Jan 14, 2016, 5:43 am
Last edit by: medellinfein
Booking Award Seats on EY / Etihad Airways Using AA / AAdvantage Miles
Also see: Earning AA Miles EQM / EQD / EQS on EY / Etihad (master thread)
This thread is about how to book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles, and sharing success stories. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
Please see the archived threads for previous experiences:
Also see: Earning AA Miles EQM / EQD / EQS on EY / Etihad (master thread)
This thread is about how to book Etihad / EY award seats using AA AAdvantage miles, and sharing success stories. This wiki is new, so anyone with 90/90 who wishes to add helpful information is, of course, urged to do so.
NOTE:AA has removed most EY and QR award access from aa.com due to a glitch booking these:
From One Mile at a Time (link)
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
Bottom Line
For the time being you’ll have to call American if you want to ticket AAdvantage awards on Etihad & Qatar that aren’t for travel to & from the US or Canada. It makes sense that American took these awards “offline,” and now it also makes sense why so many passengers have been having issues with checked bags on awards.
- You can now search or book awards for travel on EY (Etihad) on www.aa.com.
- You can search award availability on EY's website. Look only for seats on flights operated by Etihad Airways that are labeled as "GuestSeats". You can also search on ExpertFlyer
- Note: You may see more availability if you search on EY's website using itineraries that do not originate in the US. In other words, to potentially see more availability on a USA-XYZ segment, search for XYZ-USA-XYZ. Expertflyer does not report this additional availability (if any), and US-based agents probably will not be able to see or book it (but see further below for Fiji).
- To expand on this point a bit, it seems that even if you only want to fly USA-AUH (or to other foreign destinations, since they route through AUH), due to an EY website quirk you need to search AUH-USA-AUH in order to find available USA-AUH routes.
- You no longer have to call AA to book them. You may need to request the AA agent to look up the inventory one segment at a time in order to find the inventory in their system. OR:
- It is often or even typically the case that for first and business class awards US agents cannot see the award space that you see on Etihad's site. Your best bet, then, is to call AA Australia (+61 2-9101-1948 ) then press 3 - or the New Zealand number (+64 09-308-4014) (actually South African contractor Mindpearl in Fiji) or Singapore (+65 6349-8444) as an alternative - what you need is the specific call center which is actually in Suva, Fiji (I believe it's our old South African agency friend Mindpearl) or, according to recent reports, in Trinidad (since there have been some reports that the Fiji center has closed). You can put the EY segments on hold so you can flesh out the award afterward and/or pay the fees in USD through the US call center, or simply buy it through non-US call center if you think you won't be making subsequent routing changes (such as adding AA connecting flights within the USA) that would incur fees. (NOTE: calls may get picked up by the local Brisbane office, or rerouted to Trinidad or the USA. As noted, there are reports that the Fiji call center has closed, but people have still been able to book some of the time, particularly if they reach the Trinidad center since that seems to be the call center that yields the greatest success in late 2017 and 2018 - with the big caveat that there are at least as many failures as successes in calling there, including repeatedly. To increase the chances of success, you may have to call several times, since for some reason a given customer service representative at a given time won't see availability even if it shows at the EY site, but another CSR at the same center may be able to do so even a few minutes later. It's conceivable that this difference is due to some CSRs knowing how to search for award availability better than others do, but that's simply a matter of speculation at this point.)
- Note: EY award holds only last 72 hours...irrespective of what AA reservation hold email states
- Booking connections via AUH / Abu Dabhi using one award is now allowed.
- Get both AA and EY reservation codes/numbers: Upon booking with AA, make sure to get the EY reservation number as well as that of AA from the AA CSR, as without the EY number it will be difficult or impossible to deal with EY, such as for checking or managing your reservation online. And of course, if there is another airline involved in the reservation as well (such as BA), get its reservation number.
- A handy EY route map is here: http://flights.etihad.com/routemap.
- The applicable AAdvantage miles award chart is the oneworld and partner airlines award chart.
- Award routing rules are in the wikipost of this thread.
