American advantage rules and other questions

[Swan]

It's know as the 'doha' exception. The rules previously allowed connections in Doha for travel to Asia (from Europe etc), but this has now been extended to include Australia. Unless it's changed back in the last couple weeks or so.

Whilst making a change to an existing booking I enquired whether connecting through Doha was one or two awards as I had seen conflicting statements regarding this. I was informed that it was two awards so requested a dummy booking from PER to LHR. I was told the booking resulted in two awards on their system. This was about a month ago so I don't know whether it has changed since. However whilst the forum has reference to Doha being an exception I could not locate any post which had a one award booking with a Doha connection

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Whilst making a change to an existing booking I enquired whether connecting through Doha was one or two awards as I had seen conflicting statements regarding this. I was informed that it was two awards so requested a dummy booking from PER to LHR. I was told the booking resulted in two awards on their system. This was about a month ago so I don't know whether it has changed since. However whilst the forum has reference to Doha being an exception I could not locate any post which had a one award booking with a Doha connection

It would have been in the last month or so that they've started to allow it.

 

[Franky]

Hi Business class from Melbourne to Athens and Dublin to Melbourne cost 150k miles. The Mel-Ath first class, followed by Dub - Abudhabi economy, followed by first class Abu Dhabi Melbourne actually ended up costing 180k. I had originally expected to get these flights fro 160 so not too bad in the end although business from Dublin to Abu Dhabi seems to be hard to get.

I booked through america but when I call Austrlia to pay taxes ect they advised that there is an $80 booking fee unless I pay online. I went online and can see the reservation but do not seem to be able to make a payment. Has anybody had this issue before and if so how was it resolved.

Thanks again

Hi spiderlegs0668 - well done on getting your booking as you wanted. The points required were over 300k, can I ask how you managed to accumulate so many points unless this was done over a 3 year period? I have just joined AA and bought 100K points, and have used 70K and would like to buy more to do some early planning for next year, but there seems to be no way around this yearly maximum purchase that I can see. Appreciate your help if you can. Regards Frank

 

[scwappy]

Recently booked a Doha award for 60k to Europe in J, happy days

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

Just curious, What was the entire route? Mel - Doha - cdg?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Is there a standard rule / norm as to how far out can you see availability of CX J class award availability on AA web site?

 

[trixydoza]

Is there a standard rule / norm as to how far out can you see availability of CX J class award availability on AA web site?

You have to call.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

You have to call.

Really? Has this always been situation?

 

[Limewood]

Really? Has this always been situation?

Yes has been the case.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yes has been the case.

Damn - so you can see Y availability but not J? That's a bummer.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Damn - so you can see Y availability but not J? That's a bummer.

Not even economy - at least for all the routes I've checked.

 

[sergeyvzn]

The AA search engine does not support CX award availability and have has. To see CX award seats you need to use an alternative - either BA, or QF or JAL (very clunky but the most accurate) or KVS tool/Award Nexus

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Not even economy - at least for all the routes I've checked.

Oh yes correct - I can see QF Y but not CX - sorry my bad.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

The AA search engine does not support CX award availability and have has. To see CX award seats you need to use an alternative - either BA, or QF or JAL (very clunky but the most accurate) or KVS tool/Award Nexus

So if I can availability on QF but I want to book through AA to burn some points there is a fair chance it will be available through AA also?

 

[sergeyvzn]

So if I can availability on QF but I want to book through AA to burn some points there is a fair chance it will be available through AA also?

If you are talking about QF award seats that you want to book with AA - yes. AA has actually got better access to QF award seats (at least as it is know anecdotally) so you might be able get a QF F seat on Sydney to LHR via AA for example when it is actually not available on QF

Edit; The only exception to this I know of is the new QF service to SFO where AA for some time could not book these seats but now they are available

 

[knasty]

So if I can availability on QF but I want to book through AA to burn some points there is a fair chance it will be available through AA also?

CX award seats showing as available through QFF should have the same availability through AA, albeit a phone call away.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Cruiser, and if you were talking about CX award seats then you need to be mindful of the so called "phantom availability" that shows both on QF and BA search engines - these seats show up as available but when you try to book them you get an error message as they don;t actually exist. This has something to do with connections i.e. if you look at connecting at HKG (something like SYD to HKG to LHR) and there is a seat available say SYD to HKG it also shows availability HKG to LHR but this is not necessarily true.
JAL is a very reliable though so it is advisable to use JAL to cross check the availability with what shows on QF/BA...but it is a nightmare to use, very clunky

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I am actually looking MEL-HKG-PVG on CX - I have plenty points in both AA and QF so need to burn some - AA o/w awards to Asia require considerably less pts than AM or QF do they not?

 

[sergeyvzn]

I am actually looking MEL-HKG-PVG on CX - I have plenty points in both AA and QF so need to burn some - AA o/w awards to Asia require considerably less pts than AM or QF do they not?

of course they require much less points

who in their right mind would use QF points on anything rather than Emirates flights out of Australia? Any US-based airline FF programs beats QFF hands down with regard to award redemptions (maybe with the exemption of Delta Sky pesos though )

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I am actually looking MEL-HKG-PVG on CX - I have plenty points in both AA and QF so need to burn some - AA o/w awards to Asia require considerably less pts than AM or QF do they not?

AA charges 35K one way from anywhere in Australia to Hong Kong SAR and China. (F for 45K was a great deal, sadly no longer available since QF has withdrawn from HKG.)

Phantom availability for CX showing on both QF and BA doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a connection. Sectors searched individually can still run in to the same problem.