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]
May 6, 2014, 5:30 pm
#751
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Posts: 801
You are asking if you can depart from LAX and return to an airport other than LAX. That is an open jaw.
And you cannot have both an OJ and a SO with US, which is what you're trying to do: stopover in LAX, and returning to ??? (OJ).
May 6, 2014, 5:49 pm
#752
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
You can book one way travel but it costs the same as return travel. If you book return you can have a stopover OR an open jaw, not both.
May 6, 2014, 6:09 pm
#753
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: LAX/BUR
Posts: 525
On another note, would this be possible?
LAX-IST
IST-JNB
JNB-HKG
HKG-LAX
Should be, right?
May 6, 2014, 6:20 pm
#754
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 might be able to fly LAX-LHR/MAD-IST(stop)-DOH-JNB(dest)-HKG-LAX, though...
May 6, 2014, 6:29 pm
#756
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,397
May 6, 2014, 6:37 pm
#758
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: NCL and LBA
Programs: BD*G, BAGold, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Plat
Posts: 3,270
May 6, 2014, 7:50 pm
#759
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 4
Hi Guys,
Can US airways cancel an award ticket after ticketing? I already have valid ticket#s.
I have two reservations that the referenced in the subject line of the email:
1) Africa to Africa via BA/LHR
2) South America to Australia via US
I got this email below, but I replied saying I have DoT protection, and to not cancel the tickets. I also confirmed with the US Service Center the tickets are good to go, no mention of routing or anything. Hopefully, I'll see their reply in the morning, and I may have to follow up with a phone call.
Anyone know what's going on? The reservations were made through the US center.
Dear sonic787,
Please contact our reservations office in the UK on 0845 600 3300 (adding +44 if calling from outside the UK) regarding your reservation. It appears that you have booked an invalid itineraries via our reservations centre and we need you to call to book a valid itinerary. Failure to do so before 9th May will result in us cancelling your tickets and refunding the fees paid. This implies that you will no longer have valid tickets for travel. It is imperative that you call us before the date mentioned so that we can remedy this issue.
Yours sincerely.
US Airways
European Dividend Miles service centre
European Reservation Centre
Liverpool, UK
Can US airways cancel an award ticket after ticketing? I already have valid ticket#s.
I have two reservations that the referenced in the subject line of the email:
1) Africa to Africa via BA/LHR
2) South America to Australia via US
I got this email below, but I replied saying I have DoT protection, and to not cancel the tickets. I also confirmed with the US Service Center the tickets are good to go, no mention of routing or anything. Hopefully, I'll see their reply in the morning, and I may have to follow up with a phone call.
Anyone know what's going on? The reservations were made through the US center.
Dear sonic787,
Please contact our reservations office in the UK on 0845 600 3300 (adding +44 if calling from outside the UK) regarding your reservation. It appears that you have booked an invalid itineraries via our reservations centre and we need you to call to book a valid itinerary. Failure to do so before 9th May will result in us cancelling your tickets and refunding the fees paid. This implies that you will no longer have valid tickets for travel. It is imperative that you call us before the date mentioned so that we can remedy this issue.
Yours sincerely.
US Airways
European Dividend Miles service centre
European Reservation Centre
Liverpool, UK
Last edited by sonic787; May 6, 2014 at 7:55 pm Reason: more info
May 6, 2014, 8:07 pm
#760
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,625
Hi Guys,
Can US airways cancel an award ticket after ticketing? I already have valid ticket#s.
I have two reservations that the referenced in the subject line of the email:
1) Africa to Africa via BA/LHR
2) South America to Australia via US
I got this email below, but I replied saying I have DoT protection, and to not cancel the tickets. I also confirmed with the US Service Center the tickets are good to go, no mention of routing or anything. Hopefully, I'll see their reply in the morning, and I may have to follow up with a phone call.
Anyone know what's going on? The reservations were made through the US center.
Can US airways cancel an award ticket after ticketing? I already have valid ticket#s.
I have two reservations that the referenced in the subject line of the email:
1) Africa to Africa via BA/LHR
2) South America to Australia via US
I got this email below, but I replied saying I have DoT protection, and to not cancel the tickets. I also confirmed with the US Service Center the tickets are good to go, no mention of routing or anything. Hopefully, I'll see their reply in the morning, and I may have to follow up with a phone call.
Anyone know what's going on? The reservations were made through the US center.
May 6, 2014, 8:11 pm
#761
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 4
I am stopping over in the US actually for a couple months...and there's a domestic flight too.
I understand about the second one, but this is the first time I've ever heard this happen and it's after ticketing. hmmm....
I understand about the second one, but this is the first time I've ever heard this happen and it's after ticketing. hmmm....
May 6, 2014, 8:15 pm
#762
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New England
Programs: UA 1P, Hyatt Diamond, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,502
Usair cracking down exceeding MPM?
Trying to book DOH-LHR-KUL, rate desk says no, citing the MPM between DOH and KUL is about 5,000 miles. 
May 6, 2014, 8:23 pm
#763
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
May 6, 2014, 8:46 pm
#764
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: New England
Programs: UA 1P, Hyatt Diamond, HH Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,502
May 6, 2014, 8:57 pm
#765
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,625
There are plenty of valid options to get to Asia; QR and MH both offer non stop services