Searching award avails through AA

[Beasley]

Point Hacks recently published a guide which highlighted the advantage of using American Airlines AAdvantage website to perform award searches on Qatar Airways ... which really show on Qantas ff searches.

How to search for frequent flyer award space - Point Hacks

So, I did a search and found the following award flight avails in business class from Doha to Sydney on Friday 27th September 2019. BUT .... nothing shows on Qantas site and when i called Qantas, they couldn't even see the flights!

 

[goldenhorn]

Bummer. Do you think it’s an error or an agent issue?

I just booked 2 J class 2 weeks ago on Qatar SYD-FCO for 15 Sep 2019 but used the BA site to find them and then booked on the phone with Qantas. Was super quick and easy once I got an agent on the phone.

 

[Beasley]

Bummer. Do you think it’s an error or an agent issue?

I just booked 2 J class 2 weeks ago on Qatar SYD-FCO for 15 Sep 2019 but used the BA site to find them and then booked on the phone with Qantas. Was super quick and easy once I got an agent on the phone.

Could you not see them on the Qantas site?

 

[goldenhorn]

Nope. Many flights don’t show on the Qantas site so you have to search on partner or Oneworld sites (as you did).

 

[Beasley]

Nope. Many flights don’t show on the Qantas site so you have to search on partner or Oneworld sites (as you did).

Weird eh?

 

[cjd600]

Nope. Many flights don’t show on the Qantas site so you have to search on partner or Oneworld sites (as you did).

Then hope to god you get a QF operator who knows how to look it up

 

[goldenhorn]

Then hope to god you get a QF operator who knows how to look it up

Maybe I was lucky. It was the first J class award booking I’ve found and booked after doing the AFF training. I was very excited to find it lol

 

[goldenhorn]

Weird eh?

Yeah, if only there was one site that accurately showed all avail. One can dream.

 

[drron]

It is one of the few Aadvantages AA has these days.Their on line awards system seems to be better than most others.In the past I have been able to get QF awards on AA that mrsdrron as a WP couldn't get-eg SYD-BKK in J a few years back.
Just recently 2 J awards on QF AKL-BNE on the flight we wanted-only 1 available on QF.
So I still always look on the AA site if having problems.

 

[Mattg]

The AA website doesn't always show accurate availability, unfortunately. I've also found that it omits results that actually are available (including those lucrative QF trans-Pacific J flights). While the AA website has come a long way in recent months, I still don't personally use it for Oneworld award availability searches.

 

[Danger]

It's also quite possible that QR is releasing award seats to AA but not to QF. Despite popular belief, award availability is not always uniformly available across all oneworld carriers.

 

[Mattg]

It's also quite possible that QR is releasing award seats to AA but not to QF. Despite popular belief, award availability is not always uniformly available across all oneworld carriers.

It's my understanding that uniform availability is actaully a Oneworld requirement. Airlines are free to make more seats available to their own members, but availability given to one oneworld partner should also be accessible to all other partners.

 

[mrsterryn]

I will note that for next month for my 2019 European trip

 

[Danger]

It's my understanding that uniform availability is actaully a Oneworld requirement. Airlines are free to make more seats available to their own members, but availability given to one oneworld partner should also be accessible to all other partners.

This was my understanding too. However, I've come across multiple occasions over the past couple of years where this certainly seems not to be case. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence of it on AFF, too, with people seeing availability on AA or BA but QF not showing any, for example.

 

[sydneyboi]

I struck gold last night!
I was able to burn 110K AA Miles for a Syd-LAX one way in First class.
I could see it on both the Qantas and AA sites.
Then had to call AA to process the booking as my credit card didnt work on the .com.au site it kept pushing me back to the USA site.
Only paid $115 AUD in taxes as to the $430 that Qantas wanted....

 

[Kangol]

I struck gold last night!
I was able to burn 110K AA Miles for a Syd-LAX one way in First class.
I could see it on both the Qantas and AA sites.
Then had to call AA to process the booking as my credit card didnt work on the .com.au site it kept pushing me back to the USA site.
Only paid $115 AUD in taxes as to the $430 that Qantas wanted....

Good one, gone are the days of it being 72.5k