nydad

Would the following all-AA itin be valid for 25K coach award or 50K business class award?

PHL-ORD/DFW-IAH (stop-over), IAH-ORD/DFW-NRT

Thanks.

HIDDY

No....it has to be by the most direct routing and you are backtracking big time by going through the same airport twice.

nydad

Thank you for your kind response.

Can I then make a routing, PHL-DFW(stop-over)-NRT?

Tumbleweed666

Better to ask on the AAvantage forum but my understanding is yes, because DFW would be the international gateway in this case. AIUI there are two exceptions to no stopovers, and one is international gateway. Try this thread.

NYCbustravelguy

I will be using BA miles, not AA miles, and want to do the following routing, I think it should work, but before calling BA, wanted to get thoughts here first.

All in J/F for 50k

EZE-MIA (STOP) MIA-JFK (STOP) JFK-LAS (STOP) LAS-LAX

HIDDY

I think it might not going by the rules....this routing can be done with only one stop in MIA without doing a grand tour of the USA.

Tumbleweed666

As per above poster, seems unlikely to me because while the BA rules may be different and may overrule the AA ones, I can't believe they will let you take a tour of the USA when you could just go EZE-somewhere-LAX without visiting a whole bunch of other places in between with multiple stopovers.

Please report back !

NYCbustravelguy

It worked. First agent said I could only do EZE-MIA-DFW-LAX (stopover she said could be as many as I wanted in one direction, but only in hub cities for AA).

Next agent, made it work after I feed her the cities and flights, EZE-MIA (stop), MIA-JFK (my home, stop), JFK-LAS (stop), LAS-LAX (stop and then I added at the last minute LAX-SFO (final), all for 40k BA and $2.50 tax (I think she got the tax wrong). For wahat it is worth the second agent told me she has seen JFK-Vancover (stop), Vancover-HKHG (stop) HKG-BKK (stop), BKK-SIN (stop).
This is a very good use of miles to me, and it would never be allowed on AA. Plus AA would charge 50k for J and would only allow EZE-MIA (stop) MIA-JFK (or MIA-SFO, LAX or other city). They do not allow a tour of the US.

nydad

This is really incredible. Wow.

Tumbleweed666

Agreed, spectacular value.

HIDDY

Yes well done.

I suspect naive agents not knowing the rules got you this. Now I know what to do with my remaining BA miles....a tour of the USA is on the cards.
The $2.50 tax/charges is definitely wrong. Tickets starting in EZE include the $29 departure tax in the taxes/charges which this obviously doesn't so you will have to pay that at EZE.

fallinasleep

No fuel surcharges on AA flights?

gleff

Nope.

HIDDY

Indeed although NYCbustravelguy should be paying a hell of a lot more than $2.50....the EZE-MIA leg taxes/charges come to £40.80 alone so he should be getting a call from the BAEC to pay what's owed or he may be in for a shock when he gets to the airport.

NYCbustravelguy

You guys all got me scare about the taxes, so I call BA, they told me that yest they made a mistake in the taxes, should have been $59.00 more, but that they could not reiisue the ticket, without me paying a fee to reissue. The agent also said some of the flights I wanted were not still avail. She did not say anything about the actual routing. I told he I did not want to be denied bording in EZE. She told me worst case is that I will be asked to pay AA the $59.00, but that was very unlikely. She told me mistakes in ticket prices and taxes happen every day and that the airlines have reserves for those things, ultimately, it may get worked out between the airline and airport auhtorities, but that the passenger will not be denied bording.

She then asked me if I held elite status with AA and I said yes, Emerald/EXP. She told me it would be better for lounges if she took out the basic BA acct # and put my EXP # in the record.

I 'm not worried now, although I will be prepared to pony up the extra taxes. The cost savings on this "tour of the US" are outstanding. Thanks all for alerting me to the possible airpoort issues.