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oneworld / AA Explorer award with AA Miles (discuss, questions) [ENDED 8 APR 2014]

Old Jan 28, 2014, 12:14 am
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Last edit by: JDiver
oneworld / AA Explorer award with AA Miles (discuss, questions) [ENDED 8 APR 2014]

N.B. new oneworld/AA Explorer awards are no longer available as of the end of the day on April 7th, 2014.

Existing awards will be honored.


This thread is ONLY to inquire or add about existing oneworld Explorer awards;
to comment on the loss of this booking option, please follow the discussion on:
Oneworld Explorer Awards Eliminated -- Effective Immediately [8 Apr 2014]


See the first post, below, for the rules that prevailed through 7 April 2014 and apply to those who booked Explorer awards prior to the end of these useful award tickets.
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oneworld / AA Explorer award with AA Miles (discuss, questions) [ENDED 8 APR 2014]

 
Old Dec 3, 2011, 8:36 pm
  #1  
Moderator: American AAdvantage
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oneworld / AA Explorer award with AA Miles (discuss, questions) [ENDED 8 APR 2014]

Prefatory note: As the thread begun by Austinrunner going back to 2005 was getting unwieldy we have chosen to archive the older (2010 and previous) posts to this thread and add the wikipost's now obsolete (AA discontinued oneworld Explorer awards 8 April 2014) information to this first post.

We offer a tip of the mod hat to Austinrunner for having kept the original post updated for nearly seven years. The older thread is here.

AA Moderator team


THESE RULES APPLIED TO THE ONEWORLD EXPLORER AWARDS THAT WERE BOOKED PRIOR TO 8 APRIL 2014.

Rules for existing and prior awards:

Explorer awards using AAdvantage miles.
AA offers 3 distinct types of awards:
  1. "oneworld and other airline" Awards,
  2. All-AA Awards, and
  3. Explorer Awards.
The first 2 are the most common. oneworld and other airline Awards are typically for travel to a single destination, possibly with a stopover, using any AA partners, including the oneworld alliance. They should be discussed at the following links:

This thread below is reserved for discussion of Explorer awards, which are typically awards used for around-the-world travel or travel to multiple destinations.

The following appears to bex the consensus on the applicable rules concerning Explorer awards using American Airlines AAdvantage miles. (The American Airlines Explorer award rules, in Spanish, can be found here.)

SECTION 1: ELIGIBLE AND REQUIRED AIRLINES

An award itinerary must include at least two of the following airlines:
airberlin (AB) and its NIKI (HG) affiliate.

British Airways (BA), including the following affiliates: BA Cityflyer (CJ), Comair (MN) (not to be confused with the Delta Airlines affiliate (OH) that has the same name), OpenSkies (EC), British Airways (BA) Limited, and SUN-AIR of Scandinavia (EZ).

Cathay Pacific Airways (CX), including its affiliate Dragonair (KA).

Iberia (IB), including its affiliates Iberia Regional Air Nostrum (YW) and Iberia Express (I2).

Finnair (AY) and its Flybe Finland (BE) affiliate when operating on behalf of Finnair.

Japan Airlines (JL), including the following affiliates: JAL Express (JC), J-Air (XM), and Japan Transocean Air (NU).

LAN (LA), including the affiliates LAN Peru (LP), LAN Express (UC), LAN Ecuador (XL), LAN Argentina (4M), and LAN Colombia (L7).

Malaysia Airlines (MH).

Qantas Airways (QF), including the following affiliates: JetConnect and QantasLink (including Airlink (ND), Eastern Australia Airlines, National Jet Systems (NC), and Sunstate Airlines (OF)).

Qatar Airways (QR).

Royal Jordanian (RJ).

S7 Airlines (S7), including Globus Airlines (GH).

SriLankan Airlines (UL) (effective 1 May 2014).

TAM Airlines (JJ) (effective 31 March 2014).

Defunct members:
. Malv suspended operations 3 Feb 2012;
. Mexicana suspended operations 31 Aug 2010.
N. B.: A reminder: Though US Airways became a member of oneworld 31 March 2014 as an Affiliate member under American Airlines, it is not considered a separate oneworld airline for the purposes of this award.

