So, what are you burning your AA miles on?

[Pumbaa]

Congratulations to you and lucky partner :!:

Just out of interest, how much did you have to front up in co-pay (taxes and so on)? I'd imagine it'd be a bit elevated purely due to the BA YQ (but you have saved yourself the UK APD at least).

How much time will you have and at what time of the day will you be in the Concorde Room?

Thanks very much mate!

PER-MEL-DXB-LHR: $171 in Taxes
MAD-LHR-JFK: $921 in Taxes
JFK-HKG-SIN: $97 in Taxes
All prices are in AUD and for TWO passengers

Yup, I avoided the ADP, but couldn't escape the BA fuel surcharges unfortunately. I checked AA and the same flight was roughly about $500 in taxes, so would have saved $400. I read heaps of reviews and many say BA F is superior to AA F. Interestingly the new AA J is very well received and quite the bargain at only 50k AA points. the 12.5k extra for BA F and access to the Concorde room seemed too good a deal for me, so we went with that!

Will be arriving in LHR at 12:15PM and leaving for JFK at 4:15PM. Fingers crossed that there isn't any flight delays, and we should have about 4 hours to experience the cabanas, elemis spa and have lunch in the restaurant. Might even bump into someone famous, who knows!?

 

[Major]

I used my 90K miles purchase from late last year and another 90K early this year to book 2 x J on CX for BNE-HKG-CDG at 60K each. I booked this by phone to the US number but she would not take my Aus CC for the taxes, so I rang the local number and she wanted to charge a huge booking fee as well as taxes. I then explained that you could not book CX online and therefore should not pay the fee.
Waited for a couple of minutes while she spoke to a supervisor, she came back and waived the fee and quoted taxes slightly cheaper than the US quote. Bottom line I paid $103 AUD each for taxes.

I am very happy with the outcome, now to return from CDG using VA points but EY has not/will not release award seats at the moment

 

[kempvet]

I used my 90K miles purchase from late last year and another 90K early this year to book 2 x J on CX for BNE-HKG-CDG at 60K each.

Did you find this flight on KVS or some other search as it will not show (as far as I know) in the AA online award booking engine and is it CX metal all the way or codeshare. The reason I am interested is often a travel to Europe in J with AA miles and seem to get stuck with the QF mark1 J product and not much better if at all AY J product, none of which have flat beds in J. For me, it would be great to find a CX metal all the way AUS-EU in J.

 

[kempvet]

Yup, I avoided the ADP, but couldn't escape the BA fuel surcharges unfortunately.

SWMBO and the apprentice SWMBO were booked HEL-TXL-AUH in J for this very reason, only about 80 dollars taxes, but then I thought that sometimes, it is a little silly to penny pinch all the time, so for only 10k AA miles each changed the flight to HEL-LHR-DXB in F, sure it was over 600 dollars in taxes but I thought that over 6 hours in the Concorde room with all the lerks and perks and also BA F product LHR-DXB was worth far more in value than what could be offered in the AB J product

 

[anat0l]

SHMBO and the apprentice SHMBO

SHMBO?

In other news, how short is your leash?

 

[Major]

Did you find this flight on KVS or some other search as it will not show (as far as I know) in the AA online award booking engine and is it CX metal all the way or codeshare. The reason I am interested is often a travel to Europe in J with AA miles and seem to get stuck with the QF mark1 J product and not much better if at all AY J product, none of which have flat beds in J. For me, it would be great to find a CX metal all the way AUS-EU in J.

I did not use the AA site at all. As I do not like the QF product from BNE it was either MH or CX and from reading the posts on AFF I knew I would have to ring AA if I wanted CX. I used the CX site to work out what I wanted and went from there. It is CX metal all the way..A330 to HKG and B773 ER to CDG

 

[Pumbaa]

SHMBO and the apprentice SHMBO were booked HEL-TXL-AUH in J for this very reason, only about 80 dollars taxes, but then I thought that sometimes, it is a little silly to penny pinch all the time, so for only 10k AA miles each changed the flight to HEL-LHR-DXB in F, sure it was over 600 dollars in taxes but I thought that over 6 hours in the Concorde room with all the lerks and perks and also BA F product LHR-DXB was worth far more in value than what could be offered in the AB J product

Thats the most amazing thing about AA redemptions. J to F is only 10,000 to 15,000 miles difference. With other carriers the premium is significantly more. At 10,000-15,000 points or around $200-$300 you would upgrade J to F any time of the week!

I'm used to the exorbitant taxes that SQ charge for their redemptions, so not overly fussed with BA's fuel charges. However when comparing it to other flights with CX/QF/AA, it is priced a bit of the high side!

I checked the full price of all my flights, they came to about $100 000 of cold hard cash or 2 tickets. Its amazing that I only spent a tiny fraction of this cost buying points for AA/SPG and transferring the rest!

 

[kempvet]

SHMBO? In other news, how short is your leash?

There is no leash, the trick is to make SWMBO think that there is a leash.

 

[kempvet]

There is no leash, the trick is to make SWMBO think that there is a leash.

On the other hand, the apprentice SWMBO is only a three year old girl, that is another story, I guess if I have to research the internet connection speed of hotels we stay at so that Mickey Mouse cartoons can stream over youtube without a problem, and also make certain that there is an indoor play center within a few minutes of the hotel, then I guess, yes, there is a leash and the apprentice SWMBO is calling the shots.

