Why wouldn't it apply ?

Looking on Expert Flyer for 6 July, searching for CHQ-VNO on AY shows X0 for AA1856 and AY1105 - for the evening departure, there is plenty of award availability on both segments

Checking AA1856 CHQ-HEL on its own and checking AY1105 on its own, there is economy award availability

As such it is correct that AA is booking it as 2 separate awards and charging 25,000 miles

I mean it's not because of the fare rule or route construction; it's because of opaque married segment logic

CHQ-HEL is X3/X9 for all flights that day
HEL-VNO is X9/X6/X6

and yes, as you point out, CHQ-HEL-VNO shows X0 for AY1856/1105 (the morning flight) while X9 for the evening flight

I guess some magical amadeus logic is deciding X3 also means don't sell a connection or something.

Nothing magical nor anything to do with Amadeaus- it is down to AY on what availability it wants to offer

i'm sure some analyst at AY is not manually in charge of deciding which flights to offer out of CHQ on X when connecting to specific destinations.

yes, it is up to AY to configure it, but I highly doubt AY has any clue the reason for some of the weird rules and restrictions their configuration generates

this is why things like fuel dumps and mistake fares existed in the first place.

Rational decisions by AY ? - being unable to make multi-city bookings is a case in point.

I see Finnair award availability on Alaskan and on Finnair's website but the same flight is not available on AA's website. Any idea if the same seats is redeemable on AA's or is it restricted to Alaskan or Finnair

If you see it on Alaska's site it should also be bookable on AA.

AA's web search will often not show availability through to your final destination if you are connecting at the partner hub and there are AA metal options (it will only show the AA metal options). Search for the flight through to HEL (or ARN; wherever the gateway is for the connection you are seeing). Put it on hold, and call in to add the connecting segment.

Note that, unlike AS (which allows 1 stopover per direction on their awards) if using AA miles, your connection must be less than 24hr.

thanks. Will try that....its only showing me BA and AA's flights and no other airlines which I thought is weird.

Seems like a great strategy, but I'm curious, which other partner options have you had any with success trying this?

I had to do it on AY when I was connecting to FCO. When I searched PHX - FCO it only showed AA options for 300k+ miles. I searched PHX-HEL and it showed me PHX-ORD-HEL for 57.5k miles. I put that on hold, called in, and the agent added HEL-FCO (there was business class space on every flight)

A couple of days ago I had a similar problem with JL. There was DFW - HND and back on JL for 60k each way. The was also first class saver space on PHX-DFW and back, but the search of PHX-HND only showed me AA options for 170k+ miles. So I put the JL long hauls on hold, called in, and the agent added the PHX-DFW and back segments.

I'm not completely sure what's going on here but I think that if your itinerary is connecting and AA can get you there on their metal, they will not show the partner options. I'm not sure if there's more to it than that.

Wow - this is certainly new news for me! I never had any luck with such an approach, but will explore it for future travels...especially since I'm equally based in PHX and there are so few direct international flights.

But, to re-address my original question, for the EU, which partners did they offer you, BA?

When I searched PHX-FCO I don't believe they were offering me any partners. This was back in March, but I remember that everything was 300k+ miles, which means dynamic pricing, which means (I believe?) AA. I only saw the AY option when I searched PHX-HEL. I can't remember if they also offered me BA on that route.

Someone else reported the same issue with LAX-FCO. He did the same thing I did, but he was not EXP, and it took 3 calls before he got an agent who could add the last segment. So if you are not EXP it may take some patience to get through to a competent agent. IME the EXP desk agents are great though -- I've never had to call in more than once for anything.

Also note that some partners have married segment availability, so just because both partner segments are available does not mean that it's bookable. I would suggest using another partner site to search from the partner gateway to the last partner flight. (eg for PHX-ORD-HEL-FCO, search ORD-FCO on a partner site). I like to use the AS site because of their calendar search, and you don't need to be logged in to use it. However, they don't allow multi-partner awards (though I don't think married segment availability comes into play when you connect across partners). They also don't show CX availability.

PSA: I am planning to cancel 2 SEA-HEL J award tix in the next few days. AY 34 on July 15. No clue if they'll go back into award inventory, but if anyone wants to coordinate with me to try to scoop them up in case they do, just send me a DM in the next couple of days and I'll be happy to cancel whenever is most convenient.

Receiving no takers, I'll go ahead and cancel these now. Hope they go back into award inventory and someone gets a nice trip out of it!

