A couple of questions from an AAdvantage newbie

[asg29e]

Potentially good to know for the rest of us in future should we be in a similar situation - ask them to change it from USD to AUD (albieit at their own conversion rate?).

Out of curiousity what was the $150 for - I thought the ticketing charge was $80?

There were two tickets on the booking, that may explain the $150? Not exactly 2 x $80 but in the ballpark. All waived eventually anyway.

The exchange rate was surprisingly friendly, within a few cents of what any of the online currency calculators are quoting. Maybe that's how they were working it out when I was put on hold for a few minutes. Certainly better than the 3% or so commission that my CC would have charged me.

And the flights have now ticketed so all is good.

 

[Pumbaa]

I've had a lot of success lately by changing my country to the United Kingdom for payment. So all the other fields are "as per Australian address" and just change the country to the UK. It obviously changes the taxes charge to pounds, but its pretty much the same equivalent in US dollars anyway.

It always goes through without a hitch!

 

[ChasingDaylight]

Somewhat unrelated to the thread, but I recently printed out my AAdvantage award booking itinerary from AA. It's somewhat cluttered and a bit cough, so I did a bit of looking around and would suggest that if your flights are on carriers that use Amadeus - give Finnair a whirl through their MMB portal and 'Order now' for e-ticket receipt. The itinerary they send is very uncluttered, simple and easy to read.

 

[pangwen]

Just a question re the AA redemption chart - it notes that travel between SWP and Africa must be "Transpacific only". Does that mean you have to go via North/South America? But then that would be transpacific+transatlantic, and would almost certainly breach MPM. The direct SYD-JNB route doesn't go across the pacific at all, so that seems to be ruled out.

 

[grussellt]

This probably refers to travel from all parts of SWP, which would require a trip across part of the Pacific (and also Australia) to get to Africa. You will not be able to book a single award from SWP-Africa via any part of the Americas. SYD-JNB is fine.

 

[wandering_fred]

Just a question re the AA redemption chart - it notes that travel between SWP and Africa must be "Transpacific only". Does that mean you have to go via North/South America? But then that would be transpacific+transatlantic, and would almost certainly breach MPM. The direct SYD-JNB route doesn't go across the pacific at all, so that seems to be ruled out.

More likely some bright spark at AA (exhibiting the normal geographic disabilities brought about by the USA school system ) thought that the Indian Ocean was part of the the Pacific...

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[hossein_au]

Somewhat unrelated to the thread, but I recently printed out my AAdvantage award booking itinerary from AA. It's somewhat cluttered and a bit cough, so I did a bit of looking around and would suggest that if your flights are on carriers that use Amadeus - give Finnair a whirl through their MMB portal and 'Order now' for e-ticket receipt. The itinerary they send is very uncluttered, simple and easy to read.

Excellent advice; thanks for that. I have used Saudi's as well as RJ, but they did not show all legs of itineraries if there were MH flights (interesting they show some but not all MH flights in an itinerary). 'Order now' shows the lot.

 

[madrooster]

Excellent advice; thanks for that. I have used Saudi's as well as RJ, but they did not show all legs of itineraries if there were MH flights (interesting they show some but not all MH flights in an itinerary). 'Order now' shows the lot.

The e-ticket is always cloned between all GDSes involved. The itinerary however is not - the itinerary is what you see on the likes of Virtually There, Check My Trip and so forth, without specifically selecting e-ticket receipt.

The flights that would typically show in the itinerary, are ones which precede or follow a flight coupon that involve that particular GDS, for that particular leg (stopover to next stopover destination) of the trip.

For example on a trip such as:

SYD MH x/KUL MH x/SIN AY x/HEL AY LHR (stopover)
LHR BA x/JFK AA MIA (stopover)
MIA AA LAX (stopover)
LAX CX HKG (stopover)
HKG JL NRT (stopover)
NRT QF SYD

If you view from an Amadeus carrier's MMB then it will show the following:

SYD MH x/KUL MH x/SIN AY x/HEL AY LHR (AY being an Amadeus carrier, and MH being a preceding flight in that leg)
LHR BA x/JFK AA MIA (BA being an Amadeus carrier, but JFK-MIA shows because it follows an Amadeus sector)
LAX CX HKG (CX being an Amadeus carrier)
NRT QF SYD (QF being an Amadeus carrier)

The rest won't show in Amadeus without viewing the e-ticket receipt.

