Mar 2, 2021, 10:17 am
Last edit by: JDiver
NOTE: This archive thread contains all posts made in 2019 from the original thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1511217-help-desk-milesaaver-saaver-award-questions-assistance.html
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion
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
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
NOTE: for more detailed fare rules, see AA oneworld & Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (master thd)
Two award search systems — TWA884
There are two search systems,
See:
New Award Booking / Search / Calendar on aa.com 2019 — link (FT thread)
The Insider Trick to Getting More American Airlines Saver Award Availability
***
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:
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:
NOTE: “Married segment” issues exist, wherein AA may make a IAH-DFW-XXX award available, but not DFW-XXX; or STL-PHL-LHR, but PHL-LHR May not be available in conjunction with ORD- and others. See
More award availability restricted by married segments / connections
Award hold period: Awards can generally be held for five days; five day extensions require continued availability of your flights and generating a new award booking and five day hold.
Though AA can start releasing awards 331 days from the desired flight date (even though some other airlines might make award seats available to their members 355 days out), it’s very likely award seats may be released a few days after that. If seats aren’t sold and Revenue Management algorithms signify slow sales, more seats might be released going forward.
Within 14 days the hold period changes from 5 days to 1 day. And AA has periodically played the game in the past whereby within certain timeframes, usually 7 or 14 days before, they eliminate all sAAver space. Completely route specific. — JJeffrey
="3"%Airlines that can be booked for award travel on aa.com
oneworld alliance airline partners
oneworld alliance airline partners
- AA - American Airlines
- BA - British Airways (awards incur significant YQ surcharge
- AY - Finnair
- IB - Iberia
- JL - Japan Airlines
- QF - Qantas
- QR - Qatar Airways
- RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines (joining 31 Mar 2020)
- S7 - S7 Airlines
- UL - Sri Lankan Airlines
AS - Alaska Airlines*(ended 29 Feb 2020, to be restored upon joining oneworld in 2021 )- 9K - Cape Air (but only certain cities)
- TN - Air Tahiti Nui
- EY - Etihad
- HA - Hawaiian Airlines (only certain routes
* Mileage redemption on Alaska Airlines is ending effective February 29, 2020. All award travel must be booked and ticketed by February 29, 2020. Travel is valid for 1 year after ticketing date and must be flown no later than February 28, 2021. Ticket changes will not be allowed after February 29, 2020.
NOTE: To search for partner awards, go to advanced search from the awards search or home page and select all airlines.
="3"%Full list of oneworld airline partners (and their affiliates)
- AA - American Airlines
- BA - British Airways (Cityflyer, Comair, OpenSkies, Sun-Air of Scandinavia)
- CX - Cathay Pacific (Dragonair)
- AY - Finnair (Flybe)
- IB - Iberia (Air Nostrum, Iberia Express)
- JL - Japan Airlines (JAL Express, J-Air, Japan Transocean Air)
- LA- LAN Airlines (LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Express, LAN Colombia, LAN Peru only, ending 1 Oct 2020)
- MH - Malaysia Airlines
- QF - Qantas Airways (QantasLink, Jetconnect)
- QR - Qatar Airways
- AT - Royal Air Maroc (as of 31 Mar 2020)
- RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines
- S7 - S7 Airlines (Globus) (excludes Siberia / far eastern Russia awards)
- UL - SriLankan Airlines
- JJ - TAM Airlines (LATAM Airlines will no longer operate using the airline code JJ for flights on or after October 27, 2019.)
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.
="3"%Full list of additional airline partners offering award redemptions
- 9K - Cape Air
AS - Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air(end 29 Feb 2020, to begin upon joining oneworld in 2021)- CZ - China Southern Airlines
- EY - Etihad Airways
- FJ - Fiji Airways
- HA - Hawaiian Airlines
- TN - Air Tahiti Nui
="3"%NOTE: Ticketing charge
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.
