AA Award Issue - PER-SYD-CHC

[chrisb]

I just tried to book PER-SYD-CHC/CHC-SYD-BNE as a 'wholly within Aust/NZ' award and AA have had to send it off to ticketing to be verified as the system was telling them that PER-SYD-CHC isn't a valid use of the 17.5k (each way) "wholly within" award.

Has anyone experienced this before?

I hope when i call back in 24hrs it'll be sorted...

 

[futaris]

There are some other members that have done PER-SYD-AKL before.

I've done BNE-MEL-AKL-CHC-ZQN as a 10k Y award before...

 

[chrisb]

There are some other members that have done PER-SYD-AKL before.

I've done BNE-MEL-AKL-CHC-ZQN as a 10k Y award before...

Thanks... I assume they're just making my holiday booking as stressful as possible.

 

[NM]

What flight numbers are involved? There are limits on connection times, next available flights etc for AAwards.

 

[futaris]

The only limitation should be the 24 hour rule. You don't have to take the first available flight, anymore...

AA and All-Partner award travel stopover/transit rules *REVISED w/ ROUTING rules* - FlyerTalk Forums

Probably the BNE/PER openjaw is throwing off the system. BNE-PER is further than CHC-BNE.

If they have problems, try booking it as two oneways, rather than an open-jaw return.

 

[chrisb]

What flight numbers are involved? There are limits on connection times, next available flights etc for AAwards.

Yeah.. that could be an issue - QF568/QF45. The issue could be the minimum - its exactly 60mins DOM-INT in SYD. I'm not entirely comfortable with it, but there aren't any other choices.

QF sell it as paid and award combo, and those flights were AA's suggestion.

The return is QF46/QF542 with about 3 hours in SYD...

 

[chrisb]

Probably the BNE/PER openjaw is throwing off the system. BNE-PER is further than CHC-BNE.
If they have problems, try booking it as two oneways, rather than an open-jaw return.

I assumed that's what they're doing, since the award chart specifies the price as One-way and says to use 2 x oneway for a return...

 

[Dave Noble]

I just tried to book PER-SYD-CHC/CHC-SYD-BNE as a 'wholly within Aust/NZ' award and AA have had to send it off to ticketing to be verified as the system was telling them that PER-SYD-CHC isn't a valid use of the 17.5k (each way) "wholly within" award.

Has anyone experienced this before?

I hope when i call back in 24hrs it'll be sorted...

Did you phone AA Australia or US

I would suggest booking via AA US rather than AU ; as long as you meet the requirements of connecting within 6 hours at Sydney, then you should be fine

For paying I would recommend paying via AA US ( if you have status ) or AA UK otherwise to avoid the hideous $60 fee charged in AU

Dave

 

[chrisb]

Did you phone AA Australia or US

I would suggest booking via AA US rather than AU ; as long as you meet the requirements of connecting within 6 hours at Sydney, then you should be fine

For paying I would recommend paying via AA US ( if you have status ) or AA UK otherwise to avoid the hideous $60 fee charged in AU

Dave

I called Australia... and they quoted me that $60 fee so i assume that's where I ended up.

Maybe i should give AA USA a call tonight to follow it up and see if they'll ticket it. (it's on hold and being verified at the moment)

What does Status have to do with calling AA? I'm only AA Gold at the moment.

 

[Dave Noble]

I called Australia... and they quoted me that $60 fee so i assume that's where I ended up.

Maybe i should give AA USA a call tonight to follow it up and see if they'll ticket it. (it's on hold and being verified at the moment)

What does Status have to do with calling AA? I'm only AA Gold at the moment.

If you have no status then AA US will not accept non US cards. If you have status then they should, plus of course you will pay the USD20 telephone fee instead of AUD60

Dave

 

[chrisb]

After 2 more calls it was finally approved and apparently is being ticketed today...

Yay.

 

[wandering_fred]

The only issue regarding this sort of ticket is that the "within one country" rule applies ONLY to QF flight combinations only. If you want to use LA for AKL-SYD then the South Pacific award rates apply.


Happy wandering

Fred

 

[notzac]

The only issue regarding this sort of ticket is that the "within one country" rule applies ONLY to QF flight combinations only. If you want to use LA for AKL-SYD then the South Pacific award rates apply.

I believe QF have a codeshare on the LA SYD/AKL and AKL/SYD services as well - would this be allowed in the "within one country" rule?

 

[futaris]

No. You cannot book the codeshare.

NB, if you are using QFF miles, you cannot book the LAN flight number, only the QF codeshare. This gives different availability between QFF and AAdvantage.

And like mentioned above, if you want to fly within Au/NZ for 10k/17.5k oneway, you need to stick to QF. Of course if you are connecting (e.g. from Asia or USA) it doesn't matter.