AAward and owAAward

[simongr]

OK - have done the "hard yakka" I am getting close to actually redeeming an AAward (potentially).

As per my DONE4 planning thread I am trying to take mrssimongr to DRW for a few days in October. I have a number of options to "pay" for this so an open discussion would be useful.

I have checked availability using a dummy QF award and EF as I will add this to the revised SOB. Given the use of SOB I have to fly SYD-DRW-BNE-SYD (or some other concoction of flights). Given mrssimongr's dislike/fear of flying the option of her flying DRW-SYD alone is slim so I think she will have to route via BNE with me (unless it was non-negotiable and she couldn't get the right award QF/AA)

I currently have 330K AA points, 50K QF points and about 90K Amex points and 44 AA stickers that can be converted to AA points - 22K AA points. I also have about 36K of AA points that could post sometime in the next month...

The potential flights for a simple trip are:

SYD-DRW QF842 (stop) D7
DRW-BNE QF825 (connecting) D6
BNE-SYD QF555 D9

"Costing" this on QF is 72K points (she would be in J with me otherwise I would be flying alone in future permanently) +++

I can't work out if this is even possible on an AAward or whether she would just have to fly SYD-DRW-SYD. Could a SYD-DRW-BNE-SYD trip be put together?

The complication is that I also am starting to plan for our oneworld RTW award in J which based on a planned itinerary of SYD-JFK-LHR-PFO-SYD is 24,000 miles - which is right on the border of a 150 and 190K owAAward.

So what advice am I looking for?

1 - Can you book the AAward syd-drw-bne-syd for 35K points?
2 - If my routing due to availability does not fit under 25K miles but my requested itineray does - then I will be good for the 150OW AAward (given in all likelihood we will have to fly back to LHR/LGW to get back to SYD unless we manage to fly AMM-DXB-SIN-SYD)
3 - Should I just bite the bullet and dump the Amex points into AA rather than saving up for F upgrades (given I have almost decided to put October's paid flights into QF to get SG for 2007-2009 that will generate about 50K points for future upgrades)
4 - If we can book the SYD-DRW-BNE-SYD AAward at 35K points could I engineer a less than 24 hour transit and catch up for dinner with friends in BNE?

Phew - all this work for a free flight

P.s. I have given up trying to create a SYD-DRW-SYD flight within my DONE4s as it is way too hard

 

[NM]

The potential flights for a simple trip are:

SYD-DRW QF842 (stop) D7
DRW-BNE QF825 (connecting) D6
BNE-SYD QF555 D9

Would be good if you could get QF123 SYD-DRW, but availability is probably very limited for U awards seats. Would mean Skybeds and FLounge access if you can get it.

So what advice am I looking for?

1 - Can you book the AAward syd-drw-bne-syd for 35K points?

Yes, and no fuel fines to increase the cost of a multi-sector award.

2 - If my routing due to availability does not fit under 25K miles but my requested itineray does - then I will be good for the 150OW AAward (given in all likelihood we will have to fly back to LHR/LGW to get back to SYD unless we manage to fly AMM-DXB-SIN-SYD)

AA awards distances are calculated as the Great Circle Distance between stopovers, so if you need to divert via intermediate points to get availability, so long as they are transits then the extra miles don't count. This is very different to QF's OneWorld Awards.

Note that AA's definition of a transit for such awards is different to say the OneWorld Explorer definition. Its something like 4 hours for USA domestic and 6 hours for international or next AA or partner departure. Check the definition in the award terms and conditions.

3 - Should I just bite the bullet and dump the Amex points into AA rather than saving up for F upgrades (given I have almost decided to put October's paid flights into QF to get SG for 2007-2009 that will generate about 50K points for future upgrades)

Only you can decide that one.

4 - If we can book the SYD-DRW-BNE-SYD AAward at 35K points could I engineer a less than 24 hour transit and catch up for dinner with friends in BNE?

See my comments above regarding transits as defined by AA awards.

 

[serfty]

I would have a look at the FT American AAdvantage forum and it's stickies.

Here's a good summary of the rules: AA award travel stopover/transit/routing Rules

 

[simongr]

Thanks - I shall propose the itinerary to mrssimongr - I shall exclude tehovernight option in BNE.

I had shot for QF123 but no availabilitywhen I last checked

Thanks serfty - sometimes the stickies in the AA forum are less than helpful - being overly long and having info hidden in later posts - the wikis where available are great though

Cheers

S

 

[serfty]

Try this one -it's a good summary of the rules: AA award travel stopover/transit/routing Rules

Look at the first part headed: AAdvantage All-Partner Awards

I know about that forum, sometimes the regulars there can be downright caustic.

 

[simongr]

This I think is the killer phrase:

Passenger must travel the most direct routing.

