ckpeter

I know for a fact that once an award is partially flown, there is no way to get any miles back. So, if you ticket an explorer award and fly even just one segment, you no longer can get any miles back. There is no way to retroactively re-book it as a partner award.

As for rebooking an explorer award into regular awards before you fly the first segment, I am not too sure. Based on the fact that you can do so before ticketing (i.e. when you are holding award), my impression is that the AA system should have a way to hold and rebook the space, but in reality I think it would be very tricky.

SeeBuyFly

Many thanks for clarifying. This is a significant difference between explorer awards and AA/partner awards, so maybe it should be in the first post.

Come to think of it, I don't actually know for sure that a normal round trip AA/partner award can be split into one-ways and then partially canceled.

It should be possible since the fare class is the same. But direct experience would be useful. I had planned to try the reverse...change a currently booked round trip into an explorer award, keeping the CX outbound and changing the inbound to QR for $150 and a miles reinstatement. But at this point I won't try because of the no-refund issue.

Happy

There is NO R/T award which is nothing more than 2 One-Way awards booked under same PNR on same ticket. AA has gone on One-Way system for several years already - all awards are One-Way awards. One PNR can hold up to 4 awards. A R/T award is nothing more than a notion in your mind due to the old habit never dies.

You can definitely cancel the return portion of the "R/T" award because it is merely a 2nd One-Way award booked with the same PNR as the 1st One-Way award. Of course you would need to pay the $150 redeposit fee.

stromer52

I am in the process of booking my first Global Explorer award flight doing 16 segments and travelling about 35,000 miles. I was looking at the aa.com site to determine the availability of flights so when I call the agent I can have some preliminary data on hand. I need 2 seats - non stop at a certain time to meet another flight. Here is what I found for SFO to ORD on Feb 24,2014:
1. 1 seat available - Business Mile Saver award level @ 25,000 miles
2. More than 1 seat available - Economy Anytime award level @ 25,000 miles.
3. No seats available - Economy Mile Saver @ 12,500 miles.

I thought that I could use Business miles to get an economy seat if the mileage level was the same or less. The agent said that I could only get the seat if it was available as a Economy Mile Saver seat. If I am correct, how do I convince the agent that they are wrong and the correct rule is what I described above? I looked at the seat availability and no seats were sold so how can only one seat be available.

Can you advise me on what the rule regarding this is since I could not find this subject in your rules. Sorry if I missed it in your rules.

Thanks, Rick

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I thought that I could use Business miles to get an economy seat if the mileage level was the same or less. The agent said that I could only get the seat if it was available as a Economy Mile Saver seat. If I am correct, how do I convince the agent that they are wrong and the correct rule is what I described above?"

You are incorrect; the agent is correct.

mfr2000

If I start an explorer award from IAD am I allowed to connect through DCA at some point in the itinerary?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

No. No connections or stopovers at your first or last airport or any of their co-terminals.

mfr2000

I know that co-terminals count as segments. Do they also count as individual connections?
For example if I do LGA-JFK as a connection and later on EWR-LGA as a connection that means I am connecting in NYC twice correct?

TheBOSman

I'm not sure if a definitive answer exists, but my instincts say they would count as connections, as stopovers/connections/open-jaws are done by city. So, doing that would use up two connections in NYC, leaving you with only being able to stopover, and depart at the end of an open-jaw at other points within the award. Remember the time limits according to the award for connections, while certainly workable, can be somewhat tenuous when making those connections you list.

silverforumsurf

Thoughts on the below itinerary and carriers? Let me know if you have any recommendations, I was thinking of doing it in F (180K vs J @ 130K).

sfo-tyo (AA)
tyo-icn (JAL)
icn-hkg
hkg-sin
sin-mel (QA)
mel-syd-SFO (QA if there's space)

PS Great Circle Mapper says it's 20,376 mi but if AA has the same distances I'll just take the shortest segment and make it a BA distance award (open jaw the rest) to get it under 20K (cheaper than getting bumped into 25K!)

pandaperth

Be aware that QF does not fly its A380 every day on the HKG-SYD segment
On the days it flies a B747 it does not offer F

SYD-MEL and MEL-SYD will be in domestic J

TheBOSman

IATA airline designator for Qantas is QF , just in case you have further questions. It helps anyone answer it as I had to think about what QA was before I saw the routing (and also now though you listed the routing, without you listing the routing, QA could mean Qatar Airways to some, though Qatar's IATA designator is QR). Also, QF no longer flies SYD-SFO direct, so you would have to fly SYD-LAX-SFO or SYD-DFW-SFO. Best of luck finding space on SYD-LAX (SYD-DFW doesn't have F and would add a couple thousand more BIS miles which might bump your award up to the next bracket) but it looks good otherwise.

silverforumsurf

Thanks. Apparently Qantas business SYD-LAX award is akin to winning the lotto! I'll have to do SYD-NRT-SFO worst case I guess..

scnzzz

Good luck there too. I eventually had to go SYD-PVG-LAX-SFO (but that may be extreme). Don't rule out HKG as a connection either.

TrojanHorse

Which is whats killing me right now.. I may have to just scratch the entire SYD (South Pacific) part of the trip..