Originally Posted by
CPMaverick
Do you have an example of an AA award, fully on oneworld airlines, that prices out as double the cost of their published award chart? I have never seen this on AA before.
Not necessarily always double, but additive, yes. And yes, there's lots. AA requires that the over-the-ocean carrier publishes a fare for the specific routing. E.g. you cannot use HA HNL-JFK and then connect from JFK to go somewhere say South America, as HA doesn't published such fares. Instead you have to fly longer (and worse AA aircraft w/o lie flat seating) HNL-LAX-JFK-xxx, for example. If you price it the most direct way, it'll be additive. But, with AA that is disclosed and clearly known, that a published fare is required by the longest segment carrier for the entire routing. So, when the agent says so, it makes sense and is actually true - quite unlike what it is dealing with DL and the thousands of made up excuses by DL agents (as they also hardly know better, so not really their fault).
Originally Posted by
CPMaverick
No doubt about it. This customer-unfriendly and opaque redemption process is the #1 reason why I'm transitioning out of Skymiles. I'd still be Diamond if not for this nonsense, because the GUC are very appealing to me. But I am not going to keep earning miles that I have no idea if I can use properly.
+1 ^
My sentiments and plan exactly as well.