Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards
Ok, do you have any experience of this? If so is it fairly easy and straight forward? Also who out the alliance would you say has the most availability?
Oh and Thanks for the reply
It's pretty much as straightforward as US.
AAgents are typically more experienced and seemed to have on average higher SATs than US DM agents (or at least their geography is better). HUACA is really only useful if something you want to do is very much doable but the agent won't budge. Trying to fool or outsmart AAgents a la US DM is a waste of time.
They seem to end most booking calls with "advertising", e.g. they ask if you would like to know some good deals on car hire. Don't be offended.
Like US, you can place bookings on hold. There is a booking fee for phone bookings as well as expedited ticketing fee for bookings within 21 days of departure; both waived for AA PLT and EXP.
Two things I'm not too sure but others can comment on (because they will surely have the experience).
One is credit cards. US residents are straightforward. Other nations, including Australia, not necessarily. There is supposed to be a process where non-US credit cards are easily handled, but I had one agent not do this. They offered me to pay and ticket the award at the airport, but another AAgent called me a few days later to fix this up (otherwise I would've lost my hold).
The second thing is calling time. I think you must call during the AAdvantage opening hours in the US. Basically the dead of night in Australia. That can be a little hell. I'd like to be told otherwise here (though like US DM, sometimes you get better agents during office hours - their's, of course).
I haven't huge experience checking availability, but I'd reckon CX has pretty good availability. If you can find the seat on QFF classic, you should be able to book it as an AAward. Of course, the hard to get places and common longhaul (i.e. prime F routes) will always be tough on availability.
I'm not sure any oneworld carrier comes close to the self-opening pinata that is TG.
