new AA buy miles promotion

[Aussie_flyer]

Excuse my ignorance - I thought you weren't allowed to transit the middle east from Australia to Europe as part of AA??

Booked as two awards hence 100k....

 

[boomy]

Excuse my ignorance - I thought you weren't allowed to transit the middle east from Australia to Europe as part of AA??

You can if it's on the same flight number like QF1/QF9, then it will be 80K miles in F.
Otherwise, must split in two awards like on EY 60K + 40K for travel all the way to EU in F.

 

[Rugby]

Gday

Rugby out of interest what date are you doing the NRT- SYD leg? I have a USDM booking in the system which i would like to change the date of but cannot find any availability for the NRT- SYD leg at all for two people in October this year. 1st October has one J ticket available and that is it for the whole month. It is a little strange as there is quite a lot available on the SYD- NRT leg.

Pele.

Mid Feb next year - a fair way out

 

[N860CR]

I'm looking to make my first booking with AA. Just a simple SYD-HKG-SYD. QF isn't available. CX shows availability on AsiaMiles. Is there any issue in booking on CX with AA miles? I assume it has to be over the phone? Any idea what the taxes are like?

I'm not sure if it's worth buying 90k and getting 140 (two people so 70k each) or just forking out for the 100k + 60k for future use

 

[Princess Fiona]

I'm looking to make my first booking with AA. Just a simple SYD-HKG-SYD. QF isn't available. CX shows availability on AsiaMiles. Is there any issue in booking on CX with AA miles? I assume it has to be over the phone? Any idea what the taxes are like?

I'm not sure if it's worth buying 90k and getting 140 (two people so 70k each) or just forking out for the 100k + 60k for future use

Need to book on the phone, taxes are next to nothing ( double figures, tops in $ on CX IME).
It's definitely worth buying the full 160K IMO.

 

[N860CR]

Need to book on the phone, taxes are next to nothing ( double figures, tops in $ on CX IME).
It's definitely worth buying the full 160K IMO.

Sounds good, thanks.

Does the CX availability on their website tend to match AA? I've learnt to ignore QF for that

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sounds good, thanks.

Does the CX availability on their website tend to match AA? I've learnt to ignore QF for that

CX is ok, JL is good too. I'd start with BA, cross reference with JL. Should be good to go.

 

[N860CR]

Excellent thanks.

I've just been playing a bit more. Final destination is HAN and I had intended to book on a separate ticket as none of the departure times match up so Id need to travel the next day (it's a 1730ish dep from HKG). Will AA allow an overnight connection onto the KA flight the next day?

 

[anat0l]

Interesting that they've stuck this condition on the promo splash page:

AAdvantage accounts less than 30 days old are not permitted to Buy or Gift Miles.

In other words, if you aren't a member and you saw this now, you're stuffed (but you might just be ready for the next promo).

Interestingly, if you had just obtained a new AA account through the forced migration from US (i.e. you didn't have one before), I'd assume that, by this condition, you are also pretty much ineligible (except for the few days at the end of the promo depending on when your account was officially migrated to AA).

For getting an instant F return trip alone, or an instant J return trip plus at least a one-way short J trip (or one return AU/NZ trip), that's good value all up. It is a lot of money to divest at once - the total cost for 160k miles would be about half my credit limit (on the only card that could afford to purchase that amount).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Excellent thanks.

I've just been playing a bit more. Final destination is HAN and I had intended to book on a separate ticket as none of the departure times match up so Id need to travel the next day (it's a 1730ish dep from HKG). Will AA allow an overnight connection onto the KA flight the next day?

theoretically you can stay up to 23 hours 59 mins. However... I've had push back on a couple of tickets where they wanted me to take the next reasonable connection into/out of HKG. I admit I didn't try too hard to get the decision overruled, and it may have been that the agent was thinking of a US connection (4 hours only) rather than international.

 

[N860CR]

That could work then. Im looking at arriving at 1750 and departing at 1730 the next day. Annoyingly, it's the next available connection!

 

[coolkid101]

I would say AS value would be on emirate flights, especially now that you can book first class again. Downside is it doesn't cover redemption to/from Aus. But if you can somehow make it to SIN (which can easily be achieved cheaply with revenue ticket) ,100k to the US on Emirate first class is real good value.

if you were to position to SIN to start your journey to the US, would you spend 100k on Emirates F or 70k on CX F via HKG. 30k each way is a fair bit to add up and CX F doesnt sound too shabby by any means

 

[VAG newbie]

if you were to position to SIN to start your journey to the US, would you spend 100k on Emirates F or 70k on CX F via HKG. 30k each way is a fair bit to add up and CX F doesnt sound too shabby by any means

If CX F is what I'm interested, I would use AA miles at 67.5K at 2.0 US cents each rather than using 70K AS mile at 2.11 US cents. The subject was on best use of AS mile. The advantage of AS over AA is obviously the ability to fly Emirates first class, which in itself is an experience worth having.

But I agree with you, if the goal is reaching the destination in comfort, then CX is the way to go, and I wouldn't reposition myself to SIN, it would make more sense to originate from AUS, J to HKG then F to US for 90k.

