Jan 13, 2015, 2:43 pm
Last edit by: SingaporeDon
Booking Award Seats on EY / Etihad Airways Using AA / AAdvantage Miles
This thread is about "how to" book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
- You cannot search or book awards for travel on EY (Etihad) on www.aa.com
- You can search award availability on EY's website. Look for seats on flights operated by Etihad Airways labeled as "GuestSeats".
- You have to call AA to book them. You may need to request the AA agent to look up the inventory one segment at a time in order to find the inventory in their system. OR:
- Your best bet is to call AA Australia (+61 2-9101-1948 ) - although the call center is actually in Suva, Fiji -as they can see the inventory reliably, and you can book (or put the EY segments on hold so you can flesh out the award afterward).
- A handy EY route map is at http://flights.etihad.com/routemap
- The applicable AAdvantage miles award chart is the oneworld and Other Airline Award Chart
- Award routing rules are in the wikipost of this thread
- It can be instructive to read about our members' successful award bookings on EY using AAdvantage miles in the Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles (>= 2015) thread. [Note: posts prior to 2015 about this topic (with the exception of a few 2014 end of year posts brought forward for continuity) are archived at ARCHIVE: Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles]
- If you find EY inventory from your continent but not your city of choice, as usual you can include any other AAdvantage award airlines in order to complete the itinerary. E.g. LHR-xAUH-DEL-xAUH-CDG on EY connecting to CDG-LHR on BA.
How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
Feb 19, 2014, 9:33 am
#1
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How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
Sorry if my question is too ignorant.
Am trying to book Europe to Australia in business by using AA miles, on the AA website only BA/QF is showing.
When calling AA advantage, the flights of EY aren't showing in any class.
Am trying to book Europe to Australia in business by using AA miles, on the AA website only BA/QF is showing.
When calling AA advantage, the flights of EY aren't showing in any class.
Feb 19, 2014, 9:48 am
#2
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
Does EY offer any through-flights (i.e., single flight number) between your origin in Europe and Australia? If not, you would have to book Europe-AUH as one award, and AUH-Europe as a second award: AA's Europe-Australia awards do not permit connections in the Middle East, only in selected Asian airports.
Does EY offer any through-flights (i.e., single flight number) between your origin in Europe and Australia? If not, you would have to book Europe-AUH as one award, and AUH-Europe as a second award: AA's Europe-Australia awards do not permit connections in the Middle East, only in selected Asian airports.
Feb 19, 2014, 10:05 am
#3
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
Does EY offer any through-flights (i.e., single flight number) between your origin in Europe and Australia? If not, you would have to book Europe-AUH as one award, and AUH-Europe as a second award: AA's Europe-Australia awards do not permit connections in the Middle East, only in selected Asian airports.
Does EY offer any through-flights (i.e., single flight number) between your origin in Europe and Australia? If not, you would have to book Europe-AUH as one award, and AUH-Europe as a second award: AA's Europe-Australia awards do not permit connections in the Middle East, only in selected Asian airports.
Just tried but only still showing only one world carriers.
Feb 19, 2014, 10:31 am
#4
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
If you only want to fly EY, then call AA back, and say that you want to redeem for one award from Europe to AUH on EY, and a second award from AUH to MEL on EY. This will cost 75K AA miles in Business, instead of the 60K normally charged for a Europe-South Pacific Business redemption.
Of course, if there is no award-seat availability on your desired EY flights, then you are out of luck.
I don't know the answer to your checked-baggage question. Note, though, that if you are redeeming for two separate awards, you could stop over in AUH, if desired.
If you only want to fly EY, then call AA back, and say that you want to redeem for one award from Europe to AUH on EY, and a second award from AUH to MEL on EY. This will cost 75K AA miles in Business, instead of the 60K normally charged for a Europe-South Pacific Business redemption.
Of course, if there is no award-seat availability on your desired EY flights, then you are out of luck.
I don't know the answer to your checked-baggage question. Note, though, that if you are redeeming for two separate awards, you could stop over in AUH, if desired.
Feb 19, 2014, 12:53 pm
#5
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 72
Get an Etihad FF account and check award availability on Etihad's website first - if you see something at the LOW level, call AA. The AA agents have to explicitly look for Etihad seats, but my experience so far has been that if you see space on Etihad's website, AA can book it... including their First Class suites!
Feb 19, 2014, 1:27 pm
#6
Join Date: Nov 2008
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Get an Etihad FF account and check award availability on Etihad's website first - if you see something at the LOW level, call AA. The AA agents have to explicitly look for Etihad seats, but my experience so far has been that if you see space on Etihad's website, AA can book it... including their First Class suites!
