Originally Posted by
Flying for Fun
YVR-JFK-HKG-CPT was one AS award. AS policy is that they generally won't fly you East to fly West (TPAC) but policy seems to get bent, even ignored for their Elites, at least in my experience.
I suspect this was actually a legal routing for an AS award on CX, because AS publishes an award chart for continental US to Africa on CX, JFK-HKG counts as a TPAC flight, and you can add flights on CX or AS domestically, even if the routing doesn't make sense 100%. You have to take award space where you can find it.
Back to interline baggage: especially interlining to another domestic carrier, AA is motivated to collect its own baggage fee, or at least motivate you to book potentially everything on one, potentially expensive ticket. It would be nice if AA made its domestic fares combinable with AS fares for exactly this reason.