ARCHIVE: oneworld / Explorer Awards Using AA Miles info
Jul 12, 2010, 11:36 am
#1876
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,767
Long Long time lurker (as in years!) and finally posting!!!
Hoping to take a family of 6 on the following itinerary June/July 2011 with a few days in each location:
IAD-MAD (AA)
MAD-AMS (IB)
AMS-LGW (BA)
LHR-IAD (BA)
I think (if I calculated correctly), mileage on this trip is less than 9,000 so I can use a OW award (coach) for 60,000 AA miles/each total trip. Is that correct?
And does this itinerary abide by all the rules (aa plus 2 other carriers)? I'm also a little confused about the BA rule to north america... can we return on BA from LHR to IAD?
Anything else I need to know?
Thanks so much.
Hoping to take a family of 6 on the following itinerary June/July 2011 with a few days in each location:
IAD-MAD (AA)
MAD-AMS (IB)
AMS-LGW (BA)
LHR-IAD (BA)
I think (if I calculated correctly), mileage on this trip is less than 9,000 so I can use a OW award (coach) for 60,000 AA miles/each total trip. Is that correct?
And does this itinerary abide by all the rules (aa plus 2 other carriers)? I'm also a little confused about the BA rule to north america... can we return on BA from LHR to IAD?
Anything else I need to know?
Thanks so much.
As of now, you cannot cross the pond on BA. However after the approval of ATI (coming very soon), you may.
Even in coach, 6 award seats on same flight TATL may not be achievable. You may have to break up your party in 2 groups and take different flights.
Last edited by Happy; Jul 12, 2010 at 11:43 am
Jul 12, 2010, 11:36 am
#1877
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,905
As a side note, if you really want BA on the transatlantic, you're permitted to fly London to Canada or Mexico for example, and then connect to an AA flight to IAD.
Jul 12, 2010, 11:43 am
#1878
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 113
"Even in coach, 6 award seats on same flight TATL may not be achievable. You may have to break up your party in 2 groups and take different flights."
Even if 4 of those 6 are children?
Even if 4 of those 6 are children?
Jul 12, 2010, 11:49 am
#1879
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: RDU
Programs: A few
Posts: 5,499
fact that they are kids won't help you at all. a seat is a seat
however ba does have very good availability for larger groups. For example looking at 7 Jun 2011 (today + 330 - the earliest you can book this) then there are 6 flights between NYC and LHR that BA has 6 Y seats available (as well 4 in biz and 2 in first)
once aa/ba have the anti-trust they will open up but when exactly it will be implemented is not yet addressed.
however ba does have very good availability for larger groups. For example looking at 7 Jun 2011 (today + 330 - the earliest you can book this) then there are 6 flights between NYC and LHR that BA has 6 Y seats available (as well 4 in biz and 2 in first)
once aa/ba have the anti-trust they will open up but when exactly it will be implemented is not yet addressed.
Jul 12, 2010, 11:50 am
#1880
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,767
You cannot possibly have 2 adults and 4 lapchildren, can you?
BTW, dont think children would cost you less miles. And for infants (lapchildren), you actually pay 10% of the REGULAR fare in Money when flying them on award tickets.
Last edited by Happy; Jul 12, 2010 at 11:58 am
Jul 12, 2010, 11:52 am
#1881
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,606
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)
Award availability does not vary by age of the passenger, so you may have no choice but to split up if you want the trip to be entirely on miles.
Also, keep in mind that IB offers nonstop service from IAD to MAD on certain days of the week.
Originally Posted by girlsmom4
"Even in coach, 6 award seats on same flight TATL may not be achievable. You may have to break up your party in 2 groups and take different flights."
Even if 4 of those 6 are children?
Even if 4 of those 6 are children?
Also, keep in mind that IB offers nonstop service from IAD to MAD on certain days of the week.
