Originally Posted by BrewerSEA

You seem to be confusing the fare buckets for the oneworld Explorer paid ticket and the Explorer (née oneworld) Award. This is reasonable considering the blog poster was also confused (as he often is about the AAdvantage program...) and that post is based on the huge misconception that the Explorer award and paid ticket are in any way related (hint: they are NOT).

The Explorer award books in to the same award buckets as AAdvantage oneworld and other airlines awards (née partner awards): Z, U, and T on most (but not all) partners.