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 16, 2014, 11:38 am
#946
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,606
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
Yes: as previously reported, you should instruct the US agent to "open a new window," and then search for JL award space in the appropriate award-booking class.
Originally Posted by 5DMarkIIguy
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?
May 16, 2014, 11:58 am
#947
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
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?
May 16, 2014, 11:59 am
#948
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 794
I saw that. Asked them to open a window, search for Z or U. They said they don't know how to do it. All of them.
May 16, 2014, 12:07 pm
#949
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
Good luck!
May 16, 2014, 12:23 pm
#950
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: Gold DL, Silver UA, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 255
WIKI: Oneworld Award Bookings Using US Dividend Miles [Master FAQ and Help Thread]
Sorry for he newbie question.
If I search for Cathay availability on BA and find it, I can call US to redeem with Dividend Miles and I would be paying no YQ?
Also, a one-way redemption would cost half of a roundtrip?
If I search for Cathay availability on BA and find it, I can call US to redeem with Dividend Miles and I would be paying no YQ?
Also, a one-way redemption would cost half of a roundtrip?
May 16, 2014, 12:24 pm
#951
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: New York City
Posts: 801
No, one-ways cost the same a round-trip.
May 16, 2014, 6:03 pm
#952
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
May 16, 2014, 6:07 pm
#953
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: SPG Gold, Hilton Diamon, IHG Spire
Posts: 374
US not seeing MH award space
BA website shows 7 award seats for a flight on MH, but US can't see them. Does US have a reputation of blocking MH (or alliance) award seat? Thanks.
May 16, 2014, 7:12 pm
#954
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: country Western Australia
Programs: QF SG(LTS) - AA LTG(1MM)
Posts: 2,771
Just booked a seat on MH through AA. However not visible online - must telephone.
Did you telephone and they still did not see the seats?
Happy wandering
Fred
Did you telephone and they still did not see the seats?
Happy wandering
Fred
May 16, 2014, 7:14 pm
#955
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 22
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 16, 2014, 7:21 pm
#956
Join Date: Nov 2008
Programs: SPG Gold, Hilton Diamon, IHG Spire
Posts: 374
May 16, 2014, 7:37 pm
#957
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 224
Ah, you're asking for advice to get something you're very clearly not entitled to by rule, and US is well within their rights to not issue.
Well, good luck to you then. Let us know how HUACA or throwing away the award/reticketing a new one/HUACA works out, because it looks like you need to play the "keep calling until you find the US CS rep who doesn't bother with maps, and costs their company money" game.
I'd guess that if your itinerary goes to the rate desk, your odds go down a lot. They might have an actual map or two.
Also, I'd guess your current ticket price is stored.
Well, good luck to you then. Let us know how HUACA or throwing away the award/reticketing a new one/HUACA works out, because it looks like you need to play the "keep calling until you find the US CS rep who doesn't bother with maps, and costs their company money" game.
I'd guess that if your itinerary goes to the rate desk, your odds go down a lot. They might have an actual map or two.
Also, I'd guess your current ticket price is stored.
May 16, 2014, 7:54 pm
#958
Moderator, OneWorld
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: SEA
Programs: RAA RIP; AA ExEXP
Posts: 11,803
It sounds like this is a US DM issue, so I'm moving it to that board.
Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator
Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator
May 16, 2014, 8:16 pm
#959
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: No longer loyal "over-entitled" 1K
Posts: 3,822
May 16, 2014, 8:22 pm
#960
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
When I did a MH award ticket with DL miles, the DL phone agent needed to do a long sale with no segments using other airlines on the PNR. Then the confirmation came back almost instantly.
I used EF to locate flights with upgrade inventory and then guessed that the low business class award bucket was either the same or very highly correlated. I got award space on all the flights I found and then noticed that the available upgrade seats shown on EF immediately dropped by one as my award space was confirmed.
I used EF to locate flights with upgrade inventory and then guessed that the low business class award bucket was either the same or very highly correlated. I got award space on all the flights I found and then noticed that the available upgrade seats shown on EF immediately dropped by one as my award space was confirmed.