #315 on: June 24, 2014, 01:53:56 PM »
You can get away with almost any routing with US but needs to be RT.
Yeah, they allowed the route. Wasn't able to find a return though.  :(
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Offline meshugener

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #316 on: June 24, 2014, 01:55:46 PM »
I don't know where to post this bit here's my question. 
I want to go from Europe to Australia.
Lufthansa is 100k RT. +$800
United 110k RT. +$400
AA is 90k RT. + $800 since they put me on BA

What's my best way of traveling with the least taxes?
Its like asking "I can buy a ring for $500, $600 or $700. Which one would be the cheapest?"

Come on, read your own question.
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Offline chucksterace

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #317 on: June 24, 2014, 01:58:53 PM »

Its like asking "I can buy a ring for $500, $600 or $700. Which one would be the cheapest?"

Come on, read your own question.

Haha. Well said.
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Offline jaywhy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #318 on: June 24, 2014, 02:27:36 PM »
Yeah, they allowed the route. Wasn't able to find a return though.  :(
Bummer. You need to traverse JNB on the return as well?

Offline nobiggy

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Re: One World Award Search Tips
« Reply #319 on: June 24, 2014, 02:58:22 PM »
Its like asking "I can buy a ring for $500, $600 or $700. Which one would be the cheapest?"

Come on, read your own question.

Are there any options I'm missing that could be cheaper. If search multi city to end up in Australia is that cheaper? Etc ...
I searched delta they come up with nothing. Are there any star alliance airlines that go?