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]
Mar 11, 2015, 7:21 pm
#3751
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
None of us knows. I expect they'd make some kind of announcement, even if only days before, but I can't base that on anything.
Mar 11, 2015, 7:43 pm
#3752
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 1,377
Although, I assume they are taking that quite literally in that I have booked (SE Asia): LAX-BKK/SIN-Europe without issue for the past 3 years.
Mar 11, 2015, 8:09 pm
#3753
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SYD
Posts: 2,903
goodo
Mar 11, 2015, 8:20 pm
#3754
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 268
TPA to DEL with dividend miles
Hello Seniors,
Elderly relative has 130,000 US Airways miles. Need to fly from TPA to DEL roundtrip business class due to bad knees. I think to book it 120,000 miles required. I m unable to check the award seats online, I guess I am ignorant. When I called the US Airways number I am constantly told there no seats available in either April or May. Person didn't want to search every month so now I want to check. Do I have any options ? Thanks.
Elderly relative has 130,000 US Airways miles. Need to fly from TPA to DEL roundtrip business class due to bad knees. I think to book it 120,000 miles required. I m unable to check the award seats online, I guess I am ignorant. When I called the US Airways number I am constantly told there no seats available in either April or May. Person didn't want to search every month so now I want to check. Do I have any options ? Thanks.
Mar 12, 2015, 6:56 am
#3755
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 13
Biz Award Trip - Equip Change
I booked an intra-Europe/Middle East trip using dividend miles to fly on the A350 and Royal Jordanian 787 in business class. Originally it showed 787 for AMM-LHR but now after booking, the RJ site shows A330. I called US Reservations and they are still seeing 787 and are saying nothing can be done till RJ updates the record. The a330 product is significantly inferior and not lie flat and the 787 was purpose of trip. I've got the whole trip set in place and don't want to cancel it. Suggestion in what to do? There are 787s every other day. US even checked the website and saw the change while I was on the phone but still wouldn't do anything. What are my options/should I be asking for?
Mar 12, 2015, 8:31 am
#3756
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
You can see this most in effect in a trip where it's West Coast USA-NRT-Europe-USA. You won't be able to book it if NRT is closer than your Europe destination (which is is for a number of places like YVR, SEA, SFO and LAX to places like FRA).
Hello Seniors,
Elderly relative has 130,000 US Airways miles. Need to fly from TPA to DEL roundtrip business class due to bad knees. I think to book it 120,000 miles required. I m unable to check the award seats online, I guess I am ignorant. When I called the US Airways number I am constantly told there no seats available in either April or May. Person didn't want to search every month so now I want to check. Do I have any options ? Thanks.
Elderly relative has 130,000 US Airways miles. Need to fly from TPA to DEL roundtrip business class due to bad knees. I think to book it 120,000 miles required. I m unable to check the award seats online, I guess I am ignorant. When I called the US Airways number I am constantly told there no seats available in either April or May. Person didn't want to search every month so now I want to check. Do I have any options ? Thanks.
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.
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Mar 12, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Mar 12, 2015, 9:55 am
#3757
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, AA Gold, FB Gold, ITA Volare Executive
Posts: 3,294
It may or may not be inferior -- that's a matter of personal opinion.
It is "lie flat," assuming we can agree that a line parallel to a tangent on the surface of the earth constitutes flat.
As life's disasters go, flying in J on a US 330 is well toward the bottom of the list.
It is "lie flat," assuming we can agree that a line parallel to a tangent on the surface of the earth constitutes flat.
As life's disasters go, flying in J on a US 330 is well toward the bottom of the list.
Mar 12, 2015, 10:10 am
#3758
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: PHL
Programs: AA Executive Platinum; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,663
I would fly on the A330 in business any day!
Mar 12, 2015, 1:03 pm
#3759
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
It may or may not be inferior -- that's a matter of personal opinion.
It is "lie flat," assuming we can agree that a line parallel to a tangent on the surface of the earth constitutes flat.
As life's disasters go, flying in J on a US 330 is well toward the bottom of the list.