- If you find EY inventory from your continent but not your city of choice, as usual you can include any other AAdvantage award airlines in order to complete the itinerary. E.g. LHR-xAUH-DEL-xAUH-CDG on EY connecting to CDG-LHR on BA.
- WARNING: While this trick is great for new bookings (especially if you have patience to get lucky for call to be routed to Fiji office), modifying booking on partner airlines is always risky especially when an overseas center is involved, Your original seats are immediately released and while new reservation is supposedly confirmed, it may actually not the case until ticket desk actually issues ticket after approval of the partner liaison. Weekend/Holidays/Time-Difference can delay issuance of ticket and if something goes wrong, there is always risk of being SOL. (Mistakes by agents are rare but not unheard of).
- SEAT ASSIGNMENTS: You cannot choose seats until after ticketing. Even then, the regular web site will not allow seat assignments to be made for AAdvantage award bookings. The mobile site (which can be reached with either a mobile or a desktop browser) may work in some cases. Calling EY to make seat assignments always works, as long as you can give them the EY record locator, and as long as AA has issued the ticket (which can take a few days, you will get e-mail). Call 1-877-690-0767, press 1 for English, then 2 for First/Business, then 2 for existing bookings, then they will tell you the call is ending - but it's not: they have added "press 1 to speak to an agent", so finally, press 1 to continue the call. After this, you should have someone on the line quickly to help you. They will ask you a series of questions such as "What class are you traveling in?" and "Where are you going?" Alternatively, you can choose your seats on the Etihad website and app by using the EY record locator to find your award itinerary.
- Availability: EY award availability using AA miles can be fairly good, including in business and first class - IF you get past the big, aforementioned challenge of actually booking award seats that the EY site shows as available but that AA agents have trouble finding. But it ebbs and flows quite a bit in at least two respects (in addition to the general rule that the further in advance you seek availability, the better, as well as reports that availability is easier to find from one to three weeks before a flight): 1) availability showing at the EY site and 2) even if availability shows at the EY site, the ability of non-US call centers (especially the "least bad" ones for finding availability, which might have been Fiji and might now be Trinidad) to find that availability. So if the EY site is not showing availability for a given day or week, and if you have flexibility, check other dates. And if availability seems to be particularly constrained across many dates, particularly if you are searching many months in advance, check again periodically to see if this has changed (or arrange an alert via ExpertFlyer, if it provides such a service for EY flights).
- "Baby-sit" your tickets: Though this advice could apply to many award bookings, EY's systems can be glitchy and the airline apparently is going through some financial challenges. So it makes sense to check online or via phone occasionally with EY to make sure everything remains in order, particularly if there have been even minor changes in things like your flight times. And if there seem to be problems, including with checking in online or other procedures, the EY forum here at FT can be a source of useful advice about whether or not those problems are worth worrying about.
- Itinerary: You can use https://www.virtuallythere.com/new/login.html to enter your EY record locator and last name to 1)display your complete itinerary 2)save a pdf 3)add to outlook/ical 4)view ticket # and different times the ticket has been reissued
- AA lounge access: If you book a premium cabin itinerary on EY with domestic connections on AA, you will not be able to access the Admiral's Club during your domestic layovers because EY is not a member of OW.
Please see the archived threads for previous experiences:
- How to: Use AA Miles to Book Award on Etihad / EY (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
- Success stories booking awards on Etihad using AA miles (Archive - 2015 and earlier)
- Booking AA Award travel on Etihad / EY - [2015-17 ARCHIVE]
Booking AA Award travel on Etihad / EY (master thread July 2017 onwards)
Jan 10, 2018, 7:19 pm
#32
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: MIA
Posts: 498
CDG-AUH-LAX comes in at 11k miles so it would be illegal
Jan 10, 2018, 7:28 pm
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Benicia, California, USA
Programs: AA PLT,AS,UA PP,J6,FB,EY,LH,SQ,HH Dmd,Hyatt Glbl,Marriott Plat,IHG Plat,Accor Gold
Posts: 10,820
Still, it can't hurt to try getting it as one segment for just 70K and see what happens. If at first you don't succeed, hang up and call again to see if another customer service rep can make it work.
