Best way to book an American Airlines (ex US) flight

[serfty]

Irrespective of the changes announced in the past few days that serfty points out, I don't believe it's ever been possible to have a stop on an award ticket anywhere outside of North America. So don't beat yourself up; it's not a case of you having just missed the boat with respect to having a Dubai stopover.

True enough - posting from a handheld device makes it harder to be more fulsome.

Until early this month it was possible to get a stopover at the 'gateway' port in the USA for an award to or from the USA.

ISTR back (maybe 5 years?) when standard AAdvantage awards were "Round Trip" with no one-way there may have been non USA stopovers possible.

 

[grussellt]

Irrespective of the changes announced in the past few days that serfty points out, I don't believe it's ever been possible to have a stop on an award ticket anywhere outside of North America. So don't beat yourself up; it's not a case of you having just missed the boat with respect to having a Dubai stopover.

In 2012 I had a very pleasant overnight in Tokyo as part of a trip from SYD-CDG via NRT on JL/BA

 

[NM]

Overnight transits were/are permitted when the next scheduled departure to your destination is the following day. But there are time limits (could be within 12 hours???).

Previously, one way to get a stopover outside the USA was to use the OneWorld Award, but that generally cost more miles and must use two OneWorld partner airlines other than AA. And of course that award type was removed in the last round of changes.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Irrespective of the changes announced in the past few days that serfty points out, I don't believe it's ever been possible to have a stop on an award ticket anywhere outside of North America. So don't beat yourself up; it's not a case of you having just missed the boat with respect to having a Dubai stopover.

I haven't done an AA award however I"ve practiced doing bookings & noted that when you used the multi-city tool for award travel it would allow a stopover at certain gateway cities eg

NRT/JFK/SJU
CDG/xTXL/JFK/xLAX/HNL
LIM/DFW/HNL

You could specify eg 19th Nov NRT/JFK then 10th Dec JFK/SJU (you could even fly JFK/xMIA/SJU) & the results would actually say "this booking permits a stopover" etc.

 

[serfty]

I haven't done an AA award however I"ve practiced doing bookings & noted that when you used the multi-city tool for award travel it would allow a stopover at certain gateway cities eg
...

Well that's no more. In that example, NYC was the "gateway" port.

 

[anna2103]

Overnight transits were/are permitted when the next scheduled departure to your destination is the following day. But there are time limits (could be within 12 hours???).

Previously, one way to get a stopover outside the USA was to use the OneWorld Award, but that generally cost more miles and must use two OneWorld partner airlines other than AA. And of course that award type was removed in the last round of changes.

I know the timelimit is less than 24 hours. what i am not sure about it whether you can use the 24 rule more than once for 1 journey ie SYD - HGK - LHR (daylflight to london) - Nice is all bookable on one ticket - but because of the timings, LHR-Nice would also neccesaiate a less than 24 hour transit in addition to the one in HGK. So I was wondering can you do more than 1 transit on each trip?

 

[grussellt]

I think the time limit in each case would be 24h or less as they are simply connections and are both international (i.e not US). Have a try online as a multi-city booking.

 

[GCC]

I looked at a straightforward AA booking DFW - BNA - DFW (Yup) in August today. The Au site priced at $1521 AUD, the US site priced the same fare at $742 USD!:shock:

So I'll be booking via the US site, unless I'm doing something wrong with the AU site?

 

[serfty]

... unless I'm doing something wrong with the AU site?

yes... using it!

In the early days I did see some cheaper first/business fares but not the last few times I checked ... and these day the number of times I check is getting less and less ...

 

[muppet]

Hi AA flyers

I noticed on AA's travel agent site that international travellers are exempted from US1 and ZP taxes when noting their international ticket number in the endorsement box.

For my upcoming flights (6 sectors - YUP) this will amount to $160 in savings (about 10% off - I know it's high, it's not a status run I actually need to go places) - has anyone had success in having AA put together a multi-stop itineray and get exempted from these taxes?

Thanks
m

 

[MelUser]

Quite the opposite - I expend time and energy convincing AA that I live in Melbourne (pronounced melborrrn), Florida and breathe a sigh of relief when my reservation changes to ticketed and I see the 001 ticket numbers in the booking!