I just booked tickets from BKK-AUH (one award) and AUH-IAD for the entire family.
First seg has the DW and I in J, with 3 in steerage.
Second has the DW and I in F and 2 of the family the family in J. The third is routing through JFK in J.
Agent was great, just spoon fed them the flights I wanted.
Feb 19, 2014, 3:52 pm
#7
Moderator: American AAdvantage
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As this pertains to the pre-merger American Airlines, it is being moved to that forum.
As noted in the Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING, questions and information pertaining to the existing AA or US operations should go in those forums as it will be quite some time before the two entities operate as a single airline.
Your understanding is appreciated.
/Moderator
As noted in the Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING, questions and information pertaining to the existing AA or US operations should go in those forums as it will be quite some time before the two entities operate as a single airline.
Your understanding is appreciated.
/Moderator
Feb 19, 2014, 4:24 pm
#8
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: AA Exec Plat, UA 1K, SPG Plat, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Plat
Posts: 201
Booked SIN to AUH and AUH to IAD. You definitely have to look for award availability on Etihad first, then call Aadvantage and give them the exact flight numbers and routes. Doing it this way has yielded no problems.
Mar 5, 2014, 10:38 am
#9
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No need to register for an account, just click here. Make sure you see availibility in the column marked "guest."
I just booked tickets from BKK-AUH (one award) and AUH-IAD for the entire family.
First seg has the DW and I in J, with 3 in steerage.
Second has the DW and I in F and 2 of the family the family in J. The third is routing through JFK in J.
Agent was great, just spoon fed them the flights I wanted.
I just booked tickets from BKK-AUH (one award) and AUH-IAD for the entire family.
First seg has the DW and I in J, with 3 in steerage.
Second has the DW and I in F and 2 of the family the family in J. The third is routing through JFK in J.
Agent was great, just spoon fed them the flights I wanted.
I find that link to actually be one of he easiest-- maybe even the single easiest-- ways to find a given partner's AAdv award possibilities No logging in, quick results, page stays if you leave the page on an iPad, etc. Really simple and great.
One note of caution, the US immigration/customs pre-clearance at AUH is not, presently, working at all well. I posted my experience on TB, and have since heard universally bad reviews from all EY people (and customers) I've encountered-- really really bad.
Take the later AUH-JFK as it has no preclearance until/unless they get this worked out.
A summary: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...40&postcount=6
Mar 5, 2014, 11:13 am
#10
Join Date: May 2006
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Was able to use that incredibly-easy-to-use link above to score awards home from JNB, JNB-AUH-JFK with the AUH-JFK in F (I'm on it right now in fact, and enjoying the hell out of it.)
I find that link to actually be one of he easiest-- maybe even the single easiest-- ways to find a given partner's AAdv award possibilities No logging in, quick results, page stays if you leave the page on an iPad, etc. Really simple and great.
One note of caution, the US immigration/customs pre-clearance at AUH is not, presently, working at all well. I posted my experience on TB, and have since heard universally bad reviews from all EY people (and customers) I've encountered-- really really bad.
Take the later AUH-JFK as it has no preclearance until/unless they get this worked out.
A summary: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...40&postcount=6
I find that link to actually be one of he easiest-- maybe even the single easiest-- ways to find a given partner's AAdv award possibilities No logging in, quick results, page stays if you leave the page on an iPad, etc. Really simple and great.
One note of caution, the US immigration/customs pre-clearance at AUH is not, presently, working at all well. I posted my experience on TB, and have since heard universally bad reviews from all EY people (and customers) I've encountered-- really really bad.
Take the later AUH-JFK as it has no preclearance until/unless they get this worked out.
A summary: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...40&postcount=6
Mar 5, 2014, 11:44 am
#11
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the whole flight and it's been amazing. would definitely be a very different experience without him! Thanks for the info, I'm a bit of an Etihad novice, so it's all news to me.That preclearance thing sure was a clusterpluck though, really a shame, because in principal I love the idea that I can just hop off this delightful flight and not have to deal with customs/immigration, it's a relaxing feeling and a great idea, in principal.
Mar 5, 2014, 9:21 pm
#12
Join Date: Jul 2012
Programs: AA Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 99
Was able to use that incredibly-easy-to-use link above to score awards home from JNB, JNB-AUH-JFK with the AUH-JFK in F (I'm on it right now in fact, and enjoying the hell out of it.)