Code:
oneworld Partners Award Fare Codes First-Business-Economy -------------------------------------------------------- AA - American Airlines Z U T -------------------------------------------------------- AY – Finnair U X -------------------------------------------------------- BA – British Airways Z U X -------------------------------------------------------- CX – Cathay Pacific Z U T KA - DragonAir -------------------------------------------------------- IB – Iberia U X -------------------------------------------------------- JL – Japan Airlines (Intl) Z U T JL – Japan Airlines (Dom) Z D S -------------------------------------------------------- LATAM Group JJ - TAM Airlines O I X LA – LAN Chile Z U T XL - LAN Ecuador LP - LAN Peru 4M - LAN Argentina -------------------------------------------------------- MH - Malaysia Airlines P U X -------------------------------------------------------- QF - QANTAS Airways P U X -------------------------------------------------------- QR - Qatar Airways Z U X -------------------------------------------------------- RJ – Royal Jordanian U X -------------------------------------------------------- S7 – S7 Airlines U E -------------------------------------------------------- UL - SriLankan Airlines -------------------------------------------------------- Other Partners First Business Economy -------------------------------------------------------- CZ– China Southern Airways (unknown) -------------------------------------------------------- FJ – Fiji Airways U X -------------------------------------------------------- TN – Air Tahiti Nui F for Business U for Economy -------------------------------------------------------- AS – Alaska Airlines A W -------------------------------------------------------- LY – El Al Israel P X E -------------------------------------------------------- EY - Etihad O I N -------------------------------------------------------- HA – Hawaiian Airlines D T --------------------------------------------------------
="3"%Other rules that may affect your awards="3"%:
="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)
="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)
="3"%Resources
Some airlines or areas have different, extra or special characteristics for securing awards. See
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results (abbreviated results for front page search vs. Advanced award search)
AAdvantage awards to / from Australia, New Zealand link
AAdvantage awards to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador link
AAdvantage awards on Air Tahiti Nui link
AAdvantage awards using British Airways incurring (avoiding) high fees link
AAdvantage award on Cathay Pacific (and Cathay Dragon) link
AAdvantage awards using Etihad Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Fiji Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Japan Airlines link
AAdvantage awards using Qantas Airways link
AAdvantage awards on S7 (Siberian) Airlines link
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results (abbreviated results for front page search vs. Advanced award search)
AAdvantage awards to / from Australia, New Zealand link
AAdvantage awards to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador link
AAdvantage awards on Air Tahiti Nui link
AAdvantage awards using British Airways incurring (avoiding) high fees link
AAdvantage award on Cathay Pacific (and Cathay Dragon) link
AAdvantage awards using Etihad Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Fiji Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Japan Airlines link
AAdvantage awards using Qantas Airways link
AAdvantage awards on S7 (Siberian) Airlines link
Awards assistance tools: Use at your own risk; may not be up to date. These are not recommendations.
- Check this oneworld interactive map and timetable by Innosked to see potential routes.
- British Airways Executive Club: You can sign up for British Airways Executive Club, Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank or Qantas Frequent Flyer to use their sites to find awards (look for the lowest level awards) you can't see on aa.com. BA in particular is prone to show "phantom" availability.
- See this article by the Points Guy on BA and Qantas for award searching.
- See this article to new online tool from Japan Airlines by Australian Frequent Flyer
- Award booking services - list and reviews (FT thread)
- Award Nexus: It's easy to do your experiments for some free browsing (click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up with your FlyerTalk login info). You might want to run each segment rather than origin to destination. Or use this link to use with your FT login: https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F.
...Award Nexus is free (up to a point) for FlyerTalk users. Click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up for free as a FlyerTalk member.
“What I like about Award Nexus is it has a much nicer user interface than BA and lets you choose whether to search through BA and/or QF, and as you can see each of those may give somewhat different results.”
The "cost" to do all these searches once was a total of 12 points, and you get 200 points free when you signup, and then every 90 days you can reload 100 more points for free (once you're below 10 points). So that gives an idea of how many searches could do free...
- AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds
- AwardHacker: "a tool we build to tell you how to travel with the least miles"
- Award Nexus: which can search availability but can't determine cost, with FT member free limited use
- Economical Excursionist's Tools: compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions
- ExpertFlyer is a common tool used on FT. There is a $99.99 annual fee, monthly fee and five day trial
- Great Circle Mapper is useful for calculating distance and MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage)
- You can try PEX+ (currently in beta), which will even tell you how many miles you'll need, though it draws data from aa.com and S7 so it can't reveal awards that can not be seen on those sites.
- Travel Codex Award Maximiser commercial blog
Also see:
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results
Phantom / false AA award availability with AA partners (consolidated)
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
Help with British Airways / BA surcharge / YQ (AA award on BA, consolidated) (Awards using BA incur significant "YQ" surcharges.)
