glu800

Hi, I've been trying to price out an award with phone agents, but I seem to keep getting a miles total that is way over what the partner award chart states.

This is a one-way award, from Lima to Honolulu via San Francisco.

I have LIM-SFO on LAN Airlines, then stopover for about 3 weeks, then SFO-HNL on Hawaiian Airlines. According to the award chart, this should be 17,500 miles since Hawaii is considered to be part of North America on the award chart. However, the phone agent priced it out (or it automatically priced it out) as two awards, for a total of 40,000!

I'm almost 100% sure this award should be a South America Zone 1 to North America award, but the phone agent kept giving me nonsensical reasons as to why they won't price it out as such ("you're going over the miles" - what miles?? "LAN doesn't publish tickets to Hawaii" - that doesn't even make any sense).

Can anyone here shed some light as to why they are pricing this out as two awards? I was going to call back and try doing a LAN + AA combination flight to Hawaii instead to see if that prices out correctly.

Thanks for any help.

aviator8

you must be breaking one of the 4 rules you must meet for a stopover to be priced out as a single award. Read rule 2 in this post. You are probably exceeding the MPM

http://milevalue.com/reader-question...rlines-awards/

I didn't run the mileage numbers but if you play around trying to choose a different north american gateway for your stopover you might be able to get it to work.

glu800

Definitely not breaking any stopover rules, and this is definitely within the MPM. In fact, it's only about 15% over while AA allows 25% as far as I know.

Here's the strangest part, I just called in and tried to price out LIM-LAX-HNL with a stopover in LAX, but now using LAN Airlines and American Airlines (instead of Hawaiian), and that prices out correctly at 17,500! Looks like its an issue with combining Hawaiian Airlines with partner airlines. Hmm.

Still on the phone with the agent right now as she's investigating this too...

aviator8

Happy, or one of the other award experts will probably be along shortly and point right to the problem. It probably is because you are including Hawaian, but I can't point to the rule that exclude you from using them in your award. Good luck getting it squared away.

glu800

Aviator, you are in fact correct. Looks like I must have broken rule #3.
So LAN, the airline that is connecting the two regions in my case (LIM-LAX or LIM-SFO) must have a published fare from the origin to the destination (in this case Honolulu) using Hawaiian Airlines. Obviously since LAN doesn't partner with Hawaiian, it won't work and therefore prices out as two awards.

Too bad

aviator8

Why not price it on AA then? Is there some reason for only wanting to do the SFO-HNL leg on HA?

glu800

Yeah, I can definitely do this with AA... but just have to fly through LAX vs. direct from SFO. I guess I'm just lazy

But yeah, I will probably end up booking it on AA through LAX as soon as the dates I need open up!

Austinrunner

OP, LA must publish a LIM -> HNL through fare AND the routing you want between those points must be allowed by that fare. If LA's fare is a routing-based fare and doesn't allow HA from California to HNL, then you can't use HA. If LA's fare is a maximum permitted mileage fare, then you may use AA or any of its partners from California to HNL.

JDiver

The four rules stopovers must comply with referred to on milevalue.com (you will need to go there to read the detailed information) are:

1) Stopovers must occur at the North American International Gateway City.

2) The stopover must be part of a routing that does not exceed AA’s Maximum Permitted Mileage for your origin and destination by more than 25%.

3) The airline that operates the flight that connects the two regions must have a published fare for your origin and destination city pair.

4) A stopover’s length is limited by the fact that all award travel must be completed within one year of its booking.

Xero

AA no longer flies SFO-HNL and stopovers are only allowed at the gateway city.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

On a LIM-SFO-LAX-HNL itinerary, SFO is the North American gateway.

Xero

Good point. Somehow that slipped from my head.

Happy

OP, you may want to try this route so you would go home on the inbound and only need to get to LAX on your subsequent trip to HNL via LAX (on AA of course).

One of the hardest part of getting an award routing work is to meet the published fare rule - this is the one that constantly trips up many proposed routing yet it is hard to find it out ahead of time unless you do a lot of checking on ITA... and may still not understand what is allowed what is not. I am not sure if AA the only airline does that but it is such an area even many AAgents would not be able to comprehend, let alone to explain it to the customer why his award would price in 2 instead of 1.

Austinrunner

Unless AA has changed the rules lately, milevalue.com has it wrong. (1) It's the maximum permitted mileage (MPM) of the overwater carrier that counts, which is obviously not always AA. (2) MPM is relevant only if the published fare of the overwater carrier is an MPM fare. The fare could easily be a routing-based fare with no MPM specified. In that case, MPM is irrelevant. (3) The published fare has to be a through, i.e., non-constructed fare.

glu800

Happy, yep, I just put this itinerary on hold: LIM-SFO(stopover)-(LAX)-HNL with SFO-LAX-HNL on AA metal. Total came out to 17,500 exactly as expected.

The published fare rule is definitely a pain. It looks like combining the LAN itineraries with Alaska Airlines doesn't work either. I tried attaching an Alaska Airlines flight and it priced out as two awards also.

Austinrunner, So I'm guessing if LAN is involved, then all their fares are routing-based, and thus the award has to be a LAN published fare in order for it to work?