USDM & AA account balances to Merge from March 28th

[anat0l]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Note that AAdvantage one way SWP to Europe in Business is 60K ... was looking at this yesterday and saw plenty of SYD-(QF)-xHND-(BA)-LHR for that 60K and USD336.

This is no different in cost to US DM, except that one way awards are possible under AA but no en route stopover is allowed.

Availability on BA from far out is pretty good with the main stop points being TYO or HKG (SIN is possible, but usually less available). Of course, most people retch due to the fuel surcharges and whether they want to fly Club World. Still, if you need to get to Europe in Business, sometimes BA is the last bastion you may have available, plus for you folk that carry a lot with you, Club World luggage allowance is 3 x 32 kg.

 

[serfty]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

This is no different in cost to US DM, except that one way awards are possible under AA but no en route stopover is allowed....

Of course, those who manage to finalise a DM booking over remaining couple of days would find, having to book a return, that unless they can arrange an open Jaw out of Europe, the APD (even as it gets attenuated next month) would put a bigger dent in the wallet. Assuming a mirror return routing, one would be getting up near USD1000 in +++.

Oh well - not long now ...

 

[anat0l]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

28 March is when the programmes will merge.

If you want to make any last US DM redemptions, you'll need to do it now as after 25 March, US DM redemptions will no longer be possible whilst the miles merge.

 

[serfty]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

These redemptions need to be ticketed by 3pm Thursday Brisbane time.

Good blog article here:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...ges-to-how-americans-upgrade-work/#more-31415

 

[Timba-Jet]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Trying to decide to book now with USDM or wait til AA merge for a SYD-SGN J return. Advice needed.

I know AA will be only 70k vs 90k USDM, however for the outbound the only flight available for 2 pax in J is: SYD-PER-HKG-SGN. Will this be a valid routing on AA? it's not a typical commercial route.

 

[smit0847]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Trying to decide to book now with USDM or wait til AA merge for a SYD-SGN J return. Advice needed.

I know AA will be only 70k vs 90k USDM, however for the outbound the only flight available for 2 pax in J is: SYD-PER-HKG-SGN. Will this be a valid routing on AA? it's not a typical commercial route.

I doubt it.

I also doubt you'll be able to get through to USDM in the next 30 hours too.

 

[hummel]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

I doubt it.

I also doubt you'll be able to get through to USDM in the next 30 hours too.

Is that because you're busy booking GUM trips?

I'm not going to bother booking anything more for now. I did try and merge my wife's USDM account into her AA account but due to different surnames (since being married) they want a whole bunch of doc's sent showing previous surname/current etc I think that can wait until this whole merger thing is done.

 

[anat0l]

re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Trying to decide to book now with USDM or wait til AA merge for a SYD-SGN J return. Advice needed.

I know AA will be only 70k vs 90k USDM, however for the outbound the only flight available for 2 pax in J is: SYD-PER-HKG-SGN. Will this be a valid routing on AA? it's not a typical commercial route.

Your proposed routing exceeds the MPM+25, so technically even if you were to try it on USDM you might be knocked back anyway.

If you really wanted to find out, then calling AA and getting them to cost up the routing can't hurt - just feed them the flights, cost it up and then tell them you'll think about it and thank them for their time. My guess is, however, that AA won't accept this as a single South Pacific - Asia 2 award.

Note that in many cases, AA won't tell you if you have an "invalid routing", because there almost aren't really such things, just some routings will cost more than one award.

For example, say I wanted to book one-way BNE-MEL-PER-HKG-JFK in J. Crazy? Actually it just fits inside the MPM+25, would you believe it (the coughulative MPM calculation is a bit b0rked, though)... but this is not a direct routing and it doesn't qualify for a "free" third zone transit. If you called US DM to ticket this up, you may or may not have a chance (technically it should go) to book this. If you called AA up, they'll happily add the flights as you quote them, then they'll tell you the price as computed by the computer; if your routing happens to 'violate' some of the rules, then you'll know it because the price in miles they give you will be higher than you expected (cf. the "direct" cost).

