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AA: LAX-JFK-MIA-PTY RT $702 in A/J 18.9K EQMs

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Old Apr 30, 2016, 12:36 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Server
OCTOBER 2016 UPDATE

LAX-JFK TRANSCONTINENTAL FLIGHTS:
Recent fare rule inclusions, effective October 2016, now prevent any routing via JFK on the non-stop transcontinental A321T aircraft. Any future booking will demand a significantly higher fare to route on the non-stops via JFK. Unless the fare rules are modified and these clauses are removed (highly doubtful), the ability to fly on the transcons via JFK is a thing of the past.
IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN LAX AND NYC
THEN THAT TRAVEL MUST BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY AA FLIGHT OPERATED BY AA
BUT NOT ON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A321 (SHARKLETS) AIRCRAFT.
AND
IF THE FARE COMPONENT INCLUDES TRAVEL BETWEEN SFO AND NYC
THEN THAT TRAVEL MUST BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY AA FLIGHT OPERATED BY AA
BUT NOT ON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A321 (SHARKLETS) AIRCRAFT.

1. Same day turns possible on the E-jets and morning 738s.

2. Bonuses now based on fare paid.

3. As of OCTOBER 2016, best fares are now around $1000. Fare tends to rise a few hundred for 2 pax. Fares can also occasionally rise for no discernible reason, but the price spikes have thus far proven to be temporary. Fares have the trend to drop during the year. Keep checking for fares in the $700-$800 ranges for best possible pricing.

4. Airport hotels with shuttles - Crowne Plaza Panama Airport & Riande Aeropuerto. The CP is slightly closer; the Riande is slightly nicer. The CP shuttle leaves the hotel every :00 and :30 and runs 24 hours but they seem to leave a few minutes early as it had left when I went down at 4:00AM on the dot. Also, note UberX charges a US$14 surcharge on top of the ~US$2 fare. CP has poor sound isolation, I could hear my neighbors on both sides including talking, crying baby etc. Had to wear earplugs to sleep.

5. Lounges:

Please refer to this thread for more detailed and accurate information on lounge access in general: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1656378-help-desk-will-i-have-lounge-access-access-rules-2016-a.html
LAX AIRPORT

= When trying to gain oneworld J / QF F access based on status, it is simply departing/connecting/arriving at any point on same ticket to and from an eligible international destination. PTY is eligible and not excluded regardless of length.

= When trying to gain oneworld J / QF F access based on class of service disregarding status, it is the international long haul clause that applies. Therefore, no "oneworld/QF lounge" access for non-elites for trips to and from PTY unless booking transcons since PTY is under 5 hours. BUT AA doesn't enforce this in their own lounges so Admirals Club access is expected.


AA GOLDs(RUBYs)/NON-ELITES
Admirals Club access is granted regardless of routing as AA does not enforce international long haul rule. However, the oneworld J lounge does for Golds(rubys)/non-elites as they are aware the PTY flights are under 5 hours. Booking transcon flights in J/F gains access to the OWJ/QFF lounges.
<Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA) in F = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J lounge + QF F Lounge LAX>
<Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA) in J = Admirals + LAX oneworld J lounge>
<Non-Transcon F (2-class) + PTY = Technically NONE (PTY under 5 hours therefore class of service rule applies) BUT AA still opens Admirals Club doors to all customers because they dont enforce the long-haul rule>

AA PLATINUMs
Platinums gain access to all AC/Business lounges regardless of routing due to flying to and from PTY. They gain access to First/Flagship lounges when traveling in F 3-class transcon
<Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA) in F = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J lounge + QF F Lounge LAX>
<Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA) in J = Admirals + LAX oneworld J lounge>
<Non-Transcon F (2-class) + PTY = Admirals + LAX oneworld J>

AA EXPs
EXPs have access to all lounges at all airports regardless of routing so long as they are traveling to and from PTY on the same itinerary (an international destination neither excluded from AA's list of ineligible regions nor limited by the flight length rule)
<EXPs Transcon F (2-class) + PTY = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J + QF F lounge LAX>
<EXPs Non-Transcon F (2-class) + PTY = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J + QF F lounge LAX>
<EXPs on Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA + PTY) in Y = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J + QF F lounge LAX>
<EXPs on Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA + PTY) in J = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J + QF F lounge LAX>
<EXPs on Transcon 3-class (JFK/MIA + PTY) in F = Admirals + Flagship + LAX oneworld J + QF F lounge LAX>