UK APD / Air Passenger Duty charged for UK departures[/quote] (Flights originating in the UK other than INV or BFS - or connections 24:00 or over - incur UK Air Passenger Duty excise taxes.)
MileSAAver / SAAver award reduction / scarcity >= Aug 2011 onward (consolidated)
Older posts from 2018 have been archived to this archive thread.
Older posts from 2017 have been archived to: this archive thread
Older posts from 2016 have been archived to: this archive thread
Older posts through 2015 have been archived to: this archive thread
ARCHIVE: HELP DESK: 2019 MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
Jan 22, 2019, 11:50 am
#46
Join Date: Jul 2016
Programs: Rapid Rewards, United, AA, HHonors, SPG, Marriott
Posts: 21
Yep, I wouldn't do anything now, just keep an eye out at aa.com for additional options over the coming months. What date(s) are you looking at?
If you want to see how full a flight is, there are paid services like ExpertFlyer that will let you check the exact loads, otherwise you can always keep an eye on the seatmaps and do dummy bookings at aa.com to get an idea.
If you want to see how full a flight is, there are paid services like ExpertFlyer that will let you check the exact loads, otherwise you can always keep an eye on the seatmaps and do dummy bookings at aa.com to get an idea.
Jan 22, 2019, 2:29 pm
#47
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 803
How long does it take for AA awards including LATAM segments now? I remember in the past I got them fairly quick. But I tried to ticket one yesterday and it's still not ticketed in almost 24 hours.
Jan 22, 2019, 2:50 pm
#48
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,462
That flight looks pretty much as expected for being so far in advance, i.e. about 25% full in business based on just the seatmap. The good news is that your travel date is a Tuesday which is generally speaking about the least busy travel business travel day. The assumption isn't necessarily that AA will add more flights (their Europe summer 2019 schedule is pretty much set), but that those empty seats you see will remain empty and AA will possibly at some point decide to release those as 57.5k sAAver seats instead of the current AAnytime prices.
Jan 22, 2019, 5:15 pm
#49
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: Northwest, United
Posts: 3,256
Question about changing first segment of award trip
This one's a little complicated...
I'm looking at booking an award trip on one of AA's partners (a partner that can't be booked online, we'll call this AA Partner #1 ). The trip will require one domestic leg from my home airport (we'll call that City A) to the international gateway (which we'll call City B), where I'll connect to the long-haul flight (to City C) on AA Partner #1 in J. I know that flights in J on this long-haul partner flight are going to be in high demand, so I'm planning to book that as soon as it becomes available.
On the first day that the long-haul partner flight on AA Partner #1 (from City B to City C) becomes bookable, I'll call AA and put that on hold. But I will also need a domestic leg to get me to City B in time to connect to the flight from City B to City C. The problem is that there are very few options to get me on that domestic leg to City B early enough to make the connection to the flight from B to C. There is one flight available that should do that, but it's a crazy, long, triangular routing, that goes way out of the way with a connection in an intermediate city (City X) and then back to my actual connecting city (B). That flight from A to X to B is really stupid, but it's the only route from A to B (that gets me there early enough to connect to my long-haul) that will be bookable right when my desired long-haul flight from B to C loads.
The good news is that about 7 days later, a bunch of perfectly reasonable non-stop flights from A to B on a different AA Partner (we'll call that AA Partner #2 ) load and become plentiful. I want one of those reasonable, plentiful, nonstop flights.
I have checked, and both AA Partner #1 and AA Partner #2 do in fact have a published fare from A to B to C, and will sell a ticket on that route, so it should (I believe) qualify as a single award on AA.
My question is about making changes to the initial leg of this route after I have booked it.
Initially, the routing I would have to book is from A to X to B (on AA Partner #2 ), connecting in City B, then B to C on AA Partner #1 . Then, about 7 days later, there should be lots of much more reasonable ways to get from A to B on AA Partner #2 (skipping the connection in City X).
My goal would be to book the original "bad" routing, then a week later, swap in a better A to B leg. The departure city, the arrival city, the date of all flights - all would remain the same. There would only be a change in the flight(s) for the A to B leg (switching from a one-stop in A-X-B to a much better A-B nonstop).
Can this be done without a change fee (about 7 days after the initial flights are booked)?
I have no status.
I hope the above all makes sense. Thanks for insights.
