Mar 30, 2014, 12:53 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
WIKI POST: Using US Dividend Miles for oneworld Award Flights
As further details become available, please fill in this wikipost.
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 program’s 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.
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)
- 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 <
LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]
Nov 22, 2014, 9:54 am
#2596
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: BA Gold, AA Platinum, SQ Gold, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,582
No. MCT AY-AY/II is 40 Min:
[KVS Availability Tool 7.7.0 - Reference: Minimum Connection Time [MCT]: HEL/AY-AY]
Yes you can, assuming the AY rep is speaking english or you're speaking suomi...
But if you're having checked baggage the answer will be a NO. Time too short to find and re-lable your baggage on the earlier flight.
Usually not.
[KVS Availability Tool 7.7.0 - Reference: Minimum Connection Time [MCT]: HEL/AY-AY]
Code:
DD DI ID II STANDARD: HEL 020 030 040 035 AY-AY ONLINE HEL --- --- 040 040
But if you're having checked baggage the answer will be a NO. Time too short to find and re-lable your baggage on the earlier flight.
Usually not.
There is a 5 minute change to 1 of the flights (JFK-HEL has changed from 5:45pm to 5:40 pm departure).
Manage booking page on US airways shows:
Please review your new flight information. Please either accept these changes online or call 800-428-4322
Can we leverage this to get US to make changes to our itinerary for free?
What changes are permitted? Can we change booking to a earlier day (in a lower class)?
Nov 22, 2014, 12:11 pm
#2597
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Because of a departure time changed for 5min? The arrival time in HEL is still the same, so your second flight is not affected by this change. And mind the minimum connecting time for AY-AY in HEL is 40 minutes. I don't think US will change you to the earlier connecting flight as it violates the MCT by 5 minutes.
Nov 22, 2014, 12:15 pm
#2598
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
I'm wondering the same thing, I was recently charged only half the correct miles for a ticket from Asia-US. They charged me the miles needed for economy; my ticket and seats are in first class.
If I later want to change to a more direct routing, is it likely they will "reprice" the miles needed and catch the error and assess the extra points?
And if I call to ask about re-routing it, and they catch the error, and I say "Oh, never mind then I'll keep it as is," can they assess the missing points anyway and just deduct them from my account?
I wonder if it's common for them to make mistakes on miles needed like this.
If I later want to change to a more direct routing, is it likely they will "reprice" the miles needed and catch the error and assess the extra points?
And if I call to ask about re-routing it, and they catch the error, and I say "Oh, never mind then I'll keep it as is," can they assess the missing points anyway and just deduct them from my account?
I wonder if it's common for them to make mistakes on miles needed like this.
Nov 22, 2014, 4:32 pm
#2599
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: BA Gold, AA Platinum, SQ Gold, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,582
Because of a departure time changed for 5min? The arrival time in HEL is still the same, so your second flight is not affected by this change. And mind the minimum connecting time for AY-AY in HEL is 40 minutes. I don't think US will change you to the earlier connecting flight as it violates the MCT by 5 minutes.
The problem is that the previous date doesn't have J availability and we are OK going to Y but US airways earlier told us that they won't let us change booking class.
Nov 22, 2014, 4:41 pm
#2600
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
No idea... We're not US Airways... -> 800-428-4322
Nov 22, 2014, 4:50 pm
#2601
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,406
But as a general rule, if you have a very minor schedule change, it doesn't automatically open your ticket for whole scale changes.
If there is a significant schedule change, or substitution of an aircraft (so you're ticketed cabin is no longer available), or you now fail to meet minimum connecting times, you have a better much better case for making consequential routing and/or flight time changes.
It's always a good idea to ask for what you want, but you're not going to be able to demand major changes simply because your original flight is now leaving five minutes earlier. There is no rule allowing that and your original contract is still perfectly capable of being performed.
There is a change mechanism in the rules, its $150 per ticket.
Nov 22, 2014, 9:44 pm
#2602
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: BA Gold, AA Platinum, SQ Gold, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,582
Thanks guys.
I will call US airways and see where I get, who knows tomorrow might be a lucky day for me.
I will report what I hear.
Thanks once again and I apologize for silly questions.
I will call US airways and see where I get, who knows tomorrow might be a lucky day for me.
I will report what I hear.
Thanks once again and I apologize for silly questions.
Nov 23, 2014, 3:13 pm
#2604
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: QFF
Posts: 241
quick question on infant tickets.
My son will turn 2 on 20/12. And we are travelling from 1/12 - 6/1, so he should still be eligible for an infant fare right?
My son will turn 2 on 20/12. And we are travelling from 1/12 - 6/1, so he should still be eligible for an infant fare right?
Nov 23, 2014, 3:30 pm
#2605
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
Only on the outbound. On the return you need a full infant ticket. I.e. you need a seat for him, that is to say, you need to find award space!
Nov 23, 2014, 3:33 pm
#2606
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,406
Other airlines will charge a child fare for both the outbound and return if the child is going to turn 2 during the journey.
The child being an infant before departure doesn't necessarily mean the child is treated as an infant for the entire journey.
Nov 23, 2014, 4:14 pm
#2607
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Nov 23, 2014, 8:43 pm
#2608
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
I believe you need to check the policy of the operating airline. Some airlines will require a normal child ticket once the child turns 2 (as they will require their own seat).
Other airlines will charge a child fare for both the outbound and return if the child is going to turn 2 during the journey.
The child being an infant before departure doesn't necessarily mean the child is treated as an infant for the entire journey.
Other airlines will charge a child fare for both the outbound and return if the child is going to turn 2 during the journey.
The child being an infant before departure doesn't necessarily mean the child is treated as an infant for the entire journey.
Nov 24, 2014, 12:02 am
#2609
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,406
this is interesting. as far as I know Aeroplan, for insyance, will require a full ticket if the child turns 2 at any time during the journey. I didn't even realise there's other ways of doing it. But if the ticket contains multiple carriers, does that mean each and every one has to be consulted?
I'm guessing if there are multiple carriers, you'd need to ensure the whole ticket was compliant?
I have little idea... other than I took away the need to check with the respective airlines!
Nov 24, 2014, 2:51 am
#2610
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,210