Jan 14, 2016, 5:43 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

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:

Quote:

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.

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:

NOTE: From AUH to the USA you will receive full USCBP Pre-Clearance in Abu Dhabi and will arrive in the USA as a domestic flight. However, AA and at least some other airlines (AS) will still demand International to Domestic MCT be met for ticketing purposes.

Booking AA Award travel on Etihad / EY (master thread July 2017 onwards)

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Jan 13, 2018, 8:33 pm

#61

anabolism

Join Date: Aug 2004

Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)

Posts: 8,937

Quote:

Originally Posted by acinchus

In an attempt to get EY biz class seats on AUH-LAX or AUH-DFW, I have been trying for past two weeks to reach the Fiji center by calling the AA Aus, NZ and Singapore numbers mentioned in the wiki. But no dice, almost all the calls got diverted to Trinidad and Tobago and today the call went to Lima, Peru center. None of them can see the EY Guest level availability I see on the EY website. FWIW, travel date Feb 11 is now within 30 days and was hoping that would have increased probability. of award seats being available to AA agents.

Maybe AA has stopped their outsourced center in Fiji. Anyone know the latest? And more importantly, need some pointers on how to reach Fiji or any other centers that use the GDS or whatever system that increases odds of seeing EY award availability?

Using ExpertFlyer, I see availability in business AUH-DFW on Feb 10, and AUH-LAX on Feb 11. Maybe try U.S. agents again? For what it's worth, it was Trinidad and Tobago that was able to see space for me when others couldn't.

Jan 14, 2018, 10:59 pm

#62

justforfun

Join Date: Mar 2003

Location: NYC/PSP

Programs: AA EXP, A3 Gold

Posts: 4,103

For what it's worth, just booked JFK-AUH in F using the US call center. No issues seeing availability. Had checked expertflyer before so knew there was one seat available on the flight I needed.

CodeAdam10 likes this.

Jan 15, 2018, 12:41 am

#63

MDtR-Chicago

Moderator: Chase Ultimate Rewards

Join Date: Apr 2005

Location: SFO

Programs: UA 2P, MR LT Plat, IHG Plat, BW Dia, HH Au, Avis PC

Posts: 5,445

Broken hearted about it, but had to cancel our reservation for Apartments next month...

2x AUH-JFK on the 2:50AM A380 on Feb 28 in Apartments open now. Showing on Expertflyer.

Jan 15, 2018, 11:59 am

#64

anabolism

Join Date: Aug 2004

Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)

Posts: 8,937

Quote:

Originally Posted by justforfun

For what it's worth, just booked JFK-AUH in F using the US call center. No issues seeing availability. Had checked expertflyer before so knew there was one seat available on the flight I needed.

Thanks for the data point. Can you clarify the flight date? It helps.

Jan 16, 2018, 8:42 pm

#65

ChiefNWA

Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: TPA

Programs: DL Diamond, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriott Gold

Posts: 1,256

Just changed my award flight from DEL-AUH-CDG to DEL-AUH-IAD with no issue. Actually, the agent didn't even charge me a fee for whatever reason other than the extra mileage. She had no issue finding the seats (though she said 1 left while EY's website showed 2).

The only thing that worries me is it has been about 8 hours since that call and it's still on request. There was no more availability on DEL-AUH so hopefully there's not a snafu with that.

Jan 17, 2018, 7:07 am

#66

NecessaryIndulgences

Join Date: Sep 2011

Location: MLB

Programs: DL DM/2.9M, AA EXP, *A Gold

Posts: 245

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefNWA

No need to worry. You'll see many posts in this thread talking about the time it takes to re-issue tickets that involve partner airlines. The old Fiji call center used to tell me 72 hours, but they also said re-issues are usually prioritized by departure date. This would make sense, as it's certainly more time-critical to re-ticket a customer's departure for next week than it is another's departure 7 months from now.

As others have mentioned many times here, give it a few days. If it still hasn't ticketed, call AA back. This will usually move things along.

ChiefNWA likes this.

Jan 18, 2018, 11:52 am

#67

fedechat

Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: South Florida

Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinium

Posts: 1,334

Quote:

Originally Posted by navatwal

I have rebooked into coach for the JFK to SFO leg as there is currently no availability in Premium cabins for my dates with AA for saver fares.

i have 5 days to get this ticketed.

i have two questions:

1. When seats open up in F / Business can I switch for
free without any penalties?

2. What if I switch to a connection from EWR or LGA, is it possible that it’s still free to change?

My origin and destination would still stay the same (Abu Dhabi to SFO), all I would be doing is switching the transit airport from JFK

Per AA award rules you can switch transit airports without a fee as long origin and destination remain the same. If you have an award in Y and you want to change to J/F you can do it for free too (orig/dest. remain the same).

Jan 18, 2018, 5:29 pm

#68

foxtrotlima1

Join Date: Nov 2016

Location: IAD

Programs: AA-EXP

Posts: 21

Guidance on booking EY award

Alright experts.... I have been trying to book a business class award for 4 people in late March.

