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ARCHIVE: HELP DESK: 2019 MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance

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Old Mar 2, 2021, 10:17 am
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Last edit by: JDiver
NOTE: This archive thread contains all posts made in 2019 from the original thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1511217-help-desk-milesaaver-saaver-award-questions-assistance.html
2020 Wikipost version (This archival wikipost is locked to all but Moderators).

HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver Award Availability - Help, Assistance & Discussion
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


NOTE: for more detailed fare rules, see AA oneworld & Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (master thd)

Two award search systemsTWA884

There are two search systems, legacy and new. The new one shows award availability which does not appear when searching with the old system.

See:

New Award Booking / Search / Calendar on aa.com 2019link (FT thread)

The Insider Trick to Getting More American Airlines Saver Award Availability

***

If you want to make sure that you’re seeing results from both award searching systems, you’ll want to perform an award search starting on each of these:


NOTE: “Married segment” issues exist, wherein AA may make a IAH-DFW-XXX award available, but not DFW-XXX; or STL-PHL-LHR, but PHL-LHR May not be available in conjunction with ORD- and others. See

More award availability restricted by married segments / connections

Award hold period: 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.

Within 14 days the hold period changes from 5 days to 1 day. And AA has periodically played the game in the past whereby within certain timeframes, usually 7 or 14 days before, they eliminate all sAAver space. Completely route specific. — JJeffrey


="3"%Airlines that can be booked for award travel on aa.com

oneworld alliance airline partners
  • AA - American Airlines
  • BA - British Airways (awards incur significant YQ surcharge
  • AY - Finnair
  • IB - Iberia
  • JL - Japan Airlines
  • QF - Qantas
  • QR - Qatar Airways
  • RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines (joining 31 Mar 2020)
  • S7 - S7 Airlines
  • UL - Sri Lankan Airlines
="3"%other airline partners
  • AS - Alaska Airlines* (ended 29 Feb 2020, to be restored upon joining oneworld in 2021 )
  • 9K - Cape Air (but only certain cities)
  • TN - Air Tahiti Nui
  • EY - Etihad
  • HA - Hawaiian Airlines (only certain routes

* Mileage redemption on Alaska Airlines is ending effective February 29, 2020. All award travel must be booked and ticketed by February 29, 2020. Travel is valid for 1 year after ticketing date and must be flown no later than February 28, 2021. Ticket changes will not be allowed after February 29, 2020.
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.


="3"%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, ending 1 Oct 2020)
  • MH - Malaysia Airlines
  • QF - Qantas Airways (QantasLink, Jetconnect)
  • QR - Qatar Airways
  • AT - Royal Air Maroc (as of 31 Mar 2020)
  • RJ - Royal Jordanian Airlines
  • S7 - S7 Airlines (Globus) (excludes Siberia / far eastern Russia awards)
  • UL - SriLankan Airlines
  • JJ - TAM Airlines (LATAM Airlines will no longer operate using the airline code JJ for flights on or after October 27, 2019.)

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.

="3"%Full list of additional airline partners offering award redemptions
  • 9K - Cape Air
  • AS - Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air (end 29 Feb 2020, to begin upon joining oneworld in 2021)
  • CZ - China Southern Airlines
  • EY - Etihad Airways
  • FJ - Fiji Airways
  • HA - Hawaiian Airlines
  • TN - Air Tahiti Nui

="3"%NOTE: Ticketing charge


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
 --------------------------------------------------------
 CZ– China Southern Airways (unknown)
 --------------------------------------------------------
 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
 --------------------------------------------------------
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.
NOTE: Rather than release SAAver Awards at 330 days out, AA generally delays 48 hours after the 330 day time period has begun, at or about midnight Central time.

="3"%Other rules that may affect your awards="3"%:

="3"%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. Some 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 (except Hawaii), 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)
="3"%Resources

NOTE: New award charts are posted on AA.com from time to time. See the American Airlines charts here and the oneworld and partner award charts here.
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
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.

  • See this article by the Points Guy on BA and Qantas for award searching.

  • See this article to new online tool from Japan Airlines by Australian Frequent Flyer

  • 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. Or use this link to use with your FT login: https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F.


    Originally Posted by sdsearch
    ...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 2018 have been archived to this archive thread.

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











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ARCHIVE: HELP DESK: 2019 MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance

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Old Nov 27, 2019, 11:51 am
  #346  
FMX
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 96
Ah, it was not from/to USA. It was between Europe and Asia (I tried a few airports).
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Old Nov 28, 2019, 9:30 am
  #347  
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Further changes have been made to the new award booking calendar / tool on aa.com, described here: New Award Booking / Search / Calendar on aa.com 2019
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 9:30 am
  #348  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bath, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,002
South Africa to Maldives using AA miles (to merge Saaver Help Desk)

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right place to post - but as it is to do with redeeming AA miles I thought it probably would be.

