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
Feb 17, 2017, 5:06 am
#211
Join Date: Aug 2007
Programs: AA Gold, 1MM, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Gold, EI Concierge
Posts: 307
Advice on multi stop flight
I wonder if you experts could help me. I am planning a trip for next year with my SO looking to visit South America. I am based in Dublin and would look at an itinerary like this....booked on miles.
DUB - Rio
Rio to Buenos Aires
Internal flight to Iguasu falls
Onwards to Lima
Lima to Havana
Havana to Cancun?
Back home to Dublin
Is there a special type of award ticket for a trip like this or would I have to book individual trips ?
I'd like to book business class on the long hauls but am happy with economy on the shorter trips. I have about 500K miles in the bank.
Would I be better starting from Madrid on Iberia ?
Any help or guidance appreciated....
DUB - Rio
Rio to Buenos Aires
Internal flight to Iguasu falls
Onwards to Lima
Lima to Havana
Havana to Cancun?
Back home to Dublin
Is there a special type of award ticket for a trip like this or would I have to book individual trips ?
I'd like to book business class on the long hauls but am happy with economy on the shorter trips. I have about 500K miles in the bank.
Would I be better starting from Madrid on Iberia ?
Any help or guidance appreciated....
Feb 17, 2017, 9:10 am
#212
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2001
Programs: DL 1 million, AA 1 mil, HH lapsed Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 28,190
If you're redeeming AA miles it's an award from each origin to stopover. RTW tickets, and multi-destination tickets that allowed 12-16K miles, or 16-20K miles (etc.) have been gone for a few years. With enough segments you'll have multiple tickets but they can be on a single PNR.
Feb 17, 2017, 9:23 am
#213
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,675
Also, you can build in layovers of up to 23 hours 59 minutes on a single award, subject to routing and maximum-mileage restrictions, in case you want to spend a single day in any given place without paying extra miles.
For example, I had something like
RGN-HKG-TPE-NRT-SFO-JFK/LGA-DCA
where I spent one night in each of Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, San Fran, and New York, all a single one-way Asia2-US award, for the same price as RGN-DCA.
For example, I had something like
RGN-HKG-TPE-NRT-SFO-JFK/LGA-DCA
where I spent one night in each of Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, San Fran, and New York, all a single one-way Asia2-US award, for the same price as RGN-DCA.
Feb 17, 2017, 9:37 am
#214
Join Date: Mar 2003
Programs: BA GGL; AA LT Gold; AS 100K; DL MM GM; Hyatt G*list, Hilton Diamond; SQ silver
Posts: 3,806
Are you looking at using AA miles for everything? Do you have other mileage currency as well like BA Avios? Are you looking at flying in economy or premium classes?
Feb 17, 2017, 9:57 am
#215
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: TPA
Programs: BA Silver; Hilton Gold; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,814
I wonder if you experts could help me. I am planning a trip for next year with my SO looking to visit South America. I am based in Dublin and would look at an itinerary like this....booked on miles.
DUB - Rio
Rio to Buenos Aires
Internal flight to Iguasu falls
Onwards to Lima
Lima to Havana
Havana to Cancun?
Back home to Dublin
Is there a special type of award ticket for a trip like this or would I have to book individual trips ?
I'd like to book business class on the long hauls but am happy with economy on the shorter trips. I have about 500K miles in the bank.
Would I be better starting from Madrid on Iberia ?
Any help or guidance appreciated....
DUB - Rio
Rio to Buenos Aires
Internal flight to Iguasu falls
Onwards to Lima
Lima to Havana
Havana to Cancun?
Back home to Dublin
Is there a special type of award ticket for a trip like this or would I have to book individual trips ?
I'd like to book business class on the long hauls but am happy with economy on the shorter trips. I have about 500K miles in the bank.
Would I be better starting from Madrid on Iberia ?
Any help or guidance appreciated....
