Help with AA miles - 1 way from Rome

Hope I can get help to make a decision on airfare. I purchased business class seats with BA using AA miles one way to Rome for a cruise. The date of the trip back was not yet available since it is about a year away. So now, I have to purchase a ride home, but it has been five days since the fares became available and business class is not available for the reduced fare, only for about double the number of miles. I do not have enough miles for the higher fare. The reduced fares are not available until the next Monday with arrival on Tuesday, but do not want to tack on three extra days to the trip. So, would it be best to purchase standard seats now, buy economy anytime which allows the upgrade to business free or wait and keep checking? Anyone been in this situation?

Thanks

Hope I can get help to make a decision on airfare. I purchased business class seats with BA using AA miles one way to Rome for a cruise. The date of the trip back was not yet available since it is about a year away. So now, I have to purchase a ride home, but it has been five days since the fares became available and business class is not available for the reduced fare, only for about double the number of miles. I do not have enough miles for the higher fare. The reduced fares are not available until the next Monday with arrival on Tuesday, but do not want to tack on three extra days to the trip. So, would it be best to purchase standard seats now, buy economy anytime which allows the upgrade to business free or wait and keep checking? Anyone been in this situation?

 

Thanks

Are you using the AAdvantage Partner awards chart?

Last we used our overseas AAdvantage points on Partner airlines (actually, we *only* book on the partners), there didn't seem to be different tiers, other than by destination zone (no "saver", etc.). Maybe this has changed?

How are you making the reservation?

EDIT: Oops... just noticed a single category with a lower saver fare for Partner, and sure enough... Europe!

GC

I have two tickets on hold using AA miles for economy anytime which is a direct flight back on American because I was told if the business class shows up I can then "upgrade' to business no charge. So, since the tickets have only been on sale for five days, maybe BA business class will pop up. Will wait a bit before I follow through and buy.

I have two tickets on hold using AA miles for economy anytime which is a direct flight back on American because I was told if the business class shows up I can then "upgrade' to business no charge. So, since the tickets have only been on sale for five days, maybe BA business class will pop up. Will wait a bit before I follow through and buy.

How many points does that take?

The "Partners" awards chart labels that one lower fare category as "Main Cabin Off Peak", not "anytime", so are these the same things? And the same number of points?

However, the Partner awards would - I *think* - only work for "partner" airlines, but just in case they are different, we've found that code-shares work with the partner points, for "AA" metal.

We haven't used AAdvantage points on AA metal... yet.

GC

So, there is main cabin or standard seat for 30K miles and main cabin or standard seat anytime for 65K miles. The next level up is business, etc. My choices for standard seat are 30K for British air with one stop and a fee for upgrading. If I use more miles for standard anytime (65K), I get a direct flight back and can upgrade with no penalty ($150) each. I can use the miles for American or BA. Have not seen any other partners listed for Rome.

So, there is main cabin or standard seat for 30K miles and main cabin or standard seat anytime for 65K miles. The next level up is business, etc. My choices for standard seat are 30K for British air with one stop and a fee for upgrading. If I use more miles for standard anytime (65K), I get a direct flight back and can upgrade with no penalty ($150) each. I can use the miles for American or BA. Have not seen any other partners listed for Rome.

What are you looking at?

Did you look at the AAdvantage Partner award chart that I suggested?

Here is a link that hopefully will take you there:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/oneworld-and-other-airline-partner-award-chart.jsp

(Click on Contiguous 48 States)

I'm seeing very different (and lower) awards miles/points needed.

We've very recently done this with BA to Europe, and several months ago JL and CX to/from Asia, respectively, with AAdvantage points, per this chart.

Do you call the AAdvantage International Awards desk? Partner travel cannot be booked on line, or at least, we've always had to call.

But the reps have been remarkably helpful, including getting seats. (Well, one exception about the "helpful" bit :( , but we just called back and got a different rep.)

If this chart somehow doesn't apply to your trip, then apologies, but could you let us know why, so that we can learn? (We've only been doing this for less than two years, but we've done and reserved several trips thus far. Anyway, we still have our "learners' permits", I guess. ;) )

GC

I can use the miles for American or BA. Have not seen any other partners listed for Rome.

Do you call the AAdvantage International Awards desk? Partner travel cannot be booked on line, or at least, we've always had to call.

Some partners can't be booked online, most can. Iberia was recently added to those that can be booked through AA.com; others like Cathay Pacific still require going through an agent.

If your travel is still 10 or 11 months away, it's simply too early to find business class seats on AA or any partners, or many "saver seats" at that. The airlines, AA in particular, release seats into award inventory on a continuous basis, depending on what their computers tell them as part of very complicated (and very secret) "yield management" algorithms. If you're looking at next autumn sometime, I wouldn't really start shopping until sometime after the first of the year, maybe into April/May. You're not going to lose anything by waiting; the flights aren't going to sell out, and it's not as if the airlines dump a bunch of seats into award categories at 330 days for first-come-first-served. That's not the way it works. Sometimes early birds get cats instead of worms.

