AA and AB routing rules
 

I am trying to get 2 business saver level award seats from PDX to MUC on AA while avoiding British Airways. I have found availability on AB from ORD->TXL->MUC but nothing originating on PDX. There is an AA flight direct from PDX to ORD that would work as a connection. Could I do AA PDX->ORD then AB ORD->TXL->MUC on a single award ticket or would it have to be ticketed as two separate awards?

Yes, you can. As long as all the flights are available on the day you want/need. Also, keep in mind that you're not limited to AA on the PDX-ORD segment. You can also use AS if there's availability as they are also a partner of AA.

I would use the Multi-City feature and pick the flights one by one if the AA website doesn't produce the results you're looking for. Once you've put it together, put the reservation on hold and if it doesn't price out correctly, call AA to refresh it and you should see the correct amount of miles. And yes, this can all be ticketed as 1 award as long as your layover in ORD is not longer than 4 hours. Once you get to TXL, you can have up to 24 hours before your flight to MUC but domestically, the connection needs to be within 4 hours of arrival. Good Luck!

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"And yes, this can all be ticketed as 1 award as long as your layover in ORD is not longer than 4 hours. Once you get to TXL, you can have up to 24 hours before your flight to MUC but domestically, the connection needs to be within 4 hours of arrival."

No. On an international award, you have up to 24 hours to connect at every connecting city -- even domestic ones.

Whether PDX-ORD-TXL-MUC will price as a single award will depend on whether AB publishes a PDX-MUC through-fare, and whether that fare allows such a routing. But putting PDX-ORD, and ORD-(TXL)-MUC on hold via the multi-city award-booking engine, and then calling AA, is indeed the way to see whether this itinerary can be flown as a single award.

Great thank you both for your help. I somehow missed the multi-city option for the award search which makes it much easier to find availability and connections. I checked AB site and Portland isn't listed as a to/from unfortunately.

Checking on EF, it looks like AB may actually have a fare listed for PDX-MUC which allows travel via ORD. Unless I am missing something, it looks like a through fare

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"I checked AB site and Portland isn't listed as a to/from unfortunately."

That is not necessarily dispositive. Put all the flights on hold and call AA.

If PDX-MUC does not price as a single award, see if PDX-TXL does. It will be cheaper (either in terms of cash or miles) to get a second ticket TXL-MUC instead of PDX-ORD. And if you have -- or can get -- some BA Avios, using Avios for TXL-MUC would be cheaper than using AA miles on a separate award ticket on that route. Only 4,500 BA Avios needed for TXL-MUC one way. ;)

Great, will place on hold and call. I like the avios idea too for intra Europe. Such a great deal!:D

As a follow up to the corrections noted in post #3, you would benefit from spending some time with the award rules outlined in the wiki of this thread.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2014-a.html

When I wrote the post, I was using my own experience as back in 2013 when the stopover awards were still around, I had a few booked and in one particular case, I had flown the Europe to ORD segments, had a stopover builtin of a few months and then all domestic flights from ORD to FAI with a connection through ANC which included travel on both AA and AS. At that time, when I tried to change my ANC-FAI flight, I was told there was a 4-hour limit on domestic connections. I spoke to both AA and AS at the time and got the same answer. So, I ended up using Avios to book the flight that I wanted. It seems like I may have gotten agents not familiar with the rules. Regardless, there are no stopovers anymore, so next time I book an international award, I'll certainly take advantage of the up to 24 hour stopover between flights whether international or domestic - thanks for pointing that out.