Hmm - I might be able to get an EXP AAgent to put it through - I just need mrssimongr to commit to the routing for a start...


And serfty - some of the regulars can be a tad frosty but at the same time people ask some quite stupid questions (like can you route from DRW to SYD via BNE on an aaward )

 

[NM]

This I think is the killer phrase:

Passenger must travel the most direct routing.

don't too worried. I booked BNE-AKL via MEL in both directions and the AAgent didn't flinch. I guess it helped when I was able to tell her the exact flights that has 3 seats available in U.

When I fair said "I want to book 3 award seats in business class with Qantas from Brisbane to Auckland in January" I could tell she was thinking "Yeah, right". Then I have her the flight numbers and dates and she was surprised there was availability on my first choice of flights .

 

[simongr]

Great news. I am not too concerned about points requirement for the RTW aaward at the moment. I assume as I will have to book the itinerary in 3-4 aattempts - 330 days before each "hoped for" journey - I can convert points as needed - hopefully

 

[drron]

Just my experience with an AA OW award.We wanted BNE-LAX-SEA-LAX-BNE in business.This comes well under 20000 miles and fits with a 130000 award.
Final routing was BNE-SYD-HKG-NRT-LAX-DFW-SEA-DFW-NRT-BNE.which is over 25000 on great circle mapper.We got the tickets for 130000 even though there was 1 BNE-LAX j award on QF but mrsdrron and I were both using awards.They also let us stopover in Japan for 1 week on return as no awards into BNE for that time.I did this on the phone and the agent was extremely helpful,even suggesting delaying our SEA-DFW-NRT flight by one day so we could get the week in Japan.

 

[flyingzzzds]

Have just done BNE-PER on AA Award. BNE-PER direct outbound (before paid flight to SIN) then PER-MEL-BNE routing on way home. I checked availability thru QF and Expertflyer before ringing AA and conveniently the flights I wanted were the only ones with availability at the times that I 'really' had to go

I always ring the UK (Dublin) Plat number and find the operators to be amazingly helpful. On our last RTW the operator was on the line with me for nearly two hours! But she did find the flights!

 

[simongr]

Technical question.

I have seen seats available for my preferred routing on my preferred date. The question is - is the T-330 days based on the US date (i.e. 15 hours behind Oz) or t-330 days from take off - or day T-330 - so 6AM tomorrow morning?

 

[simongr]

And to answer my own question - no awards have been loaded to AA yet Tomorrow morning.

Now th e annoying thing is that is this goes according to schedule then whilst I am asleep tonight other parts of the world will be closer to the US in time zone and might get in before me - unless I stay up late tonight...

 

[flyingzzzds]

I'm intersted to find out - so please keep us updated on when the Awards actually 'show up'.

 

[simongr]

You dont mind if I book mine first do you

 

[flyingzzzds]

Of course But am more interested in the t-330 loading aspect than the actual seats (atm).

 

[simongr]

OK - an update

AA had no Business class inventory on QF loaded frorm early June - but we are booked SYD-HKG-LAX-JFK and at this point LAX-JFK is Coach for me and Bus for mrssimongr - sadly only an 90 mins at HKG so no bath for mrssimongr (but maybe time for a G&T....)

 

[simongr]

Well we have now made it to London - next stop CYprus to book - either LCA or PFO. They have put us both in Business LAX-JFK-LHR. Looking good so far. My main concern is now Cyprus.

I am just wondering given that on the QF site I could book an award flight on the flights that I want but the EXP desk couldnt see any availability...

 

[simongr]

Ok - just got a call from AA whilkst I was in the pub for lunch. They ahve realised that I dont meet the MCT for LAX on my HKG-LAX-JFK trip so they asked to rebook me to the HKG-JFK flight. I accepted without realising what was happening.

I now realise that the HKG-JFK is the next day at 4PM. In theory we could have a decent morning in HKG and break thr journey - but I am now concerned that I will be stung for additional miles as this is now a greater than 6 hours stopover

I wil call in the morning to check but am not as happy as I was an hour ago...

 

[serfty]

Looking here: AA award travel stopover/transit rules *REVISED w/ ROUTING rules* - FlyerTalk Forums , you may be OK if it's < 24 hours.

Passenger has 4/6 hours to connect (depending on domestic or international travel). If there are no scheduled flights within this timeframe, regardless of availability, the passenger must take the next scheduled flight but, may not exceed 24 hours. If the connection exceeds 24 hours, it will be considered a stopover.

If there is a non-stop flight that departs after the 4/6 hour window and arrives at the destination earlier than a connecting flight within the 4/6 hour window, the passenger may be booked on the non-stop flight.

 

[simongr]

That is my concern

It is the "next scheduled flight" - I guess the only point of comparison is the next direct HKG-JFK flight. A little concerned - the scheduled flight is not the next scheduled flight - there is an earlier one