 

[JohnK]

Re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Am I the only one not to have a USDM account and not worried by the ensuing changes

I have an account but not worried about changes. USDM lost if for me when they didn't notify us about mum's cancelled flight.

I have a nice stash of AA miles.

 

[Limewood]

Re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

This is no different in cost to US DM, except that one way awards are possible under AA but no en route stopover is allowed.

Was wondering booking on AA after merger if one has to take next available flight on way to say Europe in HKG, or can one spoon feed the AA agents and take another flight leaving within a 24 hour period, in essence allowing a short stopover?.

 

[anat0l]

Re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Was wondering booking on AA after merger if one has to take next available flight on way to say Europe in HKG, or can one spoon feed the AA agents and take another flight leaving within a 24 hour period, in essence allowing a short stopover?.

As with US, it's best to tell the agents which flights you want, one by one.

Yes, you do not have to select the very next flight (or even the very next flight which has availability); as long as you don't exceed 23h 59m it will not be considered a stopover (exception: if the city is within the USA, the length not to exceed drops to 3h 59m).

 

[Swan]

Re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

As with US, it's best to tell the agents which flights you want, one by one.

Yes, you do not have to select the very next flight (or even the very next flight which has availability); as long as you don't exceed 23h 59m it will not be considered a stopover (exception: if the city is within the USA, the length not to exceed drops to 3h 59m).

They do not seem to be very strict on the US stop restriction as I have two stops which exceed 4 hours.

 

[Solid]

Re: USDM & AA account balances to convert from March 28th

Got an email this morning from AA welcoming me to their program, giving me my account number and confirming miles balance same as USDM. Haven't tried to log in yet.

 

[boomy]

AA opened new account for me and transferred the USDM there. Don't know why they did that for, I already have an existing active account. Tried to send them an email but got no reply so now need to call and ask them to merge both accounts.

 

[serfty]

AA opened new account for me and transferred the USDM there. Don't know why they did that for, I already have an existing active account. Tried to send them an email but got no reply so now need to call and ask them to merge both accounts.

Did you not take the two month or so opportunity to match them?

 

[boomy]

Did you not take the two month or so opportunity to match them?

Tried to do it online a few times but the match was declined (although details on both accounts are 100% identical). My emails first to US and later to AA didn't get any response. The one thing I should have done and didn't do is calling them. My fault for giving AA too much credit that they will eventually do the match correctly.

 

[serfty]

.. My fault for giving AA too much credit that they will eventually do the match correctly.

No doubt they will ... there was a good FT thread on this where many such problems were sorted.

Amyway, they are geared to sort your type of issue, but depending on the urgency it may be better to wait a week or so - I suspect they are pretty busy at the moment.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A pop-up window when I tried to merge accounts (too late!) said the account matching window had now closed and new accounts will be established for all US members, but there will be another opportunity to reconcile accounts at a later stage.

So I imagine there'll be another period to have another crack at it on-line.

 

[anat0l]

A pop-up window when I tried to merge accounts (too late!) said the account matching window had now closed and new accounts will be established for all US members, but there will be another opportunity to reconcile accounts at a later stage.

So I imagine there'll be another period to have another crack at it on-line.

If I recall correctly, AA had a facility to merge multiple accounts previously anyway.

Either way, if they'll provide a facility later, it's a big whoop, unless you need to burn some mileage in your super balance posthaste.

 

[JohnK]

AA opened new account for me and transferred the USDM there. Don't know why they did that for, I already have an existing active account. Tried to send them an email but got no reply so now need to call and ask them to merge both accounts.

I was shocked this morning when I saw email that I have a new AA account.

Did you not take the two month or so opportunity to match them?

Haven't been paying attention as my USDM balance was 0.