AA oneworld & Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (master thd)
 

I'm looking for PPT-NRT-HKG in J... can't transit from Asia 1 to Asia 2 right?

Just double checking as AA call center wait time is through the roof right now... thanks!

Correct, that will require 2 awards.

AA Award Routing Rules on Partner Award
 

Hi Everyone, please pardon if this question has been asked. I would like to book an award ticket from TYO or HKG back to the US and I live on the west coast but I'm only seeing availability on CX/JL to ORD or JFK or BOS. Is there any scenario where AA would allow me to book an award to LAX/SFO via ORD/JFK if there are no other options to get me to LAX/SFO directly from my international gateway in Asia? Thanks

Yeah there's no problem with "backtracking" like that. You can have a maximum of 4 segments on the itinerary. If a better routing comes up later, remember that you can make the change for free.

I had issues with booking a flight with "backtracking" within the US. The agent was super snarky and commented on how I was flying "back halfway across the country" and said that I couldn't book it on one award. She said the final destination was ORD (from NRT) and that any west coast flights would require a new award, even if there were no available flights direct to the west coast city.

That is complete garbage and nothing more than a bad agent making up rules. I hope you did a HUCA. I can book RDU-LAX-LHR as a single award for crying out loud, aa.com frequently gives me this option.

It isn't garbage and is in line with AA's rules on awards

For awards with partners, it tends to just use the rules of the governing carrier whilst for itself it seems that it can be more flexible

For LAX-HKG , as an example, CX's most flexible fare is MPM based and permits 8698 miles - LAX-JFK-HKG is 10,547 miles which is < 25% over the MPM , so would suspect that it would be permitted

AA does have award rules including it being a "most direct routing" which LAX-JFK-HKG is definitely not - given the non stop distance is 7260 miles

The only way to know how it will price for certain is to actually call , hold a booking and see what is quoted

So assuming it's within the MPM then it would be allowed?

When you phone and make the booking, you will get a price - at that point you will know whether it has been allowed

At this stage it is speculation as to what the system will price it as

It is a routeing which I could see falling eaither side of being 2 awards or 1 award

HUCA didn't work and the second agent was surprised that the award got broken up into two. SEA->ORD->NRT prices as one award but NRT->ORD->SEA prices as two. She again mentioned "backtracking" as the reason the award was broken up. The supervisor wasn't able to manually price it either. Perhaps it's MPM.

It is 100% garbage, there is no rule against "backtracking" which is what this agent said. AA agents just make this stuff up when there are other underlying reasons why an award might not work as a single award (published fare, MPM, etc.).

And If AA were to truly enforce any kind of "most direct routing rule" then 90% of any type of award on AA would suddenly become invalid. It's not a realistic rule at all, which is why pretty much anything goes with AA metal, and with partners it's the published fares/MPM that govern the possible routings.

For the flights in question above, was the ORD-NRT on AA metal or JL? Partners typically have much stricter routing requirements based on their published fares, so SEA-ORD-NRT would be no problem on AA metal, but if using JL metal for the longhaul segment, JL's published fares might require you to connect at LAX/SFO/YVR and thus require 2 awards.

Just a theory, but again nothing to do with "backtracking" :).

Both were partner awards, JL 9/10. I just can't figure out why it would ticket fine one direction but not the other.

I was surprised to be offered the following routing for SYD-TUN : routes Australia-Africa-Middle East-Africa as single award

Depart Sydney, Australia to Tunis, Tunisia

FlightDepartArriveTravel timeAircraftClassSeatshttps://www.aa.com/content/images/ca...logo-24x24.gif 63 Qantas Airways14h 5m744Business

1. — —

1364 Qatar Airways8h 50m77WBusiness

1. — —

1399 Qatar Airways6h 35m333Business

1. — —

Cost summary

Hello all,

I am trying to book a trip on Cathay Pacific through AAdvantage. It would route SFO-CAN-SIN-SFO. Appears to have layovers in HKG on all trips. After calling it I was told it would be 92,500 with $130.03 for taxes and fees. I wanted to see if anyone has any insights on getting the trip for cheaper. Thanks!

AAdvantage awards no longer offer free stopovers anywhere, only connections. If you are stopping over in both CAN and SIN, then three one-way awards are required: SFO-CAN, CAN-SIN, and SIN-SFO.

Would an open jaw be possible? Booking SFO-CAN then SIN-SFO using miles and purchasing CAN-SIN using $ or another airlines miles.

Certainly: all AAdvantage awards are now one-ways, which can be flexibly combined to create roundtrips, open-jaws, circle trips, etc.

By default, it is one-way per award - so there really is not a thing called OJ, because when you start from another city, you have another award, INDEPENDENT from what the first award is.

I have an AA award on hold and it contains Alaska flights (NY-CLT-PIT on AA, PIT-SEA on Alaska).

Due to the weather in the northeast and Seattle I am unsure if I really want to go. The trip is tomorrow and the award hold expires 2 hours before the flight so I have time to see the weather in the morning. It also gives me the ability to see if the Alaska aircraft actually leaves Seattle for PIT so it can return to Seattle. It is a 3 day trip so if there are significant delays I will not go.

