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)
Feb 21, 2021, 5:55 am
#1681
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 357
Can one assume that an EY award which shows on the AC/Aeroplan site is also available using AA. I am seeing EY award seats using AC to search but same route/day does not show up on AA. Needless to say - I want to use AA miles. I don't want to call AA as I'm just doing some "what if" searches (meaning I can't / won't travel ex-SYD until this pandemic is under control AND our international border is open to departures and arrivals without quarantine).
Ironic you should post this. This morning I've called all three AA number is NZ, SG, and OZ. All routed to the same lady who cannot see EY availability dispute it showing on Aeroplan and showing guest seats open on EYs website.
Could be a Sunday non business.hour ohenomen. Not sure where the call was routed to.
Mar 5, 2021, 8:06 am
#1682
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Austin TX
Programs: AA EXEP 2MM, Delta Diamond, Hilton Diamond, Avis President Club, Marriot gold,Emerald Exec,
Posts: 413
Does Etihad has Business Award Ticket with AA miles to India (HYD first preference or BLR ) in first or second week of May 2021?. I can fly out from DFW or IAH or ORD. DFW or IAH would be first preference. I have been checking and nothing shows up for Etihad airways on AA.com. I can see some open for Qatar to BLR
Mar 5, 2021, 10:05 am
#1683
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,482
Does Etihad has Business Award Ticket with AA miles to India (HYD first preference or BLR ) in first or second week of May 2021?. I can fly out from DFW or IAH or ORD. DFW or IAH would be first preference. I have been checking and nothing shows up for Etihad airways on AA.com. I can see some open for Qatar to BLR
Mar 5, 2021, 2:37 pm
#1684
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Austin TX
Programs: AA EXEP 2MM, Delta Diamond, Hilton Diamond, Avis President Club, Marriot gold,Emerald Exec,
Posts: 413
EY is running a very limited schedule now for US-AUH, I only see JFK, IAD, ORD, and YYZ flights in May. And looking at award availability I don't see any space in any class on any of the flights to AUH. So I would forget about using EY at the moment and focus on finding QR space.
Apr 2, 2021, 7:48 pm
#1685
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 273
Has Etihad made changes to partner biz award availability? on EtihadGuest I see biz guest availability between yyz-auh (either direction) but AA US and AA Australia lines don't see it, and AirCanada only shows coach availability on the flight. EtihadGuest shows 2 biz guest seats for almost all dates
Apr 2, 2021, 8:23 pm
#1686
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: UA, QF, VS, AA, US, HH, SPG
Posts: 974
I have the same question except on another route - SYD<->AUH<->SEZ - Etihad and AC show availability in business and first but AA shows nothing not even Y. However AA is not blocking EY altogether as KUL<->AUH shows availability on EY, AC and AA. Very frustrating - because of this I just bought some AC points (100% bonus on offer) get get the EY flights I want.
Apr 2, 2021, 9:36 pm
#1688
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: UA, QF, VS, AA, US, HH, SPG
Posts: 974
No no!! - AC is showing availability on my desired route - would have preferred to use my AA points which are burning a hole in my pocket - very frustrated with AA and hoping the EY using AA issues are fixed/addressed.
Apr 3, 2021, 2:54 pm
#1690
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 273
In my case EtihadGuest shows biz availability but AA sees none when I call their US lines and Australia lines, and similarly AC shows only coach but not biz (I intend to use AA miles). As an added point of reference, searching via AC only shows biz availability until May 31st. Is it possible that EY has started reducing their window of opening Biz+ classes to partners?
Last edited by dlandz; Apr 3, 2021 at 3:01 pm Reason: new info
Apr 3, 2021, 3:22 pm
#1691
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,652
In my case EtihadGuest shows biz availability but AA sees none when I call their US lines and Australia lines, and similarly AC shows only coach but not biz (I intend to use AA miles). As an added point of reference, searching via AC only shows biz availability until May 31st. Is it possible that EY has started reducing their window of opening Biz+ classes to partners?
Jun 15, 2021, 10:39 pm
#1693
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Washington DC
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 66
Just a recent data point. I was searching for two business seats back to any US destination in January. Found two by looking for guest seat availability on Etihad’s website.
I tried AA Australia first but they could not see the seats. I called Singapore and they had them on hold in five minutes. I called the US number the next day and paid for them, ticketed by Etihad within 4 hours. A little extra work but the Singapore call was completely worth it.
I tried AA Australia first but they could not see the seats. I called Singapore and they had them on hold in five minutes. I called the US number the next day and paid for them, ticketed by Etihad within 4 hours. A little extra work but the Singapore call was completely worth it.
Aug 2, 2021, 4:38 pm
#1695
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Kansas City - MCI
Programs: AA Exec Plat, WN CP, Hilton GoId, IHG Spire, Hyatt Globalist, Citi, Barclay, Chase, Amex, CapOne
Posts: 257
Search interface looks totally different now. Has anyone had any success looking up guest seat availability since the change? I can't figure it out.