bcworld

How many miles do you have? You're aware that the award chart was significantly devalued last month? One way in business has gone from 60k to 85k. Not sure about OneWorld airlines but I can see that Etihad is available on the 15th...A380 business studio all the way SYD-LHR (EY455/EY17). Unfortunately EY flights via AUH will price as 2 awards so one way in business will be 80k + 42.5k which is pretty astronomical in my opinion!

Lisa and Martin

Thanks BC. I have plenty of miles so that's not a problem, I was aware of the devaluation but that's life....After I posted the question I was trying out routes via the middle east - I am just working through the vast piles of paperwork I printed last night to see if I came up with the availability you did. Previous to that I was trying anything through the Far East (BKK/NRT/TYO/KUL/HKG/SIN) but can't seem to make it work, but I was tired & confused..... I was thinking it would use less miles going far east route but I might be stuck in KL for a day or so and then thought that maybe AA wouldn't ticket that as one flight....What is the difference when you use the BA flight credentials versus QF ones on KVS Tool?

bcworld

Your transits can be up to 23h 59m and booked on one award. I think all the transit cities you mention should be valid for routing as one award too. You can probably also add DOH to the list IF you fly in AND out of there on QR...there seems to be some evidence they allow this.

As for KVS, it just scrapes what the respective websites would show you...and BA and QF may bring up different results, they shouldn't, but they do. I think BA probably shows more airlines than QF does...MH for example doesn't show up on the QF website...at the same time I think BA is more prone to false positives. Neither are guaranteed to be the same as what AA sees unfortunately!

EY can just be searched on the etihadguest website (you need to find the guest option available)...or KVS EY method...no login required. You might even find A380 first apartment bookable on a sector if miles are no object and you want a once in a lifetime experience!

Lisa and Martin

AS usual you are the font of all knowledge BC. Thanks for your input, I'll give DOH a try. I used to think flying business was a once in a lifetime experience but then you got me on to this scheme and it became the lowest class I was prepared to consider.....I'm slightly worried if I do First the same thing will happen.....

Lisa and Martin

Booking done! You were right BC, they treated DOH as one award so total spend of 170,000 miles plus $480. So, so happy. If I knew who you were I would hug you.

bcworld

Wow! That's great...QR availability is weird, sometimes there's lots, and then other times none at all...glad that you found some!

jamesflorraine

Hi all i have not posted on here for a while, as we have been using life miles, can anybody advise me what are the chances of flights to Thailand, from Brisbane departing on Dec 26th returning on around 8th of Jan, is it possible to get AA flights or am i better waiting for lifemiles, also we are looking for a 1 person First or Business class flight from the UK to Sydney or Brisbane, in mid to late Jan next year for a month what are the best options thank you in advance

jamesflorraine

Hi can anybody provide me with the contact number to purchase miles with AA thanks in advance

Lisa and Martin

Miles are bought online (you can log in with your old US Airways number or your new AA number), if you want the AU reservations number it is 02 9101 1948

Lindajane

Hi BCWorld,
We haven't used AA airmiles since it all changed and I'm now completely lost with how to use the kvs tool! Im trying to search for 2 business class seats from Melbourne (or Sydney if better) to Manchester anytime around the end of May, beginning of June 2017 and returning mid to end of October. Do I need to use more than the Qf/one world option as that is only bringing up Cathy Pacific? What are the best routes to look at for availability and are stopovers still allowed or will anything over the 24hrs be charged as 2 fares? As you may be able to tell I am confussled and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
Linda

louie

Qatar via Doha and Cathay via Hong Kong are likely to be your best bets at 85k miles p/p e/w in business in the new AA world (used to be 60k). Etihad via Abu Dhabi is now 122.5k (up from 75k ) - that would be two awards.

So as Etihad would be two awards anyway, you could stay over in Abu Dhabi for as long as you wanted to. Via Doha or Hong Kong would be one award so you could only have up to 24 hours connecting there unless you wanted to pay more to make it two awards.

No idea how to use KVS - I use BA.com, splitting each trip into two so e.g. searching MEL - DOH then DOH - MAN. I believe Qantas' website should show the same availability. Occasionally BA shows Cathay availability that doesn't exist, but I've only come across this once.

Also, if you struggle to find anything, try expanding your search to include BNE, ADL, maybe even CNS, as your flight from MEL to there would be included in the award.

Lindajane

Hi Louie,
Thanks for the information. Have managed to find a Cathay one via HK but nothing coming up on Qatar via Doha on kvs. BA.com doesn't have anything showing Qatar, where do you search for those flights? Think this will be the end of the road for AA miles for us😢

louie

I feel your pain. My current route from CNS to Lisbon in May is Cairns - Hong Kong - Amsterdam - Madrid - Lisbon!

Qatar flights will appear on BA.com if they are available. I can't see anything in the last week of May though.

Cathay appear to have availability from MEL on 26 May (CX134) connecting to CX357 on 27 May. If it was me and that could work, I'd snap it up and keep checking later to see if anything better comes up if it's not ideal. Nearly 10 hours in Hong Kong which is not ideal either (though you might be able to go out for dinner!) but if you have a play around you might find a flight from HK to Europe to Manchester which gets you in earlier, though I doubt it as most of the Europe flights are very late evening/early hours of the morning out of HK.

Other than that there's possibly MEL - HKG via CNS on 25 or 28 May, but that might be phantom availability - you'd have to check with them what AA can see. And there's loads of availability from Adelaide to HKG, but as the flight leaves at 06.25 that would mean a night there.

Coming back, you could go with Qatar from MAN on 30 Oct (QR24), leaving at 21.00, getting into Doha at 06.45 on 31 Oct, and have the day exploring, leaving for MEL (QR904) at 20.20 and getting in at 17.45 on 1 Nov. I've not looked at coming back via Hong Kong.

What are your ideal dates?

Lindajane

We don't really have any ideal dates Louie (which is good I guess), just end of May/early June. We have seen one on Cathay on the 8th June that looks decent times so will give AA a call and see if the seats really exist. Still nothing showing on Qatar. Many thanks for your help

spouse of scouse

Just saying goodbye to my AA points and flights.

I live in the UK now, but am going home to Perth to visit family in Sept/Oct this year. The 162,000 points left in my account wasn't going to get scouse and I there and back, but I found return Emirates business flights for under £5,000 for the two of us, so I was pretty chuffed with that especially since all flights are on the A380.

We're going to India for a couple of weeks while in Oz, so I rang AA to see what they could do. After 6 conversations with 6 different AA customer service people, I have 2 business seats PER - DELHI via Hong Kong. It was exhausting, but all the staff were very pleasant which helped. Very pleased that the layover is only 2.5 hours, we all know how long these can be! So that's my AA points gone.

My biggest surprise was finding Singapore airlines business class flights back for AUD$2,090 each. Given that most airlines charge almost as much for one way as a return flight, I thought that was a really good deal.

So farewell to my FF points, I'm not loyal enough to any one brand to build a significant amount of points as I prefer to hunt down the best deals. Good luck for all those with remaining points, and a final thank you to BC who made a lot of people very happy