Jan 6, 2019, 2:14 pm
Last edit by: JDiver
ARCHIVE: 2017 HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion
The current thread can be read here.
The current thread can be read here.
Some of you might have found your thread merged into this "consolidated" thread. If your desire is to become thoroughly familiar with the knowledge that has been accumulated about the process for acquiring MileSAAver awards feel free to read this entire thread. If you only want the assistance from those who have the knowledge your request has been merged at the end. Feel free to wait for a forthcoming answer.
If you have reached this thread by using the search process you have the same choices as above. Read the thread and become knowledgeable or post at the end and wait for a forthcoming answer.
thanks
~magic111
If you have reached this thread by using the search process you have the same choices as above. Read the thread and become knowledgeable or post at the end and wait for a forthcoming answer.
thanks
~magic111
NOTE: for more detailed fare rules, see AA oneworld & Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (master thd)
Awards can generally be held for five days; five day extensions require continued availability of your flights and generating a new award booking and five day hold.
Though AA can start releasing awards 331 days from the desired flight date (even though some other airlines might make award seats available to their members 355 days out), it’s very likely award seats may be released a few days after that. If seats aren’t sold and Revenue Management algorithms signify slow sales, more seats might be released going forward.
Airlines that can be booked for award travel on aa.com
oneworld alliance airline partners other airline partners
oneworld alliance airline partners
- AA - American Airlines
- BA - British Airways (awards incur significant YQ surcharge)
- AY - Finnair
- IB - Iberia
- QF - Qantas
- QR - Qatar Airways
- RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines
- S7 - S7 Airlines
- UL - Sri Lankan Airlines
- 9K - Cape Air (but only certain cities)
- TN - Air Tahiti Nui
- AS - Alaska Airlines
- EY - Etihad
- HA - Hawaiian Airlines
All others must be requested by telephone; see Note below.
NOTE: To search for partner awards, go to advanced search from the awards search or home page and select all airlines.
Full list of oneworld airline partners (and their affiliates)
- AA - American Airlines
- BA - British Airways (Cityflyer, Comair, OpenSkies, Sun-Air of Scandinavia)
- CX - Cathay Pacific (Dragonair)
- AY -Finnair (Flybe)
- IB - Iberia (Air Nostrum, Iberia Express)
- JL - Japan Airlines (JAL Express, J-Air, Japan Transocean Air)
- LA- LAN Airlines (LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Express, LAN Colombia, LAN Peru only, merging with JJ to LATAM)
- MH - Malaysia Airlines
- QF - Qantas Airways (QantasLink, Jetconnect)
- QR - Qatar Airways
- RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines
- S7 - S7 Airlines (Globus) (excludes Siberia / far eastern Russia awards)
- UL - SriLankan Airlines
- JJ - TAM Airlines (merging with LA to LATAM)
When you do call, you might want to search for award space on the flights you want and tell the agent about those flights; sometimes AA agents won't find award seats unless they search by segment.
When using other airline web sites or tools to search for award availability, it’s best to do so by segment rather than by trip. E. g. BA May show availability SAN-LHR and LHR-AMS, but not SAN-AMS. And in some instances (EY, FJ, etc.) AA US may not see availability that AA Australia or New Zealand might see.
Full list of additional airline partners offering award redemptions
- TN - Air Tahiti Nui
- AS - Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
- 9K - Cape Air
- EY - Etihad Airways
- FJ - Fiji Airways
- GF - Gulf Air
- HA - Hawaiian Airlines
NOTE: Ticketing charge
Effective February 16, 2015, a Reservations Ticketing Service Charge of $30.00 for domestic itineraries and $40.00 for international itineraries will be applied by AA Reservations when ticketing award reservations that can be booked on aa.com. The charge is waived for award reservations that cannot be booked on aa.com including reduced mileage awards, and for Executive Platinums. N.B. Executive Platinums booking award for non-EP will pay the service charges.