NON-AA ONEWORLD ELITES
All sapphires and emeralds have some form of lounge access on any flight systemwide
<non-AA sapphires on ALL AA FLIGHTS = Admirals Club + oneworld J lounge LAX>
<non-AA emeralds on ALL AA FLIGHTS = Admirals Club + oneworld J lounge LAX + Flagship Lounge + QF F lounge LAX>



OTHER AIRPORTS

SFO - Admiral's Club (Centurion Lounge for a fee)
JFK - Admirals Club & Flagship Lounge for EXP/First 3-class/Emerald
MIA - Admiral's Club (Centurion Lounge for a fee), Oneworld Premium Lounge for EXP/First 3-Class/Emerald
PTY - No lounge access (Copa with PP, or for a fee, for 7am or later flights)
YVR - No lounge access (PP for a fee)
DFW - Admiral's Club (with F/C Dining for EXP/Emerald) (Centurion Lounge for a fee)


6. PTY Customs:
Inbound to PTY -
  • 12 noon - no lines reported
  • 8PM Fri (5/27/16) - ~10 min line

Outbound to MIA -
  • 4:40am - no lines reported
7. Finding flights:

NOTE: LAX-JFK NO LONGER VALID FOR LOWEST FARES (effective OCT 2016)

If you want the transcon bonus, enter the search with a connection in JFK. (e.g. LAX-JFK,JFK-MIA,MIA-PTY,PTY-JFK,JFK-SFO.) You can play around from there to get the best deal. Some of the better deals do not start and end in the same city (e.g. start in LAX, end in SFO may be cheaper than start/end in LAX).

Also, it's possible on the outbound portion to time it so you have no more than a 60-minute layover at JFK or MIA (though note that some of these flights aren't available on weekends). While yes, JFK is notorious for delays, this rarely applies for inbound red-eye flights. Also, note that AA 28 below is sometimes "hidden" if you're looking on Google Flights inside a much more expensive trip; that does not necessarily mean, however, that you can't get it for one of the trips under $1,000 (in other words, try it out to see).

NOTE: LAX-JFK NO LONGER VALID FOR LOWEST FARES (effective OCT 2016)

Below is the shortest-possible outbound itinerary that has the LAX-JFK transcon on AA's A321T with flat-bed seats:

LAX-JFK on AA 28
10:45pm - 7:22am

JFK-MIA on AA 200
8:15am - 11:24am
(Note: AA has now switched all of the metal it used on this leg - on all JFK-MIA nonstops - to 757s instead of the 767s with international-style F & J seating.)***767 and 772 are back. Flight 200 is a 772**

MIA-PTY on AA 4434
12:33pm - 2:48pm
(Note: Even more distressingly, AA switched from using a 737 on this leg to an RJ, presumably because summer is off-peak season in Central America. The 6:05pm flight still uses a 737 if a full-size aircraft is a must.)
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AA: LAX-JFK-MIA-PTY RT $702 in A/J 18.9K EQMs

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Old Jun 19, 2016, 12:36 pm
  #1186  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: AA Exp, United Silver, Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 280
Originally Posted by TravelingJay
I'm doing a similar one just before the 8/1 apocalypse.
YVR-PHX-DEN-MIA-PTY-MIA-DCA-DFW-YVR - $630 USD.

