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]
Jun 6, 2014, 8:24 pm
#1141
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,913
Can we expect this to be generally followed before US Airways officially completes the merger with AA? I really don't see US installing a new system to check MPM and transiting zones while in this transition like AA currently does.
Jun 6, 2014, 11:11 pm
#1144
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 are asking this about an airline that changes award levels with no notice. So I think you should set your expectations appropriately- don't expect a lot of warning when things change. If you like the lack of routing rules now, burn your miles now. Don't expect this program to have a long shelf life.
Jun 7, 2014, 12:16 pm
#1145
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: California
Programs: HH Gold, Hyatt Platinum, IHG Platinum, Club Carlson Gold, Priority Club Platinum, AA, USAir, ANA,
Posts: 170
Flights disappeared after ticketed
Booked an itinerary using US Air dividend miles with USAir for February 2015 LAX to FCO. Airlines involved--US Air, AA, and Iberia. When checking my US Air account last week, US Air and AA flights intact, but all the Iberia flights disappeared. Called US Air and on the phone for 3 hours, they couldn't figure out the reason or a resolution. Said they will contact me in a week via email if they find a resolution. If there's no email, for me to call them back again. What should be my course of action? What can be done to get those flights back? The whole itinerary was paid for and ticketed. Son's itinerary is still intact (same itinerary) but ours were gone. Who is responsible?
Jun 7, 2014, 4:14 pm
#1146
Join Date: Sep 2010
Programs: AZ FA+, A3 G, AB G | IHG RA, HGP D, FPC P, Accor P, BW D, HH D, Eleva, GHA P, 1862 Voyager
Posts: 1,852
So I had a bizarre experience booking my first OW flight using DM.
Had a booking for 2 pax on 72 hour hold, and at T-3 hours I called into ticket. However after ticketing, the agent noticed one of the sectors was missing: LIM - LAX (LAN)
The agent looked into it and told me the reason the flight is no longer available is because LAN pulled it with reason that the availability was an error and should not have been bookable in C in the first place.
However when I made the reservation I did see it on the BA system in C, and the US agent also reserved it in C. I even have the copy of the initial reservation showing booking class U.
In the end I had no choice but to ticket it as by the time the whole thing was sorted out I only had 20 mins left to the 72 hour limit.
Has anyone else experienced this? LIM - LAX is only serviced by LAN and there are no C seats available at all for the +- 3 days. There were other C options when I made the booking but nothing is left.
Otherwise, has anyone ever been able to book for 2 seats in C for this route? I'm hoping it opens up in the future but now I'm wondering if I should try and find another route. My connecting flight from LAX is to HKG on CX but theres really not much options available.
Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Had a booking for 2 pax on 72 hour hold, and at T-3 hours I called into ticket. However after ticketing, the agent noticed one of the sectors was missing: LIM - LAX (LAN)
The agent looked into it and told me the reason the flight is no longer available is because LAN pulled it with reason that the availability was an error and should not have been bookable in C in the first place.
However when I made the reservation I did see it on the BA system in C, and the US agent also reserved it in C. I even have the copy of the initial reservation showing booking class U.
In the end I had no choice but to ticket it as by the time the whole thing was sorted out I only had 20 mins left to the 72 hour limit.
Has anyone else experienced this? LIM - LAX is only serviced by LAN and there are no C seats available at all for the +- 3 days. There were other C options when I made the booking but nothing is left.
Otherwise, has anyone ever been able to book for 2 seats in C for this route? I'm hoping it opens up in the future but now I'm wondering if I should try and find another route. My connecting flight from LAX is to HKG on CX but theres really not much options available.
Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Jun 7, 2014, 5:26 pm
#1147
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,767
So I had a bizarre experience booking my first OW flight using DM.
Had a booking for 2 pax on 72 hour hold, and at T-3 hours I called into ticket. However after ticketing, the agent noticed one of the sectors was missing: LIM - LAX (LAN)
The agent looked into it and told me the reason the flight is no longer available is because LAN pulled it with reason that the availability was an error and should not have been bookable in C in the first place.
However when I made the reservation I did see it on the BA system in C, and the US agent also reserved it in C. I even have the copy of the initial reservation showing booking class U.
In the end I had no choice but to ticket it as by the time the whole thing was sorted out I only had 20 mins left to the 72 hour limit.
Has anyone else experienced this? LIM - LAX is only serviced by LAN and there are no C seats available at all for the +- 3 days. There were other C options when I made the booking but nothing is left.
Otherwise, has anyone ever been able to book for 2 seats in C for this route? I'm hoping it opens up in the future but now I'm wondering if I should try and find another route. My connecting flight from LAX is to HKG on CX but theres really not much options available.
Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Had a booking for 2 pax on 72 hour hold, and at T-3 hours I called into ticket. However after ticketing, the agent noticed one of the sectors was missing: LIM - LAX (LAN)
The agent looked into it and told me the reason the flight is no longer available is because LAN pulled it with reason that the availability was an error and should not have been bookable in C in the first place.
