May 7, 2011
AA is working hard to promote their Los Angeles/San Francisco hub, in addition to current DEQM promotion btw LAX/SFO-DFW, AA is now offering DEQM + Double Redeemable miles for flight btw LAX/SFO -ORD, registration is required and reservation must be booked after May 6th.
Offer valid for member with address in CA or IL only and only round trip or multi segments trip involves LAX/SFO-ORD will be counted, but unlike LAX/SFO-DFW promotion, flight with LAX-ORD-SFO open jaw will be counted too,
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
May 5, 2011
There are so many places I want to go,but getting to some places are not cheap, thanks to frequent flyer/guest programs and great airline alliances, so I can travel to so many places in comfort and cheap.
Back to one month ago, I mentioned my planned trip in May.Now, I’d like to share the process of booking all these awards.
The completed trip will be like this
PVG-FRA-ALA-IST-AMM//AQJ-AMM-JED-DXB-HKG-PVG//PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM-ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA-DYU-IST-FRA-PVG
all bold cities are places I will enter or at least attempt to enter.
Confusing? 
because they are 5 separate tickets using 3 different airlines miles, so let’s me break them one by one. All award search was done by kvstool
First part and last part, PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class, Using US airways , taxes amount 100+ 50 processing fee. It only took 2 phone calls to get this ticket issued because first agent refused to let me backtracking. I did not have option to try any other airlines first class product on the way back because flight from DYU-IST only operates 2 times per week, Monday and Wednesday, and I needed to find a way connect back to China same day. Also, DYU-IST was the segment I booked as Economy and just moved to Business last week
Then I used BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD on Turkish Airways B737 Business and BMI A321 Business class. This was a easy one, 1 simple phone call finished booking。BD flight only had economy left, but since I am Gold member, revenue management released business award seat for me. Never been to Africa, always want to be there. Although days spend in ADD(Addis Ababa) will be very short, I don’t want waste a free stopover when using BMI one way award. Tax amount was very strange, I checked with ITA first with Point of Sale Boston, the taxes and fuel were not too high, but when I called to book the ticket, taxes and fuel were a lot higher than I checked. Then I went back to ITA again with POS London, exactly same kinds taxes line by line, but currency was UK AND amount was higher. I knew POS can affect the fare price, but I didn’t how this affected taxes amount. Total taxes include Cash + miles copay were 300+USD
Originally, I planed to tour around Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for around 3 weeks, but now Syria is not stable, so I decided to go back to home in middle of the trip. From middle east to China, the cheapest option of using miles was American Airline, but unlike above tickets, this one took me some checking and calling. I will travel in a single direction in Jordan, which means I will start from Amman and finish in Aqaba. When I called AA to book from AQJ-AMM-JED-HKG-PVG, flight AQJ-AMM was priced in addition to normal Middle East to Asia 2 business class. The explanation I got was there was no published fare btw AQJ-PVG. I then tried something like AMM-BAH-BKK-HKG-PVG and more such as via BOM, DEL, KUL, all came back with same result, 3 segments, correct pricing, 4 segments, miles increase. I mentioned before there are many restrictions with AA, so nothing to argue about it, move on. I eventually settled with AMM-JED-DXB(through flight)-HKG-SHA on Royal Jordanian A320 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class, but too bad, it’s regional A330.6 hours layover in JED, hopefully, I can get a transit pass to exit the immigration. As for AQJ-AMM, I bought a one way from AQJ-AMM for $75 on Royal Jordanian. Taxes were only 30+USD.
Return from China to continue my trip also used AA miles PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM on Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in Economy. From Riyadh to Amman there was no way to get business class award(I did some checking) . Unlike above flight, I added a exactly 24 hours connection in Hong Kong and 17.5 hours connections in Riyadh. I picked Riyadh because of final arrival time in Amman to connect to ADD on the same day on BMI flight was perfect. All other options including Bahrain, Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai were not working either because of finally arrival time in Amman or India visa issue. I knew I should try different airlines, but for this one, I just had to stuck with Cathay. Total taxes for these flights were also only 30+ USD
The final part: ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA on Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class and Turkish airline B737 business class using BMI miles. This was an interesting part. Again, I don’t want to waste BMI miles one way stopover, but not too many options. I did not want stopover in Egypt, could not stopover in Europe according to BMI redemption rules, holding PRC passport, so need to find a country visa free and there was no *A flight from ADD continued to Southern Africa until Ethiopia airline joins *A. With so many restrictions, I decided Cyprus, which still part of Europe, but I did not think BMI agent had knowledge where it located. Then my friend suggested me to try to make agent believde Larnaca and Ercan airport were co-terminals. My luck was very good, first agent believed me LCA and ECN were co-terminals and she had no idea where the Cyprus was, so ticket issued, total taxes were 400+USD including cash portion for C+M.