Jul 12, 2010, 12:09 pm
#1883
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: RDU
Programs: A few
Posts: 5,499
IB and AA both offer non-stop service from IAD to MAD
BA offer non stop service to LHR from IAD
You know BA may be a better choice for you than AA one world given number of kids. BA allow stopovers (I think unlimited?) on their round-trip awards, you can use the same OW partners, and best of all kids can redeem at 50% of the mileage of adults. I only found this out by accident trying to do some dummy booking on the website for my family and the miles looked very low, but managed to work out it was the kids rate. That said their taxes and surcharges are high, though you may be able to get round this if you do the transatlantic section to MAD both ways, then just intra-Europe flights to LHR. (The high taxes kick in when you go TATL to London)
BA offer non stop service to LHR from IAD
You know BA may be a better choice for you than AA one world given number of kids. BA allow stopovers (I think unlimited?) on their round-trip awards, you can use the same OW partners, and best of all kids can redeem at 50% of the mileage of adults. I only found this out by accident trying to do some dummy booking on the website for my family and the miles looked very low, but managed to work out it was the kids rate. That said their taxes and surcharges are high, though you may be able to get round this if you do the transatlantic section to MAD both ways, then just intra-Europe flights to LHR. (The high taxes kick in when you go TATL to London)
Jul 12, 2010, 12:14 pm
#1884
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Benicia CA
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold 75K, AA 3.8MM, UA 1.1MM, enjoying the retired life
Posts: 31,849
Jul 12, 2010, 12:20 pm
#1885
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 113
IB and AA both offer non-stop service from IAD to MAD
BA offer non stop service to LHR from IAD
You know BA may be a better choice for you than AA one world given number of kids. BA allow stopovers (I think unlimited?) on their round-trip awards, you can use the same OW partners, and best of all kids can redeem at 50% of the mileage of adults. I only found this out by accident trying to do some dummy booking on the website for my family and the miles looked very low, but managed to work out it was the kids rate. That said their taxes and surcharges are high, though you may be able to get round this if you do the transatlantic section to MAD both ways, then just intra-Europe flights to LHR. (The high taxes kick in when you go TATL to London)
BA offer non stop service to LHR from IAD
You know BA may be a better choice for you than AA one world given number of kids. BA allow stopovers (I think unlimited?) on their round-trip awards, you can use the same OW partners, and best of all kids can redeem at 50% of the mileage of adults. I only found this out by accident trying to do some dummy booking on the website for my family and the miles looked very low, but managed to work out it was the kids rate. That said their taxes and surcharges are high, though you may be able to get round this if you do the transatlantic section to MAD both ways, then just intra-Europe flights to LHR. (The high taxes kick in when you go TATL to London)
Jul 12, 2010, 12:31 pm
#1888
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 113
Yes, that's what I thought. That's why I was confused by what ma91pmh posted above... that BA requires fewer award miles for children. Not sure how I'd be able to capitalize on that if I'm only dealing with AA miles.
Jul 12, 2010, 12:36 pm
#1889
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 2.2MM LT Plat, Hilton Diamond, Marriott/SPG Platinum
Posts: 1,572
Tentative itinerary: HNL-NAN-AKL-SYD-PER-JNB-SCL-RIO-MIA (DFW-HNL and MIA-DFW staging flights will be on another carrier or ticket.)
We're only in the very preliminary stages of research at this point, so we may have other issues that I don't know about yet.
Jul 12, 2010, 8:22 pm
#1890
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: used to be PER, now it's nowhere/eveywhere
Programs: QFF NB, AA GLD
Posts: 3,467
According to AA OW Award rules you can only use OW carriers, so:
HNL-NAN-AKL is out - this would be on FJ, which is not a OW carrier
PER-JNB is out - QF only codeshares, on SA, and such codeshares are not allowed
JNB-SCL - which carrier flies this? AFAIK no OW carrier flies between Africa and Sth America
PER-JNB is out - QF only codeshares, on SA, and such codeshares are not allowed
JNB-SCL - which carrier flies this? AFAIK no OW carrier flies between Africa and Sth America