What are your dates for the return? Are you looking at FCO-XXX-DFW?

Your miles are also good on Iberia, with a plane change in Madrid. (AA flies nonstop from Madrid to DFW.)

 

Some partners can't be booked online, most can. Iberia was recently added to those that can be booked through AA.com; others like Cathay Pacific still require going through an agent.

 

If your travel is still 10 or 11 months away, it's simply too early to find business class seats on AA or any partners, or many "saver seats" at that. The airlines, AA in particular, release seats into award inventory on a continuous basis, depending on what their computers tell them as part of very complicated (and very secret) "yield management" algorithms. If you're looking at next autumn sometime, I wouldn't really start shopping until sometime after the first of the year, maybe into April/May. You're not going to lose anything by waiting; the flights aren't going to sell out, and it's not as if the airlines dump a bunch of seats into award categories at 330 days for first-come-first-served. That's not the way it works. Sometimes early birds get cats instead of worms.

 

What are your dates for the return? Are you looking at FCO-XXX-DFW?

Gardyloo, thanks for all of your help (ditto others here, of course!).

Clearly, we are a bit confused about when/how to use AAdvantage awards on the regular AA chart, vs on the "Partners" awards chart.

We've been using the "Partners" chart, and that was the mileage/point amount that was indeed charged for international travel, including one time when the "helpful" AA reps "mistakenly" (??) put us on the AA metal flight rather than the similarly timed JL metal flight. (We fixed that with a call-back, and got back on non-AA metal! Because we had given the specific JL flight number, *not* the AA code share flight number, we found it difficult to think it was truly an "error", but... whatever... we are just much more careful now to make certain the flight is exactly what we requested/were told was confirmed/etc.)

Point here is that it was the "Partners" awards amount that was "charged", either way.

Are there general "rules" about when the Partners awards chart can/cannot be used, especially when there are code shares?

Many thanks.

GC

The redemption requirements for business class between Europe and the contiguous 48 states are the same on both the partners and AA chart. What's missing is the "anytime" award level on the partners chart as "anytime" awards are only available on all-AA metal itineraries. So even if you start in Rome and fly on BA to London, or on Iberia to Madrid, and then switch to AA metal there, you're still limited to "saver" awards as you'll be on somebody else's planes for part of the trip. Remember that the "partners" table means "partners and/or AA" on any particular itinerary, e.g. Iberia to Madrid then AA to DFW - you use the partners table because it involves mixed carriers, just as you would if you were only flying on partner metal for the whole itinerary.

There's no such thing as an award ticket on a codeshare. Codesharing only matters with revenue tickets. Even if a flight you've booked has an AA codeshare designation, your ticket will carry the operating airline's flight number.

(Codesharing is basically an agreement between two airlines in which the operating carrier allows the partner to sell certain numbers of seats in very specific fare buckets using its own flight number. Those fare buckets never include any seats that the operating carrier might have in its own award inventory; when you fly on partner's flight on an AA award ticket it amounts to AA paying the partner for your seat, obviously expecting the partner to reciprocate somewhere else. Hope that makes sense.)

I am confused. When I select "redeem miles" on the AA.com website, it takes me to a chart showing me my options. I have never seen another chart showing selections for redeeming miles with partners beside a page listing them. My selections have only included BA and AA for miles back to the US. Maybe I am misunderstanding. anyway, I will keep on monitoring the site for a while. Thanks

I am confused. When I select "redeem miles" on the AA.com website, it takes me to a chart showing me my options. I have never seen another chart showing selections for redeeming miles with partners beside a page listing them. My selections have only included BA and AA for miles back to the US. Maybe I am misunderstanding. anyway, I will keep on monitoring the site for a while. Thanks

Did you look at the chart for the link that I provided above?

All I know is that on the Partners chart (and we do not want to fly on AA metal anyway, so "Partners" works just fine for us for any international travel), there is only one points level (except for Europe, as I mentioned above).

There are not the "MileSAAver" or "Anytime Level" (1 or 2).

The only point count, for any time Partner airlines have awards seats available is the same as the MileSAAver.

And those are the points that we've needed for travel to Asia and to Europe.

We call the AAdvantage International Desk.

GC

Who wouldn't want to spend a few extra days in Rome?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Who wouldn't want to spend a few extra days in Rome?

Someone who's already been to Rome before, perhaps multiple times

Someone who has a limited amount of time they can take off from work

Someone who has some other commitment they need to get home for

Someone who would rather not spend the money on extra hotels/meals/cabs

Those are just a few off the top of my head. To each his own and all that! ;)

I have been to Rome five times and love it, but we will be away from home about two weeks and as we get older, I find we do not enjoy being away for a longer period of time. I worry about leaving our fur baby alone for too long as she is very attached to us and will not allow anyone else to touch her since she was feral.