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]
Apr 7, 2014, 9:32 pm
#241
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 3
Well, the other method who provides Iberia (Awards/Oneworld) shows me the same (CS+)...
Apr 7, 2014, 9:52 pm
#242
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Apr 7, 2014, 10:28 pm
#244
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,767
Thanks so much for letting me know. Didn't know that checking JAL would yield different (less) availability than CX, and that AA/US's availability is based on the JAL one. Any idea why this is happening? I would assume the awards that CX releases to its partners is the same across the board, whether it is to BA or AA or US.
CX number shown on KVS includes the availability CX only release to its own members. i.e. the CX number is an INFLATED number which makes up by 2 components - the seats reserved for Asia Mile / Marco Polo members only and the seats released to partners.
JL only shows the seats that CX released to partners.
KVS is just a tool to scrape the airlines own websites and put together in one place so you dont have to go to each airline's site to check. But what you see from airline's own site, is the SAME info KVS pulled from. KVS is not a magic tool to unearth hidden seats, KVS is a Convenience Tool.
In fact, since JL is the most reliable site, the easiest way is just to search JL site because that is also where KVS scrapes its info from.
Apr 7, 2014, 10:41 pm
#245
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
You misunderstood the issue.
CX number shown on KVS includes the availability CX only release to its own members. i.e. the CX number is an INFLATED number which makes up by 2 components - the seats reserved for Asia Mile / Marco Polo members only and the seats released to partners.
JL only shows the seats that CX released to partners.
CX number shown on KVS includes the availability CX only release to its own members. i.e. the CX number is an INFLATED number which makes up by 2 components - the seats reserved for Asia Mile / Marco Polo members only and the seats released to partners.
JL only shows the seats that CX released to partners.
The BA and QF (OneWorld) methods will also often show CX availability which JL does not, and which AA also cannot see - and presumably also now US. Whether or not the CX inventory shown by BA and QF is bookable by BA and QF I can't really say as I didn't have the miles to try. It's not a simple issue of CX only availability.
Apr 7, 2014, 10:46 pm
#246
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,767
No, you have also misunderstood the issue.
The BA and QF (OneWorld) methods will also often show CX availability which JL does not, and which AA also cannot see - and presumably also now US. Whether or not the CX inventory shown by BA and QF is bookable by BA and QF I can't really say as I didn't have the miles to try. It's not a simple issue of CX only availability.
The BA and QF (OneWorld) methods will also often show CX availability which JL does not, and which AA also cannot see - and presumably also now US. Whether or not the CX inventory shown by BA and QF is bookable by BA and QF I can't really say as I didn't have the miles to try. It's not a simple issue of CX only availability.
There was a time when AA could see inventory that none of the partner sites including JL would see when people called in. That was last Fall and may be into Winter. But it supposedly is back to the old normal since Thanksgiving time from the few random checking I did.
There is a long running thread on CX availability in AA forum.
AS fprum has a similar thread too but is less active than the one in AA forum.
The USDM members may find it worthwhile to read and learn a few things.
Apr 8, 2014, 12:41 am
#247
Join Date: May 2006
Location: nyc
Posts: 297
Another Stopover Question
Am I allowed to book below using DM on OW partners?
Outbound: TYO - HKG - LHR (CX)
Inbound: LHR - FRA - TYO (BA, JL)
Thanks!
Outbound: TYO - HKG - LHR (CX)
Inbound: LHR - FRA - TYO (BA, JL)
Thanks!
Apr 8, 2014, 12:48 am
#248
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Apr 8, 2014, 1:40 am
#249
Apr 8, 2014, 3:23 am
#250
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
I´m looking for two a business class award ticket from MAD to MEX on the 26th of Dec. When I´m looking on KVS I see like U9 at "Availibility" and CS9 on "Awards/upgrade" with Iberia 6403, but still the agents (two so far) tell me that this flight has no business class available...
Apr 8, 2014, 6:12 am
#251
Join Date: Jun 2009
Programs: A3 Gold, AA Platinum, Marriott & Discovery Platinum, IGH Diamond
Posts: 889
Apologies if already been discussed :
The pricing of OneWorld partner awards on US website refers to a roundtrip, right ?
And the one-ways are still not possible ? What's about stopovers - one stop per way is still allowed ?
Thanks!
Regards,
El Puerco Volante.
The pricing of OneWorld partner awards on US website refers to a roundtrip, right ?
And the one-ways are still not possible ? What's about stopovers - one stop per way is still allowed ?
Thanks!
Regards,
El Puerco Volante.
Apr 8, 2014, 6:34 am
#252
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Here today, gone tomorrow
Programs: Nothing shiny :-(
Posts: 2,493
Yes, still no one-ways. Only one stopover or one open jaw per itinerary.
Apr 8, 2014, 7:05 am
#253
Join Date: Jun 2009
Programs: A3 Gold, AA Platinum, Marriott & Discovery Platinum, IGH Diamond
Posts: 889
Apr 8, 2014, 7:29 am
#254
Join Date: Jun 2009
Programs: A3 Gold, AA Platinum, Marriott & Discovery Platinum, IGH Diamond
Posts: 889
Apr 8, 2014, 7:31 am
#255
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: SYDNEY
Programs: *A Gold, HH dia,Hyatt plat,Sixt PLAT,QF , EY Gold
Posts: 1,890
syd-lhr $1200+ 4 pax on BA for taxes 