A couple of questions from an AAdvantage newbie

[diningdecadence]

I've been looking at award redemptions recently. From the AA Partner Awards chart, I had understood it to be 115,000 AA miles in F, South Pacific to Europe, via the ME. Am I reading this correctly?

View attachment 82285

Def the case for qantas direct through

Possibly for Qatar also- can someone confirm please? (Also any tricks for searching segment by segment? I can't get qantas to do Doha-Europe)

Reasonably sure Etihad is 2 awards together for some reason

 

[DC3]

Reasonably sure Etihad is 2 awards together for some reason

Thanks for that. Yes, that may be it. Etihad route not being an AA exception (as is QF and QR).

 

[Digger11]

Hi, Just tried to book a Mel - Doh - Europe flight, and was told that the old 'Doha Exception" does not apply for Qatar - so J seats are 115,000, not 85,000 as direct to Europe is.

This surprised me as I didn't realise that the exception had been eliminated in the last round of aadvantage program "enhancements".

Anyone else noticed this ? I wonder if the Qantas exemption (with same number), has also been deleted ????

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi, Just tried to book a Mel - Doh - Europe flight, and was told that the old 'Doha Exception" does not apply for Qatar - so J seats are 115,000, not 85,000 as direct to Europe is.

This surprised me as I didn't realise that the exception had been eliminated in the last round of aadvantage program "enhancements".

Anyone else noticed this ? I wonder if the Qantas exemption (with same number), has also been deleted ????

I would try again. Unless it has been pulled (which I haven't heard), the Doha exception precisely requires you to fly in and out on QR.

 

[Digger11]

I would try again. Unless it has been pulled (which I haven't heard), the Doha exception precisely requires you to fly in and out on QR.

Thanks MT, tried again and the CSR said that it is coming up in their system as 2 rewards, she thought it could be as i was changing airlines.
i was booking Mel to Kul on Malaysian and then onto Europe on Qatar through DOH.
it was pricing mel-kul-doh as one leg and then doh-bca as another, despite the transit through Doh being on Qatar.
strange noone else has had this problem.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks MT, tried again and the CSR said that it is coming up in their system as 2 rewards, she thought it could be as i was changing airlines.
i was booking Mel to Kul on Malaysian and then onto Europe on Qatar through DOH.
it was pricing mel-kul-doh as one leg and then doh-bca as another, despite the transit through Doh being on Qatar.
strange noone else has had this problem.

I think you have satisfied the Doha exception, but is there a published fare from MH via DOH to Europe?

 

[Digger11]

I think you have satisfied the Doha exception, but is there a published fare from MH via DOH to Europe?

Thanks for your help MT, cant find a fare for MH from DOH onwards, might call later with a basic Qatar Mel-Doh-Lhr and see how they price that, will prove if Doha exception works on direct flight.

Good news, Doha exception is live and well, for direct flights anyway, from Australia to Doha and then Europe. 85,000 for business.
My problem appears to be that i need to go via KUL on MH to get to Doha as no direct flights to Doha in the week i need to go.
This is making the AA computer split the trip into 2 at Doha for some reason, despite staying with QTR in and out of Doha.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for your help MT, cant find a fare for MH from DOH onwards, might call later with a basic Qatar Mel-Doh-Lhr and see how they price that, will prove if Doha exception works on direct flight.

Good news, Doha exception is live and well, for direct flights anyway, from Australia to Doha and then Europe. 85,000 for business.
My problem appears to be that i need to go via KUL on MH to get to Doha as no direct flights to Doha in the week i need to go.
This is making the AA computer split the trip into 2 at Doha for some reason, despite staying with QTR in and out of Doha.

So this is nothing to do with the DOH exception and will probably be that there is no published fare (AA awards require there to be a published fare for the route you want to fly)

 

[Kangol]

So this is nothing to do with the DOH exception and will probably be that there is no published fare (AA awards require there to be a published fare for the route you want to fly)

To be clear, the transoceanic carrier must have a published fare between origin and destination.
There is a MH fare between MEL and BCN however it uses EK from KUL (transit in DXB). EK is not an AA partner so there may be a potential issue with that. This is probably not a common issue either (when a non-AA partner is used).
There is a QR fare MEL-xDOH-BCN but who knows which carrier AA are determining as the transoceanic carrier. MEL-KUL is a longer distance than KUL-DOH FWIW.