Code:
oneworld Partners Award Fare Codes First-Business-Economy -------------------------------------------------------- AA - American Airlines Z U T -------------------------------------------------------- AY – Finnair U X -------------------------------------------------------- BA – British Airways Z U X -------------------------------------------------------- CX – Cathay Pacific Z U T KA - DragonAir -------------------------------------------------------- IB – Iberia U X -------------------------------------------------------- JL – Japan Airlines (Intl) Z U T JL – Japan Airlines (Dom) Z D S -------------------------------------------------------- LATAM Group JJ - TAM Airlines O I X LA – LAN Chile Z U T XL - LAN Ecuador LP - LAN Peru 4M - LAN Argentina -------------------------------------------------------- MH - Malaysia Airlines P U X -------------------------------------------------------- QF - QANTAS Airways P U X -------------------------------------------------------- QR - Qatar Airways Z U X -------------------------------------------------------- RJ – Royal Jordanian U X -------------------------------------------------------- S7 – S7 Airlines U E -------------------------------------------------------- UL - SriLankan Airlines -------------------------------------------------------- Other Partners First Business Economy -------------------------------------------------------- FJ – Fiji Airways U X -------------------------------------------------------- TN – Air Tahiti Nui F for Business U for Economy -------------------------------------------------------- AS – Alaska Airlines A W -------------------------------------------------------- LY – El Al Israel P X E -------------------------------------------------------- EY - Etihad O I N -------------------------------------------------------- HA – Hawaiian Airlines D T --------------------------------------------------------
Other rules that may affect your awards:
Award Rules
American Airlines Awards are valid for travel on flights that are marketed and operated by AA (no codeshares). These awards can be booked online at AA.com.
oneworld and Other Airline awards are valid for travel on AA and any of its partner airlines, and can include travel on multiple partners. Many of these awards must be booked over the phone, and will not incur a Ticketing Service Charge (waived for EXPs in any case) if they cannot be booked online.
Up to four one-way awards can be booked on a single PNR. Codeshares are not bookable as Awards.
MPM or Maximum Permitted Miles: A Fare or award may not exceed the most direct routing by more than 25% (unless the fare routing includes a ticketed point deduction (essentially a miles allowance that extends MPM). See MPM / Maximum Permitted Mileage & Ticketed Point Deductions (merged threads).
Stopovers and Connections
Stopovers are no longer allowed on AA awards. Stopovers will require multiple awards.
Connections are limited to two connections / three flight segments for domestic awards, and three connections / four flight segments for international awards as of Aug 2017. Link
Domestic Connections must be under 4 hours for domestic flights, with some exceptions: "LIFO" (Last In - First Out connections are generally allowed.
Hawaii itinerary: Effective on 14 Jul 2014 on an all-AA-metal award itinerary, you now have up to 18 hours to connect when traveling to/from Hawaii. NOTE: Hawaii interisland connections must be separate awards and can not be included as part of a mainland-island award.
International Connections must generally not exceed 23:59 hours. Some leeway has occasionally been granted when connecting flights are not daily. If the itinerary includes an international flight, the rules for international connections apply. Link to these courtesy of JonNYC.
If there is a non-stop flight that departs after the 4h / 23h59m windows and arrives at the destination earlier than a connecting flight within the 4h / 23h59m window, the passenger may be booked on the non-stop flight. It may be difficult getting some agents to book this.
"Most Significant Carrier" rule: To price as a single award, AAdvantage requires the most significant carrier to publish a cash fare (non-constructed) between the origin and destination. Airline MSC (e.g. DFW-SFO-HKG-BKK, CX SFO-HKG is the prevailing or most significant carrier) would have to have a published fare from XXX to YYY that allows travel on all included airlines, and routing that you want. If the MSC only offers constructed fares between your desired origin and destination, AA will price this as two awards.
Constructed fares: Another rule disallows awards where the fare must be constructed (also referred to as "YY"): Using a partner, the trip will require two awards if the governing carrier (e,g. airline operating on the major route, such as transpacific carrier) doesn't publish a through fare that includes the award's proposed origin and destination that allows the carriers proposed.
See this thread about examples using TN.
Married Segment Logic - a prospective trip may be available when searching segment by segment, yet not be bookable through from origin to destination. When selling seats for through flights and the desired inventory is not available, you cannot opt to sell the flight point-to-point. If sold point-to-point, the error response MULTIPLE SEGMENTS FOR SAME FLIGHT - SELL AS ONE SEGMENT will be received, indicating this booking is not allowed. Overriding the error check by ending the PNR twice is not acceptable.
See Award with available segments not bookable? (Married Segment issues)
Award Rules
American Airlines Awards are valid for travel on flights that are marketed and operated by AA (no codeshares). These awards can be booked online at AA.com.
oneworld and Other Airline awards are valid for travel on AA and any of its partner airlines, and can include travel on multiple partners. Many of these awards must be booked over the phone, and will not incur a Ticketing Service Charge (waived for EXPs in any case) if they cannot be booked online.
Up to four one-way awards can be booked on a single PNR. Codeshares are not bookable as Awards.
MPM or Maximum Permitted Miles: A Fare or award may not exceed the most direct routing by more than 25% (unless the fare routing includes a ticketed point deduction (essentially a miles allowance that extends MPM). See MPM / Maximum Permitted Mileage & Ticketed Point Deductions (merged threads).