What got me nervous is the line from AA when making the reservation that says "partner awards need to be confirmed". Should I be worried? Do Alaska flights on hold sometimes not ticket, especially extremely close in bookings?

Also, if I ticket it and flights get cancelled and I do not take the trip, do I get the $75 close in reservation fee back?

You have nothing to worry about with an award involving AS, if you decide to go just book it and it should ticket a few mins later. The "partner awards need to be confirmed" language is more relevant for some of AA's foreign partners where it can sometimes take over 24 hrs for an award to ticket. As to the $75 close in fee, I doubt that would be refundable, although aa.com doesn't say one way or the other. YMMV.

On international awards, you can have connections up to 23:59. Anything longer than that requires two awards. See the Wikipost at the top of the page.

Do the routing rules in the wiki apply to partners, or just AA?

The reason that I ask is that my friend recently booked an award flight to India (found 3 in J actually, for him, his wife, and his kid). He booked it on CX (SFO-HKG-BOM) using AA miles, as a single award per passenger (210k miles for all 3)

Doesn't this violate the routing rules for India? Specifically (from the wiki)

No, there's an exception via the Pacific for CX via HKG to India.

Should that be in the wiki? Is it? (I've read it over several times and didn't see it -- am I just missing it?)

It IS in the Wiki, right under the initial Exception Table by JonNYC. You just miss it because the Wiki is not very organized. Here they are - Via HKG on CX has been allowed before that, and then MH & 9W were added Nov 2016.

HOWEVER 9W most likely is no longer the case though given it is more like a partner of DL and we lost the 9W AMS-YYZ route that was almost always available for EU-North America when everything else failed (other than BA or even BA failed). It is a big loss.

Latest changes:

• As of Aug 2017, Connections are limited to two connections / three flight segments for domestic awards, and three connections / four flight segments for international awards. Link
• Nov 2016: MH and 9W can now be used on AA or CX transpacific awards to India subcontinent via HKG in addition to CX
• May 6, 2016: Regions split (Indian Subcontinent, Middle East)
• Jet Airways discontinued EWR-BRU as of 27 March 2016.
• As of 7 April 2014, the "free stopover" discussed can no longer be used as free award stopovers at international North American gateways have been eliminated.
• Airlines are normally precluded from writing tickets with more than 16 segments.

I see that now, thanks. But it still seems like it should be in the "connecting via a third region" exception table as well.

Would it be correct to add

North America to/from Indian Sub Continent can connect in HKG if connecting AA-CX, CX-AA, or CX-CX

below

North America to/from Indian Sub Continent/Middle East can connect in Europe

(I don't want to add it unless I'm sure it's accurate)

You have to understand, the Wiki is maintained by members on voluntary efforts, unless there are members who took it upon themselves and are dedicated to such efforts, such as in the Citi AA card thread, and threads in Marriott / Hilton - just off the top of my head, most other Wikis on the FT forum are just very loosely kept.

The table is a DIRECT copy from JonNYC's own website long time ago. Anyone has followed AA forum long enough, would not mess anything JonNYC posted...
Therefore you see those later changes being added below, and in fact, 9W info should be outdated but it is still there...

Bottom line, the Wiki is a guide, and the Q&A in the thread itself is where you read and learn.

I'm not sure why you would not correct information that is outdated (or more accurately in this case, add new information in order to keep things up to date)

Occasionally moderators will put notes and instructions not to edit. This is not such a case.

I'm looking for validation that it's correct before I add it, though. Adding incorrect information is definitely not helpful. As it is, the wiki is wrong.

Just as a data point. It took a good long while for my non-codeshare Etihad flights to credit to my AA account. It was about 55 days after the outgoing flight and 40 days after the return. They say to wait 30 days before asking for miles credit. I was going to get around to it some day but luckily the miles finally, belatedly showed up.

Question
 

Hello Everyone,

Could you confirm if Central America to Asian Zone 2 (SJO-MAD-HKG) requires two awards or just only one?

If you go via the Atlantic, it's two awards, which means you could have a stopover -- and not merely a connection -- in Europe, if desired.

If you go via the U.S. and the Pacific, it could be a single award, depending on the exact routing and airlines used.

award change fee from HND to NRT
 

I am trying to change my flight from Haneda to Narita but the agent says i have to 150USD because it is in a different city. Both are used as TYO when I search. Is this true that there is a change fee to change from Haneda to Narita? Or this agent was just incompetent

It's true that to the letter of the policy, you pay to switch co-terminals.

Not every agent will charge you for this, though. HUCA.

thanks, I find it so odd

It's a long-standing policy. AA doesn't recognize co-terminals as a free award change. This wiki and thread offer both an overview and detailed discussion of AA award rules:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...aster-thd.html

Indeed - you can change connection points without a problem, but if you want to change the award to go to another airport, the fee applies

That both can be searched for using TYO, doesn't make HND and NRT the same airport

I was able to change for free, but that was because I was upfaring an ex-HND business seat on AA to ex-NRT first seat on JL. Was expecting to have to pay the $150 change fee (and gladly would have!), but agent said the upgrade was one of the exceptions.

AA award does not allow Co-Terminal.

Therefore a Competent Agent would charge you the fee per the rules.

You can keep HUCA and see if you will get an Incompetent Agent who would not charge you.

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