Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Airlines and Mileage Programs > American Airlines | AAdvantage
Reload this Page >

LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]

Old Mar 30, 2014, 12:53 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: JDiver
WIKI POST: Using US Dividend Miles for oneworld Award Flights
As further details become available, please fill in this wikipost.

N.B. Booking opportunities for new Dividend Miles awards of all kinds ended 11:59 PM Wednesday, 25 March 2015. Please continue using this thread for trips booked or in progress through 24 March 2016.

Changes on USDM oneworld award tickets

This is the only official statement about changing issued USDM award tickets:

If I need to make changes to a Dividend Miles award reservation, which programs rules will apply?


Minor changes such as date/time can be made provided seats are available without requiring a new award to be claimed. More substantive changes such as changes to stopovers or origin/destination may result in the need to reinstate the previously claimed Dividend Miles award, then claiming a new AAdvantage award under the existing AAdvantage program rules.
To make a change on a USDM ticket, you need to get an agent that is trained to use the US reservation system.
The old membership rules do 'generally' still appy to USDM tickets.

For awards ticketed / reticketed on 001- ticket stock, go to the AA Refunds site with your ticket number at hand (unsure if it works with 037- stock at this time)to:
  • Print a receipt with ticket number (instead of Request a refund)
  • See total fees, taxes, etc. attached to your ticket
  • See applicable detailed fare rules
  • Request a refund (may not be useful for awards)
(Go here to print in flight purchase receipts)
Some experiences about changes to tickets, reported by members:
  • Some were able to change their ticket without beeing charged the USD 150.- changing fee.
  • No chance to change a ticket after the first flight segment has been flown.
  • ...


Old stuff

oneworld member airlines - airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines (Sibir), SriLankan Airlines, TAM Airlines, US Airways and their affiliates.

Award Chart for oneworld awards using US Dividend Miles:
http://shopping.usairways.com/en-US/...wardtravel.pdf

You can use the American Airlines, British Airways, JAL, or Qantas sites to search for oneworld award inventory. AA and QF also allows you to search for award inventory using a handy 30 day calendar view. However, availability on the calendar is dependent on site coverage (e.g. QF does not include JL or MH, AA does not include CX and others). Also, the calendar view may not be completely accurate on all partners, so use it as a guide but do not rely on it fully.

One of the easiest ways to search for oneworld availability is through the use of an outside tool such as Award Nexus, ExpertFlyer, KVS Tool, or The Wandering Aramean oneworld Search.

Award Nexus has a free community membership for flyertalk members, and award email alert with premium membership. ExpertFlyer has email alerts and direct GDS access to select oneworld award inventories, such as AA, QF, and US. ExpertFlyer can also search J class certificate upgrade inventory. With KVS Tool, you can search QF, BA, JL and CX's search engines, in addition to other alliances, on your PC (Mac / Linux with CrossOver). You can also set up an alert via The Wandering Aramean oneworld Search. This tool will automatically search on QF for your alert once per day with a free account and four times per day with a paid account.

N.B. With all of the above tools, it is best to search one segment at a time. Most oneworld search engines have difficulty marrying segments.

For route searching with itinerary information, use the interactive oneworld map and timetable.

For searching Intra-North America availability, the best tool is AA.com. Unlike the other oneworld engines, AA is pretty good at marrying segments, so you can search origin to destination.

Regarding availability, the strategy that has been most effective for people looking to book award travel on oneworld is to start searching right at 330 days prior to departure. This is generally when availability is at its best. After that, availability tends to be sporadic until starting 8 weeks prior to departure where some airlines open up availability, and will vary all the way up until the day of departure.

If you're having trouble finding availability, it may be best to look at alternate airports (JL, for example, serves SAN, YVR, and BOS, in addition to the larger markets of SFO, LAX, YYZ, ORD, and JFK).

(N.B. Although US was not adding fuel surcharges to awards, there are reports that they have started doing this for awards containing BA flights.) With the exception of BA & IB, no oneworld carriers require you to pay a fuel surcharge for awards. With BA, be aware that you may have to pay both a fuel surcharge as well as the UK Air Passenger Duty departure tax for intercontinental J and F flights out of UK. These fees vary with class of service and length of flight and are determined by BA; the Air Passenger Duty (see specific thread) is due for all UK departures not under 24 hour connecting flights. APD applies to coach tickets, too, but at a reduced rate. The fuel /YQ surcharge with IB is generally considered minimal.

