Quoted double mileage to redeem - any tips for a successful booking?

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Bofter

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Jun 30, 2010
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A friend is getting married in Melbourne on AFL Grand Final Day. Unfortunately coming from Perth this makes travel arrangements expensive, but I thought I would benefit from previously obtained AA miles through a (one-way) business class redemption.

I have just got off the phone not being able to book and after a debate with the phone agent who insisted that the mileage was 35k for one way. I kept referring to:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/aadvantageAllPartnerChart.jsp
The best I got in answer was that it must be a special promotion (ha ha).

Given the popularity of the travel period, all flight options are via ADL or SYD. Am I correct in saying this should make no difference to the required mileage? If so, how on earth does one redeem for the actual mileage if calling the Brisbane phone number is not the go?
 
Call the US number and speak to a real agent who (more often than not) actually knows what they're doing.

I no longer waste minutes/hours of my life dealing with the Fijian Mindpearl agents on the Oz number - waste of time and space.

If you use Skype you can call the US number for free.
 
Now on the phone to the US call centre. The same problem is appearing, but at least the agent has recognised that it was a problem without me saying. I think she is checking with a supervisor now, but I can't quite follow what she is saying.
 
The claim is that the award permits only non-stop, not connections. Hence, 35k = 17.5k x 2 for the two segments. I would be interested in hearing whether this reflects the experience of others.
 
This is not the case.

You can absolutely 100% connect, as long as it's a transit, not a stopover.

Domestic rules may be that it has to be "next available connection" or similar (someone else may be able to clarify).

International it just has to be less than 24 hours.

Eg. Last week I flew CNS-SYD (transited in SYD for 23 hours), then to LAXx-SFO. All for a single award.

I would call back and speak with another agent.
 
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Originally Posted by Danger
I just got off the phone with AA in the US and they could offer one additional flight: PER-xBNE-SYD in J (approximately 90 minutes between arrival and departure in BNE). I still think that's pretty poor availability but my bigger concern is they've quoted me 35k miles, not 17.5k. I asked why it wasn't 17.5k and the agent said because it was two one-ways (in J), which equals 35k.

What have I done wrong?



Have a look at the other posts in this thread. The same answers apply to your situation.
 
http://www.travelingbetter.com

seems to have arrived at an answer - basically the award routing rules must follow purchased ticket routing rules. And a PER-SYD standard ticket will only permit connections in ADL/MEL. Although I acknowledge that QF is charging more for any connecting ticket these days.

Hope that helps. YMMV

Fred
 
Although I acknowledge that QF is charging more for any connecting ticket these days.

More a case for Y, than J. PER-MEL-SYD in J is typically only a few dollars more in taxes than PER-SYD.

In Y, it does seem to be more expensive to go through a connection.
 
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