Have Award Ticket to DEL, but I'm Curious
 

I have a r/t first class milesaver award ticket SFO-ORD-DEL. Going to DEL the first week of November and returning the third week in January. Cost was 180K miles and $57.

When I bought my ticket two months ago I was excited to try AA's Flagship Suite on the 777, actually, I still am. But I'll be flying AA1520 and AA299 this year in first so I'll have my experience soon enough.

Anyway, I've been curious now that I've learned about the All Partner Awards. I'm not really interested in flying through Europe but I am very interested in flying through Asia. If I wanted to change my award ticket (though not origin/destination) to an all partner award would that be possible? Or are fees involved?

I would love to try Cathay Pacific's first class service but that would take me through Hong Kong and I wasn't sure if that puts me into a different level of miles needed. I think it would be neat to try a partner airline's service after having flown AA for so long.

I believe I read that changing class of service will mean redepositing the miles and getting a new award ticket, I see that Cathay Pacific only offers business class service between HKG and DEL.

Is getting a first class award to India via over the Pacific even realistic? I'm in Panama right now but will call AA when I get back to the states next month.

Thoughts, suggestions, comments appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Changing origin/destination or non-one-world carriers incurs a redeposit fee. You can change to another one-world carrier (e.g. CX) without a fee. However, I believe your award requires a transatlantic routing, so you won't be able to travel via Asia.

Are you sure about the TATL rerquirement?
I thought this only applied to AA flgihts.
I'd also much rather do Business or FC on Cathay from SFO-ORD-DEL

EDIT.............YES... I see the chart does say this must be TATL
So, that is a bad thing.......... :)

you can't fly on one award to india via asia. Not sure if it would interest you, but flying to Colombo (CMB) is permitted as sri lanka is considered part of asia 2. That would cost you 67.5k miles in F each way, although your HKG-CMB segments would have to be in regional J. Would get you close to India if you really would like to try CX F.

Colombo wouldn't bother me, still easy to get to Delhi from there. 67.5k miles for SFO-HKG in F and HKG-CMB in J isn't bad, that's actually a lot less than the 90K each way it cost me for my current award on AA.

My only commitment in India is a wedding on the 14th of November. I'm retired so my dates are really wide open but ideally getting there a week or two before the wedding would be nice as is staying until mid to late January. Sounds like this ticket to CMB would require a redeposit but would be okay if I save miles and get to experience an Asian carrier.

Thanks again

No problem. I am doing the same trip soon. Be aware that HKG to Colombo involves a stop (same aircraft) in either BKK or SIN, so HKG to CMB ends up taking 7 or 8 hours. You can always overnight in HKG as long as the connection does not exceed 24 hours. CX's regional J seat is similar to the AA domestic J seats. Not lie flat.

If I'm not mistaken the redeposit is $150. My current award was 180k miles and going to CMB would only be 135k miles so that would be okay with me.

But would it also be worth considering a One World RTW award? I could route through Asia to India and then through Europe (or AA293 direct to ORD then to SFO), or vice versa. Not sure if that would be an option though.

SFO-HKG-DEL-ORD-SFO is 18,587 miles according to gcm. So this would fall into a Zone 6 Oneworld Award and would cost 180,000 miles in F.

However, on a Oneworld Award you must have at least two carriers in the itinerary (other than AA itself) and the above itinerary only has one (CX)

If you add a stop in BKK and you fly HKG-BKK on RJ then the two-carrier condition is satisfied - SFO-HKG-BKK-DEL-ORD-SFO. (BTW CX flies BKK-DEL)

Apparently the TATL only thing applies just to AA to India?

Because we have tickets for California to DEL with a stop in BKK on outbound and HK on the return. JAL via Tokyo outbound to BKK, then Cathay Pacific to DEL and Cathay via HK on the return. 130K in Biz, as a One World Award.

Originally, had booked this as a Partner Award at 170K--there was no availability on the AA flight from ORD to DEL, but after looking at the FT thread on One World Awards switched to OW and saved 40K.

Gotta love FTers and all the great info they share!

Would adding BKK keep an F ticket at 180k miles or does that make it more miles? Does changing to an RTW ticket require redepositing?

I booked my award with AA online and it was a pretty easy process. Are the people I would call to look at changing to CX to CMB or looking at a RTW ticket pretty patient and willing to look for routing options?

I suspect what will help me is my complete flexibility in dates, and if I have to redeposit my miles and start over I'm flexible to leave/return to anywhere (SFO, LAX, ORD, JFK....). But worried that the person on the other end of the phone might not want to look to hard to find a ticket.

I love challenges and while I do plan on calling AA when I get back to the states I do appreciate all the input here to get my thought process going.

And I could do it the other way as AA292 in F would might be better experienced than AA293. I tried using the One World booking tool but the internet here is too slow making it frustrating to use. For the hour I tried it was hard to find anything but CX between HKG and DEL, even via BKK.

Is it really hard to get RTW award tickets in F/J? Seems like everything would have to be just perfect for it to work out.

No - it's a "applies only to All Partner Awards" thing
For Oneworld Awards there is a totally different set of rules, but without any restriction on TATLs or TPACs

It's a oneworld award, not a oneworld RTW award. You don't have to go around the world to use it. We have a sticky about oneworld awards. Read the first post in that sticky for answers to many of your questions.

It's much less confusing to think of it this way: An all-partner award between North America and India/Middle East allows a connection in Europe. This is an exception to the general rule that an award between Region 1 and Region 2 does not allow a connection in a third region.

You can also go to CMB via HKG 135k and then take 9W or IT to DEL
I think you will pay 150$ fee anyway, but I personally would take the HKG-BKK and then go to DEL all in F on a oneworld award, than the CMB option, even though it may be cheaper. Seeing NRT, HKG, BKK, CMB, DEL in 1 award is fantastic.

It looks like I should be able to do AA SFO-ORD-DEL, CX DEL-BKK, RJ BKK-KUL, CX KUL-HKG-SFO. Could probably do CX KUL-HKG-NRT and JAL NRT-SFO, but I like the first option better as that would allow me to experience the new F product on CX. Its nice to have a couple ideas before I call.