Shinikenshi

After reading the guidelines for All-Partner and OneWorld award travel rules, I think I got everything down but I'd like to run this by you folks to see if I got my information straight.

I intend to take a trip to Bali, Indonesia (DPS) in August (peak) and am trying to figure out a way to get a stopover in HKG on the way back.

The basic routing I found for my trip starting in LAX was like this:

LAX->HKG->DPS->HKG->LAX

This will be all on Cathay Pacific from what it seems.

Strictly following my itinerary and with economy seats only, I would be looking at a cost of 70,000 miles. If I were to want to have a stopover, it seems the best way would be to book separate one way segments. I'd like to stop in HKG for 1-2 days so that clearly far exceeds the transit time period between stops.

The cost breakdown should then be:

LAX->HKG->DPS (35,000)
DPS->HKG (20,000)
HKG->LAX (35,000)

This seems more reasonable than trying to do a OneWorld ticket which would run me 100,000 miles (total travel distance is a little under 19,000 miles) and I'd have to also worry about getting another OneWorld carrier in there to fulfill the rules for using a OneWorld award ticket.

Does this all sound about right? If there are better suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 8)

buschoi

It looks about right. ^ The only problem is the Y award availability on LAX-HKG in August. I don't see one single Y award seat available. You may want to try LAX-SFO-HKG as Y award availability on SFO-HKG looks to be wide open.

UA Fan

I had a look at the OP and have a question on one-way awards within the US/Canada only on AA. Can I have a stopover and if so does it have to be only in an AA hub and does this include LAX?

Happy

US/Canada is considered Domestic award. You dont get stopover for a domestic award.

Only an INTERNATIONAL award that includes North America as part of the itinerary, then you are entitled to have a North America Gateway stopover either the last city leaving the region or the first city entering the region.

North America for this purpose is a large region that includes US, Canada, Mexico and Caribbeans.

Shinikenshi

Cool, thanks for the tip! Yeah I figured August would be tricky for anything in Asia. I'll get to it and hopefully get this sorted out before the end of the month.

This also helps to fly through SFO as a friend of mine is also traveling to DPS but would be doing so from SFO as well.

buschoi

Doing it ASAP is my advice. CX's availability is known to fluctuate. So if you see seats now, get it. Another unknown is LAX-SFO. I am not sure how easy one can get award seat in that segment. I have not checked HKG-DPS either. So you have to work on the short-haul segments.

AUSTraveler

Didn't see this earlier in the thread but thought it might be useful for other travelers. I had read that BA/QF were sometimes stingy about releasing award seats to AA members, even when those same seats were available for BA/QF flyers.

I've been working on an August itinerary to Africa via LHR. I was able to see award availability in F using my BA EC account for some specific August dates. Two calls to the EXP desk resulted in no award options using my AA miles on those same dates....until I mentioned the flight number that showed as available on ba.com. Agent was able to book it, was surprised that the seats were available, and intrigued that I had looked it up on ba.com.

I guess if you're unsure don't be afraid to ask and be specific about flight numbers.

buschoi

I think the AAgent may just be inexperience or lazy. I had the same experience booking a CX flight. While both CX and BA's award engines both showed the seats I wanted were available, the agent told me she did not even see the flight existed! I told her the CX flight departed SFO at 12:05am, so she technically should search the following day (rather than the day I depart from the first city heading to SFO). All she told me was she only saw the afternoon CX flight available. I tried several days and she said she did not see the red-eye flight exist at all!

I know there must be something wrong. Rather than arguing, I hung up, called again, and I was routed through to Manila. This time I started off with the TPAC segment, asking the agent to search for the exact date, time, and flight I wanted. She found it wide-open. Then I worked backward to find my domestic flight. Again, she found it.

So I believe it all depends on who you speak to.

virmaior

if i am trying to change the date on a Saaver award and platinum*,

(1) I assume there has to be sAAver availability for the day that I want to change it to? (rather than just space on the plane / AAnytime)?
(2) is there additional availability visible to the AAgent if I call?
(3) are there any other factors that might matter?

* I mention I am platinum to pre-empt anyone asking if I am EXP because I am under the impression they get a special benefit of some sort.

ma91pmh

Being just platinum phoning agent won't have any improvement over what you see on aa.com. Only EXP gets access to expanded inventory, which from experience I think tends to be quite significant

mvoight

As a PLT, they might be more include to call Revenue Mgmt to ask for more seats
While not the same as EXP expanded availability, it is not unheard of for PLTs to get better treatment than GOLD or nonstatus passengers

zpat

Has anyone gotten any clarity on this issue very confusing issue? Do one way upgrade awards, using miles+copay, from coach to business/first allow stopovers or not? Do they fall under the one way award of stopovers only at international gateway rule or not? I've seen conflicting information posted on the wiki (which states they are allowed), misleading information by AA indicating that they are only allowed at international gateways and further information by AA that they are not allowed at all here--the 3rd bullet point under General Advantage headline.

dstan

Post above released from spam filter.
/Moderator

martin33

the wiki is probably out of date. the systemwide/eVIP rules say that stopovers depend on fare construction. the rule you linked appears to be current and applicable-- a stopover would "break" a one-way miles(+copay) upgrade award. please do post again if your experience differs..

brahms77

A routing question from an AA newbie!

So, in August, I am hoping to redeem AA miles for either C or F award oneway for following:

CMB or SIN to YUL with Stopover in ICN.

Can I route:

1) CMB/SIN-HKG-ICN(stop)-NRT-US gateway-YUL?

or

2) CMB-SIN-NRT-ICN (stop) -HKG-JFK-YUL (if spaces available)

I think the first routing may as well work since I am not back-tracking... however, the second routing shows significant backtracking...so perhaps that's not doable.