goodo

I tried to redeem some miles on AA.com and was wondering if their foreign credit card issues are new? I know you've always needed a credit card in the name of the passenger but what I went through was ridiculous. Found some availability in QF Business and tried to immediately book it. Aa.com, login got through to payment stage and tried to change the CC billing address.

Oh you want to use an australian credit card? You must start your search again at americanairlines.com.au . Which i did. But as soon as i tick the box that i want to redeem miles, it takes me to the AA.com website where the same issue occurs again.

Of course I freaked out because then availability had dissappeared. Who knew if it would appear again when my original booking goes nowhere...

Called AA, they couldn't see any availability. In the end I ended up placing it on hold on AA.com, then called AA and paid with an Australian credit card but gave them a US address and it went through. What on earth?!?

goodo

ckx2

I hear you. Unfortunately AA has decided to be pathetic from the beginning of this year and will not allow transaction with foreign credit cards on aa.com

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...od-aa-com.html

goodo

That's madness. I would gladly use the AU website with my AU credit card but as soon as I say I want to redeem miles it takes me to the US page.

What on earth were they thinking...

goodo

haa

What worked for me (based in Finland with Finnish CC), was to

1. Starting on local web page, americanairlines.fi, did the award reservation and put it on "hold" (as it is not possible to change the CC location on that page as we all know), and then
2. On the very next page "your flight is now on hold", clicked the "purchase" button, which showed the correct local CC location and the payment went thru, and after about 30 minutes the flights were ticketed.

I was expecting to have to phone in and HUCA until someone would take my CC, as others have reported.

This was my experience, in case it might help others and this seems the newest thread on this topic at FT. I did not see this method mentioned anywhere when googling for possible solutions.

ckx2

I've reported this issue about three times now. Finally got someone to call me from what appears to tech department management. She apologized and for the first time actually acknowledged the issue. AA has changed their backend payment provider for credit cards in January 2017. Unfortunately this created a loophole for those, who do not own a US issued credit card and/or do not have a local American Airlines website. AA is aware of this but frankly has no current scheduled (probably due this being a corner case) plan to address this, as its technically not their IT system.

I've once more received a more than generous amount of RDM as "compensation", although I've told her that his wouldn't be necessary as that is not what I'm after. And she even had to agree that it is quite ironic to provide me with RDM that I cannot redeem on aa.com due the issue existing in the first place

Duben

I have made travel arrangement on aa.com (Germany). The requsted award ticket VIE-MLE (on Qatar) is on HOLD. I am from Slovakia (Europe region) and can not to use foreign credit card on aa.com for taxes and fees. AA.com does not accept foreign issued CC (Slovak) for taxes on award booking. When I use my CC (Euro) I got an error message.
How I would continue.
Thanks for your helping

Djokison

Duben

The problem is solved. I have used US code.

mrkymark

This is an old thread but wanted to share my experience.

Here are the rules for complicated bookings that involve different region credit cards and paying for a miles ticket:
- the credit card you are using must be in the name of the AAdvantage accountholder
- the reservation on hold must be quoted to you in the currency of the credit card you intend to pay with. If you need to pay with a German credit card, you need to find a way to log on to AA.com Germany and hold the reservation and get it to quote you in not only Euros - but based in Germany. This is easier said than done because if you log in with your US based account on German AA.com, it will still book and quote you in US dollars. So you can either login and book/hold with a German friend's AA.com account or just create a dummy AA account, German based solely to accomplish this task.
- I am aware that at the checkout page there is an option "to change the region of payment" but sorry folks, it doesn't work, that's why I created this workaround.

The reason this is complicated is:
- AA website is inflexible - the held reservation must be established and price quoted in the region where you made it. AA Germany, AA Canada
- but in order to hold a ressie in AA Canada, you have to have a AAdvantage account based in AA Canada (my AAdvantage is USA) So in order to circumvent this - you create a dummy account as above, or I guess you could change your account region to Canada - but that sounds more complicated and problematic.
- once a held reservation is booked, the ressie is tagged ie Germany, Euros; Canada, CDollar, etc
- so then to pay for it at the payment page, you are locked into Germany or Canada etc and there is no way to change this (and the option AA.com gives you doesn't work)

I understand that explaining this is kinda muddy so if any one needs advice, please message me.

Sincci

Apologies for bumping this old thread, but is there currently any way for a European like me to redeem miles with non-US credit card? It's been a while since I last redeemed any awards with AA and I was really surprised that there's no way to change my region to my country (Finland) to pay for my flights (which would be $0 for my flights in Japan). The site said that I would have to use americanairlines.fi to book instead, but since redeeming miles always just redirects back to aa.com, it's literally impossible. The workaround that user haa proposed doesn't seem to work either anymore, so I'm just wondering about my other options..

QPProletarian

Yeah I have to either use a US hotel for it, but the best way seems to be to put booking on hold, then come back and try and ticket.

QPProletarian

Either call up or pay in USD via AA.com and take the FX hit.