Oneworld Award Bookings

[neon_crossing]

Hi all,

After spending about 3 years stocking up on, studying and trying to get my head around US Airways and the Star Alliance booking methods, websites, loopholes, and the like, and getting very familiar with them, I am now faced with the reality that my beloved US Airways points will soon be AA points and I'll need to start again from scratch to figure out the Oneworld ins and outs.

With some recent promos with US I am going to be stocking up on some more and I am keen to find out if anyone has found any great value ways to use the points. (for example the South Pacific 'loophole' in Star Alliance by getting to guam for 30,000 points return), with OW getting Aus to NZ for 17,500 in J etc.

Also what is the best way to find available flights? All of my flights will be ex adelaide and I usually fly to the USA on J. When I punch it into the AA website it usually only gives me options for Qantas and usually on the older 747s. I'd like to look at the options with Malaysian and Cathay but find it difficult to bring those flights up.

Cheers in advance and I look forward to utilising what the oneworld brand airlines have to offer.

 

[bcworld]

The features / loopholes / mistake fares you describe aren't really *A or OW features...they're elements of the US and AA programs in particular.

As for availability...you can use QFF to check for QF, CX and BA sectors and BA Exec Club shows availability for MH. Stumping up for a tool like KVS helps to do all this quickly of course. But be aware that in general AA is not going to allow you to piece together sectors to make a routing like you can with US. I could be wrong but I don't think for example you can route Aus-HKG-US on CX on a single ticket - you'd need to ticket 2 awards for that?

 

[grussellt]

That's right bcworld a South Pacific-North America award can't transit Asia (as a single award). There is a convenient table of awards and respective cost (in miles) in the AAdvantage section of AA.com. You will need to learn the "rules" for each award (which you can find on Flyertalk and a few other spots) but if all else fails give AAdvantage a call. There are some good awards to be founs when they are available e.g. HNL-Europe (Y) off-peak for 20000 miles.

 

[Kangol]

But be aware that in general AA is not going to allow you to piece together sectors to make a routing like you can with US. I could be wrong but I don't think for example you can route Aus-HKG-US on CX on a single ticket - you'd need to ticket 2 awards for that?

It depends on where you want to go and what type of award you are booking.

AA have a distance based OW award that is solely on miles and has no geographical constraints.
oneworld Airlines Award Chart

QF have a similar product (the "oneworld award" for 140k/280k/420k) which is less flexible because they don't divide it into distance "zones" like AA does.

 

[bcworld]

It depends on where you want to go and what type of award you are booking.

AA have a distance based OW award that is solely on miles and has no geographical constraints.
oneworld Airlines Award Chart

Perhaps it has some sweet spots but in most examples I can think of it seems to work out substantially more expensive than booking 2 one way awards.

e.g. MEL-HKG-JFK in J is 90k vs 115k
or MEL-DOH-LHR in J is 75k vs 115k

 

[aikman]

Perhaps it has some sweet spots but in most examples I can think of it seems to work out substantially more expensive than booking 2 one way awards.

e.g. MEL-HKG-JFK in J is 90k vs 115k
or MEL-DOH-LHR in J is 75k vs 115k

It suits those who like to take it slow and see the sights.

While MEL-DOH-LHR might cost 115k, so does MEL-SIN-KUL-BOM-DOH-AMM-TLV-VIE-CPH-TXL-ZRH-MAD-LIS-LHR with a stopover allowed in each city.

 

[bcworld]

It suits those who like to take it slow and see the sights.

While MEL-DOH-LHR might cost 115k, so does MEL-SIN-KUL-BOM-DOH-AMM-TLV-VIE-CPH-TXL-ZRH-MAD-LIS-LHR with a stopover allowed in each city.

A ha!

 

[neon_crossing]

Hmm did I potentially name this thread wrong? Keen to work out how to use my AA points on partner carriers?

Where does this chart come in?

 

[casanovawa]

This page has some tips on how to think about using the explorer award that can work out cheaper than the above oneworld and other airline award and get you to see more places, although in this instance its more US based... Anyway gives you food for thought on how to use the explorer chart and maybe that does allow you to 'put together' more of an itinerary like we do with USDM than the restrictive published fare rule applied to the above chart...

All About the American AAdvantage Explorer Award - Hack My Trip

 

[neon_crossing]

All About the American AAdvantage Explorer Award - Hack My Trip

Great link, thanks

 

[Kangol]

This page has some tips on how to think about using the explorer award that can work out cheaper than the above oneworld and other airline award and get you to see more places, although in this instance its more US based... Anyway gives you food for thought on how to use the explorer chart and maybe that does allow you to 'put together' more of an itinerary like we do with USDM than the restrictive published fare rule applied to the above chart...

All About the American AAdvantage Explorer Award - Hack My Trip

Awesome, thanks.

This one I had no idea about and would put off some people, although I haven't really looked into the details of an AA OW explorer award anyway:

6) No changes to routing or carrier are allowed after ticketing, although date changes are fine.