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How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)

Old Jan 13, 2015, 2:43 pm
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Last edit by: SingaporeDon
Booking Award Seats on EY / Etihad Airways Using AA / AAdvantage Miles

This thread is about "how to" book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
  • You cannot search or book awards for travel on EY (Etihad) on www.aa.com

  • You can search award availability on EY's website. Look for seats on flights operated by Etihad Airways labeled as "GuestSeats".
  • You have to call AA to book them. You may need to request the AA agent to look up the inventory one segment at a time in order to find the inventory in their system. OR:
  • Your best bet is to call AA Australia (+61 2-9101-1948 ) - although the call center is actually in Suva, Fiji -as they can see the inventory reliably, and you can book (or put the EY segments on hold so you can flesh out the award afterward).
  • A handy EY route map is at http://flights.etihad.com/routemap
  • The applicable AAdvantage miles award chart is the oneworld and Other Airline Award Chart
  • Award routing rules are in the wikipost of this thread
  • It can be instructive to read about our members' successful award bookings on EY using AAdvantage miles in the Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles (>= 2015) thread. [Note: posts prior to 2015 about this topic (with the exception of a few 2014 end of year posts brought forward for continuity) are archived at ARCHIVE: Success stories of award booking on Etihad using AA miles]
  • If you find EY inventory from your continent but not your city of choice, as usual you can include any other AAdvantage award airlines in order to complete the itinerary. E.g. LHR-xAUH-DEL-xAUH-CDG on EY connecting to CDG-LHR on BA.
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How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)

Old Dec 12, 2015, 11:14 am
  #1111  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,624
Originally Posted by louie-m
I've always checked availability of legs separately on Etihad's website but looking at LHR - SYD rather than LHR - AUH then AUH - SYD shows more availability. Can I assume that AA won't be able to see this additional availability?
EY's web site is buggy for multi-segment trips (*). The separate legs are always more credible. AA agents often can't see any availability for a multi-segment trip, but manage to find it when specifically asked to look for it segment by segment.


(*) Example: I was looking on EY's site for CCU-ORD leaving 31 Dec. If you enter that date as the search date, it shows GuestSeat (as well as OpenSeat) availability. If you switch to another date in the top row, e.g. 30 Dec , then 31 Dec displays as completely unavailable and you cannot return to it. Search again for 31 Dec and seats show as available again. (This may change at any time, but it's been doing that for a couple of days.) If I look at CCU-AUH (31Dec) and AUH-ORD (1Jan), GuestSeats are available for both flights without the above unstable behavior.

BA's web site is also buggy for multi-segment trips. If there are 4 award seats on QR for CCU-DOH and 1 for DOH-ORD (or 4 on CX for CCU-HKG and 1 for HKG-ORD), then CCU-ORD will show 4 available seats.
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Old Dec 12, 2015, 11:14 am
  #1112  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 7,710
Originally Posted by louie-m
Can I assume that AA won't be able to see this additional availability?
Don't assume that, I've been able to get them to see and book through inventory not available segment by segment a couple times, though it sounds like they often don't see anything. Try and post the result, including miles deducted.
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Old Dec 12, 2015, 4:17 pm
  #1113  
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 1k, Hyatt Globalist
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Quick question - I've been searching across 2016 for any Business/First guest seat availability from JFK-AUH or even Toronto-AUH and am finding no space. Has anyone else been seeing similar searches as sold out?
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Old Dec 12, 2015, 4:44 pm
  #1114  
 
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Originally Posted by bakster21
Quick question - I've been searching across 2016 for any Business/First guest seat availability from JFK-AUH or even Toronto-AUH and am finding no space. Has anyone else been seeing similar searches as sold out?
Have you read the past 3 or 4 pages of this thread?
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Old Dec 12, 2015, 11:38 pm
  #1115  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: ADL
Programs: QFF, AAdvantage, All
Posts: 1,128
Complimentary hotel stay not available for award tickets ?

Just heard that complimentary hotel stays aren't available for award tickets. Is this true?
I'm connecting in AUH to CCU on EY in F. Since it is a 12 hr layover I was expecting to be given a hotel room.
Can anyone confirm this?
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Old Dec 12, 2015, 11:47 pm
  #1116  
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See this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Look at posts 1038 and 1039 among others.
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 12:01 am
  #1117  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Originally Posted by jerry a. laska
See this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Look at posts 1038 and 1039 among others.
My question is not in relation to the "Premium Stopover" offered by EY.
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 12:12 am
  #1118  
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP...couple hotels and cars too
Posts: 4,548
Then what IS your question about?
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 12:23 am
  #1119  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: USA
Programs: IHG/Spire Amb., Hilton/Diamond, SPG/Gold, Marriott/Gold, AA/Plat, Southwest/CP
Posts: 270
Originally Posted by ANZ787900
Has anyone had success putting together an itinerary with an EY flight and another airline's? I'm trying to find AKL-BNE-AUH with AKL-BNE on QF J and BNE-AUH on EY F but the price is appearing as two separate awards (17,500 and 60,000) rather than one for the region. Is this something to do with EY bookings/different classes or should someone be able to price up the 60,000 it theoretically should be?
I have an AUH-DFW-AUS booked as a single award with EY and AA, so whatever the issue is, I don't think it's mixing EY with another airline. Have you called AA and they are telling you it's going to price as two awards?
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 12:44 am
  #1120  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
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I thought it was Emirates, not Etihad that purportedly comped hotels for long layovers. Not entirely sure, though.
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 1:02 am
  #1121  
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Originally Posted by Steven6702
I have an AUH-DFW-AUS booked as a single award with EY and AA, so whatever the issue is, I don't think it's mixing EY with another airline. Have you called AA and they are telling you it's going to price as two awards?
It will be the system catching the permitted routing of the requested award and noting that it is not in compliance with EY's routing rules