I'm looking at booking an award trip on one of AA's partners (a partner that can't be booked online, we'll call this AA Partner #1 ). The trip will require one domestic leg from my home airport (we'll call that City A) to the international gateway (which we'll call City B), where I'll connect to the long-haul flight (to City C) on AA Partner #1 in J. I know that flights in J on this long-haul partner flight are going to be in high demand, so I'm planning to book that as soon as it becomes available.
On the first day that the long-haul partner flight on AA Partner #1 (from City B to City C) becomes bookable, I'll call AA and put that on hold. But I will also need a domestic leg to get me to City B in time to connect to the flight from City B to City C. The problem is that there are very few options to get me on that domestic leg to City B early enough to make the connection to the flight from B to C. There is one flight available that should do that, but it's a crazy, long, triangular routing, that goes way out of the way with a connection in an intermediate city (City X) and then back to my actual connecting city (B). That flight from A to X to B is really stupid, but it's the only route from A to B (that gets me there early enough to connect to my long-haul) that will be bookable right when my desired long-haul flight from B to C loads.
The good news is that about 7 days later, a bunch of perfectly reasonable non-stop flights from A to B on a different AA Partner (we'll call that AA Partner #2 ) load and become plentiful. I want one of those reasonable, plentiful, nonstop flights.
I have checked, and both AA Partner #1 and AA Partner #2 do in fact have a published fare from A to B to C, and will sell a ticket on that route, so it should (I believe) qualify as a single award on AA.
My question is about making changes to the initial leg of this route after I have booked it.
Initially, the routing I would have to book is from A to X to B (on AA Partner #2 ), connecting in City B, then B to C on AA Partner #1 . Then, about 7 days later, there should be lots of much more reasonable ways to get from A to B on AA Partner #2 (skipping the connection in City X).
My goal would be to book the original "bad" routing, then a week later, swap in a better A to B leg. The departure city, the arrival city, the date of all flights - all would remain the same. There would only be a change in the flight(s) for the A to B leg (switching from a one-stop in A-X-B to a much better A-B nonstop).
Can this be done without a change fee (about 7 days after the initial flights are booked)?
I have no status.
I hope the above all makes sense. Thanks for insights.
Jan 22, 2019, 5:41 pm
#50
Join Date: Jul 2016
Programs: Rapid Rewards, United, AA, HHonors, SPG, Marriott
Posts: 21
That flight looks pretty much as expected for being so far in advance, i.e. about 25% full in business based on just the seatmap. The good news is that your travel date is a Tuesday which is generally speaking about the least busy travel business travel day. The assumption isn't necessarily that AA will add more flights (their Europe summer 2019 schedule is pretty much set), but that those empty seats you see will remain empty and AA will possibly at some point decide to release those as 57.5k sAAver seats instead of the current AAnytime prices.
Jan 22, 2019, 6:25 pm
#51
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: DCA/IAD/WAS
Programs: MAR AMB, WOH Explorist, AA EXP, UA 2P
Posts: 2,138
Awesome, thank you for helping me out. Last couple of questions (for now), if I book the AAnytime award, I can change it later for a SAAver mile flight (assuming they become available) get the miles refunded with no fee as long as the arrival and departure airports are the same? Also, I'm traveling with my wife, assuming the middle seats are preferred vs taking window seats in corresponding rows?
Jan 22, 2019, 7:47 pm
#52
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,462
Awesome, thank you for helping me out. Last couple of questions (for now), if I book the AAnytime award, I can change it later for a SAAver mile flight (assuming they become available) get the miles refunded with no fee as long as the arrival and departure airports are the same? Also, I'm traveling with my wife, assuming the middle seats are preferred vs taking window seats in corresponding rows?
Jan 23, 2019, 2:02 am
#53
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
This one's a little complicated...
I'm looking at booking an award trip on one of AA's partners (a partner that can't be booked online, we'll call this AA Partner #1 ). The trip will require one domestic leg from my home airport (we'll call that City A) to the international gateway (which we'll call City B), where I'll connect to the long-haul flight (to City C) on AA Partner #1 in J. I know that flights in J on this long-haul partner flight are going to be in high demand, so I'm planning to book that as soon as it becomes available.
On the first day that the long-haul partner flight on AA Partner #1 (from City B to City C) becomes bookable, I'll call AA and put that on hold. But I will also need a domestic leg to get me to City B in time to connect to the flight from City B to City C. The problem is that there are very few options to get me on that domestic leg to City B early enough to make the connection to the flight from B to C. There is one flight available that should do that, but it's a crazy, long, triangular routing, that goes way out of the way with a connection in an intermediate city (City X) and then back to my actual connecting city (B). That flight from A to X to B is really stupid, but it's the only route from A to B (that gets me there early enough to connect to my long-haul) that will be bookable right when my desired long-haul flight from B to C loads.