 

[muppet]

Quite the opposite - I expend time and energy convincing AA that I live in Melbourne (pronounced melborrrn), Florida and breathe a sigh of relief when my reservation changes to ticketed and I see the 001 ticket numbers in the booking!

hmm thanks for the reply... not looking promising then.
i'll report back when i call

 

[baggyred]

Wish I'd seen this before trying to buy miles.

i think this must have happened to me as I had my postcode in the box

at present I have no miles, and two debits on my credit card. The aa website said my card failed but they have debited. Chasing it up now.

can I ask a q, when you enter your cc address do you do the same trick with your post code, ie put it in the address box, rather than the post code box?

 

[grussellt]

Wish I'd seen this before trying to buy miles.

i think this must have happened to me as I had my postcode in the box

at present I have no miles, and two debits on my credit card. The aa website said my card failed but they have debited. Chasing it up now.

can I ask a q, when you enter your cc address do you do the same trick with your post code, ie put it in the address box, rather than the post code box?

Most users don't have this problem anymore. However you can leave the postcode out of your address and put in a dummy zip code (search El Segundo method in AFF). I use 33133 which was my address in Florida, even though I now live in NSW.
Best of luck.

 

[baggyred]

Most users don't have this problem anymore. However you can leave the postcode out of your address and put in a dummy zip code (search El Segundo method in AFF). I use 33133 which was my address in Florida, even though I now live in NSW.
Best of luck.

I have family in CA so I will just use that.

Does the issue arise with both the points purchase and the flight purchase?

I did find el segundo but it i all over the shop and then posts in 2012 saying it is no longer needed.

 

[kevrosmith]

I have family in CA so I will just use that.

Does the issue arise with both the points purchase and the flight purchase?

I did find el segundo but it i all over the shop and then posts in 2012 saying it is no longer needed.

Never purchased points, but for flight purchases in May this year, I did not need to use the El Segundo method. I made sure I was on the US aa.com website, and during the purchase, Australia was an option in the drop-down for country. I'm pretty sure there was a comment then that said Zipcode (and possible State) fields were only to be populated for US and Canada addresses, so I left these blank. As per other posts (and yes, it's sometimes tricky to determine what the latest info is), I just put my full address, including City State Pcode in the address fields.

 

[anna2103]

Most users don't have this problem anymore. However you can leave the postcode out of your address and put in a dummy zip code (search El Segundo method in AFF). I use 33133 which was my address in Florida, even though I now live in NSW.
Best of luck.

Can I assume that if I got the receipt after purchasing miles that there were no issues - I did put the post code in. I purchased miles today - how long do they usually take to process? thanks

 

[grussellt]

You should have your miles within 72h. It's best to book online or through the US office.
Have a good trip.

 

[Mark3000]

Re: Best way to book an AA (US dom) flight?

The AA(Australian) site (as in American Airlines | Airline Tickets and Airline Reservations) does have good pricing. They've improved it since it first came into play, but it doesn't have the same flexibility of the AA (US) site.

You can put your QF FF number onto a booking at either site.

For my current situation, I've now tried fudging things a little and I live in the Suburb of Australia in California, postcode 0xx_x. This didn't work a few years ago, but I will see if it works now. The other option is to put the booking on hold and call the Oz Call centre - but I've seen reports that a $60 fee can be charged - ie more than the Amex conversion fee I'll pay.

-- Edit: Status Ticketed <date>. Phew. It does work! (Now to see if there are any immigration issues!!)

The Americanairlines.com.au site charges so much more for business / first flights compared to the US site. Booking on the US site gives very reasonably priced First class tickets. Checking the same flights on the australian site where it changes the name to "Business" instead of "First" increases the cost by 2-3 times!!! The economy flights are approximately the same price. Has anyone else experienced this?

It seems like a blatant rip off

 

[drron]

Re: Best way to book an AA (US dom) flight?

Yes I go straight to the US site.No problems with payment.I do put 0 before the postcode as it becomes a Maine zipcode.It also works over the phone.I was honest the first time a week ago and was going to get the $80 per ticket so did the old trick-put ticket on hold,rang back and said my Amex has a Maine zip.As a bonus the telephone booking fee was dropped.