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Using pts For AA but not a AA point.....

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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 3:06 pm
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Using pts For AA but not a AA point.....

Sorry for the opening. I have the Amex card that i can not transfer pts to AA. However i can transfer them to BA or QA. If i do this will i be able to use those points to buy the tickets i need from AA? Sorry new to the whole transfer thing. want to make sure before i transfer 500K miles to BA or QA. If i do this do i have to use BA webstie or can i use AA webstie? Thanks in advance Aaron
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 3:21 pm
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cavesrus Welcome to FT
Originally Posted by cavesrus
Sorry for the opening. I have the Amex card that I can not transfer pts to AA. However I can transfer them to BA or QA. If I do this will I be able to use those points to buy the tickets I need from AA? Sorry new to the whole transfer thing. want to make sure before I transfer 500K miles to BA or QA. If I do this do I have to use BA website or can I use AA website?
By QA do you mean Qantas QF or Qatar QR airline? [FT is big on abbreviations~jargon]

If you have BA avios you can "buy" award flights on AA if available. The cost in BA avios will not be the same as the cost in AA miles. Plus any cash surcharge, which can be a lot. You buy from the BA web site. Need to be a signed up member of BAEC.
BA forum thread--> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...1-edition.html

Same process with other airline frequent flyer programs.
Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program? From Jan 2022

Where do you want to fly from/to? Class of travel? 1 person?
500,000 is a lot of MR's. Award flights are *never* guaranteed. Many people want awards.
Be 110% sure awards are available before transferring. Others can grab awards while transferring or are faster.
Different ffp's have different rules & cost in miles/points/avios.
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 3:35 pm
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im looking at 4 tickets first class. on AA site now ways 116k per ticket.

TY for the Abbreviations. info!

going to read the avios spedning now.
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 3:50 pm
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Originally Posted by cavesrus
I'm looking at 4 tickets first class. on AA site now ways 116k per ticket.

TY for the Abbreviations. info!

Going to read the avios spending now.
From where to where?
The chances of getting 4 off first class awards on AA with BAEC avios is very low.
AA has a very different award cost structure
AA forum--> New AA Award Chart with Dynamic Pricing

A very broad guide-->https://www.awardhacker.com/
But need to read the ffp rules.

Info--> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/glossary.php
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 3:54 pm
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Traveling from MCI to BON. So Kansas City to Bonaire. I cant even get the flight to come up on BA or Qantas. only on AA website.
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:00 pm
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Originally Posted by cavesrus
Traveling from MCI to BON. So Kansas City to Bonaire. I cant even get the flight to come up on BA or Qantas. only on AA website.
BA uses segments and not point to point. So MCI-MIA-BON.
Need to phone for some awards/routes.
https://www.awardhacker.com/#f=MIA&t...=1&c=y&s=0&p=1

Other US airlines look to fly to BON
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamin...tional_Airport

Edit
Looking at AA.com first class is not sold MIA-BON. Sold as business class. Same aircraft/seat as "first" class for USA domestic flights.
Using Amex MR points as defacto cash can work for some. Then no issues with award availability.

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Apr 23, 2023 at 4:14 pm
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:09 pm
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I have been to bonaire for the dates i need to travel i need to fly out on AA.
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:27 pm
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Originally Posted by cavesrus
Traveling from MCI to BON. So Kansas City to Bonaire. I cant even get the flight to come up on BA or Qantas. only on AA website.
You will always get award flights on AA metal to come up on aa.com, as AA offers last-seat award availability. The flip side, though, is that AA award pricing is "dynamic," meaning that the number of AAdvantage miles required for an award seat can vary widely. AA will not make its award seats available for partner redemption when AA is charging a lot of AAdvantage miles for the trip.

For comparison purposes, on Monday, May 1, AA is offering MCI-MIA-BON one way in Business Class for 25,000 miles/person:

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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:35 pm
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ok so i think im getting the answer to my question...... you cant use BA or Qantas miles on a AA.com flight only AA miles. even though they are in the same one world group.
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:40 pm
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Originally Posted by cavesrus
ok so i think im getting the answer to my question...... you cant use BA or Qantas miles on a AA.com flight only AA miles. even though they are in the same one world group.
Just to be precise: You can never redeem partner miles at aa.com. But you can sometimes redeem partner miles on the partner's website for AA flights when AA is making those flights available for partner redemption.
​​
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Old Apr 23, 2023 | 4:49 pm
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By way of example, on May 1 you can redeem 44,000 BA Avios for one Business Class one-way ticket from MCI to BON via MIA:

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Old Apr 29, 2023 | 1:04 pm
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Originally Posted by cavesrus
ok so i think im getting the answer to my question...... you cant use BA or Qantas miles on a AA.com flight only AA miles. even though they are in the same one world group.
You can use BA or Qantas miles only on certain AA flights that are priced low in points on AA.com. That's always been the problem to some degree, but with AA's new dynamic point pricing, it's probably a problem more often now. Before AA changed to dynamic pricing, when it went by an award chart, you could only book with BA or Qantas when AA had the flight at the SAAver point level, not at the AAnytime point level.

So if your dates are fixed, you probably can't use another airline's miles unless you gamble that the AA.com rate will drop at the last minute, and maybe then it'll become available on BA like that May 1 example above. But that may be less likely for summer dates than for current spring (but past spring break) dates, like the May 1 example above.

But if you want to use Amex points, you might want look into Delta, with is a partner of Amex. According to a web search I just did, Delta also flies from Kansas City to Bonaire, with the plane change in Atlanta rather than Miami. Btw, in hurricane season, ATL is slightly lower risk of connection problems than MIA. You don't want to have your flight cancelled if a hurricane is affecting south Florida but not affecting your final destination of Bonaire.

Just keep in mind that what you think of as "first class" on these shorter North American flights is actually called business class from a booking perspective. It's the new same for the bigger seats up front. Delta's up-front seats are not that much different from American's up-front seats on these flights.
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