Hi there,

Please feel free to direct me to the right thread if this query has already been answered. BTW, fantastic collection of forums here. Quite comprehensive.

Anyhow, I've booked a multi-sector trip on a Oneworld award, through Qantas reservations, in U class. Routing is PER/MEL/AKL/LAX/ORD/LGA/YYZ/JFK/HEL/BKK/SIN/PER.

For the AA sector LAX/ORD, QF reservations said that AA don't offer a business class product on this sector, so we'd been booked in economy. Although, when I bring up U class seat maps for AA (even on the 757), it shows rows 1-6, which I guess is the 'first' cabin on the 757.

What's the go with this? As a U class award booking should we be in the first cabin on this service, given that it cost 280k odd points. Or, would we have had to book a first class award?

Just seems to be at odds with paid J class fares, when AA doesn't offer a business class product, we are seated in the first cabin.

Over to the very knowledgeable members of flyertalk...

edited: I checked with QF an found out I was wrong.

<deleted, wrong>

QF is correct, for some awards when business class is not available it rounds down to economy. Many other airlines also do this, but AA always rounds up (so it books into first when business is not available due to 2-class service). AA does operate 2 class flights within the US as Y-F and within NA as Y-J (with the same cabin and service for J and F, so it is very much an artificial distinction). A rather unfortunate quirk of the QFF, but I recall running into it before. If you booked the same award on AA it would book into Z (award first class) instead of T (award economy), but that requires using Aadvantage miles instead of QFF miles. Rather ironic that an award called "Oneworld" has very different terms and conditions and costs on the various Oneworld airline (unfortunately QFF offers the worst of the Oneworld awards).

Are you saying that a QF oneworld award in business will -always- book into economy on a 2-class AA domestic service?

Yes - that is definitely the case and has been since QF and AA partnered.

Yet another factor which increases the differential in value of AAdv miles v. QFF miles.

Isn't it amazing how different the rules for a Oneworld award are throughout Oneworld? Luckily AA has been changing F/Y to J/Y on more routes which helps this situation, all of the longer Caribbean and Latin America routes are now called J instead of F, as well as the routes to Canada and Mexico.

There are a couple of other award types which do this, but I forget which ones precisely. So never assume that U will get you Z. It isn't just a OW thing, both Star and Skyteam also have awards where business downgrades to economy instead of up to first.

I got it wrong. Sorry.

It is. How about that, AAers get to ride up front in Oz, while QFers join the cattle in the US. It ain't fair.

Thanks all.

Awards are a little more harmonised across Star however. It's one of their few advantages.

QF does not have any F service in Australia (except for a few 3-class international legs), so we don't know what the QF policy on U would be ... it just books into U now. But for revenue tickets, QFers benefit from riding in F instead of J in the US and getting the F SCs. AA even has some coach fares that earn F SCs. So it cuts both ways.

Well, QF's domestic J offering is quite similar to AA's domestic 2-class service -- it's certainly much better than any of the J in Europe. It all really comes down to why AA (and other US airlines) market the front cabin of 2-class domestic flights as First. It's particularly interesting since domestic Business is better than 2-class domestic First. The argument has been made that AA F is much better than European J, hence "First", which is certainly true in terms of comfort, but obviously that argument falls apart when comparing to short/med-haul flights in Asia and Australia.

Er, that's a bit generous for AA, IMO. True for a US transcon on a 763, but that's about it. Take an Oz transcon like SYD-PER in J, and compare it with any 757/M80 midcon in F, and QF wins by a mile.

Thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge on this one.

I guess one of us will be up front (given that one of us is travelling on a paid fare) and one will be down back.