EF does not show award availability on any partner airlines. All it would help you are the AA's own award availability (alert you when it is available so makes life easier.)

BA, CX, QF and JL, all have ability to check partner award seats when using their miles. Based on personal experience, BA inventory matches very closely to AA's. BA now even show how many award seats still available when it shows the availability. Others said Aisamiles also are very good.

 

I'm generally a fan of using American Airlines (AA) miles to get oneworld awards. I just used 180,000 AA miles to get a first class oneworld award for the following itinerary (a couple flights were booked in business class because the aircraft do not have a first class section):

LAX-HKG (Cathay Pacific)
HKG-BKK (Cathay Pacific)
BKK-DEL (Cathay Pacific business class)
NBO-LHR (British Airways business class)
LHR-LAX (American Airlines)

The total mileage of this itinerary was 19,841 according to AA and 19,839 according to Great Circle mapper. I used the websites of Cathay Pacific, AA, Qantas, Iberia, and British Airways to find availability. The only catch is to be careful when using the AA website because if you specify first class but none is available, the website will return a list of flights that actually are business class. You have to pay attention to the boxes at the top of the webpage.

The flights I picked were all booked quickly by AA. The only problem I had with AA reservations was that they initially insisted that the DEL-NBO land leg had to be counted in the total mileage. After enduring a quick, rude, and undeserved "I don't want to argue about this" and "if you don't like what I'm saying, call back" response from a supervisor, she put me on hold for about 5 minutes and then came back with profuse (and somewhat repetitious) apologies.

According to Expedia, this itinerary would have cost $23,985.50, which works out to 13.3 cents per AA mile used. The total taxes were $140.00 (just a connection in LHR), and the reservation fee was $20.00.

 

One administrative request: if you know of any changes that need to be made to the first post in this thread, please send me a private message. That's the best and fastest way to get my attention. Thanks.

 

Wait, I thought open-jaws were actually not only counted as segments and the point-to-point mileage is calculated and counts against the award mileage limit, no??

How many open-jaws are allowed on an AA OW award nowadays anyway?

 

I misunderstood it as you did regarding the land segment. No, the distance of openjaw is not counted in the mileage, only counted in the segments allowed. You can have only ONE openjaw anywhere on the itinerary, including starting and ending at different cities.

I also want to thank Austinrunner for compiling an excellent guide on the rules. It has helped me tremendously in understanding how OW award works.

 

I have booked a OW100F award with five segments. In the middle is a JFK-LAX sector on AA that I had to take in business (U) class, as a premium first award seat was not available.

If premium first seats are available on the day of travel, would I qualify to go on a waitlist for them?

 

What an absolute mine of information!! I have a quick question of the experts:-
I am intending to use a 150K award for up to 25k miles. No problem with the segments or airlines etc BUT I want to start in LHR and finish in JFK (using another award from Virgin to get back to London) effectively open jaw on the return city but in a different country. Is this allowed??
Thanks for any advice

 

Yes, this is allowed.

 

Just to clarify and expand slightly...it is allowed to the extent you do not have an open leg anywhere else on your journey. The rules allow one open jaw (including an open jaw between your beginning and ending cities).

 

Thanks for prompt replies. I have no other open jaw, just too many miles to cross the pond for the award.
/cpr

 

which search engine do you use to search for one world awards using AA miles?

 

If you refer to the availability for EACH segment, then the usual BA, QF, JL, CX award booking engines all will work to find partner seats - not 100% match with AA's inventory, but close. Personally I like BA's the most, especially now they give info on how many award seats remain.

If you refer to the routing, then the Oneworld Interactive Route Map is a great tool to let you see what OW member operated flights on the itinerary you want to do. Keep in mind you cannot use code-share, so only the Blue routes can be used. The map gives you very detailed information and it is a great tool to map out the possible routes.

If you refer to the total mileage calculation, the mileage calculating sites such as Great Circle Mapper is what you need. Keep in mind you need to input EVERY Actual Segment you will fly to calculate the total mileage - no more beeline calculation.

Putting a workable route together is by far the hardest part - when I mean workable, I mean it is not just a legal routing, but a routing you most likely to find seats. There is no point to have a legal routing in theory but it is near impossible to find seats. Therefore, checking segment availability from the outset when you start designing the route is important so you would not waste your time.

 

Why the rule anyway???

And, generally, how good is availability for oneworld award C class tix?

 

"BA, QF, JL, CX award booking engines " - And these are ?

Can you provide links to these?

 

Just go to the airline websites and try to book an award. You'll need to be a member.

I use the Qantas search engine to look for oneworld awards. If checking a Qantas flight though, I go through the BA search engine to double check availability. In case you can't find the pages, I believe these are direct links to award bookings:

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/...nt/yourAccount
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...en_us/execclub