fireflyreaction

hi everyone

i've been completely out of the loop for the past while, so with these new award changes, i thought i'd ask this question:

i read on the FAQ to the new award chart that "Once ticketed, you will have one year from the date of ticketing to fly, unless otherwise stated." what exactly does the "unless otherwise stated" mean?

i ask because i need to fly YYZ-SYD January 2004 and return December 2004. i can ticket today because i know the dates i can fly on. however, if i ticket today, i won't be able to return. if i ticket in December 2003 to get a F award, i never be able to fly.

does AA have a policy to deal with this?

cheers
ffrxn.

(p.s., is australia still considered "south pacific"? i can't seem to find on aa.com what each region encompases)

tekelberry

You'd have to call AAward Res. to see what they can do for you as schedules are only loaded in 11 months prior.

fireflyreaction

yeah - i thought

i thought perhaps someone here had some experience in dealing with this though.

plus, i'm in SYD right now, which means i have to deal with the locals

fireflyreaction

bump.

does anyone else have experience with this?

i see lots of people saying they've booked awards on QF that are 330 days out.

cheers

Savvy Traveler

I have indeed, and the least I can do is reply to the poster that started the Goldpoints run (really enjoyed that ride on BA 001... )

I once used AS miles to book the outbound on QF 330 days out, and they were able to leave the return open. Even though these were AS miles, it was a QF agent (in PHX) I spoke to, as QF doesn't allow AS to handle award bookings on their metal. Perhaps AA can also leave it open for you? Spend a few AUD and get a calling card to call your elite desk here in North America; the results might be worth it.

And good luck!

fireflyreaction

if i only had elite status!

what did your ticket say for "expiry". the ticket i booked in dec 02 has an expiry of dec 03?

p.s., good to hear about your flight!

Savvy Traveler

You can't possibly travel from Canada to Down Under without earning some status!

There wasn't anything about expiry... they just said that they would leave the return 'open' and I called back a few weeks later (330 days out) and locked it down. Good luck!

ESpen36

I think that this "365 day" rule is a holdover from the era of printed certificates. In the old days, you mailed or faxed in a request for a certificate, received it in the mail a few weeks later, and then could use it to make an award booking up to a year after the date when the award certificate was issued. After 365 days, the award certificate lost its value. Nowadays the rule really doesn't mean anything because you can't even get a certificate number without a reservation to which to apply it. One exception is the Fly 3 certificates which were printed and mailed out the old way. Be sure to note the December 31, 2004 expiration date.

pdog02

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fireflyreaction:
[B]hi everyone

i've been completely out of the loop for the past while, so with these new award changes, i thought i'd ask this question:

i read on the FAQ to the new award chart that "Once ticketed, you will have one year from the date of ticketing to fly, unless otherwise stated." what exactly does the "unless otherwise stated" mean?

............................................That refers to the fact that there are aadv awards that have a certain completion date or
seasonality...ie p25qq for the hurricane months to the carib, or special citibank or netsaavers that have a specific end date for travel completion.

fireflyreaction

i right now have a ticket on hold that i need to book by 20 october. i will travel 15 jan 2004. i want to return 1 december 2004. however, if i issue the ticket 20 october, i will have until 20 october 2004 to use it, no?

i asked the agent FOUR times if i could fly on 1 december and she said yes. i asked when i call and she said february. maybe the 365 expiry date is a bit loose?

number_6

The rule for purchased ticket is 1 year validity from the date of the first flight, and most airlines awards are also like that -- so your first flight must be within 1 year of the ticketing date, and the last flight must be within 1 year of the date of the first flight ... so your return is within ample time. A few airlines have restricted their FF awards and require that the LAST flight also be within 1 year of the ticket issue date, but I don't believe AA does that (yet).
Updated to correct this -- a quick search on aa.com shows a FAQ which says for awards:
"Q: How long is my ticket valid?
A: All travel on an award ticket must be completed within one year from the date of issue."

Your AAmerican Aagent was confusing revenue ticket rules with award tickets. You cannot book before Dec 1 2003 to do what you want. Also QF flights can't be booked more than 330 days in advance using AAdvantage miles.

[This message has been edited by number_6 (edited 10-06-2003).]

fireflyreaction

that's completely asinine.

if i hadn't actually been aware of anything, i would have been screwed out of my return by an incompetent agent!

so, if i book a QF award 330 days out, i only have 30 days to use the ticket?! (also, if you're able to book a reward flight 364 days in advance, you only have 1 day to travel?) surely there must be some work around.

like i said above, aa.com says "365, unless otherwise stated".

i really believe this to be completely unfair.

hauteboy

Has anyone been able to get around this? I have a oneworld award itin I'm looking to book for first travel in May/June 2005 (award inventory is already spotty), with the return in May 2006. Can I make the reservation now and keep holding until May when I'll actually ticket?

number_6

The date of issue of the award is the key ... not the date of reservation. All you have to do is convince AA to reserve the flights now but don't issue the award until 6 months from now. AA will hold an award for 14 days for me, and I'm double Emerald and have all sorts of status (whatever thats worth). Will they hold an award for 150 days for you? Somehow I think I know the answer. I'm afraid you have to buy a revenue ticket to get that 1 year from date of first flight benefit, this is one of the award ticket restrictions that just can't be gotten around. I suppose you can make the award reservation from scratch every 2 weeks, as the prior res cancels out, and hope you can snag the same seat inventory (but note that many OW airlines don't return cancelled award seats into award inventory, so this strategy has zero chance of working over a dozen iterations). As an aside, QF will delay issuing the award until a month before the date of the first flight -- this is a rare example of the QFF plan having an advantage over the AA plan. Maybe you have QF miles and want to do it that way (probably not, given the other QFF characteristics).

hauteboy

I'll probably end up ticketing this as two OW115C's with an open jaw, instead of an OW115C + North America - Asia 1. So 25k more miles each , but it lets me book the award now. Well actually comes out a bit of a wash, as I won't have to use Asiamiles for AMM-BAH-CAI or buy the LIT-AUS segment.

Original idea was a Asia1-North America in biz nested within an open-jaw OW115C/RTW

OW115C: AUS-TIP-CAI/CAI-ATH-AMS-LIT
RTW: CAI-LHR-XXX-HKG-NRT/NRT-HKG-XXX-BAH
90C: NRT-AUS-NRT

Instead I can do the following:
1st OW115C (book now): AUS-TIP-CAI/NRT-AUS
2nd OW115C (book later): AUS-NRT/AMM-AUS