I think you may find it less painful if you change Rio - BA - Falls - Lima to:
Rio - Iguasu Falls (probably the Brazilian side: IGU)
Iguasu Falls - Buenos Aires (probably the Argentinian side: IGR)
Buenos Aires - Lima
Feb 17, 2017, 10:37 am
#216
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,606
For the shorter legs, BA Avios are likely to provide much better value than AA miles.
Feb 17, 2017, 11:34 am
#217
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Long Beach, CA
Programs: AA PLTPRO, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,559
I can't speak to the award question, but concerning the itinerary:
I think you may find it less painful if you change Rio - BA - Falls - Lima to:
Rio - Iguasu Falls (probably the Brazilian side: IGU)
Iguasu Falls - Buenos Aires (probably the Argentinian side: IGR)
Buenos Aires - Lima
I think you may find it less painful if you change Rio - BA - Falls - Lima to:
Rio - Iguasu Falls (probably the Brazilian side: IGU)
Iguasu Falls - Buenos Aires (probably the Argentinian side: IGR)
Buenos Aires - Lima
Feb 25, 2017, 6:45 pm
#218
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
AA Mile redemption to Europe
HI,
I'd like to fly COACH to Europe.
Preferably from Seattle to Prague or Munich or Berlin.
APril 19th-May 10 but extrermely flexible on dates and destination but DO NOT want to pay high fuel surcharges. Last year I paid only $101.00 RT to Europe on United using miles.
Two years ago I flew on AA to Dublin (22k FFmiles) $5.00 total in taxes!!!
two years ago with US AIrways merger with AA, Europe was wide open on award travel in coach.
AA changed off season low fares to 30k FF miles Mar 15-Oct15 but that is ok.
Problem EVERY flight option I pick for 30k miles Seattle-Europe flies me British Airways which results in $450.00 ro mroe in fuel surcharge fees.
AA seems to have elimianted flying into teh hubs or PHIL, DF, Charlotte to allow direct AA flights.
Does anyone know wany options?
I'd like to fly COACH to Europe.
Preferably from Seattle to Prague or Munich or Berlin.
APril 19th-May 10 but extrermely flexible on dates and destination but DO NOT want to pay high fuel surcharges. Last year I paid only $101.00 RT to Europe on United using miles.
Two years ago I flew on AA to Dublin (22k FFmiles) $5.00 total in taxes!!!
two years ago with US AIrways merger with AA, Europe was wide open on award travel in coach.
AA changed off season low fares to 30k FF miles Mar 15-Oct15 but that is ok.
Problem EVERY flight option I pick for 30k miles Seattle-Europe flies me British Airways which results in $450.00 ro mroe in fuel surcharge fees.
AA seems to have elimianted flying into teh hubs or PHIL, DF, Charlotte to allow direct AA flights.
Does anyone know wany options?
Feb 25, 2017, 7:26 pm
#219
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: DC
Programs: Airline Programs
Posts: 443
not aa
Different option:
Paid coach on AC/LH is $440 r/t for your listed dates. One stop in YYZ/YVR.
the 50-60k AA miles are worth more than $440 IMO.
https://www.google.com/flights/?gl=u...-YVRSEA0AC8101
Paid coach on AC/LH is $440 r/t for your listed dates. One stop in YYZ/YVR.
the 50-60k AA miles are worth more than $440 IMO.
https://www.google.com/flights/?gl=u...-YVRSEA0AC8101
Feb 25, 2017, 8:54 pm
#220
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
YEs - Problem is any AA award that routes via British Airways through London gets hit with fuel surcharges which makes award travel non-value added.
I will check Air Berlin as they are a partner to AA flying to Europe.....and if AA doesn't have availability....I should get an option to fly a different partner versus stuck with BA.
I will check Air Berlin as they are a partner to AA flying to Europe.....and if AA doesn't have availability....I should get an option to fly a different partner versus stuck with BA.
Different option:
Paid coach on AC/LH is $440 r/t for your listed dates. One stop in YYZ/YVR.
the 50-60k AA miles are worth more than $440 IMO.