Jan 10, 2018, 9:49 pm
#34
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,583
There is no exception allowing travel via Middle East for travel from Europe to USA ( nor would it make any sense for there to be since it is completely in the wrong direction )
Also, EY doesn't even offer fares for CDG-LAX
This will cosst
20k, 42.5h, 62.5k for Europe to Middle East plus
40k, 70k, 115k for Middle East to USA
So total of 60K in Economy, 112.5k for business class or 177.5k in 1st class
Jan 10, 2018, 10:17 pm
#35
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: San Francisco & London
Programs: UA1k, Oneworld Sapphire, Hyatt Globalist, IHG DiamondAmb, Hilton Diamond, Marriott LTP,
Posts: 1,785
Middle East to US West Coast via NYC - Redemption Help
I am looking to travel back from a Wedding in Dubai next month - looking to try the famous Etihad Apartment on A380 via NYC, I will be going out on EK First.
I am based in the Bay Area - I am looking to book: AUH - NYC - SFO
I calleed the Australia number who found availability straight away.
I have AUH to NYC on Hold at 115k AA Miles in F
The agent tried to add NYC to SFO in First, the system was adding another 50k AA miles (total 165k) treating it is a sperate segment. surely this should be booked as one award at 115k in F?
Any advice would be appreciated before I ticket this?
I am flexible on flights to SFO and was open to considering an overnight stay in NYC, which would have meant a 23 hour stopover
I am based in the Bay Area - I am looking to book: AUH - NYC - SFO
I calleed the Australia number who found availability straight away.
I have AUH to NYC on Hold at 115k AA Miles in F
The agent tried to add NYC to SFO in First, the system was adding another 50k AA miles (total 165k) treating it is a sperate segment. surely this should be booked as one award at 115k in F?
Any advice would be appreciated before I ticket this?
I am flexible on flights to SFO and was open to considering an overnight stay in NYC, which would have meant a 23 hour stopover
Jan 10, 2018, 10:21 pm
#36
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,583
EY does show routing rules that permit AUH-NYC-AA/EY-SFO , so the routing should be ok
Is there availability if the agent searches for AUH-SFO ?
It could be an issue by system/agent pricing the award or it could potentially be a married sector availabilty since AA seems to have started using this on award bookings
Is there availability if the agent searches for AUH-SFO ?
It could be an issue by system/agent pricing the award or it could potentially be a married sector availabilty since AA seems to have started using this on award bookings
Jan 11, 2018, 8:03 am
#37
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 102
I'm trying to book AUH - JFK - ORD but currently there isn't any JFK to ORD saver level space. There is LGA to ORD though.
Often times when I'm looking for awards from to US to Europe, AA.com displays change-of-airport options (either into LGA and out of JFK or into LHR and out of LGW), so my question is two fold:
1) Will AA let me book AUH-JFK, LGA-ORD, or would they consider it an open jaw?
2) If space opens up on JFK - ORD down the road, will I be able to make that change for free?
Often times when I'm looking for awards from to US to Europe, AA.com displays change-of-airport options (either into LGA and out of JFK or into LHR and out of LGW), so my question is two fold:
1) Will AA let me book AUH-JFK, LGA-ORD, or would they consider it an open jaw?
2) If space opens up on JFK - ORD down the road, will I be able to make that change for free?
Jan 11, 2018, 8:11 am
#38
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: MIA
Posts: 498
I'm trying to book AUH - JFK - ORD but currently there isn't any JFK to ORD saver level space. There is LGA to ORD though.
Often times when I'm looking for awards from to US to Europe, AA.com displays change-of-airport options (either into LGA and out of JFK or into LHR and out of LGW), so my question is two fold:
1) Will AA let me book AUH-JFK, LGA-ORD, or would they consider it an open jaw?
2) If space opens up on JFK - ORD down the road, will I be able to make that change for free?
Often times when I'm looking for awards from to US to Europe, AA.com displays change-of-airport options (either into LGA and out of JFK or into LHR and out of LGW), so my question is two fold:
1) Will AA let me book AUH-JFK, LGA-ORD, or would they consider it an open jaw?
