Mar 30, 2014, 12:53 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
WIKI POST: Using US Dividend Miles for oneworld Award Flights
As further details become available, please fill in this wikipost.
As further details become available, please fill in this wikipost.
N.B. Booking opportunities for new Dividend Miles awards of all kinds ended 11:59 PM Wednesday, 25 March 2015. Please continue using this thread for trips booked or in progress through 24 March 2016.
Changes on USDM oneworld award tickets
This is the only official statement about changing issued USDM award tickets:
If I need to make changes to a Dividend Miles award reservation, which program’s rules will apply?
Minor changes such as date/time can be made provided seats are available without requiring a new award to be claimed. More substantive changes such as changes to stopovers or origin/destination may result in the need to reinstate the previously claimed Dividend Miles award, then claiming a new AAdvantage award under the existing AAdvantage program rules.
The old membership rules do 'generally' still appy to USDM tickets.
For awards ticketed / reticketed on 001- ticket stock, go to the AA Refunds site with your ticket number at hand (unsure if it works with 037- stock at this time)to:
- Print a receipt with ticket number (instead of Request a refund)
- See total fees, taxes, etc. attached to your ticket
- See applicable detailed fare rules
- Request a refund (may not be useful for awards)
- Some were able to change their ticket without beeing charged the USD 150.- changing fee.
- No chance to change a ticket after the first flight segment has been flown.
- ...
Old stuff
oneworld member airlines - airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines (Sibir), SriLankan Airlines, TAM Airlines, US Airways and their affiliates.
Award Chart for oneworld awards using US Dividend Miles:
http://shopping.usairways.com/en-US/...wardtravel.pdf
You can use the American Airlines, British Airways, JAL, or Qantas sites to search for oneworld award inventory. AA and QF also allows you to search for award inventory using a handy 30 day calendar view. However, availability on the calendar is dependent on site coverage (e.g. QF does not include JL or MH, AA does not include CX and others). Also, the calendar view may not be completely accurate on all partners, so use it as a guide but do not rely on it fully.
One of the easiest ways to search for oneworld availability is through the use of an outside tool such as Award Nexus, ExpertFlyer, KVS Tool, or The Wandering Aramean oneworld Search.
Award Nexus has a free community membership for flyertalk members, and award email alert with premium membership. ExpertFlyer has email alerts and direct GDS access to select oneworld award inventories, such as AA, QF, and US. ExpertFlyer can also search J class certificate upgrade inventory. With KVS Tool, you can search QF, BA, JL and CX's search engines, in addition to other alliances, on your PC (Mac / Linux with CrossOver). You can also set up an alert via The Wandering Aramean oneworld Search. This tool will automatically search on QF for your alert once per day with a free account and four times per day with a paid account.
N.B. With all of the above tools, it is best to search one segment at a time. Most oneworld search engines have difficulty marrying segments.
For route searching with itinerary information, use the interactive oneworld map and timetable.
For searching Intra-North America availability, the best tool is AA.com. Unlike the other oneworld engines, AA is pretty good at marrying segments, so you can search origin to destination.
Regarding availability, the strategy that has been most effective for people looking to book award travel on oneworld is to start searching right at 330 days prior to departure. This is generally when availability is at its best. After that, availability tends to be sporadic until starting 8 weeks prior to departure where some airlines open up availability, and will vary all the way up until the day of departure.
If you're having trouble finding availability, it may be best to look at alternate airports (JL, for example, serves SAN, YVR, and BOS, in addition to the larger markets of SFO, LAX, YYZ, ORD, and JFK).
(N.B. Although US was not adding fuel surcharges to awards, there are reports that they have started doing this for awards containing BA flights.) With the exception of BA & IB, no oneworld carriers require you to pay a fuel surcharge for awards. With BA, be aware that you may have to pay both a fuel surcharge as well as the UK Air Passenger Duty departure tax for intercontinental J and F flights out of UK. These fees vary with class of service and length of flight and are determined by BA; the Air Passenger Duty (see specific thread) is due for all UK departures not under 24 hour connecting flights. APD applies to coach tickets, too, but at a reduced rate. The fuel /YQ surcharge with IB is generally considered minimal.
Known Problems / Workaround:
- Dep 00:00AM : Some agents have difficulty finding flights leaving between midnight and 2 AM. This is because the US systems show it leaving the day before. If the agent cannot find it, please ask to look at the day before. > source <
- LA : Flights put on hold will be cancelled after 24h. Workaround: Issue the ticket immediately. > source <
- JL : US Rep cannot find available seats. Workaround: "Always have to remind Rep to open JL reservations on a new screen". > source <
- MH : US Rep cannot find awards in First Class. Workaround: First class needs to be booked in P-cl instead of Z-cl (as on most other OW carriers). > source < booking classes: > KVS <
- All : If you are booking outbound flights at the US Air 335 day window US Air will often allow you to put your reservation on a longer than 3 day hold to capture the return seats once they open up at T+335. There is a report of this for 30 days here, and FT user beofotch was successful in getting a 13 day hold here. Workaround: Huaca until you get an agent who is competent enough to do this. It may help to act naive and ask for your return flight on your preferred date even if it is after T+335 days. Once they get an error from the computer may be a good time to bring it up.
- ...