I checked shortly after you posted. The award seats are not available, which is not unexpected because:
1. With only a week before the flight, the airline is unlikely to release any canceled award seats.
2. With SAS long-haul flights grounded because of a pilot strike, Finnair will likely have absolutely no problem selling all available seats. In the SAS forum there are several reports of travelers to/from the US west coast being rebooked on Finnair's Seattle flight + a connecting flight along the coast.

Bit of an aside, but I think that there is a relatively new Finnair flight direct to ARN from JFK?

Sure is. Looks like Finnair is jumping in where Norweigian used to have routes between the US and Scandanavia, and presumably where the SAS vacuum also lives (SAS currently has both a pilots strike and bankruptcy).

I'm looking for AA award availability on AY from USA to HEL next spring (April/May) with tons of flexibility. Can't find a single date with 2 seats available in J, from any US gateway. Any advice? There are tons of flights with 1 seat. Perhaps I'll just make a reservation for 1 and then see if they release an additional seat. Have plenty of time.

I have searched but cannot seem to find the answer. Does the no-fee reinstatement of miles for an AA Award include partner airlines. I am holding an IB award on AA.COM for next spring (the YQ is not too bad...) but the rules say changes are OK but that cancellation is subject to a $150 fee.

I think it might be a holdover of old verbage but cannot find anything on AA.COM that specifically state the no-fee reinstate includes partner awards with AAdvantage miles booked on AA.

Can you post the exact language -- or a link to -- for the $150 change fee?

This is the language I am seeing under "Manage your award travel:

"Canceling flight awards and reinstating miles If your plans change and you no longer wish to travel, you can cancel your trip anytime on aa.com. We’ll reinstate your miles and refund eligible taxes and fees up to 1 year after the ticket issue date, but you have to cancel your trip before the first flight departs. If you cancel your trip on aa.com, your miles will be reinstated and your refund will be requested automatically in most cases. There is no fee to reinstate your miles."

(As you can see, there is no exception listed for award travel on partner carriers.)

I swear I thought I saw the $150 fee somewhere... I thought it was in rules.

Cancellations/Refunds
BEFORE TRAVEL BEGINS - MILEAGE MAY BE REINSTATED WITHIN 1 YEAR FROM ORIGINAL TICKET ISSUANCE DATE IF MILES HAVE NOT EXPIRED - REINSTATEMENT CHARGES MAY APPLY.


I agree it seems like no fees - but it also says contact AA for partner travel... I just wanted to see if anyone has specific experience with this.

I thought the difference was not the fee but that an all-AA could be done online to get refunded, and an all-Partner requires a call. I’ve only cancelled an all-AA this year myself though.

Asked the question in chat. The agent called the advantage desk and after a long time came back with the reply there is no fee on partner awards either...

Was reminded by this thread activity that I needed to cancel just such an itinerary (one-way, nonstop award on JL). Canceled and redeposited online with no charge.

I’m stating the obvious here but w the change to most domestic AA awards usually being websaver or higher, it’s really hard to use partners unless they fly from your coast (or you are willing to pay for a cash connection and risk schedule changes). For us on the west coast it makes IB and AT much less useful. The 57.5 k awards to Europe are really hard to piece together these days.

What is the most recent change/refund rule for AA award ticket now? I remember that during COVID AA changed the award ticket change/cancellation/close-in fee to 0. Is that still the case now? I tried to google but the information I got is still obscure. Does anyone have real time experience?

The current policy is posted right at the top of the award-booking screen as soon as you do an award search (at least, in the app):

"More flexibility when plans change We eliminated reinstatement and change fees on award trips, including Web Special awards."

I am having a hard time getting AS flights to show up as a tag on to the end of a BA award ex-EU. These used to show up, but now i regularly see AS flights w T=7, E=2 and yet i have to call in to add that segment on. There are some places where the BA YQ is as low as $299 for business class and I figure with the AS connection there is a decent chance of a schedule change, and possibility we could be moved to AA metal and get the YQ refunded. Anyone else noticing these generally are not coming up? This is annoying as AS often has point to point routes (AUS-LAX) and/or actual standard award space whereas AA domestic is all websaaver and so cannot be combined w BA metal.

I have always been dubious of the constructed fare requirement here. So i am curious if anyone can find a constructed fare for FEZ-CMN (AT)-MAD (AT)-LhR (BA)-AUS (BA). It’s definitely bookable. At best there is an AA fare that permits this from CMN, but the only way I can build this is w 2 separate tickets, yet AA will ticket at 57.5k miles. Indeed, nearly all the ex-Morocco award routings I can find that include a BA transatlantic segment cannot be supported by a constructed fare. Yet AA will sell these awards.