Stopovers and Connections
Stopovers are no longer allowed on AA awards. Stopovers will require multiple awards.
Connections are limited to two connections / three flight segments for domestic awards, and three connections / four flight segments for international awards as of Aug 2017. Link
Domestic Connections must be under 4 hours for domestic flights, with some exceptions: "LIFO" (Last In - First Out connections are generally allowed.
Hawaii itinerary: Effective on 14 Jul 2014 on an all-AA-metal award itinerary, you now have up to 18 hours to connect when traveling to/from Hawaii. NOTE: Hawaii interisland connections must be separate awards and can not be included as part of a mainland-island award.
International Connections must generally not exceed 23:59 hours. Some leeway has occasionally been granted when connecting flights are not daily. If the itinerary includes an international flight, the rules for international connections apply. Link to these courtesy of JonNYC.
If there is a non-stop flight that departs after the 4h / 23h59m windows and arrives at the destination earlier than a connecting flight within the 4h / 23h59m window, the passenger may be booked on the non-stop flight. It may be difficult getting some agents to book this.
"Most Significant Carrier" rule: To price as a single award, AAdvantage requires the most significant carrier to publish a cash fare (non-constructed) between the origin and destination. Airline MSC (e.g. DFW-SFO-HKG-BKK, CX SFO-HKG is the prevailing or most significant carrier) would have to have a published fare from XXX to YYY that allows travel on all included airlines, and routing that you want. If the MSC only offers constructed fares between your desired origin and destination, AA will price this as two awards.
Constructed fares: Another rule disallows awards where the fare must be constructed (also referred to as "YY"): Using a partner, the trip will require two awards if the governing carrier (e,g. airline operating on the major route, such as transpacific carrier) doesn't publish a through fare that includes the award's proposed origin and destination that allows the carriers proposed.
See this thread about examples using TN.
Married Segment Logic - a prospective trip may be available when searching segment by segment, yet not be bookable through from origin to destination. When selling seats for through flights and the desired inventory is not available, you cannot opt to sell the flight point-to-point. If sold point-to-point, the error response MULTIPLE SEGMENTS FOR SAME FLIGHT - SELL AS ONE SEGMENT will be received, indicating this booking is not allowed. Overriding the error check by ending the PNR twice is not acceptable.
See Award with available segments not bookable? (Married Segment issues)
Resources
Some airlines or areas have different, extra or special characteristics for securing awards. See
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results (abbreviated results for front page search vs. Advanced award search)
AAdvantage awards to / from Australia, New Zealand link
AAdvantage awards to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador link
AAdvantage awards on Air Tahiti Nui link
AAdvantage awards using British Airways incurring (avoiding) high fees link
AAdvantage award on Cathay Pacific (and Cathay Dragon) link
AAdvantage awards using Etihad Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Fiji Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Japan Airlines link
AAdvantage awards using Qantas Airways link
AAdvantage awards on S7 (Siberian) Airlines link
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results (abbreviated results for front page search vs. Advanced award search)
AAdvantage awards to / from Australia, New Zealand link
AAdvantage awards to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador link
AAdvantage awards on Air Tahiti Nui link
AAdvantage awards using British Airways incurring (avoiding) high fees link
AAdvantage award on Cathay Pacific (and Cathay Dragon) link
AAdvantage awards using Etihad Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Fiji Airways link
AAdvantage awards using Japan Airlines link
AAdvantage awards using Qantas Airways link
AAdvantage awards on S7 (Siberian) Airlines link
Awards assistance tools: Use at your own risk; may not be up to date. These are not recommendations.
- Check this oneworld interactive map and timetable by Innosked to see potential routes.
- British Airways Executive Club: You can sign up for British Airways Executive Club, Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank or Qantas Frequent Flyer to use their sites to find awards (look for the lowest level awards) you can't see on aa.com. BA in particular is prone to show "phantom" availability.
- Award booking services - list and reviews (FT thread)
- Award Nexus: It's easy to do your experiments for some free browsing (click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up with your FlyerTalk login info). You might want to run each segment rather than origin to destination.
...Award Nexus is free (up to a point) for FlyerTalk users. Click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button to sign up for free as a FlyerTalk member.
What I like about Award Nexus is it has a much nicer user interface than BA and lets you choose whether to search through BA and/or QF, and as you can see each of those may give somewhat different results.
The "cost" to do all these searches once was a total of 12 points, and you get 200 points free when you signup, and then every 90 days you can reload 100 more points for free (once you're below 10 points). So that gives an idea of how many searches could do free...
- AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds
- AwardHacker: "a tool we build to tell you how to travel with the least miles"
- Award Nexus: which can search availability but can't determine cost, with FT member free limited use
- Economical Excursionist's Tools: compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions
- ExpertFlyer is a common tool used on FT. There is a $99.99 annual fee, monthly fee and five day trial
- Great Circle Mapper is useful for calculating distance and MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage)
- You can try PEX+ (currently in beta), which will even tell you how many miles you'll need, though it draws data from aa.com and S7 so it can't reveal awards that can not be seen on those sites.
- Travel Codex Award Maximiser commercial blog
Also see:
aa.com Basic (front page) vs Advanced Award Search Results
Phantom / false AA award availability with AA partners (consolidated)
oneworld and Other Airline (Partner) Awards info, rules 2014 on
Help with British Airways / BA surcharge / YQ (AA award on BA, consolidated) (Awards using BA incur significant "YQ" surcharges.)
UK APD / Air Passenger Duty charged for UK departures[/quote] (Flights originating in the UK other than INV or BFS - or connections 24:00 or over - incur UK Air Passenger Duty excise taxes.)
MileSAAver / SAAver award reduction / scarcity >= Aug 2011 onward (consolidated)
Older posts from 2017 have been archived to: this archive thread
Older posts from 2016 have been archived to: this archive thread
Older posts through 2015 have been archived to: this archive thread
ARCHIVE: 2017 HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance
Jan 26, 2017, 9:56 am
#166
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: OKC
Programs: AAdvantage EXP, Marriott Rewards Gold, Hilton Honors Diamond, TK M&S Elite
Posts: 290
Just throwing it out there: I just saw SAAver availability LAX-SYD in business and first in February and March. Too short notice for most people (including myself) but still a chance to go in their summer.
Jan 26, 2017, 11:56 am
#167
Join Date: Apr 2011
Programs: AAdvantage (Platinum)
Posts: 470
Most people would throw it back. You've got to look at the actual flight options (or choose the non-stop option) to see that almost all of them (for both biz and first awards) are merely domestic first to SFO and then econ to SYD. People have been getting duped by this for a few months now.
Jan 27, 2017, 1:11 pm
#168
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,435
Flight changes after booking with Aawards
Follow up to my post 1592 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27812286-post1592.html
I just got an email from AA about my J Saaver upcoming trip with some flight changes. The biggest change is that my first flight leaves 20 minutes earlier. If only it were an hour or more!! Then I could have asked them to re-schedule me on one of the better options like LAX-PHL-DUB rather than the extra-segment-in-coach LAX-ORD-LHR-DUB.
I just got an email from AA about my J Saaver upcoming trip with some flight changes. The biggest change is that my first flight leaves 20 minutes earlier. If only it were an hour or more!! Then I could have asked them to re-schedule me on one of the better options like LAX-PHL-DUB rather than the extra-segment-in-coach LAX-ORD-LHR-DUB.
Jan 30, 2017, 4:36 am
#169
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: PHX & AGP
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,453
Most people would throw it back. You've got to look at the actual flight options (or choose the non-stop option) to see that almost all of them (for both biz and first awards) are merely domestic first to SFO and then econ to SYD. People have been getting duped by this for a few months now.
Jan 31, 2017, 12:42 pm
#170
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 8
Mixing Other Airline Award with AA Flights
I'm looking at booking an award ticket in business from DFW to SYD. I've found availability on QF8 and QF7 for the return. I'm trying to find a flight from CLL to DFW. Since there is no first class on this flight, do I need to make sure there is availability in Economy milesAAver will Economy AAnytime work?
Jan 31, 2017, 1:00 pm
#171
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,584
I'm looking at booking an award ticket in business from DFW to SYD. I've found availability on QF8 and QF7 for the return. I'm trying to find a flight from CLL to DFW. Since there is no first class on this flight, do I need to make sure there is availability in Economy milesAAver will Economy AAnytime work?
Jan 31, 2017, 3:06 pm
#173
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
I'm looking at booking an award ticket in business from DFW to SYD. I've found availability on QF8 and QF7 for the return. I'm trying to find a flight from CLL to DFW. Since there is no first class on this flight, do I need to make sure there is availability in Economy milesAAver will Economy AAnytime work?
Please see the Wikipost at the top of the page in this MileSAAver thread, where we have merged your query.
