BA/HA Awards Now Bookable on AA.com

Just wish they had a way to show only AA flights so you could look for bookings that don't have the high YQ. When I was doing a dummy search for next year, all that would come up were BA flights.

Also love some of the routings that come up. If you look for a flight LAX - PPT, one of the more available routings is LAX - JFK -HNL - PPT. It gets you there but it seems very strange to suggest going from LAX to JFK in order to get to HNL. May be nice for a mileage run but not with the wife on points.

When doing an award search, you can click a radial button to only show AA/AE flights. It's worked well when I've poked around with it, but if there are no flights available it does seem to throw in partner flights despite the selection.

Two questions:

1. Just curious about why AA is doing this. Are they hoping to lay off lots of their phone AAgents and save the company money by allowing us to more easily book award tickets online? (If that is the case, I'll miss the AAgents. I've learned quite a lot from them over the years about booking AA award tickets. They've often been very helpful.)
2. I'm one of those fools who often books 331 days in advance, especially if there's an award seat I am very anxious to grab. A few years ago, I occasionally found that the phone AAgents could "see" award seat availability a day or so before I could see it online. That was not the case, however, when I last booked an award. Any speculation/knowledge about whether this new online functionality will "see" awards at the very same time the phone AAgents do? I'm guessing it will, especially if AA is looking to lay off some of their phone agents.

The problem is that if you want a specific date, even with the radio button, you don't know if it is a AA flight or BA flight until you finish the search. This does not help if you absolutely do not want to pay the YQ charge.

I know I don't want to pay the YQ charge for a F award ticket to Europe (about $2k for 2 F tickets) - and right now, AA availability is VERY limited - even at 330 days out. It would be very nice to have the true filter such that you could choose to include or exclude all BA flights. My wife and I are retired so we do have the flexibility to change dates as necessary.

I'm confused, it seems you're commenting on the exact issue I cited above, i.e. AA showing BA flights despite specifying only AA flights? Or are we talking about different things?

It was F on BA with AA miles!!! GRU - LHR - GRU!!

The taxes and fees for GRU-LHR-GRU in F are shown in the post I replied to you in, but here it is again for the same ticket:



Approximately $350 USD. $10 doesn't seem realistic at all. I'm willing to bet something is missing/confused with the redemption.

If you actually paid $10, I suspect you might be in for a sad surprise when you check in at LHR and they realize you haven't paid their taxes, particularly the mandatory premium cabin tax.

I could be wrong, but In addition to AB, AY, or IB, Etihad is now another option for Europe onward?

If you start in the Middle East or India, yes. Not if you are starting in North American though.

Thanks. Am looking at heading from LHR onward, on SOMETHING besides BA.....

EY is a good option then into ME/India category cities like AUH, DEL, BOM, and even MLE.

I can't post the picture here because I bought those tickets in the AA Store, and it won't be me who is going to have a surprise but the passengers who are flying with my miles! LOL!!! May 19th I'll post the outcome of this!!!

What dates are you looking at? I'm randomly searching on AA for HNL-PPT (tried LAX-PPT as well, per your post) and getting the error "There are currently no awards available on AA.com for your requested Origin and Destination. Please modify your request or contact AAdvantage Reservations for award opportunities on all AAdvantage participating airlines."

Try going out to the first of next year. Plenty of availability -mostly on Friday and Sat. If you want to see one of the LAX-JFK-HNL-PPT look at March 8. Most days don't show the LAX-JFK route. Flight from HNL to PPT is HA 481 (actually flying on the 9th). Also looked at Sept of this year and most Saturday's are available HNL to PPT - even in business.

Continue to visit our page to stay updated on future partner releases from AAdvantage!

Qantas would be great in the system!!

It would also be great if you could search on specific airlines. Specifically to avoid looking at BA awards with their high YQ charges.

Then again, HA was conspicuously -not- mentioned as "on deck" at that point so I'd say it's very possible the order might have changed in the interim. But, yes, I'd definitely expect QF to come well before CX-- that's almost a given at this point.

I wouldn't be surprised by the appearance of any partner to be honest. I appreciate AA sharing that information on the MegaDO, but doubt they feel (nor should they) honor bound to stick to it.

QF or CX would make the most people happy. I know how to look for space so it doesn't matter much to me, but personally I'd like to see JL. I've got a bit of a soft spot for them.