If you view from a Sabre carrier's MMB (eg. AA) then you'll only see:

LHR BA x/JFK AA MIA (the BA Amadeus sector shows because it connects to the Sabre sector)
MIA AA LAX

The rest won't show in Sabre without viewing the e-ticket receipt.

The same applies in other GDSes such as Mercator (EK), SITA (MH), Travelsky (MU, CZ, various others), Carina (NZ) etc.

Exception case: the plating carrier's GDS will always have the full itinerary, so if it's 001 (AA) ticket stock, then Sabre will have the full itinerary.

 

[sergeyvzn]

a quick question for AAdvantage gurus out there

SYD-DXB-SYD - seats are available (all 3 classes) for lots of days
DXB-AMM-DXB - seats are available (both economy and business) every day
SYD-AMM-SYD - nothing!

Is it because Qantas doesn't have a published fare to Amman or that they do but it's QF + EK only?

Seems silly you can't book it online as a combination of QF and Royal Jordanian...I can always do Etihad I suppose...

 

[N860CR]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Can you have them do it over the phone?

 

[sergeyvzn]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Can you have them do it over the phone?

I haven't tried but I'm pretty sure if this is the case of no published fare it won't work...I'm just curious why it is so, both Qantas and Royal Jordanian are bookable online, there is plenty of availability, MPM isn't an issue, there's no connections in a third zone but due to some reason the itinerary isn't bookable online whereas it should be. But if it's not it must be due to some award booking rule violation but I'm just not sure which one

 

[Swan]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I have an itinerary booked with USDM which has me flying into HKG and connecting out of HKG 5 hours later I would prefer to connect with a flight 22 hours after arriving in HK. I do not know what AA rules are in relation to connections, ie do you have to take the first available? At present there is no availability but if AA rules would allow the change to the later flight I would monitor availability and try for a change. The flights in June and unless it is likely the change would be allowed I don't want to waste my time.
Advice would be appreciated.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I have an itinerary booked with USDM which has me flying into HKG and connecting out of HKG 5 hours later I would prefer to connect with a flight 22 hours after arriving in HK. I do not know what AA rules are in relation to connections, ie do you have to take the first available? At present there is no availability but if AA rules would allow the change to the later flight I would monitor availability and try for a change. The flights in June and unless it is likely the change would be allowed I don't want to waste my time.
Advice would be appreciated.

Officially AA is 24 hours for international transit, and 4 hours for domestic transit.

However, I have had push-back from AA regarding a long stay in HKG connecting CX-CX and CX-QF. A couple of agents suggested 'immediate overnight' or 'first flight next morning'. So either ask them to double check the rules, or HUACA.

 

[knasty]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I have booked non -first flight before with just under 24 hour stopover.

 

[auriga]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Just want to check, is going from SYD to PER (QF), PER to DOH (Qatar), DOH to Europe (Qatar)..... Is that a valid routing for the standard price?

 

[knasty]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

2 awards. Sw pacific to middle east, middle east to Europe, assuming per is just a transit.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Just want to check, is going from SYD to PER (QF), PER to DOH (Qatar), DOH to Europe (Qatar)..... Is that a valid routing for the standard price?

No, you cannot connect in Doha between South Pacific and Europe. It will be charged as two awards - South Pacific to Middle East + Middle East to Europe

 

[diningdecadence]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

Just want to check, is going from SYD to PER (QF), PER to DOH (Qatar), DOH to Europe (Qatar)..... Is that a valid routing for the standard price?

i think it's 100k with 2 awards (J then F) compared to 80k for QF F whole way through. happy to be corrected.

 

[auriga]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

That's disappointing.

 

[alieninperth]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

It should just be a single award, allowed under the 'Doha exception'.

There is plenty of info on it here American Airlines Award Routing Rules - One Mile at a Time