ckpeter

My impression is that each time you put an award reservation on hold, it has to be a valid award type. So, if your 8 segments by themselves do not satisfy the requirements for a oneworld award, you may have to either add dummy segments or hold them as all-partner awards (each all-partner award reservation can hold 4 individual one-way awards, and your 8 segments may fit into the 4-oneway awards, depending on what and how many stopovers you have).

Confirm this with the agent when you call.

sweetz_21_83

I just put an award on hold that does not satisfy all requirements of the award (only uses 1 carrier other than AA) but the legs I need to add are Cathay, but they are down right now. The agent had no problem doing this and I have the itinerary and record locator and it is held for 5 days. They said it would be around 72 hours for Cathay to come back up.

ckpeter

But does your reservation qualify as an all-partner award? If so, it may have been held as an all-partner award. Before ticketing, the agent can freely convert between all-partner and oneword award types.

The last time I tried to put an incomplete oneworld award on hold (one that could not fit the 4 one-way awards model of all-partner), I was told that I have to have a a valid award to put on-hold.

HoKo

Sigh, cannot believe how YMMV this is. I specifically told the supervisor I was speaking with to do this but she insisted it had to be ticketed and then those seats could later be transferred to the actual award that I need to book (which includes multiple segments on CX). I'd hafta think the route your agent took will make things a lot easier for you down the road.

Where did he get the 72 hour time frame from? Just a guess or did AA provide front line agents with info on the duration of the downtime?

Austinrunner

I suspect you got one of those agents whose training was less than optimal.

Austinrunner

Do NOT ticket a oneworld award before you have all the flights you need unless all you're lacking are date or time changes. The rules are incredibly inflexible.

HoKo

But putting a partially constructed OW award on hold and then adding multiple segments is permissible?

For example, if I know I am going IAD-LAX-HNL-HND-GMP could I put that portion on hold and add CX segments the next day (even though that partial itinerary only has AA+JL so it doesn't satisfy the 2 carrier requirement at this point)?

Happy

Yes.

The agent can put the initial award onhold as a partner award and then convert it to OW award when you add the additional segments that meet the requirement of 2 OW partners other than AA.

HoKo

Sounds good, thx. Is a 5 day hold the default for OW awards or am I gonna have to argue with the agent about that?

aschuett

I haven't found this answered yet - does anyone know if the taxes and fees can be paid for with an AA gift card? I was thinking I might as well get 10% off by going to Costco, right?

Austinrunner

Have you read the first post in this sticky?

HoKo

Indeed I have Austin, thanks for asking.

2 different AA agents told me that the maximum hold time for a OW award is 24 hours (but I realize they may have just been poorly trained). Therefore, I need to confirm that 5 days is considered the norm rather than the exception so that I can confidently tell the agent that they are in the wrong and I am permitted a 5 day hold.

That is why I phrased the question the way I did.

Austinrunner

You can be assured that the first post in this thread is up-to-date.

ulzimates

It should be a 5-day hold.

FrankReynolds

I posted here a few weeks ago about a potential business class one-year RTW trip I was planning using AA miles. Thanks to the extremely helpful advice of some of the people here I was able to refine and improve my itinerary a lot. Here's my final draft:

JFK - MAD
MAD - JNB
JNB - HKG
HKG - PEK
PEK - NRT
NRT - DEL
DEL - BKK
BKK - SYD
SYD - LAX
LAX - SCL
SCL - RGL (surface segment)
RGL - EZE
EZE - GRU
GRU - LIM
LIM - JFK

The total trip mileage is 49,524 miles according to the Great Circle Mapper. (Not counting the land segment between Santiago and Rio Gallegos... but that doesn't count as part of the 50,000 mile maximum, unless I'm mistaken).

(Here's a map of the route I'm planning)

Currently, I have 213,000 AA miles in my account, from a combination of inheriting them and taking advantage of a credit card bonus offer. I'm waiting for the 7,000 miles I just bought (for $200! a ripoff... but a necessary one) to post to my account, but once they do I'm planning to go ahead and call AA to book my ticket, with a departure date of late March. Can anybody see any glaring problems that would invalidate this itinerary, or do you think I can go ahead and book it?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

- Alex