let’s recap here:
US Airways for PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class
BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD and ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA, Turkish Airw ays B737 Business, BMI A321 Business class and Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class
AA miles for AMM-JED-HKG-PVG and PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in business and Economy
Cash paid for ALA-DYU on Air Astana and AQJ-AMM on Royal Jordain
Total miles used for all tickets: 115,000
Now, let’s go to hotel part, fairly easy and straightforward
Almaty: Hyatt just rebrand to different hotel, so I still have not decided where to stay yet
Amman: Le Meridien, C+P
Petra: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Riyadh: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Nicosia: Hilton, standard award redemption
Dushanbe: Hyatt, stay certificate, Classic level.
I hope I did not make you guys fall in sleep while reading!
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Africa, American Airlines, Asia(Including Central Asia and Middle East), Award redemption, BMI Diamond Club, Hilton, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott, Starwood Hotels, US airways |
May 3, 2011
Just saw this promotion via this thread
Avis is rewarding AA members with a savings of up to 25% and 5,000 AA Bonus Miles. Book a weekly rental between May 1, 2011 through August 15, 2011 for a rental taking place August 15, 2011 through December 15, 2011. AWD # K817100 and Coupon # MUAA042
Offer valid for US and Canada airport location only.
You can use any AWD you want
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Rental Cars |
April 22, 2011
According to Gary and Ben, AA will change their Million miles program soon, but no detail was released. For past many years, AA had the easiest Million miles program on earth, in which they counted all miles earned from any source toward the qualification.
Finally, the change is coming, hopefully, they can at least make as all elite qualifying miles count, now just Butt in seat miles.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
April 19, 2011
I just learned something new last week, which is the key difference btw United SWU and AA EVIP other than fare class
With United Airline, you can use SWU to upgrade on fare W class or above(they are W,U,V,B,C,D, E, M H and Y)for international flight to Asia, Europe, Middle East, South America, Australia and Africa
with American Airline, you can use EVIP on any paid fare
With United Airline and American Airline, Each SWU or EVIP is good for three segments in a single direction.
What did I learn last week?
With United Airline, any stop greater than 12 hours will require an additional SWU, but with American Airline, as long as it’s in a single direction, you can stop as long as you you want without using an extra EVIP
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, United Airlines |
April 14, 2011
Follow by Gary’s using US airways and my using Delta miles, I want to talk about American airlines this time. They have fairly straight forward booking procedures, but sometimes their hidden routing restriction can become very frustrating experience, I hope what I write below can clarify something and make you award booking procedure smoother.
Stopovers/open jaw: AA miles have three different award products, AA only, all partner award and oneworld awards.
With AA only and all partners award, no stopover is permitted other than American Airlines North American international gateways for award to Asia, Europe, India and Central/South America, which means any North American gateway city will work, That is, whatever city you depart North America from. So if you’re flying Cathay from San Francisco you can have an SFO stopover. Or if you’re departing BA from Las Vegas, you can have a Las Vegas stopover.For international connections, any connecting greater than 24 hours will be considered as another award. For domestic, 4 hours.
Since all awards are priced as one way, so open jaw is not relevant anymore
Oneworld awards are distance based(all flying distance), you can have as many stopovers as you want as long as total segments are less than 16. Also, one open jaw is permitted.
Routing restrictions: Believe or not, AA only and all partners award have very strict routing restriction even though some routing are most ideal and logical. Some are published, some are not, you don’t really know them until you try to price the award. This FT thread has a summary, but that’s just part of them. People reported award to New Zealand via PPT will be counted as two awards; adding a domestic segment within Jordan triggering additional mileage; from Asia 2 to Easter Island will be counted as 2 awards no matter how you route via and many more.
Oneworld award are distance based, so there is really no routing restrictions to talk about
Segments: I don’t know, no one really knows, all priced by computer, some 2 segments simple award may price incorrectly, some multi segments award are priced without any problem. The max I did was 4 segments for one direction.
