Mar 30, 2014, 12:53 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Last edit by: JDiver

WIKI POST: Using US Dividend Miles for oneworld Award Flights
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:

Quote:

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.

To make a change on a USDM ticket, you need to get an agent that is trained to use the US reservation system.
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)

(Go here to print in flight purchase receipts)

Some experiences about changes to tickets, reported by members:

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]

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May 21, 2014, 9:29 am

#1006

Pseudo Nim

Join Date: Jan 2006

Location: In the air

Programs: Occasional RTW club

Posts: 6,924

Quote:

Originally Posted by cedricgerald

Have you ever seen trip from Asia to Europe via NA ,? at *A time ? At OW time ?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't AP indicative of a westward routing from London in this case, i.e. through NA?

Code:

LONTYO-YY 21MAY14
 
 TICKETED POINT SURCHARGES APPLY.
    GI      M        5M       10M       15M       20M       25M
 
MPM AP  11187     11746     12305     12865     13424     13983
MPM EH   9760     10248     10736     11224     11712     12200
MPM TS   7456      7828      8201      8574      8947      9320

May 21, 2014, 9:37 am

#1007

eponymous_coward

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot

Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite

Posts: 20,397

Quote:

Originally Posted by pogonation

Should be able to do something like this however (availability dependent of course) BOS-CLT-GRU(stop)-JNB (US/SA) and then SA/US mix back to BOS. This itinerary is well below the MPM+25% and just over the actual MPM.

Then book a return from GRU via SCL with LAN. Personally, rather than use cash, I would book a return award in J for just 30k.. not bad for 10hrs flying time on flat beds.

Or alternatively BOS-PHL-MIA-LIM(stop)-GRU-JNB (US/AV/SA)

You'd have to do the first award + the second LA award, you can't mix AV and AA on the same ticket (US isn't flying MIA-LIM, AA is), and you'd have to book really soon (AV won't be a partner after the end of the month).

But that's feasible.... ^

May 21, 2014, 9:43 am

#1008

CGRA

Join Date: Mar 2010

Posts: 2,592

Quote:

Originally Posted by thaidai

FTers Please recommend routing ( Cathay F would be good) Planning trip next Jan2015 rtn late April YYZ-HKT rtn with stop over upon return in UK ( or Europe ). Yes I have signed up with award bookers But would like some suggestions of pos routes We will try to find space. Cheers. TD. Could purchase positioning flts

Seems a nice trip
What about
YYZ-JFK or ORD -HKG-HKT with CX
HKT-HKG or KUL - LHR with CX or MH
LHR-JFK-YYZ with AA 77W (does F / J award on 77W exists ?

May 21, 2014, 9:45 am

#1009

CGRA

Join Date: Mar 2010

Posts: 2,592

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't AP indicative of a westward routing from London in this case, i.e. through NA?

Code:

LONTYO-YY 21MAY14
 
 TICKETED POINT SURCHARGES APPLY.
    GI      M        5M       10M       15M       20M       25M
 
MPM AP  11187     11746     12305     12865     13424     13983
MPM EH   9760     10248     10736     11224     11712     12200
MPM TS   7456      7828      8201      8574      8947      9320

yes you're correct, it's Europe to NA via Asia , have you ever seen that ?

May 21, 2014, 9:53 am

#1010

Pseudo Nim

Join Date: Jan 2006

Location: In the air

Programs: Occasional RTW club

Posts: 6,924

Quote:

Originally Posted by cedricgerald

yes you're correct, it's Europe to NA via Asia , have you ever seen that ?

Just a question of convincing the agent to, you know, for once look at the rules?

May 21, 2014, 10:56 am

#1011

lewende

Join Date: Aug 2011

Location: 10^7 mm from Ȱ

Programs: Hyatt D/HHonors D/ SPG P/ Marriott P/ IHG P/ UA 1K/ AA EXP/ DL D

Posts: 1,976

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudo Nim

Just a question of convincing the agent to, you know, for once look at the rules?

The only way to get around this is to do a RTW booking if US still allows it right now, but for OP's proposed itinerary (C2-C3-C1-C3-C2), it is simply impossible.

May 21, 2014, 1:11 pm

#1012

MPScan

Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Boston MA

Programs: US SP, JetBlue Mosaic, AMEX Plat

Posts: 101

Quote:

Originally Posted by pogonation

This is perfect and what I was looking for -- just some direction. I'll explore more in the next day or so and post back with results.