Only the airlines listed in this SECTION may be used on an award itinerary. This list is significantly shorter than the list of airlines that may be used on a oneworld and other airline award.

The use of an affiliate airline and its parent airline is considered the use of only one airline for purposes of these awards. For example, a person who wanted to use both CX and KA on an itinerary would have to choose one additional airline to satisfy the two airline requirements of this SECTION.

An award itinerary may, but is not required to, include American Airlines (AA), American Eagle (including Executive Air), American Connection (including Chautauqua Airlines), and, effective 31 March 2014, US Airways.

A person generally may not use this type of award to book a codeshare, i.e., a flight marketed by a particular airline but operated by a second airline. AA, however, announced on 13 October 2010, that, "Jetstar flights marketed under the Qantas (QF*) code are ... eligible for award redemption" using AA miles. At least one member of flyertalk has reported being allowed to use AA miles to book an Explorer award on Jetstar (JQ)-operated flights with QF flight numbers; however, another member was subsequently unable to do that and was told that it is allowed only for oneworld and other airline awards. Although JQ is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas Group, JQ is not part of the oneworld alliance. For a list of QF codeshares on JQ-operated flights, refer to this.

SECTION 2: SEGMENT MAXIMUM

An itinerary may not exceed 16 segments.

Each flight number produces one segment, regardless of the number of intermediate stops. Therefore, the number of segments in an itinerary is not necessarily equal to the number of stops in the itinerary.

With one exception, an open jaw counts as a segment for this purpose. For example:
DFW -> LAX -> SYD / CNS -> BNE -> AKL -> LAX -> DFW has 7 segments. An open jaw that exists because the origin and final destination are different does not count as a segment.

A land segment between co-terminals counts as a segment for this purpose, regardless of whether the segment is considered to be an open jaw.

There is no option to exceed the 16 segment limitation by handwriting the ticket.

SECTION 3: STOPOVERS AND CONNECTIONS

(1) The American Airlines English-language website fomerly quoted the applicable stopover rule to be as follows:
"Stopover is defined as more than 4 hours for domestic flights, and 6 hours for international flights. If there are no scheduled flights within this timeframe, regardless of availability, you must take the next scheduled flight but may not exceed 24 hours. If the connection exceeds 24 hours, it will be considered a stopover."
(2) A person may stopover in each city 1 time. A person, however, may not stopover in the person's originating or final destination city.

(3) A person may connect through a city not more than 2 times. A person, however, may not connect through the person's originating or final destination city.

(4) For purposes of these limitations, a stopover does not count as a connection. Therefore, a person could stopover in a city once and connect through that city twice. (This was confirmed by andrzej in this thread, where he described his experiences while booking an award itinerary involving two connections through and one stopover in Santiago, Chile.)

(5) The departing city in an open jaw is neither a connection nor a stopover. Therefore, a person could stopover in the city once, connect through the city twice, and depart from that city at the tail end of an open jaw. This paragraph does not apply to an open jaw consisting of the origin and final destination of an itinerary.

(6) A city includes all its co-terminals, which could be a different set of airports than the co-terminals included for purposes of paid revenue tickets. The following are the only co-terminals for this type of award:
United States
Chicago: MDW & ORD
Houston: HOU & IAH
Los Angeles metropolitan area: BUR, ONT, LGB, LAX, & SNA
Miami / Fort Lauderdale: FLL & MIA
New York City metropolitan area: JFK, LGA, ISP, HPN, & EWR
San Francisco / Oakland / San Jose: SFO, OAK, & SJC
Washington, D.C. / Baltimore: BWI, DCA, & IAD
Europe
Berlin: THF, TXL, & SXF
London: LCY, LGW, LHR, & STN
Milan: MXP & LIN
Moscow: DME & SVO
Paris: CDG & ORY
Stockholm: ARN & BMA
Japan
Osaka: ITM & KIX
Tokyo: HND & NRT
South America
Buenos Aires: AEP & EZE
Rio de Janeiro: GIG & SDU
Sao Paulo: GRU & CGH
Caribbean
St. Lucia: SLU & UVF
SECTION 4: OPEN JAW

One open jaw is allowed anywhere during the itinerary, including in the originating country. For example, the originating city could be Dallas and the final destination could be Miami.

A person may not open jaw between Israel and any Arab League country except Jordan and Egypt.

