Award availability / routing tips+help
 

I'm currently in the middle of an amazing Europe/Aussie trip which has been made possible by this forum, so thanks all for that!

My return plans were originally to come back from New Zealand in January after the holiday rush, but that has changed so I can get back in time to spend Christmas with my Grandparents and extended family in MSP.

I've been bashing my head against the wall for the last 7 hours trying to combine all sorts of different cities to get back from CHC or AKL to MSP in mid december with (hopefully) a saver business class award, or if not then a saver econ award.

I've got over 120k AA miles and 150k Chase UR points I can transfer, but I'd like to keep it on the cheaper end of things to have them available for another great trip next year with friends this time!


TL;DR:

1: Any tricks for finding award space when you don't care about origin, connections or exact dates? I just want to go from somewhere in NZ (south island hopefully, but doesn't really matter) or Australia (MEL,SYD,etc) to MSP in mid december. I figure I'll probably have to route through a couple of cities in Asia, but that's fine.

2: On one way award tickets can you put in a stopover in a city or have an open jaw or would you have to book two separate one way awards to accomplish that?

It is very likely that QF will offer nothing in any class by mid-Dec. The only seat I found was 02 Dec from BNE. Don't know about HA - you would need to call AA.

Using CX or MH you will need two awards - one NZ to SE Asia and another from there to the USA. Again HA has some "strange" routings from Asia via HNL but might combine with MH (which now only flies as far as NRT). Availability seems reasonable from HKG to LAX with CX/AA for most of Dec in Y.

Another option might be to use the NZ$ exchange rate to purchase a ticket into Asia or Hawaii from NZ though QF's fare goes up after 05 Dec, CX on 10 Dec. Both QF and CX are well in excess of NZ$1100 one way. Perhaps a splurge on CX in premium Y?

Good luck and happy wandering

Fred

Since this evidently anticipates using AA miles, I'm moving your thread to the AA board where hopefully others can assist.

Any AA award via Asia or Europe will require two separate one-way awards. As stated, finding transpacific Qantas award space at that time of year is brutal.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I hope you can excuse the direct criticism but that is a very, very poor search outline. By increasing travel dates, origins and destinations one gets an exponential increase in number of possible combinations and then can't do a proper job in searching for availability for any origin XXX and destination YYY.

IMHO you would be much better off understanding the route network available to you with AA awards, picking an origin and destination that are useful to you, expanding the set slightly by adding logical alternates (such as the multiple LAX-area airports if one is headed to SoCal) and running all legal award connections between those points with available search tools: ExpertFlyer, KVS, AA Reservations, etc. Transit time and cost to position shouldn't be dismissed when traveling from 'any' airport.

There are a couple dates in mid-December that have availability in business class from SYD-MSP via HNL and DFW on a combination of Hawaiian and American. More like domestic first class between SYD and HNL but only 62,500 AA miles and under $100 in taxes and fees one way. For complex award itineraries you should always search for the long-haul segments first then add in the short ones. AA does not allow stopovers on award tickets anymore, but you could possibly get a stopover using other airlines with your Chase points.

I see availability on the following flights. You'll have to piece together some of the domestic legs and NZ - AUS (but the NZ - AUS could be purchased for nominal amounts if no award availability):

Dec 14th (62,500 miles)
BNE - SYD (QF in J)
SYD - HNL (HA in J)
You get a nice layover in HNL to hit the beach
HNL - DFW (AA in J)

I see the same routing on Dec 22nd in coach

Dec 17th
Auckland - HNL (HA in J)
HNL - LAX (AA in J)
LAX - PHL (US in F)
PHL - MSP (US in F)
On this, you can do a red-eye LAX to PHL or overnight and take the early morning flight LAX - PHL

There are other dates with Y availability as well as J but I've run out of time this morning. The HA flights show up on the AA website.

I'd just like to pop in to say that people like you are why I'm still here... Helpful FTers are AWESOME! :)

Thanks! I'd be most interested in the Dec 17th flight, and I had looked at going through HNL yesterday before I posted but it wouldn't give me Business class on the AA 162 or 284 leaving Dec 16th HNL-LAX legs - is there a special way I need to try and book this itinerary so I can get business class on that leg?

Thanks so much for your help!

Oh I see what you're saying - HNL to LAX books into Economy. Apologies - I didn't see that. If you put in AKL to MSP on Dec 17th into aa.com for mileage redemption, it also pops up the following:

AKL - HNL on HA (Business)
HNL - SAN on Alaska (First)
overnight in SAN
SAN - ORD on AA (First)
ORD - MSP on AA (First)

So you'd depart just after midnight on 12/17 and arrive at 3:45pm on 12/17 in MSP (if I have my int'l date line calc right).

Now another interesting routing I see availability on (via ExpertFlyer) is on Air Tahiti Nui. AKL to PPT on 12/16 at 4:25pm arriving PPT at 10:25pm on 12/15. You would layover until 7:20am the following morning and continue onto LAX arriving LAX at 5:35pm on 12/16. It's in Business Class - you'd have to call AA to book this one. Flight numbers are 102 and 8, respectively.

I just saw that one about 2 minutes before you posted!

I appreciate your follow up post about Air Tahiti - their business class actually looks great compared to what HA/AS offers. Here's hoping I can get it for the same 65k amount paired with the LAX-PHL-MSP from earlier when I call in! Are there any tricks to getting them to book it on the phone?

Thanks again bustraveler!

I would suggest giving the agent specific flights on Air Tahiti to look at and then asking them to add on the domestic legs to MSP from LAX. It should be 1 award, not 2 awards. You should only trigger 2 awards if you were to route through NRT or HKG.

"Air Tahiti" is a local airline with no connection to AAdvantage; try "Air Tahiti Nui" / TN, which does. And, yes, their Poerava Business class hard product in the updated A340s will beat HA business class (though iirc there's still one unmodified ship in the fleet - still a bit better than HA).

Thanks for posting about this - I've received my ticket confirmation email and am looking forward to experiencing their business class, and hopefully getting some photos of a Tahitian sunrise too!

A tip for any other newbies that are reading this: the first agent said "we can't book any TN flights for awards, you have to purchase them" so I hung up, waited a few minutes and called back, got another rep who didn't blink and eye and put everything right in for me!

It continues to amaze me how cr@ppy AA's training must be. You would think that a phone agent would at least review the information on the website prior to putting on the headset for the first time but apparently not.