Rule of thumb when to use OW?
 

Is there a rule of thumb when I should consider using a OW award versus an AA award?

Is award seat availability usually similar?

1W award availability is usually a lot better and quite often it costs less miles, especially when travelling in front cabins. Carriers like EI and AY have usually a lot of empty award seats ex US.

Can somebody give me an example of actual trips taken on OW awards that could have been non-OW AA awards (i.e. AA/BA)?

Thanks

A good example is the itinerary I flew last year to Zambia. On a straight AA/BA business award to Lusaka via London was 150K FF miles. I did a 20,000 mile itinerary (130K FF miles) and flew BWI-DUB-LHR-LUN-surface-JNB-LHR-MUC-MAD-OPO-MAD-MIA-BUF-DCA with sopovers at DUB, LUN, MUC, OPO, MIA, and BUF. No limits on stopovers and less miles. The OW awards are a good deal, especially if you travel thru Europe as there are many OW carriers to use.

I agree with Headinclouds. OW award increases the choice of carriers. Quite often AA has no seats for JFK/BOS-LHR but there is an abundance of seats for the same route on EI with a stopover at Shannon.

One of my latest trips was ticketed as BOS-SNN-LHR-HEL-LHR-CDG-BOS. A straight AA flight to LHR was not possible on my chosen dates due to no available award seats.

Spider, just curious with your recent itinerary where you had stopovers and where you stayed >24 hours?

HEL > 24, LON < 24. After all, HEL is the gateway to the wastness of Russia...

How does one actually book a OW award instead of a carrier specific award?

You call the program whose miles you intend to use and tell them that you want a OW award.

If you're going to Asia, a OW award is often a better deal. I recently booked a trip BOS-DUB-LHR-BKK-HKG-LAX-BOS (stopping over in DUB and BKK) in J/C for 130,000 miles. A simple BA/AA award ticket from BOS to BKK would have cost 185,000.

As Spider mentioned, EI usually has great availability in J/C from BOS and JFK. Have made 3 award trips to Ireland in this way and have never had a problem getting the dates I want.