The good news is that about 7 days later, a bunch of perfectly reasonable non-stop flights from A to B on a different AA Partner (we'll call that AA Partner #2 ) load and become plentiful. I want one of those reasonable, plentiful, nonstop flights.
I have checked, and both AA Partner #1 and AA Partner #2 do in fact have a published fare from A to B to C, and will sell a ticket on that route, so it should (I believe) qualify as a single award on AA.
My question is about making changes to the initial leg of this route after I have booked it.
Initially, the routing I would have to book is from A to X to B (on AA Partner #2 ), connecting in City B, then B to C on AA Partner #1 . Then, about 7 days later, there should be lots of much more reasonable ways to get from A to B on AA Partner #2 (skipping the connection in City X).
My goal would be to book the original "bad" routing, then a week later, swap in a better A to B leg. The departure city, the arrival city, the date of all flights - all would remain the same. There would only be a change in the flight(s) for the A to B leg (switching from a one-stop in A-X-B to a much better A-B nonstop).
Can this be done without a change fee (about 7 days after the initial flights are booked)?
I have no status.
I hope the above all makes sense. Thanks for insights.
I'm looking at booking an award trip on one of AA's partners (a partner that can't be booked online, we'll call this AA Partner #1 ). The trip will require one domestic leg from my home airport (we'll call that City A) to the international gateway (which we'll call City B), where I'll connect to the long-haul flight (to City C) on AA Partner #1 in J. I know that flights in J on this long-haul partner flight are going to be in high demand, so I'm planning to book that as soon as it becomes available.
On the first day that the long-haul partner flight on AA Partner #1 (from City B to City C) becomes bookable, I'll call AA and put that on hold. But I will also need a domestic leg to get me to City B in time to connect to the flight from City B to City C. The problem is that there are very few options to get me on that domestic leg to City B early enough to make the connection to the flight from B to C. There is one flight available that should do that, but it's a crazy, long, triangular routing, that goes way out of the way with a connection in an intermediate city (City X) and then back to my actual connecting city (B). That flight from A to X to B is really stupid, but it's the only route from A to B (that gets me there early enough to connect to my long-haul) that will be bookable right when my desired long-haul flight from B to C loads.
The good news is that about 7 days later, a bunch of perfectly reasonable non-stop flights from A to B on a different AA Partner (we'll call that AA Partner #2 ) load and become plentiful. I want one of those reasonable, plentiful, nonstop flights.
I have checked, and both AA Partner #1 and AA Partner #2 do in fact have a published fare from A to B to C, and will sell a ticket on that route, so it should (I believe) qualify as a single award on AA.
My question is about making changes to the initial leg of this route after I have booked it.
Initially, the routing I would have to book is from A to X to B (on AA Partner #2 ), connecting in City B, then B to C on AA Partner #1 . Then, about 7 days later, there should be lots of much more reasonable ways to get from A to B on AA Partner #2 (skipping the connection in City X).
My goal would be to book the original "bad" routing, then a week later, swap in a better A to B leg. The departure city, the arrival city, the date of all flights - all would remain the same. There would only be a change in the flight(s) for the A to B leg (switching from a one-stop in A-X-B to a much better A-B nonstop).
Can this be done without a change fee (about 7 days after the initial flights are booked)?
I have no status.
I hope the above all makes sense. Thanks for insights.
Jan 23, 2019, 7:31 am
#54
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, HH DIA, Hertz PC, GE + Pre✓, Amazon Super Special Prime
Posts: 1,008
I did a cursory search on this, but did not find any other mentions of it, so I wanted to share with the class....
Booked some award travel for May, was going back to see if there were other options available in terms of routing at this point - as the initial offering for a J saver award was paltry at best. Mainly because even though there was space available on the routes I wanted per EF, the connection time was over 4 hours and AA.com would not populate the specific routing for an award - despite being able to pay cash for said desired routing.
Fast forward to last night - search the routing again and now see this comment: " Extra fees may apply for connections over 4 hours ".
After some test bookings, it seems that instead of the standard "25k miles + $5.60 security fee" , that they double that security fee to a wholesome $11.20 for a one way routing.
Anyone else seen this before or is this new?
