kay_jay

I wanted to use Avios or Aadvantage mile redemption to go to Manama, Bahrain (BAH) from SFO without paying the hefty fees. I am thinking if someone could let me know about redeeming miles using oneworld alliance partners like Gulf Air or any other airline for that matter who don't charge much in the taxes.

Mwenenzi

Its BA (Avios) and Aadvantage that charge you the taxes & fees. Little to nothing to do with the carrier. Gulf Air is not a OW Alliance partner or associate airline. Many airlines have non alliance partners

dvs7310

Well, not exactly. Yes BA or AA charge you the fee for fuel surcharges and supposedly pocket the money, how much you pay is very much based on which airline you're flying, for myself if I want to go intra-Asia with Avios then JAL is the most expensive, Cathay is significantly less, and Malaysian is nearly nothing. Also incorrect about partner airlines, with Aadvantage miles, while not OneWorld, Gulf Air is definitely a partner as is Etihad. I do not know if AA charges a fuel surcharge when using these airlines or not.

For the OP:
Qatar airways is a OW partner however and I believe with Aadvantage miles you do not pay a surcharge on that carrier, only taxes. With BA Avios you'll pay on everyone if a fuel surcharge exists on revenue tickets (example LAN and AA Domestic excluded since no fuel surcharges on those). With Avios the amount depends on what the carrier charges. Test out some different itineraries and carrier mixes on the Avios website but I suspect in the end Aadvantage is going to be the better deal, both mileage and $$ cost. Avios is distance based but each segment is calculated separately. You're going to have to connect in at least 1 city as you know but probably 2 to avoid BA and their ludicrous fees. The most efficient way to go would be BA connecting in LHR but be prepared to a very significant sum of money in fees using either Avios or Aadvantage miles for BA metal.

From the US your most likely routes on OneWorld carriers are going to be BA via LHR or QR via DOH. Expanding that to Aadvantage partners, you have EY in SFO after mid-November or from other gateways now, also Gulf Air from LHR but they don't fly to the US anymore. It'll definitely take some legwork on your part to find availability on carriers to avoid the fee if going with Aadvantage miles. QR, EY, or GF availability does not show on AA.com, need to find it another way or call in. RJ via AMM could be another option however the connection AMM-BAH is still GF.

Mwenenzi

Disagree with that, at least with AA & QF. AA do not charge surcharges for an AA awards on QF flights, where as QF do on exactly the same flight. From post 330
QF award flight 14 May 2014 LAX-SYD QF12 48,000 points & USD$384
AA award flight 14 May 2014 LAX-SYD QF12 37,500 miles & USD$27

Its BA (Avios) and Aadvantage that charge you the taxes & fees. Little to nothing to do with the operating carrier.

Gulf & EY are AA partners only. Gulf is not a OneWorld partner as incorrectly stated in post 1

jbalmuth

I think that class of service is also a consideration here. In J or F, I would definitely advise looking into using AAdvantage miles on EY's new nonstop to AUH. In Y, however, I would be looking for much shorter segments (i.e. SFO - JFK - TXL/HEL - Middle East) to ease the pain. If you have other reasons to want to fly via London, using AAdvantage miles to fly AA metal (avoid BA codeshares) will ease the fees considerably. [N.B. BA at LHR had a terrible baggage meltdown earlier this summer, and some of the bags have reputedly still not been delivered, over a month later. There are a lot of reasons to avoid that airport, even beyond BA's sky high fuel fines.... YMMV].

dvs7310

You can't compare Aadvantage to other programs, nor Skymiles or Mileage Plus when it comes to fuel surcharges. It's been a longstanding tradition for US based programs not to charge fuel surcharges on award tickets. The BA thing is a unique situation, BA (well IAG) had a hissy fit about it so AA started charging on IAG tickets but to my knowledge they don't charge on anything else. Same with DL and UA, they don't charge fuel on any of their partner's award tickets.

Aside from this, IIRC every other OneWorld carrier except LAN generally charges the fuel surcharges on awards. Your example is comparing a North American based program to a non-North American one. I don't recall anyone ever saying that QF has a very good frequent flyer program, understand people living in OZ may want to use it for other benefits but earning rate, redemption rates, and fuel surcharges are not that reason.

guv1976

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

When redeeming AAdvantage miles, you will pay no surcharges as long as you avoid BA and IB metal. AAdvantage has both oneworld and non-oneworld partners that serve BAH.

In what class of service do you hope to travel, and at what time of year?

UA Fan

OP, consider EY when using AA miles in addition to RJ, GF and AB.

With BA use AB and you won't pay YQ.

Guy Betsy

Why AB? It doesn't go to BAH!

OP should use AA to connect to gateway and take either GF , EY and QR.

UA Fan

Correct, for a moment I thought the OP wanted to go to AUH.

dvs7310

Wasn't aware that AB was surcharge free with Avios. That's good to know. So for the OP then if they really want to go on Avios, AB to AUH may still make sense then a cheapo ticket from there to BAH separately.

kay_jay

We are planning to go to Bahrain in the month of April, 2015 in Economy class. Would consider Business class if the difference is not way too high.

guv1976

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

For travel in April, you could get to BAH from SFO for only 40K AA miles (in Coach), by combining a North America-Europe award with a Europe-Middle East/India award. And you would be permitted a stopover in Europe, since you would be redeeming for two awards.

Or, if you wanted to use Avios for part of the trip without paying huge surcharges, you could try to redeem 25,000 Avios for EI's SFO-DUB nonstop, and then redeem 20,000 AA miles for DUB-AUH-BAH on EY, or maybe even DUB-DME-BAH on S7/GF. (DUB-BAH in Business Class would cost 30,000 AA miles.)

kay_jay

guv1976: I like the first part os using AA. Can you please explain bit more?
How can I combine North America - Europe award and a Europe - Middle East/India award? Since it is end of April, we are considering visiting the tulip gardens (Keukenhof) in Netherlands. Will it be possible?

guv1976

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

Just redeem for separate one-way awards: SFO-AMS (or perhaps DUS or BRU), avoiding long-haul on BA; then XXX-BAH; then BAH-Europe and Europe-SFO as separate awards. (You good even stop over in a different European city -- maybe Paris or Madrid -- on the way home. Keep in mind the TN CDG-LAX nonstop if you come home via PAR.)

If you find yourself flying in to LHR on AA from the U.S., you could also redeem just 4,500 BA Avios plus about $27 USD for a "Reward Flight Saver" redemption to AMS.

If you book multiple AAdvantage awards on a single call, you should be charged just one $25 telephone-ticketing fee per passenger.