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 5, 2011
Gary mentioned the offer is back tomorrow afternoon, the application is here
The British Airways Visa is offering 50,000 bonus miles after first purchase and 50,000 after spending $2,500 on the card within three months. There’s a
Other than that, you will also get
- Earns 1.25 miles per dollar. This way, it’s as good for earning BA miles as spend on a Starwood Amex (though of course without the same flexibility)
- No foreign currency transaction fees. International travelers need one of those, and this card provides a reasonable compromise between cost and earning from among the cards with this benefit (same fee as the Hyatt card with better earn, much lower fee than the Continetnal Presidential Plus Mastercard, the United Visa that comes with lounge membership, or the Amex Platinum).
- Free companion award ticket after $30,000 in spend each year. This makes even awards which are pretty pricey through the BA chart much more manageable. You must fly British Airways metal, though, and that does mean incurring some pretty high fuel surcharges.
I personally think this is a great card to keep because Chase offers different miles bonus for card members, the value is more than enough to offset the annual fee.
If you don’t know where to burn these miles, I wrote “Some best uses of British Airway miles” few months ago, hopefully can give you some better idea
Posted by Troy under British Airways, Oneworld |
February 1, 2011
Not too long ago, I talked about some best redemption options for British airways, one of then is Russia domestic, then, few days later, I mentioned AA redemption for award on S7 airline, but today I checked BA award again, they also separate Russia for award redemption.
Within Eastern Russia, 25000 for R/T economy, 50K for R/T business.
within Western Russia, 15000 for economy, 30K for business.
Btw Eastern Russia to Western Russia/Europe 3/North Africa is 35K for R/T economy, 70K for business.
It’s not a super deal now for people living in the states, because S7 doesn’t fly to US. you can not take advantage of 1 partner airline anymore. still ok to tour around the Russia
You can check destinations in Russia here
Posted by Troy under British Airways, Oneworld |
January 17, 2011
Many people have mentioned one of the best mileage redemption of using BA miles is with BOGO redemption certificate, which you can redeem miles required for one person, but fly 2. However, you need to have BA US or UK credit card and spending certain amount in order to get this certificate and pay high fuel surcharges and fees(more than $ 1000 per ticket(if stopover in UK to EU beyond). I know, 2 first class for $1000*2 is a great deal, but I think there are some other good ways to use BA miles too
British airways have 4 different kinds of redemption, BA only, BA+1 partner, 1 partner only and oneworld distance award. what I will talk about is 1 partner only award.
BA awards allow UNLIMITED en route stopovers, when I say unlimited, it’s truly unlimited, although the T&C mentioned most direct routing applies, well, the actual outcome depends on your luck with booking agent on the phone.
All award lists below are one way amount, R/T just double, First class on 3 cabin X3
1 Using on Lan for North America to South America or within South America or South America domestic， North to South America one way Economy is 20000 , business is 40000, within South America one way is 12500, business is 25000, South America domestic economy is 10000, business 20000.
2 From Europe to USA/Europe to Hawaii or Central America/USA domestic, if you want to tour USA using BA miles on AA. From EU zone 1 to USA Economy one way 25000, Business one way 50000. include Hawaii or Central America? Same amount. Just want USA domestic+Canada? Economy one way is 12500, business is 25000. welcome to America!
3 India domestic. Kingfisher Airways will join Oneworld soon, they have the best India domestic network, never been to India, no problem, Economy one way is 10000, business is 20000
4 Russia domestic, please check here
5 Japan domestic, Japan Airline. You can travel all the way from Sapporo to Naba. One way economy 7500, Business 15000.
6 Australia domestic on Qantas. Same thing, enjoy your tour in Australia, Economy one way 15000, Business 30000.
7 North America to Far East on CX, AA or JAL, 25K in Y, 50K in business one way. touring America to China/Japan or touring Japan from US or JFK-YYZ-HKG-xxx in Far East on CX
When planing your trip, try to plan with one direction, I am not saying you can’t get it done in one award with backtracking(there are people have done with serious backtracking), but it will be a lot easier to convince a agent to issue the ticket. Also, since award can be booked in one way, you can stop diff cities on your way back.
Please note: all above redemption collects fuel surcharge with exception of LAN, but I think the actul pay off are much more better than YQ, even in Economy class.
reader a1l613 reporst, BA doesn’t charge YQ for s7 redemption
Also, it’s still unclear whether BA charges YQ on AA or not. I know they don’t charge them before, but now AA charges BA, BA should also charge AA. online redemption still showing no YQ, unclear about phone booking
Posted by Troy under American Airlines, Award redemption, British Airways, Oneworld, Other Airline Reward Programs |
August 13, 2010
I have not read the detail yet, you can find them here.
The largest #1 and #2 airlines in South American intend to become LATAM airline. Both are under diff alliances, so there is no way to stay in separate alliance after the merge. Also, the top 2 airlines in a region merge, hard to believe it can pass the Antitrust Evaluation.
Anyway, let wait and see.
Posted by Troy under Oneworld, Other Airline Reward Programs, Star Alliance |
April 16, 2010
As I said here and here few months ago, MU announced today that they will join by mid-2011
This is not a news to me as we know the management of MU has closer “relationship” with skyteam for pretty long time.
A big loss for Oneworld, but no surprise. I don’t want to MU, a badly managed airline to join oneworld anyway.
Oneworld’s only choice is HU(hainan airlines), but it will be a good choice as I and most others consider HU is THE best airline in China in term of customer service and management.
BTW, as I mentioned earlier, shanghai airline will be gone and merge with MU, so a big loss to *A for Shanghai Hub.
Posted by Troy under Oneworld, Skyteam |
February 23, 2010
According to this article, kingfisher will official join and fly as part of alliance sometimes in 2011.
Kingfisher is currently a partner of Delta airlines, and they have top premium cabin product. you can use ur delta miles on their flight.
I couldn’t find their route map, can anyone find it?
Posted by Troy under Delta, Oneworld, Other Airline Reward Programs |