Known Problems / Workaround:
  • Dep 00:00AM : Some agents have difficulty finding flights leaving between midnight and 2 AM. This is because the US systems show it leaving the day before. If the agent cannot find it, please ask to look at the day before. > source <
  • LA : Flights put on hold will be cancelled after 24h. Workaround: Issue the ticket immediately. > source <
  • JL : US Rep cannot find available seats. Workaround: "Always have to remind Rep to open JL reservations on a new screen". > source <
  • MH : US Rep cannot find awards in First Class. Workaround: First class needs to be booked in P-cl instead of Z-cl (as on most other OW carriers). > source < booking classes: > KVS <
  • All : If you are booking outbound flights at the US Air 335 day window US Air will often allow you to put your reservation on a longer than 3 day hold to capture the return seats once they open up at T+335. There is a report of this for 30 days here, and FT user beofotch was successful in getting a 13 day hold here. Workaround: Huaca until you get an agent who is competent enough to do this. It may help to act naive and ask for your return flight on your preferred date even if it is after T+335 days. Once they get an error from the computer may be a good time to bring it up.
  • ...

Fixed Problems:
  • CX : US Rep cannot find seats on flight CX 645 HKG-DOH. Workaround: none so far, search for different routing/carrier (CMB/DXB/...?)... > source < > fixed <
    > fixed <
  • CX : US Rep cannot find seats on flight CX 640 DOH-HKG. They admit, the flight exists, but are unable to book <source>. Workaround: none so far, search for different routing/carrier
    > fixed <
  • BA/Comair : US rep could not see / or unable to book intra-South Africa flights in BA flight number operated by Comair despite AA treats Comair a full fledged oneworld member under BA, in the same context as KA under CX. Only one reported success booking - poster reported agent had trouble at first but on consulting a supervisor was told "where to look"; the agent did not give any further information. Most everyone else reported unable to book Comair flights.
    > fixed <
  • IB : Flights will be cancelled after ticket issued. Workaround: None yet... > source <
    > fixed <
Print Wikipost

LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]

Old Mar 30, 2014, 10:41 pm
  #31  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 6,384
Originally Posted by choupeo
Can I have a stopover on an one-zone award, for example, SE Asia - SE Asia ? I've never booked an award before (when US Airways was still in Star alliance) so I am not sure about the rules.
No, although that rule might be bendable.


Is OW award space online yet at the call center?
yerffej201 is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 10:42 pm
  #32  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Programs: IHG Plat, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold, SPG Gold, United Silver, Garuda Silver, Delta Silver
Posts: 70
..,,,,
Flyer Sean is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 10:46 pm
  #33  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Programs: CX,SQ,PR,QR
Posts: 577
There are separate OW and partner airlines award charts in the US website. I guess this is a confirmation that you could not mix them up...
bluegreentravel is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 10:51 pm
  #34  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 6,384
Originally Posted by Flyer Sean
This thread is about whether or not we can start booking on oneworld...at all. Not sure how we are getting from there to finding award availability and stopover rules...
Of course yes... it's just when. I'm assuming similar usdm rules apply (as with previous star awards) and just search oneworld space with ba.com
yerffej201 is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 11:08 pm
  #35  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,103
I default to searching on britishairways.com and on aa.com for OW award availability and sometimes Qantas some years ago, but the tools were better for Star searches than for Oneworld searches. With OW, calling in is more frequently needed for planning.

Originally Posted by piyush
Looks like the award chart is unchanged ^!!
The mileage prices indeed. But with BA and IB fuel surcharges included, the total price, award availability and perhaps routing rules are going to make things different.

Originally Posted by Flyer Sean
This is what scares me...

"What benefits will US Airways Dividend Miles members receive through oneworld?
You can look forward to earning and redeeming miles, reciprocal elite benefits and lounge access on other oneworld carriers: airberlin, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, TAM and some 25 affiliated airlines. Some of these benefits will be phased in as we work toward full integration."

I need to book something now and cannot wait for US to decide 3 months from now to let us use our miles.
The US statement doesn't mean US will have any of us wait even a week or more to use our US miles on Oneworld carriers. By the end of this week -- if not later today -- I'm expecting to be likely to be using my US miles to fly some Oneworld partner flights.

