When American Airlines knocked out the ORD-DEL flight a short while after they entered Chapter 11 protection, I was slightly crossed with them. And I had good reason to be, I had just started to earn top-tier status with AAdvantage due to the OneWorld MegaDo, and was planning to make American Airlines my regular flight for travels to the USA, and switch to the oneworld network for going places outside my base at BOM.

With this move, I was still going to be able to use the oneworld benefits, by taking a one stop flight via London on BA or Brussels on Jet Airways, but I was going to be unable to use my upgrade benefits fully, which are valid when flying on American Airlines metal only. Also, all of a sudden I could not book award tickets online since American Airlines could not support partner award redemptions online.

Gladly, I noticed on Lucky’s blog the other day that AAdvantage has now added the functionality to book British Airways award space via the AA.com website. That instantly meant that I could now book my AAdvantage miles from India to travel not just to the USA but anywhere that BA went, using the AA.com website, which is a significant addition of functionality for me since I don’t have to Skype or call international to book an award ticket.

Now that makes life so much easier, and helps me keep my commitment with AA for the times to come. This means I no longer have to go on an award space ‘hunt’ to Europe and I can book away directly using the website. Thanks Maya Liebman for moving to become the CIO of American Airlines.

On the AA wishlist now, is if they could convert the upgrade vouchers to be used on partner upgrades as well, like United members get for Lufthansa… then nothing is stopping me from stepping up my commitment to American Airlines!

There, I said it…

Related Posts:

• American discontinues its only flight to India, what is next?

• 130 hours to AA Executive Platinum

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• Introduction
• Clipper Lounge, Mumbai CSI Airport Terminal 2
• Jet Airways Economy Class Mumbai to Brussels
• British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, Brussels National Airport
• American Airlines Business Class Brussels to New York JFK and Five-Star Arrival
• American Airlines Premium Check-in and Flagship Lounge, New York JFK
• American Airlines Economy Class JFK to London LHR
• American Airlines Arrivals Lounge, London LHR
• Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, London
• American Airlines Flagship Check-in and Flagship Lounge, London Heathrow
• American Airlines Economy Class London to Chicago
• American Airlines Flagship Lounge at Chicago ORD
• American Airlines First Class from Chicago ORD to Dallas Fort Worth
• Hyatt Regency Hotel, DFW
• Hyatt Regency Hotel, Bellevue
• Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles
• Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Los Angeles
• American Airlines First Class from Los Angeles to Chicago ORD
• American Airlines Business Class from Chicago ORD to Delhi
• Jet Airways Economy Class from Delhi to Mumbai
• Conclusion

The oneworld MegaDo was my first MegaDo participation, and I sure was excited to go and meet another 170 frequent flyers who were game to put their money on the table and travel all over to meet airline, aircraft and hotel executives and get to know how it works behind the scenes.

The MegaDo was supported by American Airlines and I had participated in the Executive Platinum Challenge offered to OWMD participants. Hence, it only made sense to get some of my business to them and book my travels on the MegaDo with American Airlines as far as possible. However, I started to look closely at the reservations only in January, 15 days or less before I was supposed to get to the MegaDo. As a result, the flights on American Airlines soon to be discontinued direct flight AA293 between Delhi and Chicago were pricing at an astronomical price. I decided to take a codeshare option on American Airlines instead to get to Brussels, and then head over to New York on American Airlines.

For travelling to London for visiting British Airways, I chose to go with the MegaDo rate offered by American Airlines to travel from New York to London, and travel back from London to Dallas Fort Worth.

In the end, my routing for the entire travel, including the MegaDo looked pretty enormous, with 28,700 BIS miles travelled in a span of 10 days, hopping over 9 airports in 3 continents. Slightly crazy, but enormous uptake for the mileage account. Things that you’d have to do to credit miles to your account!

Here is how the entire itinerary looked, with a total of 28,686 travelled miles, 62,668 EQMs and 92,644 redeemable miles! I was able to use 2 of my EXP SWUs for upgrading my travel from BRU-JFK and on ORD-DEL, while I got a complimentary upgrade on the LAX-ORD flight.

1. 21/Jan AA7836 Mumbai to Brussels (codeshare with Jet Airways) departing Mumbai at 03:00 and arriving Brussels at 07:50
2. 21/Jan AA171 Brussels to New York JFK departing Brussels at 10:00 and arriving JFK at 12:45
3. 23/Jan AA104 New York JFK to London Heathrow departing New York at 21:05 and arriving London at 09:10
4. 25/Jan AA51 London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth departing London at 09:45 and arriving Dallas at 14:05
5. 26/Jan AAOWMD Dallas Fort Worth to Seattle Tacoma
6. 27/Jan AAOWMD Seattle Tacoma to Los Angeles
7. 29/Jan AA2004 Los Angeles to Chicago O’Hare departing LA at 08:00 and arriving Chicago at 14:00
8. 29/Jan AA292 Chicago O’Hare to Delhi departing Chicago at 15:40 and arriving Delhi at 17:45 +1
9. 30/Jan AA7852 Delhi to Mumbai (codeshare with Jet Airways) departing Delhi at 19:45 and arriving Mumbai at 21:45

That some of the routing did not work out as planned is a different thing, and added to the excitement of being on the MegaDo (not to forget churn us miles for the inconvenience!) is a separate deal altogether!

I’ll skip the parts of the MegaDo charter and exclusive activities while I post them separately in an ongoing series. There are more trip reports lined up so keep reading, and if there is a question or comment, drop me a line!

If you do not hold status with American Airlines but wish to get some status on American, you might just want to take a look at this.

As per this post on Flyertalk, if you register on AA.Com/offers with the promo code HVCAA till 29th February 2012, you could be enrolled for an expedited status challenge with American Airlines. You have to fly 10,000 base miles or 25,000 base miles on American’s metal to get upgraded to Platinum or Executive Platinum on AAdvantage. This is a targeted offer, so I am not sure yet if everyone who registers will be able to get it honoured or not. But read on…

By flying 10,000 base miles on American Airlines or American Eagle, you could get AAdvantage Platinum status, which offers your double RDMs and upgrades. That is 20% of the miles you need to do via regular means.

By flying 25,000 base miles on American Airlines or American Eagle/American Connection, you could earn Executive Platinum status which offers you unlimited upgrades while flying domestically and 8SWUs for international upgrades along with double RDMs. That makes it 25% of the annual requirement. This is the status I earned on American Airlines via the EXP challenge for OWMD.

AA does not usually do public challenges for EXP, but if they decide to honour this, you could be in for a sweet surprise.

What is more, by registering for this promotion you get to earn double miles for all your flying between 8th February 2012 to 31st May 2012 on American Airlines.

Status earned by registering for this offer will be valid till 28th February 2013. I will post more details as and when I get them. If you anyways expect to get the status via the DEQMs promo or other AA promos, you might want to hold on to those since status earned will be till February 2014 in that case.

Get cracking people!