Booking American Airlines awards
 

The fact that US/AA flights are now bookable using BA Avios miles is clearly old news to everyone here but I thought some might be interested in the map I created in an effort to take advantage of the non-stop flights out of the New York-JFK hub + other NYC area airports. It doesn't look like I can embed a Google map on the forum so I'll point you to the link: American Airlines (+ US Airways) Flights: Using British Airways Avios out of New York-NYC. I hope some find it useful!

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Ever since US Airways and American Airlines announced their merger, I’ve been excited about the prospect of having many more options of using British Airways Avios for award flights within the US. This thought became reality on March 31, 2014 when US Airways officially joined the Oneworld Alliance and thus, overnight, travelers in the US had many more options to maximize Avios redemptions.

This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of or to American Airlines’ and US Airways’ hub cities:

• US Airways hubs: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Washington-Reagan-DCA and Phoenix-PHX.
• American Airlines hubs: New York-JFK, Miami-MIA, Dallas-DFW, Chicago-ORD and Los Angeles-LAX

http://weekendblitz.com/wp-content/u...rt-600x328.png

First in this series, we looked at the US Airways hubs and only US Airways flights: Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL, Washington-DCA and Phoenix-PHX. Now, with the merger getting closer and closer to finalizing, I’ve begun mapping the American Airlines hub cities with a combination of AA and US flights. I’ve started with the New York hub at JFK and included flights from other New York area airports including LaGuardia-LGA, Newark-EWR, Westchester County-HPN and Long Island-ISP.

The New York-JFK hub is a substantial hub for American Airlines, with about a dozen international destinations as well as decent number of US cities served.

I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on AA/US:

http://weekendblitz.com/wp-content/u...PM-600x434.png

http://weekendblitz.com/wp-content/u...2.34.16-PM.png
Legend

Some great values are New York-JFK/LGA/EWR/HPN/ISP to:

• As with all of these Avios redemptions, just about any Zone 1 city in green is probably a great value at just 9k Avios roundtrip, especially those destinations to Canada (Montreal-YUL or Toronto-YYZ)
• New York-JFK to Bermuda-BDA for 15k Avios (if you can find availability) is a steal.
• Any of the destinations in the Caribbean end up being a pretty solid deal for just 20k Avios roundtrip: San Juan-SJU, Saint Thomas-STT, Saint Maarten-SXM, St Kitts and Nevis-SKB or Cancun-CUN.
• All of the European cities served by AA out of JFK can be booked for only 40k miles RT, which can be a good deal most of the time, especially compared to Delta or United who charge 50% more miles at 60k RT: Dublin-DUB, Manchester-MAN, London-LHR, Paris-CDG, Madrid-MAD, Barcelona-BCN, Zurich-ZRH, Milan-MXP.

http://weekendblitz.com/wp-content/u...PM-600x474.png

BOTTOM LINE: Although the addition of US Airways to the Oneworld Alliance only adds ~15-18 flights to American’s New York markets (mostly short, regional destinations), AA+US still has quite a strong route network with many choices to save a lot of points/miles when booking award tickets if you try to use BA Avios. Only 15k miles from New York to Bermuda? Yes, please.

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You can find the interactive map here: American Airlines (+ US Airways) Flights: Using British Airways Avios out of New York-NYC
As a side note: I pulled all of the route info for the map off of AA.com and USAirways.com, I know that some routes are seasonal and some might even be slated for cancellation. If you see any destinations that I should remove, please let me know. Thanks!



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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"AA out of JFK can be booked for only 40k miles RT, which can be a good deal most of the time, especially compared to Delta or United who charge 50% more miles at 60k RT: Dublin-DUB, Manchester-MAN, London-LHR, Paris-CDG, Madrid-MAD, Barcelona-BCN, Zurich-ZRH, Milan-MXP."

Redeeming Avios for TATL travel on AA (or US) will incur hefty surcharges. For TATL, it's best to redeem Avios on AB (no surcharges), or EI (low surcharges).

Using Avios.

Zone 1 is a bargain. (NYC-YUL/YYZ)
JFK-DUS in J on AB is nice as well.

PPT to AKL or PPT to CHC using Avios or AA miles
 

How to find availability from PPT to AKL or CHC or ZQN for December flight? I want to use avios or AA miles.
Also, can i use avios or aa miles within new zealand? thanks in advance :)

Not sure how you can check for TN availability other than phoning.

TN flies once to AKL on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays so wouldnt be too hard to get an AA agent to check the flight availability I suspect

There is no miles usage options within NZ ; domestic NZ fares are pretty cheap so just check Air New Zealand and the Jetstar sites for those

Thanks Dave. You're correct i just saw $69 flight from AKL to CHC.

Tough route/part of the world to use AAdv miles on, to say the least.

And, if you use EF, don't get confused by the presence of QF 3826 PPT-AKL. It doesn't show up as a codeshare in EF but it is.

Expertflyer will show TN availability.

Wow! Cool-- never knew that!

Its not a new development. At least its been an option with EF for 4 years or more. Also, I've found that what EF shows is exactly what AA agents can see - never ever have I seen a difference.

Provided you booked early, and there's no major events on the date you want to travel $69 AKL-CHC is pretty normal entry level fare. You also might want to keep an eye out on grabaseat.co.nz, it NZ answer to the LCC market. They sell seats on up-coming dates on NZ flights, e.g. frequently they have deals with AKL-CHC for $45.

Just watch out, as all entry level fares on NZ/JQ don't include checked bags.

Perhaps someone else more familiar with Avios can respond, but if I'm not mistaken, one can't use Avios for flights on TN. [but clearly you can use AAdvantage miles for TN flights]

And if I am correct that one can't use Avios for redemptions on TN, then as JonNYC pointed out, as QF3826 is a code share flown on TN, not on QF metal, presumably it wouldn't be redeemable using Avios.

TN is not a partner of BA so cannot use BA Avios to redeem on TN whether directly or via a codeshare

Award travel HNL-DFW in F, use Avios or AA miles?
 

I'm trying to save my Aadvantage miles to use for Europe but the Avios needed for this flight is 60,000 vs 37500 for AA miles.

New to Avios so not really sure if this redemption makes sense. I'd like to use my US miles but they don't offer one-way (unless using RT miles).

Any insight or recommendations? Thanks.

So, Avois has an economy rate (1x), business class rate (2x), and first class rate (3x). The forward-cabin of a two cabin plane is called "first" domestically here in the US, and so Avios prices out at the 3x rate, which AA does not do.