For AUH-AUS, the following is a permitted routing

AUH-CHI/DFW-AA/B6/EY-AUS

so connecting in DFW from EY to AA would be allowed as a single award

For AKL-AUH,

AKL-EY/NZ/VA-BNE/MEL/PER/SYD-AUH

is the permitted routing via BNE. For EY's fares, AKL-BNE would need to be on VA or NZ , neither of which are partners of AA
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 1:07 am
  #1122  
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Originally Posted by LukeO9
My question is not in relation to the "Premium Stopover" offered by EY.
Well - other than that , there would be no hotel provided anyway

Originally Posted by flyingeph12
I thought it was Emirates, not Etihad that purportedly comped hotels for long layovers. Not entirely sure, though.
Etihad offers a free hotel for 1 night business class / 2 nights first class if stopping over in AUH ( see http://www.etihad.com/en/plan-and-bo...ium-stopovers/ ) on paid 1st and business class fares ( assuming fare rules permit a stopover )
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 1:51 am
  #1123  
 
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Originally Posted by flyingeph12
I thought it was Emirates, not Etihad that purportedly comped hotels for long layovers. Not entirely sure, though.
I just assumed all the major ME airlines offered hotels for premium pax with long layovers, having got the provision with QR last year.
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 8:02 am
  #1124  
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Originally Posted by LukeO9
Just heard that complimentary hotel stays aren't available for award tickets. Is this true?
I'm connecting in AUH to CCU on EY in F. Since it is a 12 hr layover I was expecting to be given a hotel room.
Can anyone confirm this?
Originally Posted by mmjaysee
Has anybody had success booking the free "premium stopover" hotel on an AA award?

http://www.etihad.com/en/plan-and-bo...ium-stopovers/

I can't seem to find any restrictions about using a mileage ticket or booking through another airline, but I'd love to hear if anybody has done this successfully?
Originally Posted by jix
Offer exclusions

The offers are not valid for seats purchased either partially or fully using Etihad Guest Miles or any other frequent flyer currency for flight rewards tickets, award upgrades, or a fare excluding taxes as part of a cash plus miles promotion.

You most likely heard correctly. I rather suspect you held overly high expectations of what your award includes. I've quoted a similar question and its reply above.

Partner awards are MileSAAver awards, the most economical available, and even if you had Executive Platinum status Etihad is not a oneworld airline. If you were flying a paid First fare in Etihad First, you'd likely have a courtesy hotel room.

You could check the Etihad Guest forum, as it addresses Etihad policies. AA never includes a hotel stay for award or paid flights outside of Off-Schedule Operations.

Last edited by JDiver; Dec 13, 2015 at 8:09 am
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 1:10 pm
  #1125  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
It will be the system catching the permitted routing of the requested award and noting that it is not in compliance with EY's routing rules

For AUH-AUS, the following is a permitted routing

AUH-CHI/DFW-AA/B6/EY-AUS

so connecting in DFW from EY to AA would be allowed as a single award

For AKL-AUH,

AKL-EY/NZ/VA-BNE/MEL/PER/SYD-AUH

is the permitted routing via BNE. For EY's fares, AKL-BNE would need to be on VA or NZ , neither of which are partners of AA
Thanks for that insight Dave! I have a question about this that may impact the booking I was planning to confirm this afternoon. Based on your post above, is DFW the only permitted routing for getting to AUS?

I actually live in DFW, but set AUS as my destination because I thought it would give me flexibility to change my routing to AUH-JFK-AUS if last-minute Apartment spaces opens up on the A30 for AUH-JFK.

If it isn't going to be possible to change to AUH-JFK-AUS then that nips that plan in the bud.

I don't suppose they'd allow an AUH-JFK-DFW either, since they also fly AUH-DFW direct...

Thanks!

EDIT: Poked around on KVS Tool and think I answered my own question... it looks like EY does publish EY/AA fares that are both AUH-JFK-AUS and even AUH-JFK-DFW.

I don't know that they'd let me book AUH-JFK-DFW if there's an AUH-DFW if I gave the reason that AUH-DFW doesn't have the plane I want but probably safer to just stick to AUH-DFW/JFK-AUS.

Last edited by LaphroaigAndRibeye; Dec 13, 2015 at 1:18 pm Reason: New info
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