Some of you might have found your thread merged into this "consolidated" thread. If your desire is to become thoroughly familiar with the knowledge that has been accumulated about the process for acquiring MileSAAver awards feel free to read this entire thread. If you only want the assistance from those who have the knowledge your request has been merged at the end. Feel free to wait for a forthcoming answer.

If you have reached this thread by using the search process you have the same choices as above. Read the thread and become knowledgeable or post at the end and wait for a forthcoming answer.

thanks
~magic111, Moderator

***

If you want to make sure that you’re seeing results from both award searching systems, you’ll want to perform an award search starting on each of these:

• Legacy award searching system
• New award searching system

="3"%Airlines that can be booked for award travel on aa.com

oneworld alliance airline partners

• AA - American Airlines
• AS - Alaska Airlines
• BA - British Airways (awards incur significant YQ surcharge
• AY - Finnair
• IB - Iberia
• JL - Japan Airlines
• AT - Royal Air Maroc
• QF - Qantas
• QR - Qatar Airways
• RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines (joining 31 Mar 2020)
• S7 - S7 Airlines
• UL - Sri Lankan Airlines

NOTE: FJ / Fiji Airways is a oneworld Connect member only

other airline partners

• 9K - Cape Air (but only certain cities)
  
• TN - Air Tahiti Nui
  
• EY - Etihad
  
• HA - Hawaiian Airlines (only certain routes

All others must be requested by telephone; see Note below.

NOTE: To search for partner awards, go to advanced search from the awards search or home page and select all airlines.

Full list of oneworld airline partners (and their affiliates)

• AA - American Airlines
  
• AS - Alaska Airlines
• AT - Royal Air Maroc (as of 31 Mar 2020)
  
• AY - Finnair (Flybe)
• BA - British Airways (Cityflyer, Comair, OpenSkies, Sun-Air of Scandinavia)
• CX - Cathay Pacific
• FJ - Fiji Airways (oneworld Connect partner only)
• IB - Iberia (Air Nostrum, Iberia Express)
  
• JL - Japan Airlines (JAL Express, J-Air, Japan Transocean Air)
  
• MH - Malaysia Airlines
• QF - Qantas Airways (QantasLink, Jetconnect)
  
• QR - Qatar Airways
• RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines
  
• S7 - S7 Airlines (Globus) (excludes Siberia / far eastern Russia awards)
  
• UL - SriLankan Airlines
• When you do call, you might want to search for award space on the flights you want and tell the agent about those flights; sometimes AA agents won't find award seats unless they search by segment.

When using other airline web sites or tools to search for award availability, it’s best to do so by segment rather than by trip. E. g. BA may show availability SAN-LHR and LHR-AMS, but not SAN-AMS. And in some instances (EY, FJ, etc.) AA US may not see availability that AA Australia or New Zealand might see.

Full list of additional airline partners offering award redemptions

• 9K - Cape Air
  
• CZ - China Southern Airlines
• EY - Etihad Airways
  
• FJ - Fiji Airways (oneworld Connect member)
  
• HA - Hawaiian Airlines
  
• TN - Air Tahiti Nui
  

NOTE: Ticketing


Effective February 16, 2015, a Reservations Ticketing Service Charge of $30.00 for domestic itineraries and $40.00 for international itineraries will be applied by AA Reservations when ticketing award reservations that can be booked on aa.com. The charge is waived for award reservations that cannot be booked on aa.com including reduced mileage awards, and for Executive Platinums. N.B. Executive Platinums booking award for non-EP will pay the service charges.

Other rules that may affect your awards="3"%:

Award Rules

American Airlines Awards are valid for travel on flights that are marketed and operated by AA (no codeshares). These awards can be booked online at AA.com.

oneworld and Other Airline awards are valid for travel on AA and any of its partner airlines, and can include travel on multiple partners. Some of these awards must be booked over the phone, and will not incur a Ticketing Service Charge (waived for EXPs in any case) if they cannot be booked online.

Up to four one-way awards can be booked on a single PNR. Codeshares are not bookable as Awards.

MPM or Maximum Permitted Miles: A Fare or award may not exceed the most direct routing by more than 25% (unless the fare routing includes a ticketed point deduction (essentially a miles allowance that extends MPM). See MPM / Maximum Permitted Mileage & Ticketed Point Deductions (merged threads).

Stopovers and Connections:

Stopovers are no longer allowed on AA awards. Stopovers will require multiple awards.

Connections are limited to two connections / three flight segments for domestic awards, and three connections / four flight segments for international awards as of Aug 2017. Link

Domestic Connections must be under 4 hours for domestic flights (except Hawaii), with some exceptions: "LIFO" (Last In - First Out connections are generally allowed.

Hawaii itinerary: Effective on 14 Jul 2014 on an all-AA-metal award itinerary, you now have up to 18 hours to connect when traveling to/from Hawaii. NOTE: Hawaii interisland connections must be separate awards and can not be included as part of a mainland-island award.

International Connections must generally not exceed 23:59 hours. Some leeway has occasionally been granted when connecting flights are not daily. If the itinerary includes an international flight, the rules for international connections apply. Link to these courtesy of JonNYC.

If there is a non-stop flight that departs after the 4h / 23h59m windows and arrives at the destination earlier than a connecting flight within the 4h / 23h59m window, the passenger may be booked on the non-stop flight. It may be difficult getting some agents to book this.

"Most Significant Carrier" rule: To price as a single award, AAdvantage requires the most significant carrier to publish a cash fare (non-constructed) between the origin and destination. Airline MSC (e.g. DFW-SFO-HKG-BKK, CX SFO-HKG is the prevailing or most significant carrier) would have to have a published fare from XXX to YYY that allows travel on all included airlines, and routing that you want. If the MSC only offers constructed fares between your desired origin and destination, AA will price this as two awards.

Constructed fares: Another rule disallows awards where the fare must be constructed (also referred to as "YY"): Using a partner, the trip will require two awards if the governing carrier (e,g. airline operating on the major route, such as transpacific carrier) doesn't publish a through fare that includes the award's proposed origin and destination that allows the carriers proposed.

See this thread about examples using TN.

Married Segment Logic - a prospective trip may be available when searching segment by segment, yet not be bookable through from origin to destination. When selling seats for through flights and the desired inventory is not available, you cannot opt to sell the flight point-to-point. If sold point-to-point, the error response MULTIPLE SEGMENTS FOR SAME FLIGHT - SELL AS ONE SEGMENT will be received, indicating this booking is not allowed. Overriding the error check by ending the PNR twice is not acceptable.

See Award with available segments not bookable? (Married Segment issues)

Resources