May 21, 2014, 2:45 pm

#1013

IADCAflyer

Join Date: Sep 2000

Location: DCA/IAD

Programs: AA EXP; 1W Emerald; HHonors Diamond; Marriott Gold; UA dirt

Posts: 7,819

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheresmybagba

A mistake most likely. Call back and query it. They have likely included YQ when there should be none.

Yah, called back and got the agent to call the rates desk to check on it. Fees dropped from about $2300 in fees (including a phone booking fee and award redemption fee) to $202 in fees - about $67 per ticket.

Nice to save $2100 in charges.

Now count down to a 15 hour flight with an 11 year old and a 9 year old....

May 21, 2014, 9:47 pm

#1014

jhvorsprung

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: ORD

Programs: HGP Diamond, HH Gold, BAEC, AA

Posts: 18

How leniant are US Air awards? Multiple leg through SE Asia

Looking to book an award for early next year from ORD to SE Asia as follows. Each city will have 2-3 days spent there with the exception of possibly longer in DPS/Bali. Looking to book CX/KA in and out of HKG and SQ in and out of SIN.

Will US allow this award? Any recommendations or opinons on how to book this?

I haven't called yetsince I am just shy of the required miles for the region.

ORD - HKG - DPS - SIN - REP - HKG - ORD
http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=ord-hkg-d...X=720x360&PM=*

or

ORD - HKG - DPS - SIN - SFO - ORD
(would book the REP trip separately RT to/from SIN)
http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=ord-hkg-d...X=720x360&PM=*

May 21, 2014, 9:55 pm

#1015

Dave Noble

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend

Join Date: Jan 2002

Posts: 44,624

You cannot, iirc, have an award which has both OneWorld airlines and other partner airlines, so CX and SQ cannot be on the same itinerary

In 1 award, only 1 stopover is permitted, so you cannot spend 2-3 days at each point. You can stop at the turnaround point in Singapore and one other point. I also do not think that your itinerary as detailed is feasible on One World since to get from Singapore to Cambodia, I think that you are going to need to go via HKG

May 21, 2014, 10:05 pm

#1016

jhvorsprung

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: ORD

Programs: HGP Diamond, HH Gold, BAEC, AA

Posts: 18

Forgot about that rule, good call. I knew I was missing something.

What's the best way to book this award and maximize dividend miles? Bit of a catch is 120k miles to HKG but 160k to the rest of my destinations (including HKG) based on the award chart. Could I do an open jaw to as ORD-HKG-DPS and then REP-HKG-ORD?

Also my fail for the misspell in the title...long day.

May 21, 2014, 10:55 pm

#1017

dtremit

Join Date: Apr 2004

Location: BOS

Programs: Marriott LTG, HHonors Diamond, Nat'l Exec

Posts: 3,581

You get either an open jaw or a stopover -- so if you do ORD-HKG-DPS/REP-HKG-ORD as you describe, you wouldn't be able to stop in HKG.

May 21, 2014, 11:04 pm

#1018

jhvorsprung

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: ORD

Programs: HGP Diamond, HH Gold, BAEC, AA

Posts: 18

Ah, that's right. This is my first time with an itinerary like this on US. So it seems like ORD-HKG RT in CX J or F is the way to go for the 110k/120k.

I have AA miles to cover this trip as well but planned for to use US miles since the redemption is 10k less. Any benefit to using AA miles on this trip? I assume not due to stopover rules.

May 22, 2014, 12:31 am

#1019

keepssmile

Join Date: Apr 2011

Location: LHR

Programs: AA EXP, SPG PLT

Posts: 584

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhvorsprung

No need to book round trip; ticket changeable after trip starts

May 22, 2014, 2:51 am

#1020

Microwave

Moderator: American AAdvantage, Signatures

Join Date: Jan 2008

Location: London, England

Programs: UA 1K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, National Exec, AA EXP Emeritus

Posts: 9,765

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhvorsprung

As Dividend Miles is still operating as a distinct programme, this question is being moved over to the relevant thread in the pre-merger US Airways forum.

Please note the sticky at the top of the consolidated thread which is titled Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING. With all of the changes about, it is important to know where to post, and reading that thread before posting (as the title suggests

) will help get you in the right place.

~Moderator