SECTION 5: ROUTING AND EMBARGOED FLIGHTS

(1) The number of international departures from the originating country is unlimited, so long as the other limitations described in this post are not violated (such as the prohibition against connecting through the originating city).

(2) A person may backtrack from continent to continent. There is no requirement that a person reenter the continent of origin by crossing a different ocean than when the person left the continent of origin. For example, a person could go from North America to Asia then back to North America before heading on to Europe and then returning to North America.

(3) There is no limit on the number of transcontinental segments allowed within the United States.

(4) A person is not required to use the most direct routing for these awards. However, not using the most direct routing could increase the cost of an award. See SECTION 6.

(5) Royal Jordanian's (RJ) flights to and from Iraq may not be used for these awards. RJ's flights from Jordan to either the United States or the United Kingdom from July 15 through September 15 may not be used. RJ's flights from the United States to Jordan from May 15 through July 15 may not be used. RJ's flights from the United Kingdom to Jordan from June 1 through August 1 may not be used.

(6) Travel between two cities in Mexico via a city in the United States is not permitted unless the stay in the US city is at least 12 hours. Travel between two cities in Canada via a city in the United States is not permitted unless the stay in the US city is at least 12 hours.

(7) Japan Airlines' flights on the dates listed on its website may not be used for these awards.

(8) For travel between the United States (including Hawaii) and Guam via Japan, at least one international flight operated by a US-based airline is required.

(9) Although flights on S7 Airlines to and from destinations in eastern Russia may not be booked using a oneworld and other airlines award, they may be booked using an Explorer award.

(10) A flight sector where the airline does not have traffic rights may not be booked using an Explorer award.

SECTION 6: TOTAL COUNTABLE TRIP MILES

The information in this SECTION applies only to tickets issued on or after 1 September 2008.

American Airlines does not publish its table of distances between airports worldwide. It is possible, however, to get a very close approximation of those distances at the Great Circle Mapper website.

When determining the "total countable trip miles" of an itinerary, the relevant cities are the originating city, the stopover cities, the connecting cities, and the city in which the itinerary ends.

For example, consider the following itinerary:
JFK (originating city) -> LAX (connection) -> HNL (stopover city) -> SYD (stopover city) -> CHC (connection) -> BNE (stopover city) -> CNS (connection) -> HKG (stopover city) -> BKK (connection) -> SIN (connection) -> LAX (stopover city) -> JFK (ending city)
The "total countable trip miles" of this itinerary would be 30,471 miles.

The "total countable trip miles" of an itinerary does not include any land segments.

SECTION 7: COST OF AWARDS

Total Countable Trip Miles = 0 to 1,500
Economy: costs 30,000 AA miles
Business: costs 60,000 AA miles
First: costs 80,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 1,501 - 4,000
Economy: costs 35,000 AA miles
Business: costs 75,000 AA miles
First: costs 100,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 4,001 - 9,000
Economy: costs 60,000 AA miles
Business: costs 80,000 AA miles
First: costs 100,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 9,001 - 10,000
Economy: costs 70,000 AA miles
Business: costs 90,000 AA miles
First: costs 120,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 10,001 - 14,000
Economy: costs 90,000 AA miles
Business: costs 115,000 AA miles
First: costs 150,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 14,001 - 20,000
Economy: costs 100,000 AA miles
Business: costs 130,000 AA miles
First: costs 180,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 20,001 - 25,000
Economy: costs 120,000 AA miles
Business: costs 150,000 AA miles
First: costs 230,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 25,001 - 35,000
Economy: costs 140,000 AA miles
Business: costs 190,000 AA miles
First: costs 280,000 AA miles

Total Countable Trip Miles = 35,001 - 50,000
Economy: costs 160,000 AA miles
Business: costs 220,000 AA miles
First: costs 330,000 AA miles

SECTION 8: BOOKING CODES

The inventory for Explorer awards, oneworld and other airline awards, and all-AA awards is the same.