It is "lie flat," assuming we can agree that a line parallel to a tangent on the surface of the earth constitutes flat.
As life's disasters go, flying in J on a US 330 is well toward the bottom of the list.
Pay the $150 change fee to US to change to different flights or stay on your current flights and sit in RJ A330 J on a 5-ish hour flight. (I've sat in the OZ/TG versions of those seats. You're not exactly being tortured in violation of the Geneva Conventions.)
US doesn't have to give you a free itinerary change just because RJ changed which jet is flying on a particular day- you're still flying in J and US has fulfilled their obligations on the award. The rules were clear at the time you booked the award- voluntary changes to itineraries cost $150. Changing your flights because you don't like an airline seat or airplane being flown on a particular date is the definition of a voluntary change... and it's not exactly US's fault that RJ changed their equipment, is it?
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Mar 12, 2015 at 1:12 pm
Mar 12, 2015, 2:11 pm
#3760
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,894
I booked an intra-Europe/Middle East trip using dividend miles to fly on the A350 and Royal Jordanian 787 in business class. Originally it showed 787 for AMM-LHR but now after booking, the RJ site shows A330. I called US Reservations and they are still seeing 787 and are saying nothing can be done till RJ updates the record. The a330 product is significantly inferior and not lie flat and the 787 was purpose of trip. I've got the whole trip set in place and don't want to cancel it. Suggestion in what to do? There are 787s every other day. US even checked the website and saw the change while I was on the phone but still wouldn't do anything. What are my options/should I be asking for?
Mar 12, 2015, 4:23 pm
#3761
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: BWI
Programs: Everyone!
Posts: 1,024
With regard to "start searching at 330 days" and "335 day window" mentioned in the wiki....does this mean US will enforce these thresholds (which one?) even if a partner has availability? I didn't see this in the official DM guide so wasn't sure how strict this really is....also didn't realize they removed the service fee for partner reservations over the phone, that is new since a year ago because I have always paid a fee for phone reservations with partners previously
Mar 12, 2015, 4:46 pm
#3762
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Florida
Programs: US CP, MR Gold, SPG Gold, Hyatt Plat
Posts: 441
2 questions:
Do J and F inventory start opening up 2 weeks like the old *A days with LH and UA? Looking at BA/AA/IB for a trip to EU
Does BA have a specific fare code for low mileage award space that I can find on EF?
Go Gators
Do J and F inventory start opening up 2 weeks like the old *A days with LH and UA? Looking at BA/AA/IB for a trip to EU
Does BA have a specific fare code for low mileage award space that I can find on EF?
Go Gators
Mar 12, 2015, 5:04 pm
#3763
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,408
With regard to "start searching at 330 days" and "335 day window" mentioned in the wiki....does this mean US will enforce these thresholds (which one?) even if a partner has availability? I didn't see this in the official DM guide so wasn't sure how strict this really is....also didn't realize they removed the service fee for partner reservations over the phone, that is new since a year ago because I have always paid a fee for phone reservations with partners previously
the service fee for partners (ie using the call centre) has been waived for many years. there is still a booking fee ($50) for booking the award, but the service fee for using an agent (variable, up to $40) is waived in circumstances where you cannot complete the booking on line.
Mar 13, 2015, 3:36 am
#3764
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: London
Posts: 878
Called the UK centre and got a knowledgeable agent (e.g. I would tell him my route and he'd knew what carriers were an option for that even before looking it up). I tried to mix J on the outbound and F on the inbound and he said that I would be charged the F miles for the whole trip. Not too fussed about it (I think I'll go for J the whole way), but I thought this had changed? I.e. one gets charged for each direction separately?
Mar 13, 2015, 4:46 am
#3765
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Seoul, KR
Programs: MAR Titanium, HH Gold
Posts: 572
Are there any official or credible statements that USDM will be only valid by this March? I know US&AA is saying they will be combined in 2Q. But some of my friends tell me that some of websites (like LL) have sent mails that we need to use up USDM before April.