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)
Apr 23, 2018, 3:06 pm
#346
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
In my experience, the 10% rebate now happens pretty much instantaneously with the mileage deduction (upon ticketing). Back when the 10% rebate first started it would often take a month or two.
Apr 23, 2018, 3:12 pm
#347
Join Date: Jul 2004
Programs: Priority Club Platinum & Ambassdor, Hilton Honors Diamond, SPG Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 505
Another success to share with everyone!
Been a few posters that have had luck booking Etihad and just wanted to share my success. On Friday was feeling inspired so called US AA call center and asked about availability for 2 First Class seats from AUH-JFK in February 2019. The first day I asked about agent said she saw availability. Told her to put on hold while I figure out if I want to keep the ticket. Agent did ask me how many times had I called to find availability and I told her this was my first call, and she said someone must be looking out for you, so she seemed surprised to have seen inventory on the first day I asked for.
I called back 2 days later to finalized award, and added MLE-AUH in First and agent had no problem seeing availability and was able to add it to my hold ticket. I did inquire about a couple of other dates and agent wasn't able to see the MLE-AUH-JFK on First, so just stuck with my original ticket and now have 2 First Class seats booked from MLE-AUH-JFK in February 2019!
Been a few posters that have had luck booking Etihad and just wanted to share my success. On Friday was feeling inspired so called US AA call center and asked about availability for 2 First Class seats from AUH-JFK in February 2019. The first day I asked about agent said she saw availability. Told her to put on hold while I figure out if I want to keep the ticket. Agent did ask me how many times had I called to find availability and I told her this was my first call, and she said someone must be looking out for you, so she seemed surprised to have seen inventory on the first day I asked for.
I called back 2 days later to finalized award, and added MLE-AUH in First and agent had no problem seeing availability and was able to add it to my hold ticket. I did inquire about a couple of other dates and agent wasn't able to see the MLE-AUH-JFK on First, so just stuck with my original ticket and now have 2 First Class seats booked from MLE-AUH-JFK in February 2019!
Apr 23, 2018, 3:14 pm
#348
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
I have a lot of AA miles to use and I would like to experience the Etihad A380 First Class Apartment. But the thing, I just want to stop/make connection in Abu Dhabi airport as not to exit it. Any routes that I can use AA miles to redeem for F with Etihad by just making connection in Abu Dhabi onward to somewhere else? For example, New york - Abu (lay over) - Sydney something like that? It doesn't have to be these destinations.
I recommend going in January-March to enjoy the Australian summer.
Apr 23, 2018, 7:36 pm
#349
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Florida:)
Programs: AA, HH, SPG, UA
Posts: 269
Tried booking a SIN-LHR flight but the agent said Etihad flights were coming up as invalid and that it's possible it's not available for that routing. EY website shows availability for SIN-AUH-LHR. She did check a couple dates and same thing. Question is if the US agents don't see availability that's when you're calling other locations right? She just said it's invalid? On the other hand she did see availability on Qantas and it'll be a direct flight from SIN-LHR and I have on hold. So now I'm confused...shall I still try for EY or just stay with QF? My kids really enjoy EY, lol
Apr 23, 2018, 7:46 pm
#350
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,571
Tried booking a SIN-LHR flight but the agent said Etihad flights were coming up as invalid and that it's possible it's not available for that routing. EY website shows availability for SIN-AUH-LHR. She did check a couple dates and same thing. Question is if the US agents don't see availability that's when you're calling other locations right? She just said it's invalid? On the other hand she did see availability on Qantas and it'll be a direct flight from SIN-LHR and I have on hold. So now I'm confused...shall I still try for EY or just stay with QF? My kids really enjoy EY, lol
If you travel on Qantas non-stop to London it will be a single award
Cost would be 45k , 82.5k, 112k for Etihad vs 35k, 75k 90k for Qantas
Last edited by Dave Noble; Apr 23, 2018 at 7:55 pm
Apr 26, 2018, 12:39 pm
#351
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 34
JFK-AUH-DEL
Here's my recent, ultimately successful experience, in case it is helpful to anyone.
The EY website showed J availability JFK-AUH and AUH-DEL (though only when I searched for them as the return legs of round-trips). Agents in AU/NZ were either able to see the JFK-AUH space or the AUH-DEL space, but never both, so I reserved JFK-AUH in J and AUH-DEL in Y.
Afterward, I placed repeated calls to the US/AU/NZ/SG call centers to try to upgrade the second leg to J, and the pattern was always the same. If I provided my record locator first, the agents would see zero award seats; if I asked after AUH-DEL without mentioning my existing reservation, they would see available seats, but then these seats would disappear the moment they tried to add one to my reservation.
