Chicago to Ecuador help
 

I have 60k AA miles (soon to add another 50k once US airways merges) and 50k UA miles.


The dates I'm looking at are Depart March 28th/29th and return April 5th/6th.


I would prefer to use either all AA miles or split between AA and UA. I am having no problem finding Economy Saver flights on UA for 20k miles to or from Ecuador.


My problem is finding flights on AA. I was reading up and I know that you cannot search oneworld partners on AA's website. I can't figure out for the life of me how to use british airways site for award travel. I know that LAN has the flights I am looking for, but I cannot figure out how to search for this. I am looking for Economy MilesAAver through LAN which should be 15K miles if I am correct? Any help would be appreciated.

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Call AA, and ask an agent to check availability utilizing LAN flights.

Any award itinerary from ORD to Ecuador that uses even one LAN flight will price at 17.5K AA miles one-way in Economy. The 15K one-way "off-peak" award is on valid for travel wholly on AA.

Thank you. So it is not available to view online? Also, there is a $25 fee to book through them correct?

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LAN award flights cannot be viewed at aa.com. If available, they can be viewed at ba.com, after logging in to one's BAEC account, and selecting the "Pay with Avios" option from the drop-down menu.

I think AA's telephone-ticketing fee recently went up. I believe it is now $35, not $25.

They are saying nothing is available even though I am pretty flexible. Is it worth calling back multiple times to speak with different people? I just don't see how United always has plenty of award options available and it seems like I have to jump through hoops to ever use AA.

Edit: She actually said the LAN flight was possibly good, but the ORD to MIA leg was full.

Because Uniteds site is easy enough for a 3 year old to use.

Try some of these options, searching segment by segment. (The LAN stuff on ba.com)

1. LAN -- MIA-GYE/UIO
2. AA -- same
3. AA/LA MIA-BOG/CLO/MDE-GYE/UIO

AA.com should help with the domestic stuff. Sometimes there are DFW flights too.

LAN availability isn't great and doesn't seem to be updated frequently.

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On an international award, you have up to 24 hours to connect. Is any AA ORD-MIA flight that arrives within 24 hours of the LAN departure available at the SAAver level? How about DTW to MIA, if you are willing/able to get to Detroit from Chicago? Also, depending on LAN's fare rules, ORD-FLL/MIA-GYE/UIO might be permitted on a single award, if you can find SAAver space for ORD-FLL.

I'm truly grateful for your help guys. I ended up calling United and got almost exactly what I wanted for 40k miles. I was on the phone for about an hour, but she found a stopover in bogota for 2 days (never done one) for me so I can meet my friend before we go to Ecuador. She said it is rare to get a stopover for no extra miles and she also waived the $25 phone booking fee. Great experience overall.


I will be using your expertise in the future though when I have these 110k miles sitting in my account and I am scratching my head how to use them haha.

Glad it worked. But fyi, there's nothing rare about a stopover for no extra miles on a UA roundtrip award. It's explicitly allowed.

Good to know, but I only have 11k UA miles left now. Need to get a sapphire preferred card for 50k miles! They still have those? Haha.


How about AA? Do they allow those stopovers as well?

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AA no longer permits free stopovers on any of its awards.

How many miles will it cost on AA?

Edit: Also, what is the longest stopover you can do for either airline?

Chicago to Ecuador help
 

a stopover simply doesnt exist on an AA award. it would price as two separate tickets. so add together the cost of Chicago to Colombia, then Colombia to Ecuador. you're free to stay as long as you want as long as the tickets are available.
For UA, I believe your only limit is your entire trip has to be bookable. (i.e., you can't have a 14 month stopover)
for future questions, you should search the United and AA forums on here. there is tons of information to answer most of your questions about booking award travel already on this site.