YEs - Problem is any AA AWA
https://www.google.com/flights/?gl=u...-YVRSEA0AC8101
Paid coach on AC/LH is $440 r/t for your listed dates. One stop in YYZ/YVR.
the 50-60k AA miles are worth more than $440 IMO.
YEs - Problem is any AA AWA
https://www.google.com/flights/?gl=u...-YVRSEA0AC8101
Feb 25, 2017, 8:58 pm
#221
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
HI,
I'd like to fly COACH to Europe.
Preferably from Seattle to Prague or Munich or Berlin.
APril 19th-May 10 but extrermely flexible on dates and destination but DO NOT want to pay high fuel surcharges. Last year I paid only $101.00 RT to Europe on United using miles.
Two years ago I flew on AA to Dublin (22k FFmiles) $5.00 total in taxes!!!
two years ago with US AIrways merger with AA, Europe was wide open on award travel in coach.
AA changed off season low fares to 30k FF miles Mar 15-Oct15 but that is ok.
Problem EVERY flight option I pick for 30k miles Seattle-Europe flies me British Airways which results in $450.00 ro mroe in fuel surcharge fees.
AA seems to have elimianted flying into teh hubs or PHIL, DF, Charlotte to allow direct AA flights.
Does anyone know wany options?
I'd like to fly COACH to Europe.
Preferably from Seattle to Prague or Munich or Berlin.
APril 19th-May 10 but extrermely flexible on dates and destination but DO NOT want to pay high fuel surcharges. Last year I paid only $101.00 RT to Europe on United using miles.
Two years ago I flew on AA to Dublin (22k FFmiles) $5.00 total in taxes!!!
two years ago with US AIrways merger with AA, Europe was wide open on award travel in coach.
AA changed off season low fares to 30k FF miles Mar 15-Oct15 but that is ok.
Problem EVERY flight option I pick for 30k miles Seattle-Europe flies me British Airways which results in $450.00 ro mroe in fuel surcharge fees.
AA seems to have elimianted flying into teh hubs or PHIL, DF, Charlotte to allow direct AA flights.
Does anyone know wany options?
Feb 26, 2017, 4:03 pm
#222
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
Seems you answer a different topic than identifying routing options with AA awards.
Don't see value in responding to generic posts.....clutter people who want to share options that work. Like go to BA.com and find partners then AA might match. but you offer nothing.
Feb 26, 2017, 4:04 pm
#223
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
AA Awards
Guess this blog just isn't aware of recent changes within AA as last year Sea-Europe was wide open 2 months before booking. SInce all that is available is BA this ADDS an additional $460.00 in fuel surcharges to 60K econ level award ticket. Not worth it!
Seems you answer a different topic than identifying routing options with AA awards.
Feb 26, 2017, 4:18 pm
#225
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Seattle, WA. USA
Programs: MR, AA, UA, DL, AVIS and growing
Posts: 1,172
We've been trying to book Biz Class tickets from LAX to Rome in October or November 2016. We made the same trip a few years ago, and there were plenty of flights on AA, with one connection at LHR, when using 50K miles each way for Award travel. That was perfect.
This time around, almost all the flights are two or more stops on AA. We can get one stop only if we fly BA, which we don't want to do because of the $1,000 fee.
In addition, even if we fly AA, the red warnings are appearing that say "your requested cabin is not available for one or more flights." Meaning, we'd have to fly coach to London, and then get Biz from LHR to Rome. Uh, no thanks.
Our dates are very flexible from mid-October to mid-November.
Are there any tips or tricks I'm missing?
This time around, almost all the flights are two or more stops on AA. We can get one stop only if we fly BA, which we don't want to do because of the $1,000 fee.
In addition, even if we fly AA, the red warnings are appearing that say "your requested cabin is not available for one or more flights." Meaning, we'd have to fly coach to London, and then get Biz from LHR to Rome. Uh, no thanks.
Our dates are very flexible from mid-October to mid-November.
Are there any tips or tricks I'm missing?
Thus if you log into BA web site you can see BA partners to Europe which is Iberia Airline. Unfortunately, Iberia along with AA seems to Not be releasing award seats for travel to Europe.