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]
Apr 2, 2014, 7:19 am
#121
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
Is it me or is award availability on OW much worse than on *A? I have been specifically looking at Europe - Asia and have found scarce availability on the BA website. I guess you also have less options as you can "only" use BA, CX, MH, JL if you want to redeem in F. Even C is difficult to find on these airlines. I am not really a fan of RJ and AY so that makes it a bit more difficult. However I do think I might still be redeeming on SQ and TK if I find something as you can still redeem on those airlines even after US has left *A.
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
Apr 2, 2014, 7:25 am
#122
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: WAS, LAX
Programs: AS 100K
Posts: 1,330
Is it me or is award availability on OW much worse than on *A? I have been specifically looking at Europe - Asia and have found scarce availability on the BA website. I guess you also have less options as you can "only" use BA, CX, MH, JL if you want to redeem in F. Even C is difficult to find on these airlines. I am not really a fan of RJ and AY so that makes it a bit more difficult. However I do think I might still be redeeming on SQ and TK if I find something as you can still redeem on those airlines even after US has left *A.
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
FWIW, QR will soon have F and, of course, AA has F.
Whats the policy of OW, if you've a C-cl ticket an a flight only has Y-cl or F-cl (i.ex. AA or QR DOH-DXB) on a 2 cabin aircraft?
Can the award ticket be booked in F-cl for the C-cl rate or is only Y-cl possible on such a flight?
A dummy booking on BA/Avios only offers Y-cl on the US connecting flight, even as F-cl available...
Can the award ticket be booked in F-cl for the C-cl rate or is only Y-cl possible on such a flight?
A dummy booking on BA/Avios only offers Y-cl on the US connecting flight, even as F-cl available...
The forum's hard-working Mods are way ahead in establishing a wiki/master thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...lp-thread.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...lp-thread.html
I think I wrote the majority of the information thus far, though the ever-helpful JDiver provided some good clarity and KVS Tool did a couple of updates as well. You can see the history of the Wiki - and add your own edits! - via the edit button to the bottom right of the Wiki post.
Last edited by flyingmusicianlax; Apr 2, 2014 at 9:19 am Reason: Grammar
Apr 2, 2014, 9:14 am
#123
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
Apr 2, 2014, 9:24 am
#125
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
Apr 2, 2014, 10:57 am
#126
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: BWI
Programs: Everyone!
Posts: 1,024
Disappointed they don't yet have an "explorer" option for US....but I guess that isn't too bad since the rules still allow stopovers in partner hubs...
Apr 2, 2014, 3:57 pm
#127
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,558
Advise caution booking awards - new agents?
I just called USAir to book an EWR-HKG CX flight with miles (flight leaves at 110AM). Needed the flight for the 18th. The agent told me (and this has never happened before, in 10 years) that she needed to "book the 17th, because that's when you check in, even if the flight leaves on the 18th".
I knew this is wrong and told her, and, well, you know where that went. They are always right and you are the one who is mistaken. Hmmm....................
So I told her to forget it, and hung up.
Do they have new agents since the change, or is there something else going on?
I knew this is wrong and told her, and, well, you know where that went. They are always right and you are the one who is mistaken. Hmmm....................
So I told her to forget it, and hung up.
Do they have new agents since the change, or is there something else going on?
Apr 2, 2014, 4:13 pm
#128
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: DFW
Programs: AA 1M
Posts: 31,475
In the US Star booking thread, I remember reading something like this. The US systems have a weird way of showing flights leaving between midnight - 2AM ish. It shows it as operating the previous day or so.
I remember having a lot of difficulty booking an SQ flight leaving at 2AM but one agent finally found it. She must have searched using the previous day.
I remember having a lot of difficulty booking an SQ flight leaving at 2AM but one agent finally found it. She must have searched using the previous day.
Apr 2, 2014, 4:25 pm
#129
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: PHX
Programs: US,HH
Posts: 636
That is correct. If your flight leaves at 110am on the 18th, you will need to ask them to look for it on the 17th.
Apr 2, 2014, 4:30 pm
#130
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
Actually it's just the input in the US shares programme that needs to be changed (T-1). As soon the flight segment returns to the PNR, the correct departure date is showing.
Apr 2, 2014, 5:30 pm
#131
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: VA WP, NZ *A SG
Posts: 529
Is it me or is award availability on OW much worse than on *A? I have been specifically looking at Europe - Asia and have found scarce availability on the BA website. I guess you also have less options as you can "only" use BA, CX, MH, JL if you want to redeem in F. Even C is difficult to find on these airlines. I am not really a fan of RJ and AY so that makes it a bit more difficult. However I do think I might still be redeeming on SQ and TK if I find something as you can still redeem on those airlines even after US has left *A.
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
Any tips ppl can share for award travel?
The tips is to book 330 days out. Don't come along 6 months before your trip and wonder why there are no seats left.
Apr 2, 2014, 8:16 pm
#132
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: PHL
Programs: Former long-time US GP; now AA dirt
Posts: 4,904
The part in bold is irrelevant because fewer OW airlines also means fewer OW members (people) competing for those fewer seats. The second part is all that matters: how many award seats are made available.
Apr 2, 2014, 8:25 pm
#133
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Melbourne
Programs: Velocity Gold
Posts: 1,069
I just called USAir to book an EWR-HKG CX flight with miles (flight leaves at 110AM). Needed the flight for the 18th. The agent told me (and this has never happened before, in 10 years) that she needed to "book the 17th, because that's when you check in, even if the flight leaves on the 18th".
I knew this is wrong and told her, and, well, you know where that went. They are always right and you are the one who is mistaken. Hmmm....................
So I told her to forget it, and hung up.
Do they have new agents since the change, or is there something else going on?
I knew this is wrong and told her, and, well, you know where that went. They are always right and you are the one who is mistaken. Hmmm....................
So I told her to forget it, and hung up.
Do they have new agents since the change, or is there something else going on?
Apr 2, 2014, 8:29 pm
#134
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Programs: VA WP, NZ *A SG
Posts: 529
Not necesarilly. QF is not a particularly large airline (internationally at least) but still has 10 million FF members fighting for seats.
Apr 2, 2014, 8:41 pm
#135
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: UA, QF, VS, AA, US, HH, SPG
Posts: 974
However, QF has excellent award availability on domestic and South Pacific routes (i.e. almost wide-open any time except school holidays) and at 30,000 return in business this is great value on longer routes. In fact - think SYD-NRT-GUM … for those of you who took advantage of GUM's placement in the South Pacific in the good old days of US in *A. The SYD-NRT route is served by QF and JL and availability is very good at 330 days.