help on oneworld awards booking (stopover + open jaw)

[kooju999]

Hi,

I'm trying to do one of the following using aa miles.

A)
HNL->ORD (12/28/2012) stop ORD->MXP (07/26/2013)
CDG->ORD (08/09/2013) stop ORD->NHL (12/21/2012)

for 3 people
and a person HNL-ORD round trip for the same date above.

and


B)

SEA->ORD (12/28/2012) stop ORD->MXP (07/26/2013)
CDG->ORD (08/09/2013) stop ORD->YVR (12/21/2012)

for 3 people
and a person joining ORD->YVR, SEA->ORD for the same date above.

Idea is that I'm trying to get free tickets for our family vacation during holiday season in 2012 while planning for vacation 2013.

I tried to book 2 one way award bookings.
I tried to do this on aa.com and have following questions.

1) aa.com did not allow me to enter date on second flight prior to the first one. ie. ORD->YVR (12/21/2012). Should I call agent?

2) aa.com shows only BA options on inbound and fuel surcharges are high. How can I reduce it?

thanks in advance for your help.

[guv1976]

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

1. No; an agent cannot help you because what you want to do is not permitted. All flights on a stopover award must be flown in sequence, and in chronological order. If you want a stopover in ORD, you must fly into ORD before you fly out of ORD.

2. The only way to reduce the fuel surcharges is to avoid flying BA. If you call AA, an agent can check availability on other AA partner carriers which do not have fuel surcharges.

[kooju999]

thanks for reply.

I'm trying to follow example posted on this link.

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/maxi...rlines-awards/

I guess I'll try to book them in chronological order and change the date on one of the flight later on?

[eponymous_coward]

That's not going to work. If you are originating your first flight at ORD, the award structure would have to be:

Award 1: ORD-HNL
Award 2: HNL-ORD(stop)-MXP
Award 3: CDG-ORD

Where you COULD save awards is if you were doing a Hawaii vacations every winter and European vacation in summer. Then you could do (as an example):

Award 1: ORD-HNL
Award 2: HNL-ORD(stop)-MXP
Award 3: CDG-ORD(stop)-HNL
Award 4: HNL-ORD(stop)-MAD
Award 5: MAD-ORD(stop)-HNL
And so on...

The thing is that first flight has to be handled separately. You can start using the free stopover on the SECOND flight.

[Happy]

Originally Posted by kooju999

thanks for reply.

I'm trying to follow example posted on this link.

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/maxi...rlines-awards/

I guess I'll try to book them in chronological order and change the date on one of the flight later on?

The technique described on that post is no different than what you are told here.

You can change the date of a flight, but NOT to a date ahead of the flight(s) preceding it.

In other words, your flights must be in sequence, not jumping backward whether they are the segment routing or the date flown.

[shadesofgrey1x]

don' forget your will need at least 2 different OW partners besides AA. That will get hard to do once you eliminate BA from the mix.

[Happy]

Originally Posted by shadesofgrey1x

don' forget your will need at least 2 different OW partners besides AA. That will get hard to do once you eliminate BA from the mix.

This requirement is only for Explorer award. The OP's proposed travel can easily be accomplished with the regular award, and really should use the regular award than an Explorer award. For the regular award there is no restriction on what carrier(s) to use.