Aadvantage OW awards - "must take most direct routing"

[NM]

G'day Jon, and great to have you around here.

 

[Keith009]

Another warm welcome to JonNYC.

 

[JonNYC]

Wow, thanks for all the warm welcomes! Much appreciated.

As far as the OP, a couple of people have asked-- there may be a case of a few agents acting as "vigilantes" -- either taking it upon themselves to enforce a rule that they believe should exist, -or, more likely, simply confusing the rules of an all-partner award with a OW award.

There has been this issue-- picking up lately-- where people are taking multi-segment "awards to nowhere" where they are routing so that they get the maximum number of flights taking advantage of the soon-to-change rules. I have heard faint rumblings that there might be some stop-gap measure between now and the change in the fall to reject some of the more ridiculous itins-- but that certainly wouldn't apply to someone simply trying to get from there to here using the existing rules to their advantage.

Trust me, if this rule was in place 'till now (direct routing) none of these "enthusiasts" that have gotten those itins approved (and many have) would have.

I also noticed that the routing rules for the OW awards has very recently been changed on AA dot com for pre-change awards to, essentially, "call for routing" (from the old rules, which I believe were spelled out.) Does this mean a change is about to be implemented? Not from what I'm hearing so far, although the fact that this issue is being "discussed" within AAdvantage is not in doubt, I know it for a fact.

However, no one I've asked has confirmed that any restriction of this type is coming (NOT referring here to the change we -know- is coming.) Personally, I wonder if something won't be done to limit the losses before the change-- but hasn't happened yet form everyone I've asked.

 

[Keith009]

And even if the aagent on the phone approves a routing, there is still no guarantee that you can get it ticketed. It goes through supervisory level approval, for All Partners usually a supervisor at one of the reservation centres and in the case of OW awards someone from "RTW", per PNRs I've seen. If such approval is denied you'd get an email within 24 hours telling you to ring back.

I've been the recipient of one such email though the aagent on the phone okayed the booking - tried overnights (<24h) due to lack of availability in SIN on the outbound and BKK on the way back on a HKG-MEL All Partners return. But got kicked back as "HKGMEL can be done in a day." This was even though all published rules were met and availability on the dates I wanted on more direct services was truly zilch.

 

[wandering_fred]

Hi Jon

Welcome to the "in group" of Australia. Just remember that our normal orientation is upside down when compared to North America. And be careful you don't get a reputation for wandering....:mrgreen:

Fred

 

[aus_flyer]

I'm almost ready to quit the Aadvantage program....

I have made a OW Aadvantage award booking (for which the OP relates) and I've lost count of the number times that I've been told "it will be ticketed today".... Weeks later, I'm still calling back everyday.... nothing.

Driving me crazy.