Questions about redeeming aa points for flying SFO to BOM AA is routing me via London on BA is there a way to book on CX or Ethihad using AA points , if so how do I do that , is calling AA agent the only way to do it TIA
Welcome to MP, dougnet! To go from the US to India you need to route over the Atlantic through Europe or the Middle East. Etihad is an option on that route. Also Finnair or Royal Jordanian. You can use CX through Asia but this will require you to redeem 2 awards. US - Asia 2, and then Asia 2 to India. For both options, you need to call AA. You can only book awards using AA, HA, AS, and BA on AA.com currently. An alternative would be to look at booking a distance based oneworld award. This would allow you to use 2 oneworld airlines other than AA to fly a certain distance with no restrictions on which direction you take and up to 16 stop overs: LINK.
Thank you David for all your help Question about infant I have a 22 month old and I read somewhere that AA/partners charge 10% of full price of the ticket is that true ?
AA.com has a whole section on traveling with children that might be helpful to you: LINK. The part I think you want is in the chart under the "Under 5 years" section: Infants under 2 years of age who travel within the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands†may be held in an adult's lap at no charge. For transatlantic/transpacific travel or travel to/from Latin America, children under two years of age are required to have a ticket in their name for 10% of the applicable adult fare for the International portion. A 10% ticket does not entitle infants to their own seats.
dougnet, let me also take this opportunity to welcome you to Milepoint. I recently flew to BOM via LHR on British Airways. I had an absolutely terrific experience, especially on the LHR-BOM flight and the BOM-LHR flight. I personally love BA and have never had a bad experience with them. I wouldn't hesitate to fly BA to BOM again. Best wishes and safe travels.
I'm guessing the issue is the YQ charges. I like BA, too, but I don't like them enough to pay that amount when EY is an option.
Excellent point. I actually flew on a revenue ticket that probably cost about the same as the YQ charges would have been on a reward ticket.
Thanks guys .. I am a newbie not in terms of International traveling but traveling with an infant and on a award ticket having done this route 10 time in last 13 yrs on different airlines .. this is my first time trying to see if i can score a free award ticket
Unfortunately, AA miles are not as well set up for award tix to India as other programs, like UA. You must fly transatlantically ... if you fly BA, you will have to pay high fuel surcharges. However, you can fly on Royal Jordanian via Amman (AMM). If you are connecting elsewhere from BOM to other spots in India, you can also fly FinnAir via Helsinki to DEL. Award space on these two can be searched through the BA engine. You could do SFO-ORD/JFK-AMM-BOM on AA/RJ, or SFO-ORD/JFK-HEL-DEL on AA/Finnair. AA also partners with Etihad and Jet Airways ... the former has decent award availability, while the latter doesn't have as much award availability, but it's still possible. On EY, SFO-ORD/JFK-AUH-BOM would work, and on 9W, SFO-JFK-BRU-BOM (though I think JFK-BRU will be discontinued soon). ---- If you choose to fly transpacific via CX/HKG and JL/NRT, you'll have to purchase two awards. It's one aspect of the AA program I really don't like, especially since you can fly to CMB in Sri Lanka via the Pacific for a lower price than India, even though it's a longer trip than many major Indian cities. One way to go via the Pacific is to do a distance-based AA OneWorld award, but you must fly 2 non-AA OneWorld carriers. This means JL and CX. One way that could work would be SFO-LAX-NRT-HKG-BOM-HKG-SFO, which is under 20,000 miles flown
Finnair's IATA code is AY, not FI. FI is Icelandair. For awhile you could not get to CMB via the Atlantic as CX as the only OW partner serving Sri Lanka. Things have changed since then with RJ and non-OW partner EY offering flights, and with UL coming online soon, maybe AA will have a change of heart.
Thanks it looked wrong when I first wrote it but I was too lazy to look it up. Someone should tell the OW Route Map (which shows FI for FinnAir).
You can always double click airline and airport codes (or just about any acronym) on MP and the definition will pop up in the top right-hand corner. So if in doubt, double click!
Not if you're on the mobile app I've been using MP more from the iPhone/iPad and took off the mobile app signature since it appeared after practically every post I wrote.
No reason to panic, that post doesn't have much that isn't already stated in the posts above it, so you've already "digested" it. It's not too difficult, just take a breath!
Its all good . . here is what I got 86 K aa points (wife) 110 K aa points (me) planning for a dec trip this year options BA SFO -- LHR -- BOM 90 K aa points (fuel surcharge 350 per person economy ) BOM-LHR -SFO Etihad SFO-JFK-DXB-BOM back the same way CX----- preferred option first leg SFO- HKG -- 70 k aa points second leg HKG - BOM-- 30 K aa points is the points calculation correct for CX will buying aa points instead of paying fuel surcharge a better option ?
For routing on CX, it would be 70K for USA-Asia 2 and 45K for Asia 2-India, making it 115K roundtrip ... If you're going in December, you can do USA-Asia 1 (Japan) for 50K roundtrip during off-peak season, then Asia 1-India for 45K (you're allowed a routing via Asia 2 for that). It would be 95K roundtrip, though it would take a longer routing (like SFO-LAX-NRT-HKG-BOM one-way). It does allow for a stopover in Japan if you'd like. -- Etihad routes via Abu Dhabi (AUH), but they don't charge fuel surcharges with AA awards and they are the fewest miles in this case.
Yes, AA does awards as one way redemptions. The 70K mentioned above is 35K per person X2 to go from the US to Asia 2. The AA award chart is pretty straight forward and easy to read: LINK. All amounts are one way.
Yes, 35K per person from USA to Asia 2 and 22.5K from Asia 2 to India. The one redeeming factor about this is that you can build in a stopover anywhere in Asia 2, since you would technically have 2 awards. Asia 2 also includes Colombo, Sri Lanka (CMB) ... some people fly there, then hop a short paid ticket flight to India from there.