I am looking at using miles for flights from Cape Town/Johannesburg to Maldives. Does anyone know if I am able to route via Asia for this i.e. MLE-HKG-CPT/JNB? Or am I only allowed to route via Middle East CPT-DOH-MLE?

Thanks.
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 10:09 am
  #349  
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Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,484
Originally Posted by wijibintheair
Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right place to post - but as it is to do with redeeming AA miles I thought it probably would be.

I am looking at using miles for flights from Cape Town/Johannesburg to Maldives. Does anyone know if I am able to route via Asia for this i.e. MLE-HKG-CPT/JNB? Or am I only allowed to route via Middle East CPT-DOH-MLE?

Thanks.
You cannot route via Asia on an Africa-ME/Indian Subcontinent award.
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 10:13 am
  #350  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bath, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,002
Originally Posted by JJeffrey
You cannot route via Asia on an Africa-ME/Indian Subcontinent award.
Damn! Thanks for the reply.
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 10:34 am
  #351  
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Originally Posted by wijibintheair
Damn! Thanks for the reply.
In general you can only transit a 3rd region where it makes sense, for example Europe to Asia via the Middle East is ok, North America to Asia 2 via Asia 1 is ok, etc. But flying from Africa all the way to Asia then back to Indian Subcontinent doesn't make any sense, so not surprising that this isn't allowed.
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 10:54 am
  #352  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,030
Originally Posted by wijibintheair
Not sure if this is the right place to post - but as it is to do with redeeming AA miles I thought it probably would be.

I am looking at using miles for flights from Cape Town/Johannesburg to Maldives. Does anyone know if I am able to route via Asia for this i.e. MLE-HKG-CPT/JNB? Or am I only allowed to route via Middle East CPT-DOH-MLE?
You can route any way you want, but that may be 2 or more awards

As EY is an AA ff partner CPTJNB-AUH-MLE is another option

Great Circle Mapper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velana...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_T...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._R._...tional_Airport

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Nov 29, 2019 at 2:25 pm Reason: Corrected EY JNB from CPT
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 1:19 pm
  #353  
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Bath, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,002
Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
You can route any way you want, but that may be 2 or more awards

As EY is an AA ff partner CPT-AUH-MLE is another option

Great Circle Mapper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velana...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_T...tional_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._R._...tional_Airport
Thanks. Have EY started CPT flights again? I thought they only did JNB.
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Old Nov 29, 2019, 1:59 pm
  #354  
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
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Posts: 9,125
Or QR?
erik123 is offline  
Old Nov 29, 2019, 7:07 pm
  #355  
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Charlottesville, Va. USA
Posts: 1,752
Just an fyi if you want to book an ey awad with aa miles you probably will have to call the aa office in fiji or new zealand.
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Old Dec 1, 2019, 5:52 pm
  #356  
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 506
Hi, I searched but could not find a clear answer:
I found a round-trip ticket where one-way is a sAAver but the other way is not. I currently have this trip on hold.

I understand that AA awards are booked as one-ways. However...

I want to get a reduced mileage award on the one-way that has SAAver availability. However, the complete trip is within the close-in period so I don't want to pay the $75 close-in booking fee twice. Is there a way that I can get the reduced mileage award while only paying the close-in booking fee once?

It was suggested to me that I could call in and get the sAAver award reduced while keeping the trip on hold, then I could hang up and complete the booking online. This way I would get the reduced mileage award while only paying the $75 fee once.
Thank you in advance!
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Old Dec 4, 2019, 11:09 am
  #357  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,438
Just FYI datapoint: Months ago, I considered a vacation to Japan over Christmas. Nonstop J flights LAX-HND were 180K miles. No sAAver availability for the direct flights. I set up an EF alert and forgot about it as my plans changed.

I just got an alert for December 13, direct J tickets only 60K sAAver miles each.

The good news is that AA actually opened up that flight for sAAver. The bad news is they did only did it 8 days in advance, making pre-planning pretty difficult.
cheaptom is offline  
Old Dec 4, 2019, 5:41 pm
  #358  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: UA Premier Gold, Starwood Gold, Plat AE, CO PP MC, Marriott Rewards Plat, Virgin Elevate Gold
Posts: 1,416
Is there a quick and easy way to find INTL saver fares

For example, I want to fly LAX-EZE on a non-stop , but I only want to use 57,500 miles (the "saver" level)

Is there a way to search for the first available day with this fare?

United has a way to do this, just curious
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Old Dec 4, 2019, 5:58 pm
  #359  
 
Join Date: May 2015
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Posts: 735
Use the advanced/multicity menu. You will be taken to the old redeem website.
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Old Dec 5, 2019, 11:01 am
  #360  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 138
So any actual result difference using new search engine over old?

We are having a horrible time returning on AA from the Croatia/Slovenia area late next October even though AA haa the new PHL routes to that area. The only good thing we found is BA charges only 1/2 the fees coming from Europe versus going to Europe.That could be our last resort to return home (BZN). Should I keep using both the old and new search tool to cast a wider net for AA business saver awards?
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