Next, I had the idea to add a connection in BAH, flying AUH-BAH in EY J and BAH-DEL in whatever was available, which happened to be only Y. I figured that way I would at least have Etihad lounge access during the layover. Unexpectedly, though, adding the Gulf Air flight seems to have broken the pattern. The next time I called in (to the US call center), I provided my record locator, asked about AUH-DEL on EY in J, and was told that it was available. It took a little while, but the agent was able to change the reservation to JFK-AUH-DEL all in J. The lesson, possibly, is that mixing other carriers into an award may allow agents access to award space that the system otherwise restricts or suppresses.
The EY website showed J availability JFK-AUH and AUH-DEL (though only when I searched for them as the return legs of round-trips). Agents in AU/NZ were either able to see the JFK-AUH space or the AUH-DEL space, but never both, so I reserved JFK-AUH in J and AUH-DEL in Y.
Afterward, I placed repeated calls to the US/AU/NZ/SG call centers to try to upgrade the second leg to J, and the pattern was always the same. If I provided my record locator first, the agents would see zero award seats; if I asked after AUH-DEL without mentioning my existing reservation, they would see available seats, but then these seats would disappear the moment they tried to add one to my reservation.
Next, I had the idea to add a connection in BAH, flying AUH-BAH in EY J and BAH-DEL in whatever was available, which happened to be only Y. I figured that way I would at least have Etihad lounge access during the layover. Unexpectedly, though, adding the Gulf Air flight seems to have broken the pattern. The next time I called in (to the US call center), I provided my record locator, asked about AUH-DEL on EY in J, and was told that it was available. It took a little while, but the agent was able to change the reservation to JFK-AUH-DEL all in J. The lesson, possibly, is that mixing other carriers into an award may allow agents access to award space that the system otherwise restricts or suppresses.
A call after an hour, couldn't change AUH-BAH-DEL in J to AUH-DEL in J. So may I ask when do you make your next call? Thanks!
Last edited by jjwang; Apr 26, 2018 at 2:11 pm
Apr 26, 2018, 1:50 pm
#353
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: MLB
Programs: DL DM/2.9M, AA EXP, *A Gold
Posts: 245
Can you elaborate?
Apr 26, 2018, 3:48 pm
#354
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 306
I had the same problem for JFK-AUH-DEL after multipul tries through different lines. So, I changed my "JFK-AUH in J and AUH-DEL in Y" to "JFK-AUH-BAH-DEL in J" now.
A call after an hour, couldn't change AUH-BAH-DEL in J to AUH-DEL in J. So may I ask when do you make your next call? Thanks!
A call after an hour, couldn't change AUH-BAH-DEL in J to AUH-DEL in J. So may I ask when do you make your next call? Thanks!
, so will check the next a few days.
Apr 26, 2018, 5:21 pm
#356
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
I have been operating for years under what may have been an incorrect assumption regarding the 10% rebate benefit: I always assumed that to get the 10K/yr on my account and on my wife's account the tickets needed to be booked as separate PNRs, with the 100K+ miles being taken separately from each account to effect the two separate bookings. Are you saying you booked 2 x 115K tickets from your account and this yielded a net 105K x 2 miles debited from your account? In my experience, this would be impossible, as the max rebated to your account is 10K per year. So either 115K or 230K miles spent would still only yield a rebate of 10K to your account, or a net 220K for both tickets, or 110K/ea.
Can you elaborate?
Can you elaborate?
Apr 28, 2018, 12:54 am
#357
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 27
Another success story!!!
After reading the previous posts of people being able to book Etihad using the US AA call center I decided to give it a try.
I am happy to say I now have a reservation on Etihad's first class apartments from AUH-JFK on March of next year. 2 Tickets for the Honeymoon!
Tips:
Since I speak Spanish I decided to call the Spanish-speaking call center directly. A wonderful lady in Mexico City picked up my call
I called on a Friday Night at 11:50pm (not sure if that makes a difference)
We looked at a couple of dates and she was seeing availability in all of them.
Happy booking!
After reading the previous posts of people being able to book Etihad using the US AA call center I decided to give it a try.
I am happy to say I now have a reservation on Etihad's first class apartments from AUH-JFK on March of next year. 2 Tickets for the Honeymoon!
Tips:
Since I speak Spanish I decided to call the Spanish-speaking call center directly. A wonderful lady in Mexico City picked up my call
I called on a Friday Night at 11:50pm (not sure if that makes a difference)
We looked at a couple of dates and she was seeing availability in all of them.
Happy booking!
Apr 28, 2018, 10:42 am
#358
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 14
Success:
Have finished booking, ticketed, and seat assignments for 2 MLE-AUH-JFK in First (O class) end of January 2019.
Thank you to all on this board for the wealth of info, tips shared, phone numbers recommended etc.
I will share a few bulleted items of thoughts and experience:
Given my small sample size/data set I recommend: US based agents can do business class fine (starting fresh without any existing record). For 1st class, just calling Trinidad. 2 calls and each time immediately they were able to see and select 1st class for us.