Not that I mind paying an extra $5.60 for an award booking, the principle of it seems odd.
Why don't they want award bookings to have layovers more than 4 hours? (in this case, the other layover that were allowed were in the :45-1:15 range - a little tight for my liking)
And why is it when one passes that 4 hr threshold of an award layover, when a shorter layover is technically available (and other scenarios like last flight in / first flight out notwithstanding), that a 2nd security fee is due?
Are they anticipating that people will take advantage of the long layover and depart the airport and use the security services a 2nd time on a single ticket?
Booked some award travel for May, was going back to see if there were other options available in terms of routing at this point - as the initial offering for a J saver award was paltry at best. Mainly because even though there was space available on the routes I wanted per EF, the connection time was over 4 hours and AA.com would not populate the specific routing for an award - despite being able to pay cash for said desired routing.
Fast forward to last night - search the routing again and now see this comment: " Extra fees may apply for connections over 4 hours ".
After some test bookings, it seems that instead of the standard "25k miles + $5.60 security fee" , that they double that security fee to a wholesome $11.20 for a one way routing.
Anyone else seen this before or is this new?
Not that I mind paying an extra $5.60 for an award booking, the principle of it seems odd.
Why don't they want award bookings to have layovers more than 4 hours? (in this case, the other layover that were allowed were in the :45-1:15 range - a little tight for my liking)
And why is it when one passes that 4 hr threshold of an award layover, when a shorter layover is technically available (and other scenarios like last flight in / first flight out notwithstanding), that a 2nd security fee is due?
Are they anticipating that people will take advantage of the long layover and depart the airport and use the security services a 2nd time on a single ticket?
Jan 23, 2019, 7:34 am
#55
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
I will guess that the second security fee is due as a Federal requirement due to the stopover - even if AA collects mileage as a thru-fare.
Jan 23, 2019, 7:47 am
#56
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: FIND ME ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST
Posts: 27,730
...Not that I mind paying an extra $5.60 for an award booking, the principle of it seems odd.
Why don't they want award bookings to have layovers more than 4 hours? (in this case, the other layover that were allowed were in the :45-1:15 range - a little tight for my liking)
And why is it when one passes that 4 hr threshold of an award layover, when a shorter layover is technically available (and other scenarios like last flight in / first flight out notwithstanding), that a 2nd security fee is due?
Are they anticipating that people will take advantage of the long layover and depart the airport and use the security services a 2nd time on a single ticket?
Why don't they want award bookings to have layovers more than 4 hours? (in this case, the other layover that were allowed were in the :45-1:15 range - a little tight for my liking)
And why is it when one passes that 4 hr threshold of an award layover, when a shorter layover is technically available (and other scenarios like last flight in / first flight out notwithstanding), that a 2nd security fee is due?
Are they anticipating that people will take advantage of the long layover and depart the airport and use the security services a 2nd time on a single ticket?
Jan 23, 2019, 8:12 am
#57
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, HH DIA, Hertz PC, GE + Pre✓, Amazon Super Special Prime
Posts: 1,008
Thx @JonNYC - if someone hasn't told you recently - you are a wealth of AA knowledge
Jan 23, 2019, 2:53 pm
#58
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AZ
Programs: AA Million Miler, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold, Global Entry
Posts: 245
I wonder how often this happens.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.
Jan 23, 2019, 3:40 pm
#59
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Austin
Posts: 4,629
I wonder how often this happens.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.
Jan 23, 2019, 4:36 pm
#60
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: USA
Programs: AA Exp
Posts: 519
I wonder how often this happens.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.
A couple of months ago I booked a transatlantic award reservation in milesaver business including a domestic leg. At the time I booked the flight the domestic leg was not available in Bus/First so it was booked in economy. I noticed today the domestic leg was available as a milesaver Bus/First and called AA to get that leg upgraded. The agent that answered told me he did not see any awards available for my flight so I went ahead and put the flight on AA Hold and gave him the record locator. He came back after a while and said that while it was available for the domestic leg it was not available to be added as a connecting flight. I asked if he could contact revenue management and see if they would change the availability so I could add it and he agreed to contact them. After a while on hold he came back successful and I was able to get the first class seat.
I wonder how often this happens and how likely it would have been for the seat to become available for a connection in the near future had I not asked for the agent to contact revenue management.
By the way this was a learning experience for both myself and the agent who was extremely patient and willing to go out of his way to try to help me.