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]
Sep 25, 2014, 6:13 pm
#2132
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,395
Sep 25, 2014, 6:17 pm
#2133
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Sep 25, 2014, 8:52 pm
#2134
Join Date: Feb 2001
Programs: IHG Diamond, HH Diamond, BW Diamond Select, Accor Silver, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,228
QF's site sometimes shows QF321/322 availability, but never LA800/801. aa.com and ba.com only ever show the QF metal (QF27/28) and never QF321/322, even when qantas.com has them available. I'd like to try out LAN, but it's hard to know whether this means that they never have availability on their own flight number, or just that nobody shows it online. (And if the latter, would US agents be able to access it?)
Sep 25, 2014, 10:34 pm
#2135
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 13
According to the USDM rules, this routing is not valid, but YMMV...
ORY-MAD-FRA and NRT-CTS-NGO are not flown the most direct way, it's also backtracking. Your stopover is not at a partner hub and this routing does not fulfill this rule: Stopovers are allowed only for the most direct route of travel.
http://www.oneworld.com/member-airli...n-airlines-jal
ORY-MAD-FRA and NRT-CTS-NGO are not flown the most direct way, it's also backtracking. Your stopover is not at a partner hub and this routing does not fulfill this rule: Stopovers are allowed only for the most direct route of travel.
http://www.oneworld.com/member-airli...n-airlines-jal
Thanks !
Sep 25, 2014, 10:54 pm
#2136
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Thanks for the comment ! One more question, I reserved the reward tix for North Asia to Europe on First Class, for the sector HKG to HND on JAL, it is only 2-class services so I will be in Business class, the tix code is (D) instead of (U) for this sector, just curious if this is normal?
Thanks !
Thanks !
http://www.kvstool.com/FAQ.php#Classes
JL business award can book into U or D...although I think D is for domestic business awards?
Sep 25, 2014, 11:57 pm
#2137
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 803
I am booking a super simple HKG-KIX/NRT-HKG flight and it has cost me 20 mins already. The agent keep asking me on hold. Am I just unlucky to hit a novice or it's the common case?
Sep 26, 2014, 12:04 am
#2138
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 803
Sep 26, 2014, 12:56 am
#2139
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,623
CX doesn't charge YQ but does charge YR
Trouble with the YR is that some of the YR charges are required to be paid ( the HKG security tax ) so there would seem to be an extra $40 in YR over what might be expected
Trouble with the YR is that some of the YR charges are required to be paid ( the HKG security tax ) so there would seem to be an extra $40 in YR over what might be expected
Last edited by Dave Noble; Sep 26, 2014 at 1:03 am
Sep 26, 2014, 12:56 am
#2140
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
Thanks for the comment ! One more question, I reserved the reward tix for North Asia to Europe on First Class, for the sector HKG to HND on JAL, it is only 2-class services so I will be in Business class, the tix code is (D) instead of (U) for this sector, just curious if this is normal?
Thanks !
Thanks !
Sep 26, 2014, 1:37 am
#2141
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Between AMS and BRU
Posts: 8,852
And the point was that a US-NA award is always more expensive then a US-EU award, so no additional charge for stopping in EU.
But yes, if you can find F availability on this route you would be somewhat foolish to fly C instead of F for just 10k more.
But yes, if you can find F availability on this route you would be somewhat foolish to fly C instead of F for just 10k more.
Last edited by RTW1; Sep 26, 2014 at 1:47 am
Sep 26, 2014, 1:48 am
#2142
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: AS MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 803
First, HKG security tax is ~40 HKD but not USD.
Second, the total YR is 49 USD pp. If you add them up, it's 170 all taxes for two.
Anyway, I think this agent has no idea what she is doing. She even told me there is no biz seat even if ba&jl are saying there is. I am going to call back tomorrow to change it anyway.
Sep 26, 2014, 1:59 am
#2143
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,623
I don't think it is the case. I think it's what they did wrong.
First, HKG security tax is ~40 HKD but not USD.
Second, the total YR is 49 USD pp. If you add them up, it's 170 all taxes for two.
Anyway, I think this agent has no idea what she is doing. She even told me there is no biz seat even if ba&jl are saying there is. I am going to call back tomorrow to change it anyway.
First, HKG security tax is ~40 HKD but not USD.
Second, the total YR is 49 USD pp. If you add them up, it's 170 all taxes for two.
Anyway, I think this agent has no idea what she is doing. She even told me there is no biz seat even if ba&jl are saying there is. I am going to call back tomorrow to change it anyway.
Of $49 YR , $5 ish is due to be paid anyway
The problem ex HKG is that there is YR that should be paid and then the YR that is a surcharge
Sep 26, 2014, 5:46 am
#2144
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: US CP, *wood Gold, Marriott gold, Hilton something
Posts: 1,458
Best carrier for FC award to South Africa using US miles?
Hey gang,
Title says it all...I've been sitting on my miles for over 10 years, and next year we're headed on safari.
I need to ultimate end up in Victoria Falls but for the right FC experience, I'd fly to Jburg or Capetown and sort the rest out.
So if you could go via any routing and any carrier using US miles, how would you do it?
Title says it all...I've been sitting on my miles for over 10 years, and next year we're headed on safari.
I need to ultimate end up in Victoria Falls but for the right FC experience, I'd fly to Jburg or Capetown and sort the rest out.
So if you could go via any routing and any carrier using US miles, how would you do it?
Sep 26, 2014, 6:32 am
#2145
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: AVL
Programs: AA EXP ; Cunard Plat
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