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LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]

Old Mar 30, 2014, 12:53 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: JDiver
WIKI POST: Using US Dividend Miles for oneworld Award Flights
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 programs 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.
To make a change on a USDM ticket, you need to get an agent that is trained to use the US reservation system.
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)
(Go here to print in flight purchase receipts)
Some experiences about changes to tickets, reported by members:
  • 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 <
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LUS: USDM oneworld Award Bookings - (Closed to new bookings) [Master FAQ and Help]

Old Oct 6, 2014, 9:59 pm
  #2251  
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How do you get USAir agents to see MH F space (P class?)

2 agents now keep insisting they dont see anything
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Old Oct 6, 2014, 10:10 pm
  #2252  
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,706
Originally Posted by rankourabu
How do you get USAir agents to see MH F space (P class?)

2 agents now keep insisting they dont see anything
I think someone reported a few pages back that US Air agents had trouble seeing any MH space.
iluvdoco is online now  
Old Oct 6, 2014, 11:20 pm
  #2253  
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Originally Posted by iluvdoco
I think someone reported a few pages back that US Air agents had trouble seeing any MH space.
never mind! Found a great agent who was able to see it in a different window

All booked for next summer

SJU MIA AA J
MIA CDG AA J
CDG KUL MH F
stopover
KUL HKG CX J
HKG HND CX F
destination
HND DOH QR J
DOH DXB QR F
DXB LHR QF F
LHR ORD AA F
ORD SJU AA J

120,000 miles + $185 + $50

Could not justify paying $500 more for BA F each way.
rankourabu is offline  
Old Oct 7, 2014, 6:27 am
  #2254  
 
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Posts: 409
Nice booking rankourabu! Maybe I'll have good luck too with my australia adventure..
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Old Oct 7, 2014, 9:30 am
  #2255  
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Originally Posted by rankourabu
CDG KUL MH F
stopover
HKG HND CX F
destination
Nope.

I'm pretty sure you know this, too, because places like SJU and PAP have a quirk when it comes to S. Asia/N. Asia pricing.

Lemme guess, you're going to miss that ORD-SJU flight?
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Old Oct 7, 2014, 9:36 am
  #2256  
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Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
Nope.

I'm pretty sure you know this, too, because places like SJU and PAP have a quirk when it comes to S. Asia/N. Asia pricing.

Lemme guess, you're going to miss that ORD-SJU flight?
Lol, awesome, I had no idea. So I guess HND is my stopover?

They did want 160k for MIA origin, so it was either move stopover to HKG or start from Caribbean/Mexico.
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Old Oct 7, 2014, 9:57 am
  #2257  
 
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Originally Posted by rankourabu
never mind! Found a great agent who was able to see it in a different window

All booked for next summer

SJU MIA AA J
MIA CDG AA J
CDG KUL MH F
stopover
KUL HKG CX J
HKG HND CX F
destination
HND DOH QR J
DOH DXB QR F
DXB LHR QF F
LHR ORD AA F
ORD SJU AA J

120,000 miles + $185 + $50

Could not justify paying $500 more for BA F each way.
Holy mother! As much as I love flying premium cabins, that looks little too time consuming. How many miles are you flying and how many hours (incl transit time)?
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Old Oct 7, 2014, 10:22 am
  #2258  
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Originally Posted by carsnoceans
Holy mother! As much as I love flying premium cabins, that looks little too time consuming. How many miles are you flying and how many hours (incl transit time)?
Its broken up into chunks.
Longest I guess will be MIA-CDG-KUL in one go, as well as HND-DOH-DXB-LHR-ORD - but that has 23 hours in DXB built in to break it up.

Its a 5 week trip in all I've got lots of free time
rankourabu is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 3:23 am
  #2259  
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Originally Posted by rankourabu
Its broken up into chunks.
Longest I guess will be MIA-CDG-KUL in one go, as well as HND-DOH-DXB-LHR-ORD - but that has 23 hours in DXB built in to break it up.

Its a 5 week trip in all I've got lots of free time
Do you mean you got a stop in MIA after the SJU segment too?
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Old Oct 8, 2014, 7:00 am
  #2260  
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Originally Posted by onlysuites
Do you mean you got a stop in MIA after the SJU segment too?
No, just a day. It's a 8pm-7pm layover.
The only other option was a 5:45am departure from SJU.

I found oneworld award space much much harder to find than Star ever is.
For the entire summer for example there was ONE AA F seat on nonstop LHR EWR. That is simply ridiculous. And forget finding Envoy space. No JAL either, and even QR is blocked out most of summer around the gulf.

Lots of pricey BA space though.
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Old Oct 8, 2014, 8:15 am
  #2261  
 
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Downgrade on CX award with US Miles. Options?

I have used my US Airways miles to give my parents award tickets from Europe to Tokyo flying on Cathay in first.

Unfortunately, on their Hong Kong-London segment, Cathay has removed first class. So they have been downgraded to business. There are paid seats available on other flights with F, but no award seats, and of course I would need two of them.

I will try to see if I can get it fixed, but wondering if anyone here has previous experience as to how to handle such a situation with US? I know CX is a newcomer as far as award partner with US, but I presume that their attitude would be similar to how they may have dealt with such an issue if NH had downgraded some flights.

Should I call US only? Should I call Cathay to see if they can work with US to release inventory?

I have no status with US but am Exec Plat on AA. Not sure if that would help me in any way.
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Old Oct 8, 2014, 9:23 am
  #2262  
 
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First off, call the Executive Platinum desk and ask that they connect you to a US Airways Chairmans Preferred agent. You have that access with your EP status.

They may be able to contact CX to see if they would open up seats in F on another flight. Should CX not release F seats, do keep in mind that since the rest of your trip is in F, it will still be treated as a F ticket, so no miles back or compensation would be offered.

Also, you could possibly try calling CX directly. Can't hurt.
milesandmoremiles is offline  
Old Oct 8, 2014, 11:02 am
  #2263  
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Downgrade on CX award with US Miles. Options?

My situation was a little different. Had 2 F awards on same flight. CX removed flight from schedule 4 months advance. They rebooked F on another flight that day. No intervention was required on my part.
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Old Oct 8, 2014, 11:35 am
  #2264  
 
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Originally Posted by milesandmoremiles
Should CX not release F seats, do keep in mind that since the rest of your trip is in F, it will still be treated as a F ticket, so no miles back or compensation would be offered.
I have been assuming that... Though with European rules, a downgrade can lead to refund of a bit part of the cost of the ticket. Not sure in this case.

On the other hand, given that normally US does not allow to change an award after first flight, if CX were to release seats once they have started flying and given the situation, do you think US would be willing to do change in this case?
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Old Oct 8, 2014, 11:49 am
  #2265  
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Originally Posted by DeltaFlyingProf
I have been assuming that... Though with European rules, a downgrade can lead to refund of a bit part of the cost of the ticket. Not sure in this case.
Hong Kong to London on Cathay PAcific would not be covered by the EC261 regulation
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