Economy class:
X on all oneworld airlines except American Airlines (AA), Dragonair (KA), Japan Airlines (JL), LAN (LA), LAN Argentina (4M), LAN Ecuador (XL), LAN Peru (LP), and S7 Airlines (S7).
T on JL (international), AA, KA, LA, 4M, XL, and LP.
S on JL (domestic).
E on S7.
Business class:
U on all oneworld airlines except JL (domestic).
D on JL (domestic).
First class:
Z on all oneworld airlines that offer first class awards except Malaysia Airlines (MH) and Qantas (QF).
P on MH and QF.
SECTION 9: TICKET VALIDITY AND CHANGES

(1) The ticket is valid for one year from the date of issuance (not from the date of the first flight).

(2) Once the ticket is issued, a change to the date, time, or number of a flight is free. These types of changes may be made even after travel has begun.

(3) Once the ticket is issued, a person is not allowed to change the name of the passenger, the routing (including stopovers or connections) of a segment, or the airline for a segment. (But at least one member of flyertalk has been allowed to convert a stopover at a particular airport to a connection at the same airport, or vice versa, after ticketing.) For example:
(A) A person would not be allowed to substitute British Airways for Cathay Pacific Airways (CX) for the flight from Hong Kong to London. Nor would the person be allowed to substitute Dragon Air for CX for the flight from Hong Kong to Manila.
(B) A person would not be allowed to substitute Brisbane for Sydney as the connecting point when flying from Cairns to Los Angeles.
(C) A person would not be allowed to make a Los Angeles to Brisbane flight nonstop if it was originally ticketed as Los Angeles to Brisbane with a connection in Sydney.
(D) A person would not be allowed to change a connection or stopover in San Francisco (SFO) to a co-terminal of that airport (San Jose (SJO) or Oakland (OAK)).
(4) holtju2 reported in post #170 of the previous thread that American Airlines allowed him to change an economy class flight to business class after he began travel on a business class award ticket. holtju2 originally booked the flight in economy class because there was no business class award availability on that flight. The flight was not an American Airlines flight.

SECTION 10: USING A BUSINESS CLASS AWARD ON FLIGHTS THAT DO NOT HAVE A BUSINESS CLASS CABIN

This SECTION applies only to a person who is both using a business class award and taking a flight that does not have a business class cabin.

The person is entitled to first class travel on American Airlines, if there is "Z" availability for that flight. If "Z" is unavailable but "T" is available, then the person must travel in economy class.

For a flight on a oneworld airline other than American Airlines, the person must travel in economy class (assuming that there is "T," "X," "E," or "S" availability, as appropriate).

SECTION 11: RENEWING THE HOLD OF AN ITINERARY THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN TICKETED

American Airlines allows an itinerary to be put on hold for 5 days unless the itinerary includes an Iberia or a LAN flight, in which case the maximum hold period is 24 hours. There is no absolute right to extend the hold directly. (In unusual circumstances, such as the need to obtain persmission from oneworld carriers to change the passenger name on an itinerary, an American Airlines supervisor may extend the hold.)

If the traveler does not wish to ticket the itinerary within the hold period, the traveler may indirectly extend the hold by re-reserving all flights in the itinerary. Each of the flights to be re-reserved is subject to availability, as if the flight had never been reserved. The seats originally on hold are not considered to be available, i.e., do not go back into award inventory, when determining whether the flights may be re-reserved. For example, a traveler who is holding a business class award seat on QF 107 from Sydney to Los Angeles that is currently showing U0 availability will not be able to re-reserve that flight.

SECTION 12: AWARD AVAILABILITY TOOLS

This section does not include the airline's own website.

airberlin (AB): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, AA website, BA website, QF website
American Airlines (AA): Award Nexus, Expert Flyer, KVS Tool, BA website, JL website, QF website
British Airways (BA): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, AA website, CX website, JL website, QF website
Cathay Pacific (CX): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, JL website, QF website
Dragonair (KA): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, CX website, JL website
Finnair (AY): Award Nexus, Expert Flyer (economy class only), KVS Tool, AA website, BA website, QF website
Iberia (IB): Award Nexus, Expert Flyer (business class only), KVS Tool, BA website, QF website
Japan Airlines (JL): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website
LAN Airlines (LA): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, QF website
LAN Argentina (4M): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, QF website
LAN Ecuador (XL): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, QF website
LAN Express (UC): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, QF website
LAN Peru (LP): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, QF website
Malaysia Airlines (MH): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website
NIKI (HG): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, QF website
Qantas (QF): Award Nexus, Expert Flyer, KVS Tool, AA website, BA website, CX website, JL website
Qatar Airways (QR): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, BA website, QF website
Royal Jordanian (RJ): Award Nexus, KVS Tool, AA website, BA website, QF website
S7 Airlines (S7): Award Nexus, Expert Flyer (economy class only), KVS Tool, BA website, QF website

It has been reported that the QF web site occasionally shows award space on AA, AY, CX, KA, and IB that is not actually available for booking. This happens when using the QF website directly or indirectly through Award Nexus or the KVS Tool..