A possible warning: If you have a CC that gives you a rebated of miles (Aviator red card for instance), when I changed this booking the miles were redeposited, the rebate refunded, and then the miles were taken again. I am unsure if have since canceled your card if you would no longer get that rebate.
This completes our trip: 2 First class suites with Emirates on their A380 SFO-DXB-MLE, 15 nights Conrad Maldives, 2 First class/Apartments Etihad MLE-AUH-JFK. Will have to report back next year when we take it.
Thanks again to the collective wisdom and reports from everyone.
Have finished booking, ticketed, and seat assignments for 2 MLE-AUH-JFK in First (O class) end of January 2019.
Thank you to all on this board for the wealth of info, tips shared, phone numbers recommended etc.
I will share a few bulleted items of thoughts and experience:
- Snag business seats (Booking code I) first as they will be released before 1st class (booking code O). This was successfully done by US based American agents
- After watching things daily for a month, the pattern appears to be 331 for business, 318 for first.
- If all you want are business, even if you take the only 2 being shown, usually within days more will be released.
- For first availability, DO NOT rely on complete trip search. i.e., MLE-AUH-JFK if they span more than one day. Our flights from MLE on 1/30 connects to AUH-JFK on 1/31. A seach on expertflyer for MLE-JFK on EK booking code O would show 2 seats for both legs, the same search on etihadguest showed 2 seats available. However, if you searched segment by segement, only the MLE-AUH had seats, while the AUH-MLE segment was not yet released.
- It is possible to have a mixed class of service itinerary with etihad. US based agents told me it wasn't possible, but was successfully constructed by Trinidad agents and ticketed. This was done 12 hours prior to release of seats on AUH-JFK. We paid the extra miles to go from (I) to (O) and then had a ticket in (O) MLE-AUH and (I) AUH-JFK
- Midnight CST (had to stay up late yawning to see the repeatable behavior) I hit refresh on expertflyer and 2 seats in (O) were now there. A call to US agents resulted "I'm sorry we can't see anything" ... if this was simply because it was 12:01 and the system needed more time, or more like as per usual US agents are unable ... regardless no success with them
- Using google voice, called the trinidad number (country code 868 821-6000) at $0.14 per minute and navigate options of 1 for engligh, then I think option 2 for award questions, then option 1 for award redemptions - within one minute a representative was on the line. I said "I'm currently in business class and want to be moved to first class for a flight segment - I have my record locator number if I may give it to you please" Sure "xxxxxxxxxx, and I'm looking at Etihad flight 103 AUH-JFK, I see 2 seat in booking class O now available".
- A minute or two of anxiety while she inaudibly mutters to her self and then "I now have you in first class." She indicated that booking to a higher class of service waives award mile redeposit fees, (each call they redeposited then rewithdrew the miles), she indicated that I had already paid the 110,000 miles (1st class Indian subcontinent to AUH was 40k, 70k business onward) and that it was now 115,000 (1st class Indian subcontinent all the way to continental US)
- Went to bed and see within 1.5 hours emails came through showing ticketing
- Used iphone to go to mobile website to select adjoining 1st class apartments on AUH-JFK for my wife and I.
Given my small sample size/data set I recommend: US based agents can do business class fine (starting fresh without any existing record). For 1st class, just calling Trinidad. 2 calls and each time immediately they were able to see and select 1st class for us.
A possible warning: If you have a CC that gives you a rebated of miles (Aviator red card for instance), when I changed this booking the miles were redeposited, the rebate refunded, and then the miles were taken again. I am unsure if have since canceled your card if you would no longer get that rebate.
This completes our trip: 2 First class suites with Emirates on their A380 SFO-DXB-MLE, 15 nights Conrad Maldives, 2 First class/Apartments Etihad MLE-AUH-JFK. Will have to report back next year when we take it.
Thanks again to the collective wisdom and reports from everyone.
Thanks for sharing. How do you plan on getting back from jfk to sfo? Can you add jfk to sfo if award saver opens up AFTER ticketing? Does anyone know if this is the same case for upgrading a saver AA connecting?
Apr 28, 2018, 11:40 am
#359
Join Date: Apr 2014
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Spire Amb
Posts: 901
we could have used that Alaska ticket to get connecting flights from msp-xxx-sfo, but decided to take a direct flight on delta the night before and spend the night at sfo - waste of delta miles for 1st msp-sfo but they are there to be burned right?
Apr 28, 2018, 1:38 pm
#360
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 14
we are based in msp. I added on coach milessaver flights from jfk-dca-msp
we could have used that Alaska ticket to get connecting flights from msp-xxx-sfo, but decided to take a direct flight on delta the night before and spend the night at sfo - waste of delta miles for 1st msp-sfo but they are there to be burned right?