So so far the outbound is set with a DCA-DFW-AUH currently on hold as a single 70k award. I had an AUH-ORD-DCA leg on hold also on a 70k award. I needed to change the return and with a goal to try and route through JFK. The agent was able to get me the 4 seats from AuH to JFK, but said my JFK-DCa leg had to book as a separate award for 30k miles per person. He said he is not seeing any availability on EY if he does AUH-JFK-DCA.

30k is not worth it to me for a jfk-dca award.

I have him alding AUH-JFK because it’s the date I want to return, but trying to figure out a strategy to get the last leg as part of the 70k award.

thoughts?

Do I book as is and hope availability opens later?

Jan 18, 2018, 5:41 pm

#69

lizakramer

Join Date: Jul 2014

Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Posts: 128

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrotlima1

It does not sound to me like you have much of a choice. Is the AUH-ORD-DCA available on your preferred return date? If not, then grab the AUH-JFK and hope for the best. Worst case, you pay for a O/W ticket from JFK-DCA. I agree it's not worth the 30k miles.

Jan 18, 2018, 5:54 pm

#70

FlyerTalkUserName

Join Date: Dec 2015

Posts: 623

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrotlima1

Is that with the last leg in Y or F? Did you ask the agent to check Y availability on the JFK-DCA sector? I would consider the AUH-IAD flight on the 787 or doing a ground transfer in NYC and flying LGA-DCA as other options? I'd probably choose both of those over ORD or DFW. I'm a plane geek so I'm willing to work a little to get on the bird I want to fly when it's somewhere I don't frequent.

Jan 18, 2018, 6:01 pm

#71

foxtrotlima1

Join Date: Nov 2016

Location: IAD

Programs: AA-EXP

Posts: 21

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizakramer

The AUH-ORD-DCA routing was not available on my preferred date.

The one one way tickets are pricing out really high. Which may be a clue to the availability challenges. Oh wait...it’s around Spring Break. Probably not the best tome to be looking for inexpensive tickets.

I will I’ll have to keep pressing my luck. One question that I have is whether my entire routing is subject to cancellation and rebooking after I book the original ticket. In other words, do I risk loosing my outbound seats if I modify the return after booking?

Jan 18, 2018, 7:04 pm

#72

FlyerTalkUserName

Join Date: Dec 2015

Posts: 623

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrotlima1

I would recommend using a tool like ExpertFlyer or AwardNexus that might return some more creative routings for JFK-DCA. Did you try searching JFK-DCA yourself? While the EY segments need to be booked over the phone agents are rarely helpful at that kind of thing.

There's a bit of debate on the topic but I would recommend booking a one-way in each direction so that both can be modified without fear of "messing up" the other. Same amount of points either way.

Jan 18, 2018, 7:31 pm

#73

fedechat

Join Date: Dec 2005

Location: South Florida

Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, Marriott Platinium

Posts: 1,334

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrotlima1

You are EXP, you can always request "to complete an itinerary" (have others names based on the agent) since your AUH-JFK long haul is already available and only the domestic portion is not, they may have to call another department/supervisor or check on the system to get a confirmation. If you are using all your miles from your own account, is better to have it all on the same PNR, you can always change the return airport without a fee since you are EXP and as long you are using your own miles for the whole itinerary, a good agent can drop/change any leg if he knows how to do it.

PS: which date are you looking for? JFK-DCA is available every single day in March in Y, is just a short flight.

Jan 18, 2018, 7:32 pm

#74

foxtrotlima1

Join Date: Nov 2016

Location: IAD

Programs: AA-EXP

Posts: 21

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyerTalkUserName

Sadly the JFK-DCA segment is in Y. It’s an anytime award versus a mile saver.

AUH-IAD would solve all my problems. Alas, did not find availability on that flight. AUH-DFW ceases to be an option after March 25th. I had a little of that plane geek going on as well. Part of the reason I targeted traveling AUH-JFK is because the family had never been on an A380, and have been wanting to go on one for years.

That said, it may have to be another time if I can’t get these awards to line up the way I want.

Jan 18, 2018, 7:55 pm

#75

navatwal

Join Date: Sep 2007

Location: San Francisco & London

Programs: UA1k, Oneworld Sapphire, Hyatt Globalist, IHG DiamondAmb, Hilton Diamond, Marriott LTP,

Posts: 1,782

Connecting at JFK

I am travelling for the first time using Eithad from Abu Dhabhi to SFO via NYC on the A380 Apartment ( I usually fly EK direct)

My connection at JFK with AA to SFO is currently 3 hours, there is another flight available which departs 1.5 hours after my arrival into JFK which is my preference to take if it works.

Is this suitable to transfer at JFK?

I have never had to connect at JFK and would think 1.5 hours is doable as US Immigration is performed at AUH on Departure.