Oneworld award has 16 segments max restriction
Fee: $25 ticketing fee if you are not EXP or the EXP member does not travel on the same trip. Also, there will be “close in” fee if miles are not come from Gold member or above, the fees are $50 for 20 days-6 days prior to departure or $100 for departure within 6 days. Also, award involves British Airways will be charged fuel surcharge.
Hold: 5 business days for all awards, however, if award originally contains Royal Jordan, no extension can be given unless rebooked the original RJ flight provided seats are open. Also, you can only hold one PNR for the same airline with similar departure date, they will call you to make you choose one.
Award searching tool: The best way to search awards are using British Airway website, even better if you have KVS tools, AA shares same award inventory with BA website, whatever you see, you can call AA to book.
Change or Cancel: No fee if changing date only, all other changes such as routing, carriers and city pairs will incur award re deposit fee of $150. However, no fee will be charge for changing from lower cabin to higher cabin even if miles were originally pulled as lower cabin provided all others remain the same. EXP member exempt from all fees above.
How many miles will my award cost?
Award chart for all AA awards
Award chart for all partner awards
Award chart for one world awards
Award blocking and IT glitch: Should be none, there were several minor glitches, but I don’t see them lately, if the agent tells you no seat, he/she probably does not look closely enough, especially with multiple closer departure flights with 2 cities
How long will my call take? The correct booking procedures with AA agents are telling them flight one by one. Don’t tell them all segments or just origin and final destination at one time, give them second segment after they find first segment.Especially true with award mixed of Cathay Pacific and Dragon air. Also, better to tell them exact flight time and number, especially with multiple closer departure flights with 2 cities. Most time, my call takes only around 5 minutes.
Got questions, just ask, I hope what I wrote about above can help you in the future.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Oneworld |
April 13, 2011
Many people have already knew the current LAX-PVG double/triple miles promotion from American Airlines and registered for it. As a EXP member lives in Shanghai, there’s no reason for me not to register. The promotion email was sent out around late Feb even though the service did not start until last week.
Yesterday, I just took the flight and found out AFTER the flight I DID NOT register for this promotion!!!! I had impression I did, but in fact I did not! At least I found out after the outbound, otherwise, I would have miss the entire trip.
I did call AAdvatange CSR, they were nice enough to honor half of the bonus!! better than nothing!
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
April 11, 2011
Last year, AA had same promotion running for everyone until Feb 28th of this, now the new offer is valid for “Note: This offer is valid only for AAdvantage members with an address on file with AAdvantage Marketing programs in California or Texas.”
Maybe is time for you to move to Texas or California for few months Then You can try to register and fly R/T before Aug 31st. If their system allows you to register, then you should be fine. Since I am only few thousand miles short of Million miles, I don’t intend to move my address in California.
Please also note, only round trip or multi segments trip involves LAX/SFO-DFW in BOTH direct will be counted. eg
LAX-DFW-LGA-DFW-LAX
routing doesn’t count: LAX-DFW-LGA-DFW-SFO or LAX-DFW-BOX-LAX
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
March 17, 2011
I first heard Tahiti, French Polynesia from this article, which also made me aware of mileage program. Many people went there for a special occasion, so did we. It’s our fifth year anniversary and we did not go anywhere(excluding Hong Kong) for vacation last year, so Tahiti, here we come.
Back in Sep, I mentioned how I redeemed Delta miles from China to Tahiti, but later, I modified the trip to PVG-NRT-PPT(destination)-AKL(stopover)-ICN-KIX(open jaw)-PVG, in this ticket, PVG-NRT//KIX-PVG was under separate awards. total 150K miles per person. I could be more creative with second ticket too, but we did not have too much time to spend on the road. Many people may already realize that AA miles from Asia 2 to South Pacific was 70K R/T, but routing can not be via Japan. Later I figured out how to get to PPT from PVG with 70K , but I decided to not to fly that route, which required overnight in one of connecting cities and in PPT too. There was also an option on Air New Zealand, but getting 2 business award seat from AKL-PPT was mission impossible. when I searched for entire next 330+ days, there were only 2 days had 2 seats. Anyway, 150K miles get me to see 3 cities, I am more than happy with value, consider getting Delta miles is by far easier than AA miles.