However when I made the reservation I did see it on the BA system in C, and the US agent also reserved it in C. I even have the copy of the initial reservation showing booking class U.
In the end I had no choice but to ticket it as by the time the whole thing was sorted out I only had 20 mins left to the 72 hour limit.
Has anyone else experienced this? LIM - LAX is only serviced by LAN and there are no C seats available at all for the +- 3 days. There were other C options when I made the booking but nothing is left.
Otherwise, has anyone ever been able to book for 2 seats in C for this route? I'm hoping it opens up in the future but now I'm wondering if I should try and find another route. My connecting flight from LAX is to HKG on CX but theres really not much options available.
Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!
LAN award space needs to be ticketed within 24 hours when using AA or BA programs to make the reservation because for whatever reasons, LAN system does not talk to partner's system properly. For a longish time since 2 years ago AA could not even book LAN award seats for months. The workaround then found was to ticket it immediately. Same thing happened to BA program.
Go to the AA and BA forum to do a search on this LAN issue - you would find lots of threads as the issue never really goes away, just a degree of severity.
Jun 8, 2014, 4:46 am
#1148
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 150
you should call US asap to sort this out.
US is prabably not even aware of this, but for an unknown reason Iberia tends to remove award bookings by US - this has happened more than once.
US is prabably not even aware of this, but for an unknown reason Iberia tends to remove award bookings by US - this has happened more than once.
Jun 8, 2014, 7:42 am
#1149
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: Qantas, United, Velocity, Aeroflot, Flying Blue
Posts: 3
Problems with seeing MH seats
Does anyone know if US Airways agents have problems seeing MH award seats? I'm looking to get from SYD to LHR in business/first in early May 2015 and can see heaps of seats available between SYD, KUL and LHR on all possible flights. However, when I tried to book and spoke to two different agents, both could not see anything at all, not even in economy??!
Is it that MH release their seats to US Airways later than to other partners? Or there's another trick?
Is it that MH release their seats to US Airways later than to other partners? Or there's another trick?
Jun 8, 2014, 9:41 am
#1150
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Unfortunately that's a known problem with IB flights...
Last edited by AZ Travels the World; Jun 8, 2014 at 11:01 am Reason: Remove link to the thread OPs post was moved into
Jun 8, 2014, 12:04 pm
#1151
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
I just started a list with known problems in the wiki site of this forum:
Known Problems / Workaround:
- LA : Flights put on hold will be cancelled after 24h. Workaround: Issue the ticket immediately. > link <
- IB : Flights will be cancelled after ticket issued. Workaround: None yet... > link <
- JL : US Rep cannot find available seats. Workaround: "Always have to remember Rep to open JL reservations on a new screen". > link <
- 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). > link < booking classes: > KVS <
- ...
Jun 8, 2014, 1:15 pm
#1152
Join Date: May 2012
Location: NY
Programs: AA Plat Pro, KrisFlyer Elite Gold
Posts: 578
Booked an itinerary using US Air dividend miles with USAir for February 2015 LAX to FCO. Airlines involved--US Air, AA, and Iberia. When checking my US Air account last week, US Air and AA flights intact, but all the Iberia flights disappeared. Called US Air and on the phone for 3 hours, they couldn't figure out the reason or a resolution. Said they will contact me in a week via email if they find a resolution. If there's no email, for me to call them back again. What should be my course of action?What can be done to get those flights back? The whole itinerary was paid for and ticketed. Son's itinerary is still intact (same itinerary) but ours were gone. Who is responsible?
Jun 8, 2014, 3:17 pm
#1154
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Jun 8, 2014, 3:26 pm
#1155
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: Marriott platinum, spg gold, club Carlson gold, UA silver
Posts: 44
Help
This is what I got
Bos-lhr-dxb-Syd-akl destination. ba/qf all F but the last leg
Akl-Mel-hkg stopover qf/cx buisness
Hkg-lax-jfk/lga-Bo's cx/aa/us all in F but the last leg
When I call to ticket it says hkg stopover is illegal/ won't price in there system. 4 calls, all about a hour befor they give up and ask me to dump the stopover. What do I need to change to fix it? Got it priced once at 710.08 but I was still looking for another seat.
If I make it Syd as the destination and drop akl would that help it go thru?
Bos-lhr-dxb-Syd-akl destination. ba/qf all F but the last leg
Akl-Mel-hkg stopover qf/cx buisness
Hkg-lax-jfk/lga-Bo's cx/aa/us all in F but the last leg
When I call to ticket it says hkg stopover is illegal/ won't price in there system. 4 calls, all about a hour befor they give up and ask me to dump the stopover. What do I need to change to fix it? Got it priced once at 710.08 but I was still looking for another seat.
If I make it Syd as the destination and drop akl would that help it go thru?
Last edited by Supertramp; Jun 8, 2014 at 3:44 pm