Fixed Problems:
- CX : US Rep cannot find seats on flight CX 645 HKG-DOH. Workaround: none so far, search for different routing/carrier (CMB/DXB/...?)... > source < > fixed <
> fixed < - CX : US Rep cannot find seats on flight CX 640 DOH-HKG. They admit, the flight exists, but are unable to book <source>. Workaround: none so far, search for different routing/carrier
> fixed < - BA/Comair : US rep could not see / or unable to book intra-South Africa flights in BA flight number operated by Comair despite AA treats Comair a full fledged oneworld member under BA, in the same context as KA under CX. Only one reported success booking - poster reported agent had trouble at first but on consulting a supervisor was told "where to look"; the agent did not give any further information. Most everyone else reported unable to book Comair flights.
> fixed < - IB : Flights will be cancelled after ticket issued. Workaround: None yet... > source <
> fixed <
LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]
Aug 16, 2014, 2:11 pm
#1741
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: SFO, SJC
Programs: UA, AA, AS, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 707
Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I will try to look for different routes, but award availability is bad since this is during peak holiday period (hence why I booked months ago). Really, really bummed about this since I specifically booked this to try BA and JL F. Oh well.
My biggest hope is that JL will be willing to open a seat on LHR-HND... but definitely not holding my breath on that one.
Thanks again.
My biggest hope is that JL will be willing to open a seat on LHR-HND... but definitely not holding my breath on that one.
Thanks again.
Aug 16, 2014, 4:56 pm
#1742
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Marriot Platinum
Posts: 148
Sky High Taxes on British Airway Reward
So I know there are surcharges and taxes on flying to London on a BA flight but 700 dollars! That's half the price of a revenue ticket plus I'm burning 60k in miles. Does this seem correct or is US adding some kind of fee for the ticketing that I don't know about?
Aug 16, 2014, 5:04 pm
#1743
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
So I know there are surcharges and taxes on flying to London on a BA flight but 700 dollars! That's half the price of a revenue ticket plus I'm burning 60k in miles. Does this seem correct or is US adding some kind of fee for the ticketing that I don't know about?
What is ITA matrix saying about the BA YQ surcharges on your routing?
Aug 16, 2014, 5:15 pm
#1744
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EP 3MM, UA Silver, Bonvoy LT TIT, Hyatt Explorist, HH Silver, Caesars PLT
Posts: 7,259
Sounds about right for BA. And these aren't just taxes and government/airport fees - BA surcharges for long haul flights are astronomical, and even more so in premium cabins.
Aug 16, 2014, 5:51 pm
#1745
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
So I know there are surcharges and taxes on flying to London on a BA flight but 700 dollars! That's half the price of a revenue ticket plus I'm burning 60k in miles. Does this seem correct or is US adding some kind of fee for the ticketing that I don't know about?
Aug 17, 2014, 10:44 am
#1747
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum
Posts: 3,727
simple Routing question
This is for a OneWorld award ticket using US miles. I know US is famous for YMMV, but here's my query: I'm going to Australia. I would like to route through Asia both ways. That adheres to their routing rules, correct?
Last edited by italdesign; Aug 17, 2014 at 11:24 am
Aug 17, 2014, 10:53 am
#1748
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Sun Prairie, WI
Programs: AA Executive Platinum, HH Diamond, National Executive
Posts: 1,786
US itself doesn't fly to Asia (or Australia) so you will need to book on a partner airline.
Aug 17, 2014, 10:57 am
#1749
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum
Posts: 3,727
Aug 17, 2014, 11:08 am
#1750
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Sun Prairie, WI
Programs: AA Executive Platinum, HH Diamond, National Executive
Posts: 1,786
Cathay Pacific will route you that way through HKG - why do you want to book on US though?
Aug 17, 2014, 11:09 am
#1751
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
USA - AUS via Asia only possible from the East cost. US will enforce the MPM very strictly. A straight forward routing like JFK-LHR-HKG-SYD will fit within the miles (JFK-SYD 25M = 14933) , every detour will be critical and most probably denied...
If you start from the central zone or west coast of the USA, then the mileage will decrease and makes it impossible to get to AUS within the 25M...
Edit: above if you want to use USDM miles for the ticket... that's not clear in your post!
If you start from the central zone or west coast of the USA, then the mileage will decrease and makes it impossible to get to AUS within the 25M...
Edit: above if you want to use USDM miles for the ticket... that's not clear in your post!
Aug 17, 2014, 11:11 am
#1752
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Jersey City, NJ
Programs: UA GS, AA Exec Plat, Bonvoy Ambassador, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 348
Is anybody else experiencing some sort of issue when trying to book IB awards? For the past 3 days, every time I book an award with IB flights, (JFK - MAD in J) the next morning the segment drops off. This has happened twice already and the agents keep telling me that IB is telling them to cancel and re-issue awards booked on them.
Aug 17, 2014, 11:24 am
#1753
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum
Posts: 3,727
Yes, I meant I will use US miles to book a OneWorld award ticket. Sorry for the confusion.
Air Rarotonga: where can I find out the MPM for a certain route?
Air Rarotonga: where can I find out the MPM for a certain route?
Aug 17, 2014, 11:46 am
#1754
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: 10^7 mm from Ȱ
Programs: Hyatt D/HHonors D/ SPG P/ Marriott P/ IHG P/ UA 1K/ AA EXP/ DL D
Posts: 1,976
Is anybody else experiencing some sort of issue when trying to book IB awards? For the past 3 days, every time I book an award with IB flights, (JFK - MAD in J) the next morning the segment drops off. This has happened twice already and the agents keep telling me that IB is telling them to cancel and re-issue awards booked on them.