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 12, 2017, 7:05 pm
#61
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: San Francisco & London
Programs: UA1k, Oneworld Sapphire, Hyatt Globalist, IHG DiamondAmb, Hilton Diamond, Marriott LTP,
Posts: 1,785
Award Space from Hawaii n Alaska
I am plannning on booking a trip from Hawaii to Bay Area, looking for two seats in F for November / December
I can't see desired award space on Alaska on aa award even though it's available to Alaska Miles plan members online .... what's the deal?
I can't see desired award space on Alaska on aa award even though it's available to Alaska Miles plan members online .... what's the deal?
Jan 12, 2017, 7:15 pm
#63
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Juneau, Alaska.
Programs: AS 75K;BA Silver;AA G;HH Dia;HY Glob
Posts: 15,822
Only the lowest level AS award seats are available using AA miles. Are you sure the seats you see at alaskaair.com are the lowest level (available for the lowest amount of AS miles)?
Jan 12, 2017, 7:36 pm
#64
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: San Francisco & London
Programs: UA1k, Oneworld Sapphire, Hyatt Globalist, IHG DiamondAmb, Hilton Diamond, Marriott LTP,
Posts: 1,785
I will check again.... if I am correct only saver level cheaper awards are available right?
Jan 12, 2017, 7:37 pm
#65
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: UA
Posts: 384
Speaking of which, might I suggest Qatar Airways for good service, and flights twice a day leaving out of DPS.
Also agree with DPS-CGK "buy on your own" option, as there are numerous flights between the two cities. CGK-NRT-JFK is a great option -- Japan Airlines has excellent service in all cabins, and their aircraft have a huge amount of legroom in coach. You could also connect to JAL through KUL (through Malaysia Airlines).
DPS is just awkward to get out of - I had to fly DPS-CGK-IST-MUC-ORD (on *A) last minute once - way too much flying, but I had no other choice.
Jan 12, 2017, 7:58 pm
#66
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: UA Million Mile, Mileage Plus Premier 1K, SkyMiles Gold Medallion, AAdvantage Gold
Posts: 875
QR's JFK-DOH-DPS routing has pretty good connection times. CX has JFK-HKG-DPS, but it would be DPS-HKG-YVR-JFK on the way back. Those are the two best options, and they are both great airlines for both business and economy. Award availability will depend on the time of year.
Jan 12, 2017, 9:04 pm
#67
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: AA PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,405
Won't QR cost two awards? A good option but expensive miles-wise. But hell you burn AA pesos any way you can these days.
Jan 13, 2017, 5:14 am
#68
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 393
DPS is definitely a chokepoint. SIN is also an option if you don't mind a slightly longer flight
Jan 13, 2017, 11:28 am
#69
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: London - SW4
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 320
Have a saver ticket that was rescheduled, and I no longer make MCT. Do I have a case to force availability? I ask as there aren't any other saver options that day... Cheers!
Jan 13, 2017, 12:00 pm
#70
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: TPA
Programs: BA Silver; Hilton Gold; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,814
A cruise ship operates in different parts of the world depending upon season. For example, Alaska Apr-Oct and SE Asia Oct-Apr. So, twice a year it needs to "repostion" from one area to the other. You can take one for a long one-way TATL or TPAC cruise.
Jan 14, 2017, 7:44 am
#72
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 34
In the middle of November, I called and changed two award tickets to a different day and route. Since that time, the original tickets are still showing up under My Reservations as ticketed. The new award tickets are also showing as ticketed. Is there some reason that AA never cancelled my original award? Should I just let them sit until AA removes them or should I go in and cancel the trip? With all the website issues that AA is having, I’m a little worried cancelling these will somehow effect the other award booking that I changed these too. I’m probably being paranoid but I wanted to check in to see if anyone else has ever experienced this. I also feel kind of guilty sitting on two prime business milesavers to Europe this summer on the 77W that I’m not going to use.
Jan 14, 2017, 11:14 am
#73
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: AY+ Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 2,846
In the middle of November, I called and changed two award tickets to a different day and route. Since that time, the original tickets are still showing up under My Reservations as ticketed. The new award tickets are also showing as ticketed. Is there some reason that AA never cancelled my original award? Should I just let them sit until AA removes them or should I go in and cancel the trip? With all the website issues that AA is having, I’m a little worried cancelling these will somehow effect the other award booking that I changed these too. I’m probably being paranoid but I wanted to check in to see if anyone else has ever experienced this. I also feel kind of guilty sitting on two prime business milesavers to Europe this summer on the 77W that I’m not going to use.
Jan 15, 2017, 12:01 am
#74
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 4
AA Award Availability Texas or New Orleans to Boston
Hi
I am currently booking a One World RTW Business Class ticket and am trying to piece together the final leg.
I am flying into JFK from Helsinki on Finnair 20th March 5pm and flying out of Boston at 20:05 on 3rd of April to Doha.
As I have not hit the 35,000 mile or 15 flight limit I wanted to book an addition flight on either end of this trip to get down (or back up from) Texas or Louisiana. My ideal situation would be to go from Austin to New Orleans (driving) and would like to get an award flight in or out of one of these places. I am however happy to fly out of other airports in the area or to other airports in the Boston area.
I have spent hours trying to find any suitable award flights in Business or Economy and have played with two different connecting flights but can not find anything I can use.
The arriving flight arrives at 5pm on 20th March to JFK. The departing flight from Boston at 22:00 on 3rd April.
If anyone could provide assistance or hints that would be much appreciated.
The closest I have been able to get is a Austin DFW flight on 3rd April and a Philadelphia Boston flight on the same day but can't find any connecting flights.
Thanks
Dunraven77
I am currently booking a One World RTW Business Class ticket and am trying to piece together the final leg.
I am flying into JFK from Helsinki on Finnair 20th March 5pm and flying out of Boston at 20:05 on 3rd of April to Doha.
As I have not hit the 35,000 mile or 15 flight limit I wanted to book an addition flight on either end of this trip to get down (or back up from) Texas or Louisiana. My ideal situation would be to go from Austin to New Orleans (driving) and would like to get an award flight in or out of one of these places. I am however happy to fly out of other airports in the area or to other airports in the Boston area.
I have spent hours trying to find any suitable award flights in Business or Economy and have played with two different connecting flights but can not find anything I can use.
The arriving flight arrives at 5pm on 20th March to JFK. The departing flight from Boston at 22:00 on 3rd April.
If anyone could provide assistance or hints that would be much appreciated.
The closest I have been able to get is a Austin DFW flight on 3rd April and a Philadelphia Boston flight on the same day but can't find any connecting flights.
Thanks
Dunraven77
Jan 15, 2017, 12:06 am
#75
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 4
Sorry I forgot to mention this is for 2 tickets