Positioning to YVR is a ..... from DFW, though.
Hi - i am from dfw toolooking to do this mr. Can u share ur trip details and i will try to join.
fnuhenry is offline  
Old Jun 19, 2016, 2:41 pm
  #1187  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: san clemente ca
Programs: AA,DL
Posts: 374
One lesson I've learned after two trips is. Getting out of Mia to PTY on the earlier flights increases your chance for success. Afternoon thunderstorms reek havoc on all flights.
grbauctions is offline  
Old Jun 19, 2016, 11:10 pm
  #1188  
 
Join Date: Jun 2016
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 6
I'm trying to do this from SFO but can't find anything under $1,000 USD. I'm flexible with my schedule. Can anyone who's doing this from SFO or LAX share with me the flight itinerary so I can try to get it around $700?
obagheri is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 7:42 am
  #1189  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Home airports:SRQ,TPA,RSW
Programs: AA 0.4MM, BA G, LH SEN,TK S, HH Dia, Sixt Plat, Hertz Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 2,689
Originally Posted by Smiley90
When I try to look for those the best routings I find are usually via PHL if you try to avoid LAX-JFK. a) PHX-PHL is >2k and b) PHL-MIA can be had on lie-flats. (or if you want even more TP, route PHL-MCO/CLT/TPA-MIA where MCO-MIA is often lie-flat too, but only a 1h flight

alternatively, I've found some routings that go DFW-LAS-MIA that also gets you decent mileage and LAS-MIA is >2k as well. so maybe try those!

otherwise, sometimes LGA&BOS give reasonable prices (all of which are >2k from PHX)

how about this, leaving YVR on the 2nd and arriving back in YVR on the 4th:

https://www.google.ca/flights/#searc...sc=b;a=AA;eo=e

YVR-PHX-PHL-MIA-PTY-MIA-BOS-PHX-YVR

for whatever reason that PTY-MIA flight books into Eco S for that particular date but play around with it - and given that it's only a drop from I to S you wouldnt even lose too many TP. as it stands it'd be 990CAD/767USD/534GBP for

40+210+60+40+5+60+210+40=665TP.
thank you very much. I was trying to avoid YVR since positioning is likely very high and the legs in S make you lose 35TP each way (eco is 5, while business is 40TP).
I'm trying to play with the connections. Thank you for your help.
MACH81 is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 7:44 am
  #1190  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Home airports:SRQ,TPA,RSW
Programs: AA 0.4MM, BA G, LH SEN,TK S, HH Dia, Sixt Plat, Hertz Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 2,689
Originally Posted by havoc29
This might not be helpful for most peoples' needs, but there are some pretty ridiculous routings available for people who want BA tier points and DVT. It's possible to do things like SFO-PHX-JFK-DCA-CLT-RDU-MIA-PTY and back. It's 14 segments, all in A except for the PTY legs, for a total of 1,100 TP.
I've tried to make it work, but no luck so far, must be availability. If you could share via PM how you pieced it together.
Thank you
MACH81 is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 8:07 am
  #1191  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: SFO
Programs: AA ExPlat, NW Plat, UA 2P
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by obagheri
I'm trying to do this from SFO but can't find anything under $1,000 USD. I'm flexible with my schedule. Can anyone who's doing this from SFO or LAX share with me the flight itinerary so I can try to get it around $700?
You can get it down to $907 with this itin, possibly lower if you juggle the dates. I just did a quick check, so you can now massage it. Hope it helps!
https://www.google.ca/flights/#searc...A350;sc=b;eo=e

Price shows at $1106, but when you click "purchase at American", you are transferred to aa.com and the price shows up as $907.
MeVoy is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 8:15 am
  #1192  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: SFO
Programs: AA ExPlat, NW Plat, UA 2P
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by MeVoy
You can get it down to $907 with this itin, possibly lower if you juggle the dates. I just did a quick check, so you can now massage it. Hope it helps!
https://www.google.ca/flights/#searc...A350;sc=b;eo=e

Price shows at $1106, but when you click "purchase at American", you are transferred to aa.com and the price shows up as $907.
$893 if you try Jul 9-12, with non-stop JFK-SFO on return
MeVoy is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 8:53 am
  #1193  
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AA Plat, Nexus
Posts: 358
Bah. Equipment change on my return trip MIA-LAX. From 767v2 to v1. I was really looking forward to a nice long nap.
Cat Man Do is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 9:23 am
  #1194  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: some premium cabin...
Posts: 390
Originally Posted by Cat Man Do
Bah. Equipment change on my return trip MIA-LAX. From 767v2 to v1. I was really looking forward to a nice long nap.
sadly 767 equipment change happens more often than not. I learned not to count on the lie flat seats until I am actually sitting on it. Counting on the days AA actually retired all those old 767/757...if that would ever happen.
mmdough is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 9:49 am
  #1195  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: AA EP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 32
Doing a back to back MR next week.

