Richard Berg

Booked AA domestic for the first time. Taxes were 80 AED (~$27), not the usual $5.60 seen on most airlines. Not a huge deal, but could add up if you have multiple segments * passengers.

Richard Berg

And now the silver lining: I just booked another segment, this time Flagship First Class (AA's latest 3-cabin transcon redesign atop the A321). Taxes were the same as the economy flight mentioned above: 80 AED.

Remember, Etihad still uses the old pre-2016 AA award chart. In theory, this means 32.5K Etihad miles for P-class tix within North America. My agent misread the chart and only charged 25K -- not the first time Etihad has created a "bank error in my favor", either

Compare that to 50K + $80.60 (close in booking fee) via AA directly. There's still serious value in this program, folks!

edit to add: availability seen by EY was identical to MileSAAver First shown on aa.com. Those seats were NOT visible on BA or Qantas.

FlyerYaar

Hi everyone, I'm considering using EY miles to book AA flights between AUS and CDG (in one direction) and returning from BCN. The reason I'm looking at using EY miles is to take advantage of off-peak rates from October 15 on, which should be 20,000 EY miles each way. As I've never used EY guest miles before, a few questions,

- Are my calculations correct in that this routing would be 20k each way if AA shows saver level availability (for 30K AAdvantage miles each way)? I've heard some rumors that EY will charge 30,000 for the return leg.
- Are off-peak flights only on weekdays?
- Will EY require a passport number at booking? We recently got married and my wife hasn't gotten her new passport yet. Do we need to wait for that just to book the award flight?
- How long does it typically take points to transfer from SPG and Amex MR?
- Is it worth dealing with EY phone agents?

Thanks!

MaxVO

If you look carefully at the Redemption Tables for AA, you'll see that Economy Off-Peak category only exists for flights ex-NA. Flights out of Europe will be in regular Economy. Day of the week is not a factor in defining the Off-Peak period (which is also in the tables).
The experiences reported in this thread should give you some idea how much effort will be required for booking awards with EY. It may be worth it for you if you have some time to invest in learning the process.

MasterGeek

Booked ORY-RAK-(stopover)-CMN one-way on Royal Air Maroc. Award chart says stopovers are allowed on Royal Air Maroc so I was expecting it would be priced as one-way priced according to combined distance of the two segments, but agent priced it as two separate one-way awards and it ended up costing more miles. Are they wrong ?

I'm considering contacting Etihad Guest to have the mileage pricing corrected and some miles refunded.

Mauibaby2008

onlysuites

I have often found HUCA to work if the agent prices it wrong but then that is always for a non stop over connection which they sometimes price up as two instead of one. Not sure what will happen with yours. A simple email wouldn't hurt I guess.

Caesium

Hi all,
I've had a read through a couple of the partner threads here. I've read multiple segments on Oman Air had to be split tickets, can anyone confirm this?
I'm wanting to book DXB-MUC via MCT can they ticket it as one journey so the bags carry on through or is this adding too much to the already lengthy process of finding the availability?
Cheers!
Cs

avarice13

Definitely struggling with EY partner redemptions too.

As soon as something out of the ordinary happens, it seems that EY has no clue how to handle situation.

Two redemptions (DAD-BKK on PG and DAC-CMB on UL) on two partner airlines. Agent was able to make a booking (both had availability) and calculate taxes but, because the miles required for those flights were not specifically stated on their websites, they had to put in a request to calculate miles.

I have been told to call back 24 hours later every day for the past six days. Every agent I have spoken to has been super nice but I just don't understand how this is that challenging for someone on their back office team to calculate the required miles?

Caesium

Hi all,
Thought I'd give an update to my own question.
Tonight I called Etihad, got a really good Serbian agent who confirmed for me that connecting flights can be ticketed as one. In my case DXB-MCT-MUC.
After giving her my date of travel she told me there were 2 options with availability (seems to reflect award availability shown on Oman airs own site).
I booked 2 one way business class tickets from DXB to MUC for 88,000 miles and 380AED taxes.
Took under half an hour from answering my call to receiving my confirmed tickets in my inbox.
Pleasantly surprised and hope I always get an agent like this!
Hope this helps others out.
Cs
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mlqsko

Serbian agents are great. Even better than Manchester.

amnicoll

onlysuites

Is Manchester office still open the number is invalid now?

MaxVO

What's the number to the Serbian call center?

mlqsko

Think they might have closed it, number should be redirecting to Serbia. All Etihad guest award redemptions are redirected there.