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]
Jan 13, 2015, 7:34 am
#3031
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: TXL
Programs: US, LH, HH
Posts: 725
KVS is working from the same source, that's not the issue and should show the same result. If I try it via the JAL website I can't find your availability either, what exactly are you entering into the search mask?
Jan 13, 2015, 9:18 am
#3032
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
A hell of an award that gives me inspiration.
Could you tell us the carriers of your return legs? SYD-NRT, NRT-HEL, HEL-TXL?
Is AY in the mix? I have never been able to locate any AY business class award seats for routes I look at between HEL and Asia.
Jan 13, 2015, 3:21 pm
#3033
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,395
Jan 13, 2015, 3:26 pm
#3034
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SIN
Programs: KF, MPC, BAEC // Bonvoy, WoH, Honors
Posts: 1,464
Jan 13, 2015, 5:19 pm
#3035
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: TXL
Programs: US, LH, HH
Posts: 725
No idea what's going on in your account, but I get this:
Jan 13, 2015, 5:37 pm
#3036
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
I'm sure I have seen people say before that sometimes JAL gives different results depending on the region attached to your MB account e.g. mine is Oceania. You would still expect the web front end and KVS to give the same results using the same credentials however.
Jan 13, 2015, 5:40 pm
#3037
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: TXL
Programs: US, LH, HH
Posts: 725
I'm sure I have seen people say before that sometimes JAL gives different results depending on the region attached to your MB account e.g. mine is Oceania. You would still expect the web front end and KVS to give the same results using the same credentials however.
Jan 13, 2015, 5:47 pm
#3038
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Jan 13, 2015, 6:01 pm
#3039
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: TXL
Programs: US, LH, HH
Posts: 725
Guess the question is then, is that a bug or a feature? I'd rather say bug as it makes little sense to me how one region should have access to a different set of partner award flights. Oceania DB not in sync? Seems strange either way.
Jan 13, 2015, 7:15 pm
#3040
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
When I checked May, there was 0, not even coach, to HKG, but saw some coach to PVG. Did not check other destinations.
Jan 13, 2015, 7:20 pm
#3041
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,763
I have seen JL availability shows the new releases by CX but BA/AA would lack - if the award seats not snagged up by others in the Oceania / Asia time zone, then BA and AA will eventually show.
Jan 13, 2015, 7:35 pm
#3042
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,406
Apparently there is some (limited) availability on AY J to BKK (it's either BKK or SIN) - that flight was scheduled to have the older angled lie-flats rather than the new full-flats. At least until the introduction of their new aircraft.
Jan 13, 2015, 7:56 pm
#3043
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SIN
Programs: KF, MPC, BAEC // Bonvoy, WoH, Honors
Posts: 1,464
This is really weird. I may change my JAL account location if it shows phantom availability (or at the very least seats that are not accessible to other OW carriers) here in AsiaPac.
Jan 13, 2015, 8:07 pm
#3044
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Jan 13, 2015, 9:55 pm
#3045
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 60
Cathay Pacific award ticket booked using US miles. Unable to change ticket. Help
I am looking to change the travel date/ departure location (or both) for a return award ticket (in Cathay pacific - coach tickets booked using US Air dividend miles). I spoke with US airways customer service and they informed me it’s not possible to change travel date in return journey once the travel has completed one leg (onward journey). Any help/ suggestion ?