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 15, 2014, 3:46 pm
#931
Moderator: American AAdvantage & Marriott Bonvoy
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: PHX
Programs: American ExPlat; Marriott/SPG Lifetime Plat; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 8,116
That is until it's merged into AA and it's all "computer says no" from there on out.
), then it's happening a lot sooner than the merger of the programs.
May 15, 2014, 4:36 pm
#932
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7
yeah, that's the truth, I did not find an award ticket from WAW to Chicago. Emmm, it seems I have to re-design the tickets...
May 15, 2014, 4:46 pm
#933
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: ORD, SJD, VNO, sandy places
Programs: AA 1.2MM BIS 'LT' Gld, BA Bronze, AA Plat, now considering SWA.....
Posts: 451
Hope this is not redundant here....
Just booked a BA flight partially using Avios miles.
Some confusion between earning AA EQM on a BA booked flight ?
Some say as long as I provided my AAvantage # I will be credited..
Others claim it must be a AA CODESHARE flight....
Since I utilized my Avios points that would be hard to do...
Who is right ?
Just booked a BA flight partially using Avios miles.
Some confusion between earning AA EQM on a BA booked flight ?
Some say as long as I provided my AAvantage # I will be credited..
Others claim it must be a AA CODESHARE flight....
Since I utilized my Avios points that would be hard to do...
Who is right ?
May 15, 2014, 5:11 pm
#934
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!
Posts: 2,349
Hope this is not redundant here....
Just booked a BA flight partially using Avios miles.
Some confusion between earning AA EQM on a BA booked flight ?
Some say as long as I provided my AAvantage # I will be credited..
Others claim it must be a AA CODESHARE flight....
Since I utilized my Avios points that would be hard to do...
Who is right ?
Just booked a BA flight partially using Avios miles.
Some confusion between earning AA EQM on a BA booked flight ?
Some say as long as I provided my AAvantage # I will be credited..
Others claim it must be a AA CODESHARE flight....
Since I utilized my Avios points that would be hard to do...
Who is right ?
May 15, 2014, 6:48 pm
#935
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: ORD, SJD, VNO, sandy places
Programs: AA 1.2MM BIS 'LT' Gld, BA Bronze, AA Plat, now considering SWA.....
Posts: 451
You are a dividend miles member in Australia ?
Are you a AA member . Or BA ?
Are you hoping to 'buy' enough miles to fly to Auckland ?
The question does however, impact those that fly OW.......
Are not Divident Miles an AAdvantage soon to be one and the same .?
No idea simply characterizes .....No Idea....
Are you a AA member . Or BA ?
Are you hoping to 'buy' enough miles to fly to Auckland ?
The question does however, impact those that fly OW.......
Are not Divident Miles an AAdvantage soon to be one and the same .?
No idea simply characterizes .....No Idea....
May 15, 2014, 7:11 pm
#936
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: YVR
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 216
urgent! Can I cancel an award ticket less than 12h before departure ? thanks
May 15, 2014, 7:44 pm
#938
Moderator: American AAdvantage & Marriott Bonvoy
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: PHX
Programs: American ExPlat; Marriott/SPG Lifetime Plat; Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 8,116
The agent just un-checks you in, then cancels the itinerary and redeposits the miles (assuming that's what you want to do).
You just have to cancel before the departure time of the first flight.
May 15, 2014, 8:48 pm
#939
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: Marriott platinum, spg gold, club Carlson gold, UA silver
Posts: 44
Best F from east coast
Did this once before with star alliance but running into oneworld writers block! Want to do some F class globe trotting, best way being east coast, thru Europe, to Australia or north Asia. I know quantas and cx but can't find availability to Europe on anything but BA! What gives? Trying to avoid fuel $$$$ from BA. Wouldn't mind some open jaw work in Europe to make the routing work. Private message or post and hate at will
May 15, 2014, 9:27 pm
#940
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Cockeysville, MD
Programs: Marriott Rewards Lifetime Titanium, Amex Plat, Hertz Gold 5*, National Exec, AA Plat
Posts: 9,468
Lovin' One World. Just Redeemed US DM for (3) J tix JFK-BKK
We were planning a trip to Bangkok/Phuket for 2015. Decided to wait for the One World switch. Didn't want to get hung up on IRROPS etc with * Alliance. Called tonight to look at options for 2 weeks in Thailand in January. On the phone about an hour, but walked away with (3) J tix on Cathay! Only 1 day off our preferred travel dates.
We were just going to put something on hold tonight. However, after Cathay worked out, I ticketed immediately!
The US DM agent was awesome. Extremely helpful. Sending in an employee recognition certificate. I am fine complaining when there are problems. I feel that obligates me to speak up when I get great service.
I priced the tickets…. $11k/each. Great use of miles!
We were just going to put something on hold tonight. However, after Cathay worked out, I ticketed immediately!
The US DM agent was awesome. Extremely helpful. Sending in an employee recognition certificate. I am fine complaining when there are problems. I feel that obligates me to speak up when I get great service.
I priced the tickets…. $11k/each. Great use of miles!
May 15, 2014, 11:29 pm
#941
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: YVR
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 216
btw, I read on here that when you need to change dates of a booking they will insist on cancelling everything, redepositing miles and creating new booking. If so then I would have to pay all the fees again. Is that correct ?
May 16, 2014, 2:36 am
#942
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Charlottesville, Va. USA
Posts: 1,752
Welcome to oneworld. CX usually has good availability if you book well in advance of your trip.
May 16, 2014, 6:38 am
#943
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Cockeysville, MD
Programs: Marriott Rewards Lifetime Titanium, Amex Plat, Hertz Gold 5*, National Exec, AA Plat
Posts: 9,468
I guess (3) F would be the holy grail. 
I am very happy to get the 3 J. Looking forward to the experience and the great vacation.
I am very happy to get the 3 J. Looking forward to the experience and the great vacation.
May 16, 2014, 9:19 am
#944
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: No longer loyal "over-entitled" 1K
Posts: 3,822
Did this once before with star alliance but running into oneworld writers block! Want to do some F class globe trotting, best way being east coast, thru Europe, to Australia or north Asia. I know quantas and cx but can't find availability to Europe on anything but BA! What gives? Trying to avoid fuel $$$$ from BA. Wouldn't mind some open jaw work in Europe to make the routing work. Private message or post and hate at will
Your options are
1) Find AA availability from JFK or MIA to LHR
2) Pay BA YQ
3) Fly J TATL
I'd plan a separate trip to Europe in J and use F award for US East Coast-Asia-Austrailia.
May 16, 2014, 11:31 am
#945
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 794
Seems like US Airways has a glitch displaying JL award spaces.
I called back 3-4 times and none of the agents or supervisors can find the space. AA saw the spaces just fine.
I gave them a long list of options on JL, and they couldn't find a single one. Is there any trick?
I called back 3-4 times and none of the agents or supervisors can find the space. AA saw the spaces just fine.
I gave them a long list of options on JL, and they couldn't find a single one. Is there any trick?