Originally Posted by
JGR01
Part of the reason that partner/OW members require the booking over the phone is the lack of instantaneous confirmation of the AAward seats from the other carrier. If you have ever booked an AAward, you will notice it takes a lot longer to go to 'ticketed'. Your reservation on the other airlines is really a REQUEST for reservation for the AAward and subject to confirmation by that other carrier. I booked NRT-HKG on CX recently and it took several days to get a 'confirmation'.
Are you sure about this. When I recently made a booking for a wholy OW itinerary, I was told it was booked but that all awards using other airlines go down to rates to check through the rules, itinerary and the award selected, and that's the delay.
In any case to the OP I highly recommend the BA site (sign up for an Exec Club account) for searching OW award availability - it shows BA/AA/QF/CX/JL/AY and possibly others but I only searched routes which had the above on them. IN every single case when I found availbility the AAdv CSR was able to book it - so it seems pretty accurate.