 

[Major]

Just booked 2 seats in J from CDG-BNE on MH for 60,000 miles each. The CDG-KUL sector is on the A380 which arrives at 0630 and then the A330 daytime sector to BNE. Only a 3 hour transit in the KUL satellite lounge.
I think I paid about $1230.00 USD for 60.000 miles (25% discount). Great value IMHO

 

[Alanslegal]

Placed an award on hold the other day, went to pay for it yesterday, however it hasn't yet ticketed and still on request, so its 36 hours now. Is this an OK turnaround?

 

[Princess Fiona]

Placed an award on hold the other day, went to pay for it yesterday, however it hasn't yet ticketed and still on request, so its 36 hours now. Is this an OK turnaround?

I would give them a ring, I always get nervous when things like this happen and I nearly lost a CX F award this way

 

[paultiffen]

After you book I generally ask for a reference number for the airline operating the flight ie Etihad and they can provide that instantly. I then go onto Etihad's website for example and if the reservation appears I assume that all is well. Also helps with booking seats etc.

 

[serfty]

Placed an award on hold the other day, went to pay for it yesterday, however it hasn't yet ticketed and still on request, so its 36 hours now. Is this an OK turnaround?

The terminology/sequence there does not seem right.

Sequence is normally:

1. Select flight(s), pick seats
2. Place booking on hold - record PNR
3. Return to pay - booking then shows "ticketed"
4. Points taken from account
5. Credit Card charged
6. <some time later> - booking shows "ticketed - <date>"

A month or so ago, a booking got stuck between 4 & 5 - it took three calls over a 10 day period to fix. (Tip, call early am tue-sat MEL/SYD/BNE time to get best service). I was a bit nervous since it was the last Z class seat for NRT-ORD.

 

[ChasingDaylight]

I've had 'On Request' previously for about 48 hours after booking a QF F ticket for LHR-SYD, ticketed fine in the end. I did a bit of searching aroundon Flyertalk etc and it seems that On Request occurs when AA have to got QF and check that the ticket (or whatever it is called) is still available in that fare bucket (or something similar).

 

[knasty]

My experience today may help those redeeming AA miles for CX flights.

I had a business class redemption booking for 28/8 SYD/HKG/CDG/LHR, as I could not get a direct redemption in business from HKG-LHR on CX251. From my reading of the various forums I noted CX often allocate open inventory to awards 3 business days or so out. So today I checked expert flyer and saw that whilst business had only 3 seats available, First still had 6/6 seats available in all classes, so I thought I was in with a chance. Sure enough at 1pm 2 award seats in F (Z class) appeared, via Qantas & BA websites.

I rang AA to upgrade my booking to the direct flight, in First. First agent said no availability. I rang back. Second agent was more helpful - she told me that not only could she see no availability, she couldn't see the flight at all, but could see 3 other CX flights. I explained that I could see the Z class availability via BA/QF websites on CX251. Instead of just saying no again, of her own accord she started to search and noted that CX251 was showing on the QF flight page, not the CX flight page. Once she found it she had no problem getting me the seat.

I've seen lots of comments that people can see J/F availability on BA/QF websites, but not when they ring AA. The lesson I learned today is that the AA system may incorrectly assign CX flights under another airline on their system, so if this is the case ask the agent to search for the CX flight you want under QF or BA just in case.

I'm still a bit upset that CX doesn't offer F from SYD-HKG as this means no SYD F lounge for me (I'm a mere AA Gold), but at least I get F lounge time in HK and more importantly a direct flight which gives me an extra 6 hours in London. If anyone is in HKG at approx 10pm on the 28th and wants a guest into the CX F Lounge PM me beforehand and I'll be happy to guest you in!

 

[kamchatsky]

Originally I booked 2 * JL772 SYD-NRT J using 45K * 2 = 90K miles.

Due to change of plan we decided to go to Taipei instead, and booked 2 * CX110/CX470 SYD-HKG-TPE J using 35K * 2 = 70K miles. And the flight is 2 weeks out only!

So AA refunded me the 20K miles, + the tax difference, but charges me $175USD for the ticket reinstatement fee. But no fuel and surcharges.

I tried to do the same routing using QF points, and they would want to charge me 2 * 78K = 156K QFF, and charge me like $400AUD+ in fuel fines!!!!

Needless to say I used my AA miles instead! Still cannot believe that for same route, QF would need 86000 miles more than AA!

 

[Pumbaa]

IMHO the only good thing about Qantas FF points is it allows you to book QF metal flights before any other OW partners. Particularly useful for their US flights out of SYD/MEL. Otherwise AA is better for pretty much everything else!

 

[kezzakawasaki]

Had a great CX / KA flight combo from Sydney to Phnom Penh earlier this year in business - bargain at 35K, and I got a stop over in Hong Kong to catch up with a dear friend. Have also redeemed an award from Sydney to Darwin in May 2014 on QF for 17500 points in business class. Admittedly it's a QF 737, but hey for a four hour + flight and a special treat, why not.

 

[Joshua]

So can someone explain the general lack of interest in the Explorer Awards - the oneworld, milage awards?

Looking at the different rules between this and the equivalent QF awards, always a few technicalities. So for spending 220k miles you to fly up to 50k miles in J. That in theory let's you fly CBR-SYD-LHR-MEL-LHR-SYD-DXB or 2 Europe returns + halfway back again

I'd probably use the award more as it is intended and use up the 16 segments carefully across more obscure routes, but still the value is there.

Well that's what I'm thinking of, a few of these seem like the best way to go, I just have to burn through some QF points first on a couple 35k mile oneworld J awards.