Airline Route Mapper, which is a desktop application, is a useful way to visualize routes operated by airlines worldwide. It has some limitations, the most important of which is that it shows routes operated on the last date the application was updated and not routes that will begin or end after that date.

SECTION 13: TAXES, FEES, SURCHARGES, CHARGES, DUTIES, ETC.

Free award tickets are always exempt from the following:
U.S. passenger facility charges (XF)
U.S. flight segment tax (ZP)
U.S. international arrival tax (US)
U.S. international departure tax (US)

Free award tickets are always subject to the following:
U.S. September 11th security fees (AY)
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) fee (XA)
U.S. immigration fee (XY)
U.S. customs fee (YC)

Award tickets that include one or more British Airways (BA) or Iberia (IB) flights are not "free" for purposes of the above taxes, fees, and charges. This is because BA and IB impose a sometimes expensive surcharge (YQ) on award tickets. This results in XF, ZP, and US being charged on those tickets as if they were paid tickets (in addition to AY, XA, XY, and YC).

You can double check American Airlines' calculation of taxes, fees, surcharges, charges, duties, etc. by entering your itinerary on the ITA website.[/FONT]

Last edited by JDiver; Jun 26, 2014 at 1:14 pm Reason: move obsolete wiki info here for historical use
JDiver is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2012, 8:12 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: New York, NY
Programs: Continental Elite, United Premier, AA Platinum, SPG Gold
Posts: 31
Help figuring out honeymoon using AA miles for Oneworld Flights

Hi, I was hoping to get some feedback/advice on how to go about booking oneworld flights using AA miles for my upcoming honeymoon. After reviewing the first post, my ideal itinerary is:

NYC-NRT-TPE (via Japan Airlines)
TPE-HKG-SYD (via Cathay Pacific)
SYD-NAN (via Qantas although its codeshare Air Pacific)
NAN-LAX-NYC (via American Airlines, although a leg is codeshare Air Pacific)

If NAN doesn't work because of the ineligible codeshare leg, I likely will just go to AKL instead of NAN which I can get to via Qantas. With that being said, here are my questions:

1. After checking on circle map, the trip is 23,122 miles (AKL route is 23,483 miles) so are the award miles for biz class needed 150K AA miles and there are no necessary increases in miles (i.e. saver vs standard award)?
2. I'm looking to book a 12/15/2012 - 1/1/2013 trip. When is the earliest I can start calling in to make the award reservation? As I tried it online, the last dates available to make reservations were 11/26/2012. I know people have said 330 days but is that 330 days from first flight or 330 days from last flight.
3. Is it difficult to book a 2 person trip in biz class using the oneworld award chart if miles are coming from 2 different accounts (understanding that each person's account has to cover its own awards fare)?
4. What can I expect in regards to surcharges for this type of itinerary?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
ThanxsisC is offline  
Old Jan 2, 2012, 8:44 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by ThanxsisC
Hi, I was hoping to get some feedback/advice on how to go about booking oneworld flights using AA miles for my upcoming honeymoon. After reviewing the first post, my ideal itinerary is:

NYC-NRT-TPE (via Japan Airlines)
TPE-HKG-SYD (via Cathay Pacific)
SYD-NAN (via Qantas although its codeshare Air Pacific)
NAN-LAX-NYC (via American Airlines, although a leg is codeshare Air Pacific)

If NAN doesn't work because of the ineligible codeshare leg, I likely will just go to AKL instead of NAN which I can get to via Qantas. With that being said, here are my questions:

1. After checking on circle map, the trip is 23,122 miles (AKL route is 23,483 miles) so are the award miles for biz class needed 150K AA miles and there are no necessary increases in miles (i.e. saver vs standard award)?
2. I'm looking to book a 12/15/2012 - 1/1/2013 trip. When is the earliest I can start calling in to make the award reservation? As I tried it online, the last dates available to make reservations were 11/26/2012. I know people have said 330 days but is that 330 days from first flight or 330 days from last flight.
3. Is it difficult to book a 2 person trip in biz class using the oneworld award chart if miles are coming from 2 different accounts (understanding that each person's account has to cover its own awards fare)?
4. What can I expect in regards to surcharges for this type of itinerary?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
All oneworld award flights must come out of SAAver/Partner (capacity controlled) inventory. If that inventory is not available, there is no option to secure the flight by paying more miles on a oneworld award. Flights operated by Air Pacific cannot be booked on a oneworld itinerary. No particular flight can be booked more than 331 days in advance of flight date. You can "hold" a partial itinerary for up to five days without charge, and the call back to add new segments. If two award seats are available on each of your desired seats, it does not matter whether the 150K miles per award come from a single account, or from two different accounts. But if from two different accounts, then each account must have at least 150K miles in it.
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Old Jan 2, 2012, 8:55 am
  #4  
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And no fuel surcharges when redeeming AAdvantage miles, unless you are flying on BA metal.
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Old Jan 3, 2012, 2:51 pm
  #5  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,204
Originally Posted by ThanxsisC
Hi, I was hoping to get some feedback/advice on how to go about booking oneworld flights using AA miles for my upcoming honeymoon. After reviewing the first post, my ideal itinerary is:

NYC-NRT-TPE (via Japan Airlines)
TPE-HKG-SYD (via Cathay Pacific)
SYD-NAN (via Qantas although its codeshare Air Pacific)
NAN-LAX-NYC (via American Airlines, although a leg is codeshare Air Pacific)

If NAN doesn't work because of the ineligible codeshare leg, I likely will just go to AKL instead of NAN which I can get to via Qantas. With that being said, here are my questions:

1. After checking on circle map, the trip is 23,122 miles (AKL route is 23,483 miles) so are the award miles for biz class needed 150K AA miles and there are no necessary increases in miles (i.e. saver vs standard award)?
2. I'm looking to book a 12/15/2012 - 1/1/2013 trip. When is the earliest I can start calling in to make the award reservation? As I tried it online, the last dates available to make reservations were 11/26/2012. I know people have said 330 days but is that 330 days from first flight or 330 days from last flight.
3. Is it difficult to book a 2 person trip in biz class using the oneworld award chart if miles are coming from 2 different accounts (understanding that each person's account has to cover its own awards fare)?
4. What can I expect in regards to surcharges for this type of itinerary?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
guv1976 pretty much answered all your questions. I will comment on the routing. Any particular reason why you wanted to take JAL thru NRT to TPE? Assuming that NRT is only a connection, CX via HKG to TPE would have a better J product since you still have roughly 1,800 miles to spare. Your routing has only 7 segments which gives more flexibility for the routing in case there is no availability for the segment you want.

I would guess that the most difficult flight to find the availability would be returning to the US from Australia. Since you are planning this far out, you might have a better chance.

When you call to book your awards, you can ask for two seats in one reservation. Once you are ready to ticket the reservation, the agent will split the reservation into two record locators and take 150K from each account.

Good luck!
ilovetofly is offline  
Old Jan 4, 2012, 6:55 am
  #6  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bath, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,000
Question re stop-overs and open-jaws

Hi there,

Just busy struggling with a ticket at the moment, and just need some clarification. I will be traveling through YYZ during the first leg of my award ticket and stopping over - that much I understand.

I would like to go back to YYZ later on during the second part of my ticket.

If I understand correctly, I cannot fly into YYZ as the start of an open jaw, but I can fly out of YYZ as the end of an open jaw without it qualifying as a stop-over? Is this correct? Or am I missing something and I can actually fly into YYZ as the start of an open jaw (which would be my first choice)?

Can anyone advise the definite answer on this.