/Moderator
Feb 1, 2017, 7:33 am
#174
Join Date: Aug 2010
Programs: AA 1.6MM EXP; UA GS; SPG LTG,Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,477
I'm looking at booking an award ticket in business from DFW to SYD. I've found availability on QF8 and QF7 for the return. I'm trying to find a flight from CLL to DFW. Since there is no first class on this flight, do I need to make sure there is availability in Economy milesAAver will Economy AAnytime work?
Feb 1, 2017, 11:22 pm
#175
Join Date: Feb 2009
Programs: EK Platinum, Iberia Plata, SPG Gold
Posts: 55
If you're willing to pay the ripoff BA fuel surcharges then grabbing BA awards in F is usually a pretty easy task 
.
To answer your questions, AA could release additional sAAver F space for your LGA-BOS flight at any point up until the flight, there's really not a pattern. The only thing you can do is monitor EF (or aa.com), and if/when the space opens up, give AA a call to switch. There's no automatic waitlist for this, nor is there any type of airport waitlist or anything else you can do there.
However, you can still use the priority check-in at LGA as well as the Admirals Clubs, but boarding will based on your coach seat for that segment.
Is your award already ticketed? If you book JFK-BOS-LHR-GIB instead, and later space were to open up on one of the many BA JFK-LHR nonstops (highly likely), you could switch for no fee. And if you're really worried about not getting F on that first segment, there's also availability now all in F for LGA-ATL-LHR-GIB.
.To answer your questions, AA could release additional sAAver F space for your LGA-BOS flight at any point up until the flight, there's really not a pattern. The only thing you can do is monitor EF (or aa.com), and if/when the space opens up, give AA a call to switch. There's no automatic waitlist for this, nor is there any type of airport waitlist or anything else you can do there.
However, you can still use the priority check-in at LGA as well as the Admirals Clubs, but boarding will based on your coach seat for that segment.
Is your award already ticketed? If you book JFK-BOS-LHR-GIB instead, and later space were to open up on one of the many BA JFK-LHR nonstops (highly likely), you could switch for no fee. And if you're really worried about not getting F on that first segment, there's also availability now all in F for LGA-ATL-LHR-GIB.
- would check in at JFK be in the Flagship area? Given my international FC award booking?
- more importantly, flight is still wide open as per EF and aa.com seat map...assuming nothing opens up by the time I get to the airport, will they be able to change me to FC for that segment? Not as an upgrade but rather by rebooking me on the class I "paid" for? Or will they say that that is up to Advantage? And even though they still have empty seats in FC, since their actual inventory has not been released, they cant help? Or put another way, will they let seats go empty given the type of award I have?
- and finally, would I have any 'pirority' at the airport to grab one of those seats? Assuming they would release them to me? Or are elite upgrades first?
Thanks again for your help!
Feb 2, 2017, 7:43 am
#176
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,470
- would check in at JFK be in the Flagship area? Given my international FC award booking?
- more importantly, flight is still wide open as per EF and aa.com seat map...assuming nothing opens up by the time I get to the airport, will they be able to change me to FC for that segment? Not as an upgrade but rather by rebooking me on the class I "paid" for? Or will they say that that is up to Advantage? And even though they still have empty seats in FC, since their actual inventory has not been released, they cant help? Or put another way, will they let seats go empty given the type of award I have?
- and finally, would I have any 'pirority' at the airport to grab one of those seats? Assuming they would release them to me? Or are elite upgrades first?
- more importantly, flight is still wide open as per EF and aa.com seat map...assuming nothing opens up by the time I get to the airport, will they be able to change me to FC for that segment? Not as an upgrade but rather by rebooking me on the class I "paid" for? Or will they say that that is up to Advantage? And even though they still have empty seats in FC, since their actual inventory has not been released, they cant help? Or put another way, will they let seats go empty given the type of award I have?
- and finally, would I have any 'pirority' at the airport to grab one of those seats? Assuming they would release them to me? Or are elite upgrades first?
Feb 3, 2017, 3:50 pm
#177
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: ADL
Programs: QFF, AAdvantage, All
Posts: 1,137
Any reason why I can never find Air Berlin business class availability for German domestic travel?
Feb 3, 2017, 8:57 pm
#178
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 4
Thailand (MileSAAver award seats to Thailand - to merge)
Hey guys, I'm planning a trip to Thailand in November. I'm unable to find ANY open seats in any saver class for the return trip. Can anyone help me out or give me some advice on a way to find it? I'm open to any flights departing anywhere in thailand and arriving in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, or basically anywhere else in central United States.
Ideally it would be for November 16,17, or 18.
Ideally it would be for November 16,17, or 18.
Feb 3, 2017, 9:12 pm
#179
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
How are you searching for award seats? AAdvantage partners Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific don't appear at aa.com.