guv1976

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

I do not think that this is correct. Starting the award at DCA and ending it at IAD (as Jwerking proposes) should not add an extra segment to the award. If the award were ticketed as XXX-DCA//IAD-YYY-ZZZ, etc., then the DCA//IAD ground segment would count as one of the 16 permissible segments.

Jwerking

I am now really confused about co-terminals given the comment by guv 1976 - sorry to be so dense! Given that ITM and KIX are co-terminals for Osaka, does my stopover in Osaka by flying into ITM and out of KIX - count as 2 segments or 1 segment?

Considering the statement made by guv 1976, how many segments does the following itinerary have?

DCA-DFW (stopover)- NRT- ICN (stopover) - HEL (stopover)- JFK- HND (stopover) – ITM (stopover)>KIX – GMP(stopover)- KIX or HND -BKK (stopover) – SYD or HKG- AKL- LAX- IAD

BTW, i love to fly, thank you for the tip about not having to connect thru LHR to get to JFK for HEL. Got a feeling this HEL stopover is not going to happen since it would be in mid-June from ICN-HEL-JFK - and it is unlikely that there will be 2 award seats available only 4 months out. But I can always dream!

Joyce

guv1976

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

HND-ITM//KIX-GMP is three segments: one for HND-ITM, one for the ITM//KIX ground transfer, and one for KIX-GMP.

ilovetofly

You are welcome. I do hope that you find availability.

Based on the routing, I counted 15 segments.

FlyerMC

I would welcome input on this First Class 16-segment ticket I have on hold with American. I am using 280,000 miles for a trip with 34,710 countable miles. My dates in certain places are fixed because of tours I will be booking. I did my best to avoid British Airways to keep the total surcharges to $454.20.

April 3rd Connection MIA-DAL First American
April 3rd Stopover DAL-NRT First American
April 7th Stopover NRT-PEK First JAL
April 23rd Connection PEK-HNG First Dragon
April 23rd Stopover HNG-MNL First Dragon
May 2nd Stopover MNL-HNG First Cathay Pacific
May 5th Stopover HNG-JNB Economy Cathay Pacific (two-class plane)
May 7th Open Jaw JNB-CPT Club Exc British (Comair two-class plane)
Land CPT-LVI
May 31st Connection LVI-JNB Economy British (Comair two-class plane)
May 31st Connection JNB-MAD Business Iberia (two-class plane)
June 1st Stopover MAD-RAK Business Iberia (two-class plane)
June 9th Connection RAK-MAD Economy Iberia (two-class plane)
June 9th Stopover MAD-TLV Business Iberia (two-class plane)
June 30th Stopover TLV-MAD Business Iberia (two-class plane)
July 8th Home MAD-MIA Business Iberia (two-class plane)

Is British Club Executive the highest class on their two class flights in Africa? If so, I am downgrading on 3 flights (only one of which is transcontinental). Can anybody speculate as to the availability of Business Class opening up on Cathay HNG-JNB in the first week of May (I have some flexibility)?

Also, I would love to travel JAL from North America to Tokyo but First Class has no award availability from now until early April (I have a little flexibility in my departure - can depart anywhere from March 31st to April 3rd). I also have flexibility on departure city because even if I go through JFK my total countable miles will only increase to 34,997 (checked with American) keeping me under the 35,000 mile threshold. Does anybody have insight on how JAL handles First Class availability? In addition to asking the American Airlines agent, I used British Airlines' award availability but no JAL flights showed up.

JAL UPDATE 2/2 - I called in and Business Class is available on a few dates between March 31st and April 3rd) so hopefully First Class starts opening up soon.

The difficulty with this ticket is that once I use the miles for the ticket I cannot switch my outbound airline from American to JAL; so I will re-hold it every five days. Are there any tricks to this process or just merely tell the American agent to re-hold the ticket?

Thanks for any insight.

Jwerking

Got it - thank you! I can try to fly from HND to KIX. I only selected ITM because there are only a few flight daily from HND to KIX, but a lot of flights to ITM. Us newbies have to learn!

Joyce

onlybeef42

I booked this business class oneworld award ticket August:

aus-dfw-mex-lim-cuz-(stop)-lim-mia-dfw-(stop)-bna-jfk-bud-(stop)-dub-(stop)-ord-dfw-aus

I did complete the aus-dfw-mex-lim-cuz-(stop)-lim-mia-dfw portion in September and the rest of the trip takes place in May/June.

It has come to my attention that AA has suspended JFK-BUD (http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Travel...nofService.jsp) and now the Malev portion (BUD-DUB) is likely grounded (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80U03620120201).

My question is once a Oneworld award trip has begun and flights are suspended/cancelled what options do I have?

If I am fine with not going to BUD can I go somewhere else within the distance rules?

Can I get rid of the BNA connection (it was needed to catch the JFK-BUD flight)?

Does it matter that the BUD-DUB Malev flight was required to qualify for the oneworld award rules?

Any tips before I try to sort this out with AA will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

rjp82

Just to make sure I understand things correctly, I would not be able to start and end in different cities AND have a land transfer (cross-country drive) because that would be a second open jaw, right? Thanks in advance.

guv1976

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

Correct.

onlybeef42

That is correct

FlyerMC

From what I understand you are correct. Also, make sure to count your miles yourself. AAdvantage originally told me my miles were 35,000+ but they were counting my open jaw land transfer as countable miles.

Jwerking

Okay - I eliminated my ITM to KIX land segment. So is 14 segments correct for the itinerary below ? Guess this will allow me a 2 segment flexibility in case I am unable to book more direct flights. Hmmm - where else do I want to go with 2 segments??

DCA- (1) DFW (stopover) - (2) NRT- (3) ICN (stopover) - (4) HEL (stopover)- (5) JFK- (6) HND (stopover) – (7) KIX – (8) GMP(stopover)- (9) KIX or HND - (10) BKK (stopover) – (11) SYD or HKG- (12) AKL - (13) LAX- (14) IAD

Thanks again.

Joyce

ilovetofly

Have you calculated how many miles will you need for this routing? Adding two more to make it 16 is nice but you will have to work under the constraint of flying miles for the award you are trying to book.

Austinrunner

You will not be allowed to "re-hold" the itinerary. You will be allowed to rebook the itinerary from scratch if there is availability, not counting the seats you previously held.

Hong Kong = HKG
Dallas / Fort Worth Airport = DFW

FlyerMC

Is that usually difficult?