Thanks in advance.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 7:29 am
  #7  
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Posts: 4,861
The departing city in an open jaw is neither a connection nor a stopover. Therefore, a person could stopover in the city once, connect through the city twice, and depart from that city at the tail end of an open jaw. This paragraph does not apply to an open jaw consisting of the origin and final destination of an itinerary.
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 7:56 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bath, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,000
So.then the following should be legal:

CPT - JNB (connection)
JNB - HKG (connection)
HKG - PNH (stop over)
PNH - HKG (stop over)
HKG - YYZ (stop over)
YYZ - JFK (stop over)
JFK - MAD (connection)
MAD - JNB (stop over)
JNB - MAD (connection)
MAD - BOG (stop over)
BOG - MIA (stop over)
OVERLAND MIA - YYZ
YYZ - HEL (stop over)
HEL - MAD (stop over)
MAD - JNB (connection)
JNB - CPT

This would give me 2 connections and 1 stop over each in MAD and JNB. The mileage from CPT - MAI is 37,761 and from YYZ through CPT is 11,755 (according to milecalc.com) totaling 49,516 as if I am reading the rules correctly the miles between MIA and YYZ on the open-jaw are not included.

Can anyone confirm this is within the rules.

Thanks
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Old Jan 4, 2012, 8:14 am
  #9  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: ORD, DEL
Programs: AA (Plt Pro; 1.5 MM)
Posts: 6,179
Originally Posted by wijibintheair
So.then the following should be legal:

CPT - JNB (connection)
JNB - HKG (connection)
HKG - PNH (stop over)
PNH - HKG (stop over)
HKG - YYZ (stop over)
YYZ - JFK (stop over)
JFK - MAD (connection)
MAD - JNB (stop over)
JNB - MAD (connection)
MAD - BOG (stop over)
BOG - MIA (stop over)
OVERLAND MIA - YYZ
YYZ - HEL (stop over)
HEL - MAD (stop over)
MAD - JNB (connection)
JNB - CPT

This would give me 2 connections and 1 stop over each in MAD and JNB. The mileage from CPT - MAI is 37,761 and from YYZ through CPT is 11,755 (according to milecalc.com) totaling 49,516 as if I am reading the rules correctly the miles between MIA and YYZ on the open-jaw are not included...Can anyone confirm this is within the rules...
Seems good to a casual glance. Your garden variety AA rep may include the overland mileage in the total and come up with >50K for the itinerary. If so, be prepared for some discussion before this is sorted out.
aktchi is offline  
Old Jan 4, 2012, 8:47 pm
  #10  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: EWR PHL JFK
Programs: AA PLT, HH Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 200
sample NYC-Europe <10k countable Trip

JFK (starting point)
MAD (connection) IB
AGP (stopover) IB
MAD (stopover) IB
FCO (stopover) IB
LHR (connection) BA
CDG (stopover) BA
// open jaw
BRU
JFK (ending point) AA

total countable miles ~9953

70k economy
90k business

taxes came out to $286 per ticket
ulzimates is offline  
Old Jan 4, 2012, 10:54 pm
  #11  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 4,861
Do you have a question?
Austinrunner is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2012, 10:04 am
  #12  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: UA,AA,Marriott Platinum
Posts: 329
Originally Posted by ulzimates
JFK (starting point)
MAD (connection) IB
AGP (stopover) IB
MAD (stopover) IB
FCO (stopover) IB
LHR (connection) BA
CDG (stopover) BA
// open jaw
BRU
JFK (ending point) AA

total countable miles ~9953

70k economy
90k business

taxes came out to $286 per ticket
Bragging rights....I thought that the taxes would be higher especially for a business(?) ticket.
aarato is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2012, 2:17 pm
  #13  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: EWR PHL JFK
Programs: AA PLT, HH Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 200
Originally Posted by Austinrunner
Do you have a question?
No question and not bragging. Just thought I threw out a sample itinerary for others to play around with.
ulzimates is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2012, 3:41 pm
  #14  
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 266
quick question. i booked a business class award ticket a few hours ago through AA reservations on Cathay. gave them a credit card for the taxes/phone fee, but still have not seen a charge on my card. when i look up the PNR on AA.com (got it when i put ticket on hold), it shows up as ticketed. just trying to decide if this was standard or if i should be worried maybe I gave them the wrong credit card number.
jaybert is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2012, 3:42 pm
  #15  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,874
For me, that's not unusual.
rrgg is offline  

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