I find that link to actually be one of he easiest-- maybe even the single easiest-- ways to find a given partner's AAdv award possibilities No logging in, quick results, page stays if you leave the page on an iPad, etc. Really simple and great.
One note of caution, the US immigration/customs pre-clearance at AUH is not, presently, working at all well. I posted my experience on TB, and have since heard universally bad reviews from all EY people (and customers) I've encountered-- really really bad.
Take the later AUH-JFK as it has no preclearance until/unless they get this worked out.
A summary: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...40&postcount=6
I find that link to actually be one of he easiest-- maybe even the single easiest-- ways to find a given partner's AAdv award possibilities No logging in, quick results, page stays if you leave the page on an iPad, etc. Really simple and great.
One note of caution, the US immigration/customs pre-clearance at AUH is not, presently, working at all well. I posted my experience on TB, and have since heard universally bad reviews from all EY people (and customers) I've encountered-- really really bad.
Take the later AUH-JFK as it has no preclearance until/unless they get this worked out.
A summary: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...40&postcount=6
Mar 6, 2014, 2:15 am
#14
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Most definitely not (I understand where the question was coming from though!)
In fact, I had it booked as a business-on-both-flights award for about 10 minutes in the morning and the phone AAgent was about to send it off to ticketing, at, you guessed it, the single award price.
Part of me was gonna let her do it just to see what happened (on the "hey, ya need know" theory) -but- since I had to leave where I was (2 hours by plane from JNB) and knew there was no real chance of it going through as a single award-- even in the "rush" of things-- I corrected the AAgent, politely, and asked if it shouldn't be two awards, knowing I simply couldn't risk getting to JNB and having to sort it there on 90 minute connection I built for myself (flew MN GRJ-JNB on a purchased ticket.)
Then it became irrelevant anyway as award F opened up on EY minutes after I hung up. OR might have even been there the whole time, I was just rushed and iPad was dying etc.
Short answer is, of course, Africa to N.America cannot connect in mideast zone-- which I know is what/why you asked!
In fact, I had it booked as a business-on-both-flights award for about 10 minutes in the morning and the phone AAgent was about to send it off to ticketing, at, you guessed it, the single award price.
Part of me was gonna let her do it just to see what happened (on the "hey, ya need know" theory) -but- since I had to leave where I was (2 hours by plane from JNB) and knew there was no real chance of it going through as a single award-- even in the "rush" of things-- I corrected the AAgent, politely, and asked if it shouldn't be two awards, knowing I simply couldn't risk getting to JNB and having to sort it there on 90 minute connection I built for myself (flew MN GRJ-JNB on a purchased ticket.)
Then it became irrelevant anyway as award F opened up on EY minutes after I hung up. OR might have even been there the whole time, I was just rushed and iPad was dying etc.
Short answer is, of course, Africa to N.America cannot connect in mideast zone-- which I know is what/why you asked!
Mar 8, 2014, 2:22 pm
#15
Join Date: Jul 2012
Programs: AA Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 99
Most definitely not (I understand where the question was coming from though!)
In fact, I had it booked as a business-on-both-flights award for about 10 minutes in the morning and the phone AAgent was about to send it off to ticketing, at, you guessed it, the single award price.
Part of me was gonna let her do it just to see what happened (on the "hey, ya need know" theory) -but- since I had to leave where I was (2 hours by plane from JNB) and knew there was no real chance of it going through as a single award-- even in the "rush" of things-- I corrected the AAgent, politely, and asked if it shouldn't be two awards, knowing I simply couldn't risk getting to JNB and having to sort it there on 90 minute connection I built for myself (flew MN GRJ-JNB on a purchased ticket.)
Short answer is, of course, Africa to N.America cannot connect in mideast zone-- which I know is what/why you asked!
In fact, I had it booked as a business-on-both-flights award for about 10 minutes in the morning and the phone AAgent was about to send it off to ticketing, at, you guessed it, the single award price.
Part of me was gonna let her do it just to see what happened (on the "hey, ya need know" theory) -but- since I had to leave where I was (2 hours by plane from JNB) and knew there was no real chance of it going through as a single award-- even in the "rush" of things-- I corrected the AAgent, politely, and asked if it shouldn't be two awards, knowing I simply couldn't risk getting to JNB and having to sort it there on 90 minute connection I built for myself (flew MN GRJ-JNB on a purchased ticket.)
Short answer is, of course, Africa to N.America cannot connect in mideast zone-- which I know is what/why you asked!
Another thing, the AA award chart states that awards to Africa need to be "transatlantic". Well, wouldn't a connection in DOH or AUH comply with this rule the way it is written down? Misleading to say the least...