Are you confusing Constructed Routing vs Published Routing

A published routing should be expected to normally be permitted ( subject to AA award routing rules )
A constructed routing may be permitted or may require 2 awards to be used
Looking at AT's and BA's routing rules for FEZ-AUS , BA has no fares listed and AT's fares have constructed routings that do not permit that route

It would look like FEZ-AUS in the way mentioned is relying on end-on-end ticketing - e.g. one fare used for FEZ-LHR and another for LHR-AUS

If you can get AA to issue an award for 57.5k on that route, I am confused on what that problem is - just book and enjoy

I have had this issue come up before when I want to use miles for one ticket (a companion) and buy a ticket for myself. Sometimes the route is ultimately available for purchase (after calling) but at an astronomical fare.

My point is what it has always been, while this may be a "requirement" that was articulated by AA at some point, it is probably implemented in the award booking engine logic for less than 50% of routes that get booked. As I pointed out 3-4 years ago on this thread, JL has never published a routing which allows CX or MH metal in Asia, yet all of flew JL over the water and used one or more of those other 2 asia partners to get to our final destinations in S Asia. The same is clearly true when using some combination of AT/IB/BA for trips in Europe. Also, adding an AS segment on in the US is almost always permitted, even though rarely part of a published routing (this is true of both EU and Asia partners).

So as I have always said, it makes sense to try the multi segment search, put things on hold and then call AA to ask for manual pricing. I have found that the vast majority of awards we have booked with AA over the last couple decades have not met this rule, but the award engine has not been programmed to flag them, no surprise really as that would be a laborious task that would require constant updating of the award tool logic. When in doubt, give it a try, and certainly know there are all kinds of interesting EU combinations now allowed with BA/IB/AT

Is the CMN-MAD flight operated by AT coming up as an AT flight or an IB codeshare? IB has a fare rule that would allow that routing, but I think only with the codeshare:

My suspicion is that the automated system isn't smart enough to parse anything but the routing. E.g., JL's routing BOS-BKK is just MPM; all the carrier restrictions are in the fare rules. (Though the rules on that do actually permit either JL or CX for Japan-SE Asia segments - and the ridiculous BOS-JL-NRT-JL-ICN-CX-HKG-CX-BKK routing I cobbled together a few years back seems like it's completely allowed.)

(That said, there's a lot of crazy routes that aren't buyable in practice that are still out there. The buyable FEZ-AUS fares I see seem to be breaking into fares of different booking classes.)

Booking Alaska metal using AA miles
 

I have the option to book an Alaska flt. using AA miles through AA's WEB site.
Regarding seat selection, does my Platinum status allow me to select preferred seats the way it does on AA?
Thanks

Check out the table at https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...a-airlines.jsp - you have access to Premium Class seats -- "Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S or N fares after ticket purchase; all other fares at 72 hours before departure".

In addition to above mentioned premium seats (which are similar to AA MCE), you should also have access to preferred seats after ticketing. These would be standard coach seats maybe closer to the front or on aisle/window (also like what AA classifies as preferred)

Mods -- not sure this is the best forum for this question - please feel free to move.

I have a one-way non-stop AA award on AY (JFK-HEL) booked next week and need to delay the departure date by ~ 3-7 days. Of course, no J awards are available on AY any longer in this timeframe, from any US departure gate to HEL or ARN. Surprisingly, there are AA awards on BA operated flights still available, connecting through LHR to HEL and ARN.

I'm not comfortable with this alternative -- it seems almost reckless to volunteer for the likely snafus. Even if I did not have to check a bag - which I do - or connect through LHR under the best of circumstances. But it's unlikely anything else will open up.

But this begs the question -- why are these award seats still available? Are they 'real' & likely to remain so? Or just not yet removed from inventory only weeks out? Given the state of LHR described by the media, it seems like BA pulling award seats on partner airlines would be the first low hanging fruit to go to reduce passenger traffic and accommodate passengers from the plethora of cancelled flights. What am I missing?

Thanks everyone for the information. Any reason NOT to book on Alaska if it's cheaper?

Including exit rows. Row 16 doesn't recline but Row 17 does. More pitch than Premium Class.

James

I am guessing that award availability is showing on BA since BA awards are less award but more a slight discount on the published fares. if you use BA for JFK-HEL you will have to pay an exta $20 in taxes plus $800 for the carrier surcharge (one way)