Originally Posted by
mrfussion
Keep in mind though that partner awards are anytime awards. A business class partner award to Europe is 14,000 points and includes intra-Europe flights that may be needed. An Anytime award is 18,000 points and would need to be on American metal only. No one in their right mind would redeem an Anytime award if the you could capture the lower fuel on a partner award as it's less miles. You just need to make the decision if the point savings and regional flights are worth the approximately $1,000 extra cash co-pay (or for an extra 2,000 points and $1,000 you can be in first class on a partner award versus an Anytime business award).
Originally Posted by
jgsx
I did. I got a very helpful agent that tried her best. The pricing is not the same as normal mileage awards.
It looks like with partner awards, the full YR fuel surcharge exists even if flying AA metal over the ocean. That alone is just over $1000, taking this to just under $1300 total.
The AAnytime (BX63) award on AA metal is just under $300 in fees.
So sadly, this partner award (BP03) isn't of much use.
As mrfussion pointed out, Partner BP03 is 14k points with high fuel surcharges, or AA Anytime BX63 is 18k points + Partner Intra-Euro BP40 for 6k.
So 14k points with high fuel surcharge, or 24k points on two tickets (need to recheck bags), and low fuel surcharge.
This doesn't look right.
AAnytime awards have never been valid on partner metal and cannot include any segments on a carrier other than AA. If true, then this hypothetical 'partner AAnytime' to Europe would cost 14k while the stand alone AA only AAnytime would cost 18k, which makes no sense at all, regardless of taxes/fees.
The partner awards include sAAver space (just like every other partner award), the correct calculation should be a 14k partner award compared to a 7.2k AA sAAver to Europe + 6k partner award intra-Europe.
If you're flying AA metal to Europe then the partner awards rarely if ever make sense, as you're essentially spending almost double the points to add intra Europe flight(s) on BA or IB which can be purchased for $200-300 all day long (in coach, granted).
The BE partner awards have always seemed like a total ripoff based on the points they require, hence the very limited discussion and datapoints on here.