Anyway, I didn't buy AS miles after all as it turned out to be too restrictive. It is US-centric and the inability to mix carrier makes it hard to redeem if dates can't be too flexible.

 

[serfty]

Excuse my ignorance - I thought you weren't allowed to transit the middle east from Australia to Europe as part of AA??

if on a direct flight (e.g. booked as QF1, SYD-LHR), then it's allowed .

 

[Pushka]

Interesting that they've stuck this condition on the promo splash page:

In other words, if you aren't a member and you saw this now, you're stuffed (but you might just be ready for the next promo).

Interestingly, if you had just obtained a new AA account through the forced migration from US (i.e. you didn't have one before), I'd assume that, by this condition, you are also pretty much ineligible (except for the few days at the end of the promo depending on when your account was officially migrated to AA).

That requirement was in place when i joined back in January.

 

[baggyred]

You can if it's on the same flight number like QF1/QF9, then it will be 80K miles in F.
Otherwise, must split in two awards like on EY 60K + 40K for travel all the way to EU in F.

Gotcha - no such luck from lil ol Perth unfortunately.

With AA partnering with both Etihad and Qatar - it does seem odd that the most direct route from is banned.

 

[VAG newbie]

Can you use AA miles to book CX between BNE and HND/NRT? I can see availability on ba.com between BNE-HKG then HKG-NRT/HND, but when searching BNE-NRT/HND it won't show CX, just QF or JL.

So if we can see availability on each individual sector, and it is within the routing rules, AA would be happy to book it manually for you right?

Edit: I'll just answered my own question. Looks like the answer is no!:evil: I just read again the routing rules, unfortunately there is another rule with AA called Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM), which is the amount of extra mileage an airline will allow for a transit city pair compare to the most direct route. I guess this will eliminate the possibility of "Hidden City Trick" that was commonly used with Lifemiles. (Some people have scored AC J class SYD-YVR-NRT for only 40000 miles!)

AA allows a MPM of 25%. In the case of CX, BNE to NRT, the direct distance is 4440 miles. Where as BNE-HKG-NRT the total distance is 6120 miles. A difference of 1680 miles, which is 37.8% of the most direct route.

Please correct me if I am wrong, if anyone has managed CX between AUS and Japan, please share with me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can you use AA miles to book CX between BNE and HND/NRT? I can see availability on ba.com between BNE-HKG then HKG-NRT/HND, but when searching BNE-NRT/HND it won't show CX, just QF or JL.

So if we can see availability on each individual sector, and it is within the routing rules, AA would be happy to book it manually for you right?

Edit: I'll just answered my own question. Looks like the answer is no!:evil: I just read again the routing rules, unfortunately there is another rule with AA called Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM), which is the amount of extra mileage an airline will allow for a transit city pair compare to the most direct route. I guess this will eliminate the possibility of "Hidden City Trick" that was commonly used with Lifemiles. (Some people have scored AC J class SYD-YVR-NRT for only 40000 miles!)

AA allows a MPM of 25%. In the case of CX, BNE to NRT, the direct distance is 4440 miles. Where as BNE-HKG-NRT the total distance is 6120 miles. A difference of 1680 miles, which is 37.8% of the most direct route.

Please correct me if I am wrong, if anyone has managed CX between AUS and Japan, please share with me.

You can check a range of MPM values on this chart prepared by bcworld: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....idend-miles/easy-way-find-mpm-usdm-53982.html

For city pairs not on the chart, there is no real way to know the exact MPM without a subscription service. However, you can get a pretty good estimate by taking the direct distance and multiplying by 1.5. (so you'll see the actual MPM BNE-NRT is 6670, using the calculation method of 1.5 you'd get 6660... so fairly close).

Note there are some MPMs where the 1.5 doesn't apply.

 

[Beta4Me]

Check these out:


[KVS Tool 7.7.4 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: BNE-SYD-NRT/AA]

CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC SUR  HGL   LWL   25M  XTRA       
BNE 3                                                           
SYD 3 EH   465   465                                            
TYO 3 EH  4863  5328  5342  EH  0M    14     0  6677     0

[KVS Tool 7.7.4 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: BNE-HKG-NRT/AA]

CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC SUR  HGL   LWL   25M  XTRA       
BNE 3                                                           
HKG 3 EH  4318  4318  5181  EH  0M   863     0  6476     0      
TYO 3 EH  1823  6141  5342  EH 15M     2   265  6677     0

 

[VAG newbie]

Check these out:


[KVS Tool 7.7.4 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: BNE-SYD-NRT/AA]

CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC SUR  HGL   LWL   25M  XTRA       
BNE 3                                                           
SYD 3 EH   465   465                                            
TYO 3 EH  4863  5328  5342  EH  0M    14     0  6677     0

[KVS Tool 7.7.4 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: BNE-HKG-NRT/AA]

CTY   DC   TPM   cough   MPM  DC SUR  HGL   LWL   25M  XTRA       
BNE 3                                                           
HKG 3 EH  4318  4318  5181  EH  0M   863     0  6476     0      
TYO 3 EH  1823  6141  5342  EH 15M     2   265  6677     0

Thank you for going all the way to look this up for me. But TBH, I don't understand what it means....... Does it mean BNE-HKG-TYO is within the 25% MPM?