This is probably a question worth posting to one of the US based travel bloggers with a larger following (and contacts at AA).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

To be clear, the transoceanic carrier must have a published fare between origin and destination.
There is a MH fare between MEL and BCN however it uses EK from KUL (transit in DXB). EK is not an AA partner so there may be a potential issue with that. This is probably not a common issue either (when a non-AA partner is used).
There is a QR fare MEL-xDOH-BCN but who knows which carrier AA are determining as the transoceanic carrier. MEL-KUL is a longer distance than KUL-DOH FWIW.

This is probably a question worth posting to one of the US based travel bloggers with a larger following (and contacts at AA).

Either way AA works out the most significant carrier, does either QR or MH publish a fare for the OP's route? Doesn't look like they do, hence a constructed fare requiring two awards.

 

[Kangol]

Either way AA works out the most significant carrier, does either QR or MH publish a fare for the OP's route? Doesn't look like they do, hence a constructed fare requiring two awards.

The only detail I can see is MEL to BCN. See my post for that info.

The other detail could be that the DOH exception applies to nonstop QR flights in and out of DOH that depart from and arrive to the origin and destination. That's one other explanation I can think of. KUL is not in the South Pacific hence why it doesn't price as one award, maybe.

 

[Digger11]

[h=3]Interesting that the Points Hack Guy got it wrong - this advice was recently updated for the March 16 changes.

Mid-itinerary connections – use Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Qatar Airways, Japan Airlines or Malaysia Airlines to connect between hubs if you have to[/h]As I mentioned above, the allowable transit zones for Europe to/from South Pacific awards are Asia Zone 1 (Japan, roughly North Asia), Asia Zone 2 (Hong Kong, Singapore, roughly SE Asia), and Doha on Qatar Airways.
You could conceivably fly Sydney – Singapore – Doha (Qatar Airways) – London (Qatar Airways) if that’s the only route you can find availability on. Remember you can’t stopover in those cities fore more than 24 hours without increasing the price.

 

[Kangol]

[h=3]Interesting that the Points Hack Guy got it wrong - this advice was recently updated for the March 16 changes.

Mid-itinerary connections – use Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Qatar Airways, Japan Airlines or Malaysia Airlines to connect between hubs if you have to[/h]As I mentioned above, the allowable transit zones for Europe to/from South Pacific awards are Asia Zone 1 (Japan, roughly North Asia), Asia Zone 2 (Hong Kong, Singapore, roughly SE Asia), and Doha on Qatar Airways.
You could conceivably fly Sydney – Singapore – Doha (Qatar Airways) – London (Qatar Airways) if that’s the only route you can find availability on. Remember you can’t stopover in those cities fore more than 24 hours without increasing the price.

"conceivably"

 

[MEL_Traveller]

[h=3]Interesting that the Points Hack Guy got it wrong - this advice was recently updated for the March 16 changes.

Why did Points Hack get it wrong? Have you checked if QR/BA or QF publishes a fare SYD-LON that allows travel on those three carriers?

 

[Danger]

Thanks MT, tried again and the CSR said that it is coming up in their system as 2 rewards, she thought it could be as i was changing airlines.
i was booking Mel to Kul on Malaysian and then onto Europe on Qatar through DOH.
it was pricing mel-kul-doh as one leg and then doh-bca as another, despite the transit through Doh being on Qatar.
strange noone else has had this problem.

One of your issues is no doubt the fact that you're transiting two regions, not one: Asia 2 (KUL) and the Middle East (DOH). If you were flying Australia-DOH-Europe on QR you wouldn't have an issue with one award.

 

[Danger]

I have an issue with AAdvantage now.