2) If space opens up on JFK - ORD down the road, will I be able to make that change for free?
You will be able to move from LGA to JFK if it opens up. You may need to escalate to a supervisor to get it to move but it should be free.
When you book your flights, let the agent know that you plan on moving to JFK-ORD when it opens up and ask them to please add a note to your account that you can make that change for free. That should mitigate some of the headache.
Jan 11, 2018, 9:57 am
#39
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,631
I did have a bit of trouble doing that because the agent insisted that LGA and JFK were not the same airport for award purposes. This is true, but irrelevant, since LGA isn't your final destination, and you aren't changing the final destination but only the route. This confusion is probably what the previous poster is referring to.
Jan 11, 2018, 10:14 am
#40
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: San Francisco & London
Programs: UA1k, Oneworld Sapphire, Hyatt Globalist, IHG DiamondAmb, Hilton Diamond, Marriott LTP,
Posts: 1,785
I am looking at a connection that is 24 hours and 5 minutes. Do Booking agents have any way to over-risde the free 24 hour stopover rule considering that this is only 5 minutes?
The rule is you cant change your arrival and departure airport, how you get there is your choice. It should price as one award, not an open jaw as long as your connection is less than 24 hours.
You will be able to move from LGA to JFK if it opens up. You may need to escalate to a supervisor to get it to move but it should be free.
When you book your flights, let the agent know that you plan on moving to JFK-ORD when it opens up and ask them to please add a note to your account that you can make that change for free. That should mitigate some of the headache.
You will be able to move from LGA to JFK if it opens up. You may need to escalate to a supervisor to get it to move but it should be free.
When you book your flights, let the agent know that you plan on moving to JFK-ORD when it opens up and ask them to please add a note to your account that you can make that change for free. That should mitigate some of the headache.
Jan 11, 2018, 10:16 am
#41
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,583
With a 24:05 stop, you will need to redeem 2 awards
Jan 11, 2018, 10:25 am
#42
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: MLB
Programs: DL DM/2.9M, AA EXP, *A Gold
Posts: 245
I did have a bit of trouble doing that because the agent insisted that LGA and JFK were not the same airport for award purposes. This is true, but irrelevant, since LGA isn't your final destination, and you aren't changing the final destination but only the route. This confusion is probably what the previous poster is referring to.
FWIW, I have never had an issue initially booking LGA and then later changing to JFK when it became available. No charge, no pushback at all. Regardless of the co-terminal issue, there shouldn't be a problem making the change as long as NYC isn't the origin or destination, as you point out.
Jan 11, 2018, 3:37 pm
#44
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
I am looking to book: AUH - NYC - SFO
I calleed the Australia number who found availability straight away.
I have AUH to NYC on Hold at 115k AA Miles in F
The agent tried to add NYC to SFO in First, the system was adding another 50k AA miles (total 165k) treating it is a sperate segment. surely this should be booked as one award at 115k in F?
Any advice would be appreciated before I ticket this?
I am flexible on flights to SFO and was open to considering an overnight stay in NYC, which would have meant a 23 hour stopover
I calleed the Australia number who found availability straight away.
I have AUH to NYC on Hold at 115k AA Miles in F
The agent tried to add NYC to SFO in First, the system was adding another 50k AA miles (total 165k) treating it is a sperate segment. surely this should be booked as one award at 115k in F?
Any advice would be appreciated before I ticket this?
I am flexible on flights to SFO and was open to considering an overnight stay in NYC, which would have meant a 23 hour stopover
It's never been such for me. I recently booked awards flying into JFK and out of EWR/LGA without question (aside from the super long MCT required).
Jan 11, 2018, 3:52 pm
#45
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,631
You can still change XXX-JFK-(ground)-LGA-YYY to XXX-JFK-YYY for free, since the origin and destination remain the same. I got pushback from an agent when trying to do that, because he was confused (if New York had been the origin or destination, which it was not, the change would not have been free). I was able to straighten him out and make the change.
Hope I haven't confused you too much.