Last edited by GUWonder; Mar 30, 2014 at 11:19 pm
GUWonder is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 11:09 pm
  #36  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Originally Posted by yerffej201
Of course yes... it's just when. I'm assuming similar usdm rules apply (as with previous star awards) and just search oneworld space with ba.com
I'd just caution that I spent all last week trying to book CX seats (with AA) which were showing available on BA and QF engines but every time I called AA computer said no! I am fairly sure the availability was not phantom as it seemed to follow classic CX releasing close to departure patterns. Finally after five days of trying and when BA suddenly showed 5 seats in U class 3 days before departure AA was able to see something. I am guessing US may be similarly afflicted.

The whole time I was thinking this is a very US like situation!
wheresmybagba is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 11:43 pm
  #37  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 41
Does anybody know if it will be possible to put awards on hold with oneworld partners for three days as we were used to when booking *alliance?
nz09 is offline  
Old Mar 30, 2014, 11:58 pm
  #38  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Originally Posted by nz09
Does anybody know if it will be possible to put awards on hold with oneworld partners for three days as we were used to when booking *alliance?
I don't see why not - this can even be done online with AA so there is no *O restriction on the practice.
wheresmybagba is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:20 am
  #39  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Programs: EY Plat, Accor Plat
Posts: 423
any good oil on what our ANA replacement tool is?
kelix is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:30 am
  #40  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: LHR
Programs: AA EXP, SPG PLT
Posts: 584
Originally Posted by wheresmybagba
I'd just caution that I spent all last week trying to book CX seats (with AA) which were showing available on BA and QF engines but every time I called AA computer said no! I am fairly sure the availability was not phantom as it seemed to follow classic CX releasing close to departure patterns. Finally after five days of trying and when BA suddenly showed 5 seats in U class 3 days before departure AA was able to see something. I am guessing US may be similarly afflicted.

The whole time I was thinking this is a very US like situation!
Try using JAL for accurate CX inventory.
keepssmile is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:32 am
  #41  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London / Hong Kong
Programs: lost all status buying miles to fly!
Posts: 23
I got caught badly on this. Tried many many times on the last day to get through and make a booking for available TG flights, eventually got through - got put on hold for 50 minutes, but which time it was 12:10am and I was told US had exited *A - 10 minutes ago!

After getting out of the immensely frustrated mood that put me in, I researched flights on CX (I'm a member there - so logged in to check CX availability in F for several different itineraries).

I phoned US with these itineraries - NB, these are all available to ticket with miles on CX. None of them showed as available on the US operator's system. She said to call back later.

I would be curious to know if anyone has any success booking CX on US in the next few days... I have the miles, and I have three different trips to work on all with flexible dates. I'm just hoping this goes live soon (and that CX is not blocking the F seats).
Winedemonium is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:36 am
  #42  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 6,384
Originally Posted by Winedemonium
I got caught badly on this. Tried many many times on the last day to get through and make a booking for available TG flights, eventually got through - got put on hold for 50 minutes, but which time it was 12:10am and I was told US had exited *A - 10 minutes ago!

After getting out of the immensely frustrated mood that put me in, I researched flights on CX (I'm a member there - so logged in to check CX availability in F for several different itineraries).

I phoned US with these itineraries - NB, these are all available to ticket with miles on CX. None of them showed as available on the US operator's system. She said to call back later.

I would be curious to know if anyone has any success booking CX on US in the next few days... I have the miles, and I have three different trips to work on all with flexible dates. I'm just hoping this goes live soon (and that CX is not blocking the F seats).
you wanna be careful checking cx.com. cx gives more space to their own members than ow partners. check ba/qf to be safe.
yerffej201 is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 12:41 am
  #43  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London / Hong Kong
Programs: lost all status buying miles to fly!
Posts: 23
Originally Posted by yerffej201
you wanna be careful checking cx.com. cx gives more space to their own members than ow partners. check ba/qf to be safe.
Thanks... though that's a pity.
Winedemonium is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 1:16 am
  #44  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Programs: Hyatt Glb, MR Plat
Posts: 2,570
anybody able to get agents to mix OW and partners on same ticket yet?
frudd38 is offline  
Old Mar 31, 2014, 1:19 am
  #45  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Originally Posted by keepssmile
Try using JAL for accurate CX inventory.
It seemed to me that JL accurately reflects what AA can see, but not necessarily what CX has released. They way it looked was that the Amadeus partners could see something different to everyone else...perhaps a techincal problem.

I did use JL but had to give up and just call as the flight departed today and JL does not allow searches for T-4 departures - in the end I had to just call AA and hope for the best.
wheresmybagba is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.