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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 22, 2015, 6:53 pm
  #1171  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: CHS
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For those searching for seats, I discovered a ton of award seats in the A380 First Apartment from London --> Abu Dhabi between April - Oct 2016.

Dates with 3+ seats:
  • July 24: 4 seats
  • July 26: 5 seats
  • August 3: 5 seats
  • August 4: 3 seats
  • August 5: 3 seats
  • August 6: 5 seats
  • August 7: 5 seats
  • August 8: 6 seats
  • August 11: 4 seats
  • August 16: 4 seats
  • August 18: 4 seats
  • August 21: 4 seats
  • October 23: 4 seats
  • October 24: 6 seats
  • October 26: 5 seats
  • October 27: 2x flights with 3 seats

Here's the calendar I made that shows the available dates, all dates are for London --> Abu Dhabi:






While the Australia routes provide the best value, the routes to/from Europe are also a good deal at just 40,000 miles one-way for 7-8+ hours in the First Apartment:

Abu Dhabi-AUH → New York-JFK = ~6.1k AA miles/hr
Abu Dhabi-AUH → London-LHR = ~4.9k AA miles/hr
Melbourne-MEL → Abu Dhabi-AUH = ~4.3k AA miles/hr
Sydney-SYD → Abu Dhabi-AUH = ~4k AA miles/hr

Hope some find the info useful!
jmgriffin is offline  
Old Dec 22, 2015, 7:43 pm
  #1172  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Originally Posted by jmgriffin
Abu Dhabi-AUH → New York-JFK = ~6.1k AA miles/hr
Abu Dhabi-AUH → London-LHR = ~4.9k AA miles/hr
Melbourne-MEL → Abu Dhabi-AUH = ~4.3k AA miles/hr
Sydney-SYD → Abu Dhabi-AUH = ~4k AA miles/hr
Wow, makes me feel worse about my JFK-AUH redemption! But I guess it's inevitable if you live in the US, as getting to Europe is the expensive leg.
frisbfreek is offline  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 6:16 am
  #1173  
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Saw a JFK-AUH A380 seat open this morning, was all set for the hangup and call Australia routine, but, a non-EP Res agent saw the seat instantly and had it on hold within 45 seconds of her picking up the phone.
JonNYC is offline  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 7:04 am
  #1174  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,761
Sorry for the rudimentary question but can't find any answers from searching this thread...should OLCI function for an EY ticket booked with AA miles?
arlflyer is offline  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 8:42 am
  #1175  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 464
Originally Posted by jmgriffin
Hope some find the info useful!
Wow, excellent post! I am itching to finally get on the A380 before the big deval.

NY based but it looks increasingly likely that we'll have to position to LHR.

Did you compile this all manually? Any other routes you have looked at?
slice is online now  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 10:13 pm
  #1176  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: LAX
Programs: United Silver, Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond
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Called Australian call center and was told 40K AA (expected) and 388AUD in taxes and fees (??!!) per person from LHR-AUH. Seemed way too high so I declined and hung up.
chongl is offline  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 10:16 pm
  #1177  
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Originally Posted by chongl
Called Australian call center and was told 40K AA (expected) and 388AUD in taxes and fees (??!!) per person from LHR-AUH. Seemed way too high so I declined and hung up.
AUD388 is about USD280.

You do realise there's 174 in Duty to be paid for a flying journey departing the UK in premium cabins. That's AU$355 (USD260) right there.
serfty is offline  
Old Dec 23, 2015, 10:17 pm
  #1178  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Originally Posted by serfty
You do realise there's 174 in UK Duty to be paid for a flying journey departing the UK in premium cabins. That's AU$355 right there.
I just looked at the other reports of the same. I jumped the gun on posting
chongl is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 1:05 am
  #1179  
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Originally Posted by serfty
AUD388 is about USD280.

You do realise there's 174 in Duty to be paid for a flying journey departing the UK in premium cabins. That's AU$355 (USD260) right there.
I guess that would explain why there's so much availability from LHR-AUH, lol. Still worth it though.
TMM1982 is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 1:50 am
  #1180  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Originally Posted by TMM1982
I guess that would explain why there's so much availability from LHR-AUH, lol. Still worth it though.
One could avoid the APD by originating in, say, DUB and only connecting through LHR.
flyingeph12 is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 3:04 am
  #1181  
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
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Originally Posted by flyingeph12
One could avoid the APD by originating in, say, DUB and only connecting through LHR.
Will AA provide the DUB-LHR (which would have to be a BA flight) on the same PNR as the LHR-AUH EY flight ?

If not then you'll have difficulty with avoiding the APD. In theory provided your connection is less that 24 hrs, you shouldn't pay APD, however if done on 2 separate bookings, you will automatically get charged the APD. You then have to discover the mechanism for getting it refunded. I don't actually recall a report of such on FT (but surely it has happened). Is AA set up to refund APD in this scenario ?
tangey is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 3:15 am
  #1182  
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Originally Posted by tangey
Will AA provide the DUB-LHR (which would have to be a BA flight) on the same PNR as the LHR-AUH EY flight ?

If not then you'll have difficulty with avoiding the APD. In theory provided your connection is less that 24 hrs, you shouldn't pay APD, however if done on 2 separate bookings, you will automatically get charged the APD. You then have to discover the mechanism for getting it refunded. I don't actually recall a report of such on FT (but surely it has happened). Is AA set up to refund APD in this scenario ?
If it is a single award from DUB-AUH then would not be chared the APD. If made as 2 bookings any APD refund that can be extracted would seem to be contrary to the rules of APD and I would doubt that EY would refund it

It it cannot be done as a through award, then no point going to DUB
Dave Noble is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 7:20 am
  #1183  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
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Originally Posted by tangey
Is AA set up to refund APD in this scenario ?
Yes as reported here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...tickets-2.html
edy4eva is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 7:41 am
  #1184  
 
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Originally Posted by slice
Wow, excellent post! I am itching to finally get on the A380 before the big deval.

NY based but it looks increasingly likely that we'll have to position to LHR.

Did you compile this all manually? Any other routes you have looked at?
Thanks! Yes, I compiled it manually. It was helpful for me to put together so that I could piece together an acceptable award. The only other routes I've checked so thoroughly are AUH-MEL and MEL-AUH. The data is already over a week old, so some of the dates are probably gone, but it's probably a good place to start: http://weekendblitz.com/tons-etihad-...abi-melbourne/
jmgriffin is offline  
Old Dec 24, 2015, 3:35 pm
  #1185  
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Quick question; do folks who have been ticketed (w/ ticket #) find that their AA-supplied EY-locator (as in not the AA PNR, obviously) doesn't produce result on EY.com? Shows as cancelled or past-flown?

Thanks!
JonNYC is offline  

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