Just few days after we left Shanghai, Japan had earthquake, despite Osaka was not affected, our family asked us to change the trip by calling me everyday. Eventually, I changed the ticket today by going back to China from New Zealand directly.
Now it’s hotel part. Actually, it was quite easy to decide because the only chain with reasonable redemption rate is Hilton. Initially, I redeemed 4 nights for hilton bora Bora using Amex AXON7 award for 145,000 points, but later the hotel was on the point stretcher list, so I changed to 5 nights for total 150K. Then for Hilton Moorea, I redeemed 6 nights VIP award for total 225,000 points with one more extra night at 50,000 points since I didn”t want to spent a day in Tahiti. we were going there for “once in a lifetime” experience, so a basic room was not enough for us, I did some research for pre paid upgrade to Overwater Bugalow with hotels, it turned out the lowest price for low season, diamond member was 10000 xpf(appox 110 USD) tax included for Bora Bora. I contacted amelie.albertin at hilton-borabora.pf, Assistant Front Desk Manager for that price. Due to inflation, the price had gone up to 11,000 xpf per night to Deluxe over water bungalow, I took the offer. The reason I mentioned Diamond because that price was based on upgrade from the next category above redemption room for diamond.
For Moorea, I also sent them emails, but respond was slow, eventually, they replied me with a price of 20000 XPF per night+tax, paid 5, get 1 free. I countered back with a better price, but never received a respond. When I checked in at hotel, I did get a much better price, I will talk about it later.
For New Zealand, it was easy decision too. Since it’s just a short side trip, I picked Hilton Lake Taupo. Last month, I mentioned how I mistakenly booked the wrong date, but the hotel did me a favor.
Finally, it came to inter Island flight, I initially searched PPT-BOB-MOZ-PPT, then it came out 540 per person on expedia.com, but the flight with better time from BOB-MOZ actually connecting via PPT, so I changed my search to PPT-BOB R/T then PPT-MOZ R/T, the price came out $480 total, so basically, I sit on the exact same plane with lower price if I break the search into 2 R/T . I redeemed my last 100K Thank you points for these flights. Due to schedule change for my return MOZ-PPT flight, I had to cancel the round trip for this segment and bought a one way, return by ferry.
The trip was wonderful and trip will come up soon!!!!
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, American Airlines, Delta, Hilton, Oceania |
February 25, 2011
Unlike *A or skyteam, American airline doesn’t give Elite member/premium cabin any extra allowance for checked bag, but with recent AA/BA/IB joint venture, they gave extra allowance for premium cabin passengers.
The rule was not very clear on the website, so here is my summary.
Anyone traveling in Business/First class on any of these 3 company can check in up to 3 bags with 70 lbs each. If your AA flight is upgraded, as long as you have one segment cleared before you drop off your bag, then you will be entitled to the extra allowance.
Elite status still doesn’t get you extra allowance right now.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines |
February 9, 2011
We all know that Delta award pricing are fully computerized, computer will automatically calculate number of miles required based on origin, destination and routing. How about other airlines?
Based on my experience, American Airline is another airline using similar system. Last year, I tried to book award PVG-NRT-PPT, which was the most direct routing and it’s published routing. However the AA system calculated as 2 awards Asia 2-Asia 1+Asia 1+South Pacific. I guess it’s because I routed via higher zone. Then, I tried PVG-HKG-AKL-PPT, this time it calculated as Asia 2-South Pacific, then within South Pacific.
After some disscusion on FT, I tried PVG-HKG-SYD-AKL-PPT, this time was told only 1 award Asia 2-South Pacific.
I also tried above trip by adding PPT-IPC, now it counted as 2 award again.Every time, I was trying to argue with agent, rate desk, supervisor, all they told was “sorry, computer does the job, we only put flight together”
Just yesterday, I saw a post on FT, someone redeemed LAX-PPT-AKL on TN with no stopovers, the computer counted as two awards again. So Delta is not the only one, AA does the same except much better domestic award availability than Delta.
How about US, UA and CO?
Again, based on my experience, their system doesn’t calculate amount of miles automatically based on city or routing. There should be a place for agent to put in region, then computer calculating required miles based the agents’ input. That’s why we all heard many crazy routing when using US or CO miles, even UA.
update: Gary confirmed that CO is fully computerized, I am surprised to see they did not program the routing restrictions.
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, Continental Airline, Delta, Star Alliance, United Airlines, US airways |
