A couple of questions from an AAdvantage newbie

[medhead]

Yes although the chances announced a couple days ago have seen it eliminated:

"With the addition of EQDs, we’ll remove the rule that 4 segments must be traveled on American or American Eagle during the qualifying year to receive elite status."

However, this is for qualifying from 1 January 2017 onwards so the four segments are still required this year.

Oh well, it's only ruby.

 

[wandering_fred]

Oh well, it's only ruby.

Still worth one free luggage piece at AA check-in...

Happy wandering

Fred

 

[medhead]

Still worth one free luggage piece at AA check-in...

Happy wandering

Fred

If I ever flew AA I'd probably use my qantas FF number for the emerald benefits. Unless I was trying to get the 4 segments.
Wonder if I can convince SWMBO of the value of a quick trans-pacific AA run.

 

[get me outta here]

Thanks. My email showed a 10% bonus. Wow.

new AA points promo started today..

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. My email showed a 10% bonus. Wow.

mine was (up to) 100K bonus and 10%

 

[Limewood]

I have an old Aussie mate who joined AA Advantage a month ago wants to buy and use AA miles on CX in J from ORD or JFK to HKG, stop 5 days then HKG/BNE (2 sectors), I looked up BA and QF and see the seats available for May 2017.

My understanding is he can book the flights, AA hold them for 4/5days and in meantime he buys the miles and redeems them?.

If so what is best No. to call to book?

Ps. Ive used AA miles before but was able to book online.

 

[sergeyvzn]

I have an old Aussie mate who joined AA Advantage a month ago wants to buy and use AA miles on CX in J from ORD or JFK to HKG, stop 5 days then HKG/BNE (2 sectors), I looked up BA and QF and see the seats available for May 2017.

My understanding is he can book the flights, AA hold them for 4/5days and in meantime he buys the miles and redeems them?.

If so what is best No. to call to book?

Ps. Ive used AA miles before but was able to book online.

Correct, he can call the Fiji call centre on 02 9101 1948[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] (24/7) and book the itinerary, they will hold it for up to 5 days prior to ticketing[/FONT]

 

[Finale]

I would like to book JAL F from LHR - HND - NRT - SYD. Since LHR - HND is released earlier (and gone fast), is it possible to call and hold LHR - HND and then wait a day then add NRT - SYD sector? Not sure if AA will drop the first sector before booking a new itinerary and it mightn't go back into inventory. And will this be 1 award? Thanks!

 

[hossein_au]

I would like to book JAL F from LHR - HND - NRT - SYD. Since LHR - HND is released earlier (and gone fast), is it possible to call and hold LHR - HND and then wait a day then add NRT - SYD sector? Not sure if AA will drop the first sector before booking a new itinerary and it mightn't go back into inventory. And will this be 1 award? Thanks!

From memory, AA holds seats up to five days. If not booked within the timeframe you're given on the phone, the seats will drop automatically.

Edit: Yay, post 1,000!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would like to book JAL F from LHR - HND - NRT - SYD. Since LHR - HND is released earlier (and gone fast), is it possible to call and hold LHR - HND and then wait a day then add NRT - SYD sector? Not sure if AA will drop the first sector before booking a new itinerary and it mightn't go back into inventory. And will this be 1 award? Thanks!

Should be one award. AA will tell you that they can hold it for five days. I would probably try and ticket not later than 72 hours later.

 

[medhead]

Ok some newbie questions. I'm trying to find SFO-SYD flights as AA awards. I need them for late July 2017, so I'm searching earlier in June. I'm having a couple of problems:
1. No J awards
2. Only AA options via LAX, nothing on QF

Am I missing something? Am I searching too far in advance? How do I make it force to show QF options? QF is flying SFO-SYD, or is it SFO-BNE?

A related issue, I searched SFO-HKG-ADL - took Y options that were supposed to be 62500 points (32.5k+30k) but the final price was 37.5k points. Pretty sure there was a <24 hour connection. Is there some kind of surcharge in play?

 

[Pushka]

330 (approx) days out for Qantas on AA. I haven't done the maths to see if you are looking too far out. Also - beware the phantom award booking on AA. Its notorious.

 

[medhead]

330 (approx) days out for Qantas on AA. I haven't done the maths to see if you are looking too far out. Also - beware the phantom award booking on AA. Its notorious.

Ta. I'm under 330 days. Also looking for AA award on Qantas. I'll have to look into this phantom award thing.

 

[Princess Fiona]

330 (approx) days out for Qantas on AA. I haven't done the maths to see if you are looking too far out. Also - beware the phantom award booking on AA. Its notorious.

Ta. I'm under 330 days. Also looking for AA award on Qantas. I'll have to look into this phantom award thing.

I think the phantom issue is pretty much restricted to QF 1/2/9/10
I personally haven't seen it on the transpac flights.

I use awardgrabber to let me know which date to start looking as I'm a bit challenged with arithmetic.

 

[Pushka]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I was getting phantom when trying to research getting to the US.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: Couple of AAdvantage questions from a newbie to it

I was getting phantom when trying to research getting to the US.

Your experience is very unusual. Pretty much all of the AA phantom availability reported here and elsewhere (FT, Boarding Area etc) is Australia to DXB/Europe on QF.

It's not unusual to see an award to anywhere in the AA site and have problems actually booking it.
What's been happening regularly and maybe not fixed is entire months worth of F seats on QF 1/2/9/10 showing available at the one time.

 

[drron]

For the Premium awards on AA LAX-SFO these now seem to be released just below 300 days out-eg at the moment you can get J or F sAAver awards on AA LAX-SYD up to May 10.
In early June QFF have J awards on the SFO-SYD flight but from LAX only Y awards on the AA flight coming up apart from a couple of flights on QFF via MEL.

 

[medhead]

I suspect the hard bit will be my lack of AA status. Premium would be nice but we know economy x5 is most likely. Will keep searching.

 

[Danger]

I'm furious.

I originally had my AAdvantage number against a reservation but now the program has been butchered I'm giving it the flick. When I checked in for the first three flights on my itinerary I asked the agent (a Menzies Aviation contractor) to remove my AA number and put in my QF number. She produced boarding passes with the QF number but all the flights have credited to AA. From past experience I know how difficult it's going to be to get it fixed.

I don't understand how this happens.

 

[medhead]

I'm furious.

I originally had my AAdvantage number against a reservation but now the program has been butchered I'm giving it the flick. When I checked in for the first three flights on my itinerary I asked the agent (a Menzies Aviation contractor) to remove my AA number and put in my QF number. She produced boarding passes with the QF number but all the flights have credited to AA. From past experience I know how difficult it's going to be to get it fixed.

I don't understand how this happens.

There are some glitches. It's randomly possible to have flights credit to 2 programs when changing FF numbers. Before anyone gets upset, this is for flights that are ineligible in one of the programs - so no double earning.
I find it useful to use finnair MMB to change the FF number. I also track using My Flights which will often show 2/both FF numbers against a booking. that's a prompt to call or ask an agent to remove whichever number.