Aadvantage charging 2 separate awards from Australia to USA

[davidjm2389]

At the moment Aadvantage is charging two separate awards to fly from Australia to USA eg MEL to JFK via HKG with CX For April 2022.
Is this new? Previously one award would cover the connecting flights.

 

[Mattg]

This is normal for AAdvantage because you’re travelling via a third “region” which is not “approved” as a transit region between Australia & North America. AAwards from Australia to North America via Asia have always been priced as separate awards.

 

[Danger]

A couple of questions from an AAdvantage newbie

I've had an AAdvantage membership for years, but after signing up never used it... But have seen a few things mentioned on this site so might do more with it now... 1) I see on the AA redemtion chart that flights betwen the US and South Pacific are 37500 in economy and 62,500 in business one...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[louie-m]

There's a table on this page which shows where non-direct itineraries are allowed on a single award. As Mattg says, there is no "exemption" for North America to Australia via any other region. This compares with, for example, Europe to Australia, where you can transit through Asia or, in some circumstances, the Middle East.

 

[bernardblack]

Just to add, if you're going to go ahead and book a two-part award AU<>US, you should consider MEL/SYD <> HND/NRT <> JFK/BOS/ORD/DFW/LAX/SFO/SEA/YVR. Then it's (assuming J for example) 40k + 60k rather than 40k + 70k, and the award availability on JAL is pretty good. I just booked SEA > NRT and then NRT > MEL, with a stopover between, and could get four people booked on the same reservation in business.