YVR-PHX-JFK-DCA-MIA-PTY-MIA-PHL-DFW-YVR/$685 (June 26 - June 28th)
YVR-PHX-JFK-BOS-DCA-MIA-PTY-MIA-PHL-DFW-YVR/$750 (June 29th - July 3rd)

The first YVR-PHX leg is in Y, but otherwise I'm A/J the rest of the way.

EQM: 44,478 / $0.032cpm
RDM: 63,773 / $0.023cpm

This will push me right across the EXP threshold for the year, which will be nice for 2017 as I'm probably not going to hit the $12k spend during 2017 to re-qualify for 2018.
stockboy85 is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 9:53 am
  #1196  
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: SFO
Programs: AA ExPlat, NW Plat, UA 2P
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by stockboy85
Doing a back to back MR next week.

YVR-PHX-JFK-DCA-MIA-PTY-MIA-PHL-DFW-YVR/$685 (June 26 - June 28th)
YVR-PHX-JFK-BOS-DCA-MIA-PTY-MIA-PHL-DFW-YVR/$750 (June 29th - July 3rd)

The first YVR-PHX leg is in Y, but otherwise I'm A/J the rest of the way.

EQM: 44,478 / $0.032cpm
RDM: 63,773 / $0.023cpm

This will push me right across the EXP threshold for the year, which will be nice for 2017 because otherwise, I probably am not going to hit the $12k spend for 2018.
Very nice indeed! Congratulations!
MeVoy is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 10:31 am
  #1197  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: AAdvantage EXP, Bonvoy Titanium, United Silver, various other midtier rankings
Posts: 64
For the YVR runs, I couldn't make it work on Google no matter what, but working it on ITA with advanced codes of aa aa aa aa for each direction found all kinds of good options around $600.
TravelingJay is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 10:32 am
  #1198  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: NorCal
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott GLD, HH PLT, Hertz 5*
Posts: 766
A few notes from my MR.
SFO-LAX, LAX-JFK both delayed by other 1hr. (Was glad for LAX-JFK delay as less time hanging around in T8 overnight.)
T8-C AC, not prepared for showers when first opening. Had to wait 30mins. Lots of time for JFK-MIA.
AA1021 was switched from 752 to 75L and lie-slant. Which was very welcome for some more Z's
Immigration/Customers in PTY easy. Getting UBER's around Panama very easy and lots of them. Went straight to Miraflora locks. 3hrs 5 ships then UBER back to checkin at Sortis. NB: Rooftop swimming pool under construction.. ;-(

A little more sight seeing, then some evening fun around Casco Veijo (watching ARG-VEN in a local bar.. ;-)

Caught UBER at 4am at Sortis. (Lots of them pottering around even at that time.) ($25, plus gave $10 tip which they generally are not expecting.)

PTY security easy flight pushed back ahead of time, and landed 30mins ahead. Waited 20mins for gate to clear. MIA AC got me standby on earlier MIA-JFK on 77W ;-)

JFK AC couldn't get me onto earlier JFK-SFO as too many EXPs requesting upgrades for J to clear for me..

Anyway, great run and even with EQD in 2017, will try and get one of these in early probably with Mrs BM this time, and spend two days in Panama.

Now if someone can find a 2017 itin out of, and into SFO for 2 people... Every time I try, the price per passenger doubles for two people.
burtonmadness is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 10:34 am
  #1199  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: NorCal
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott GLD, HH PLT, Hertz 5*
Posts: 766
Ignore, about the double..

This dumb-... didn't see that google flights shows the total total, not just per passenger total.. .

So of course it was doubling for two people... DOH!
burtonmadness is offline  
Old Jun 20, 2016, 10:35 am
  #1200  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: NorCal
Programs: AA EXP, Marriott GLD, HH PLT, Hertz 5*
Posts: 766
Anybody find any itins for less than $600 in 2017? Can only find them into the $900s..
burtonmadness is offline  


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