I have an award PER-xMEL-xSYD-AUH, QF and EY. It's two awards (within Australia and South Pacific to Middle East).

Today I phoned wanting to fly direct PER-SYD and in doing so create a stopover. First, the agent told me it couldn't be done at the old award levels as this award had been PER-MEL as one award and MEL-xSYD-AUH as the other. In my change I was therefore changing the original and destination. I told her that was ridiculous. One award is PER-xMEL-SYD and the other is SYD-AUH. I pushed and pushed and finally she went off and spoke to someone. When she came back she apologised saying the issue isn't what she explained but the fact I'm creating a stopover. I told her that shouldn't be an issue as the port of the stopover is where one award ends and the other begins. If, for example, I was trying to fly PER-MEL and then MEL-SYD, absolutely agree, no can do.

Very frustrating.

 

[Danger]

I have an issue with AAdvantage now.

I have an award PER-xMEL-xSYD-AUH, QF and EY. It's two awards (within Australia and South Pacific to Middle East).

Today I phoned wanting to fly direct PER-SYD and in doing so create a stopover. First, the agent told me it couldn't be done at the old award levels as this award had been PER-MEL as one award and MEL-xSYD-AUH as the other. In my change I was therefore changing the original and destination. I told her that was ridiculous. One award is PER-xMEL-SYD and the other is SYD-AUH. I pushed and pushed and finally she went off and spoke to someone. When she came back she apologised saying the issue isn't what she explained but the fact I'm creating a stopover. I told her that shouldn't be an issue as the port of the stopover is where one award ends and the other begins. If, for example, I was trying to fly PER-MEL and then MEL-SYD, absolutely agree, no can do.

Very frustrating.

The end result has been that, according to theagent, Qantas does not publish a fare PER-xMEL-SYD. So when I originally bookedthe award it was booked PER-MEL and then MEL-xSYD-AUH. She confirmed, severaltimes, that an award PER-xMEL-SYD would price as two awards, not one, so 20kmiles in Y or 40k miles in J. For the life of me I couldn't get the AA engine to spit out an itinerary between PER and SYD other than direct. If someone can find one, please let me know.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

deleted - new information provided above.

 

[Danger]

I'd hang up and call again, but it looks like you're adding a stopover into the ticket. Yes it may be two awards, but as far as I understand it's the one ticket?

Correct. It is the one ticket but it’s two awards. The agent confirmed that the issue wasn’t the fact it was one ticket but that Qantas doesn’t publish a fare PER-xMEL-SYD, it only publishes PER-SYD direct one way fares and that anything via MEL, for example, would be priced as two one-ways. Therefore, my ticket was booked PER-MEL and then MEL-xSYD-AUH. (To put it another way, there would be no issue with me having a stop in MEL; I just can’t do it in SYD.) She confirmed that if Qantas did publish a fare PER-xMEL-SYD then that’s how the award would have been booked originally (ie. one award PER-xMEL-SYD and another SYD-AUH).

It just doesn’t sound right to me. The call lasted 55 minutes and she was exceptionally helpful, something I’m going to miss about the EXP desk.Correct. It is the one ticket but it’s two awards. The agent confirmed that the issue wasn’t the fact it was one ticket but that Qantas doesn’t publish a fare PER-xMEL-SYD, it only published PER-SYD direct one way fares and that anything via MEL, for example, would be priced (by Qantas, revenue-wise) as two one-ways. Therefore, my ticket was booked PER-MEL and then MEL-xSYD-AUH. (To put it another way, there would be no issue with me having a stop in MEL; I just can’t do it in SYD.) She confirmed that if they did publish a fare PER-xMEL-SYD then that’s how the award would have been booked originally (ie. one award PER-xMEL-SYD and another SYD-AUH). It just doesn’t right to me. The call lasted 55 minutes and she was exceptionally helpful, something I’m going to miss about the EXP desk.

 

[Danger]

Looking on a EF I found a PER-xMEL-SYD J award on 3 November. I phoned AA and asked for a quote. Forty thousand! Yep. Two awards.

When did this happen?