American AAdvantage Miles Can Now Be Used To Africa Via Middle East

Do you know anything about the Africa Airpass through One world? I'm wondering if there is a value in purchasing it? Thanks for the post!

Hi Lucky,

I heard that AA was making exceptions with SEZ on EY). You just had to send it to the training desk. (I am about to do that itinerary.)

One question: Can you route to Africa via the Middle East from Europe?

Lucky,

When travelling between Europe and Asia (1 or 2) on an AA-award, can one transit the Middle East? I'm thinking about trying out EY.

Edward

jake- What is SEZ?

@ Melissa -- I believe you have to purchase a revenue ticket to Africa to be eligible, though I'm not entirely certain. oneworld has a pretty limited route network in Africa, but depending on where you're hoping to travel it could make sense.

@ jake -- I haven't noticed that, but let me research a bit further.

@ Edward -- I don't believe so, but will try to test out more of these scenarios today.

Slightly unrelated, but is a 50-minute connection legal in Doha? Plus, the incoming flight is 28 mins late on an average, tight squeeze for sure.

Lucky:
How do I go about searching for award availability from IAD/DCA to Accra?

@ Nkk -- Using American miles? I like using the BA website as a starting point:
https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-search-tool/

Wont that give me only BA operated flights?

@ Nkk -- No, they display availability operated by partner airlines as well.

@ John - SEZ is an airport code for Seychelles International Airport. If you don't know what a certain airport code stands for, Google usually works - I do a search for "___ airport code" with blank being whatever code I forgot/don't recognize.

@ Lucky - since you didn't black out the dates we know for sure you won't be traveling on that ticket! 😉

So this begs the question, if I want to go to the middle east, can I just book an award to Africa through say Doha and not take the second leg. Would there be any contract of Carriage or immigryproblems associated with that? Saves 7.5k miles in econ if I'm not mistaken.

@ Karl -- Interesting that they charge more for first and business class to Africa, but more for economy class to the Middle East.

As long as you don't check any bags (or at least can short check them) you should be fine with that. Onward travel will be canceled if you skip a segment, so you can't do it on the return. But in one direction that shouldn't be a problem.

Will AA let you route via CX JFK-YVR and then back to the US again as part of an international award ticket? For example on your TAM first class trip, was your last segment YVR-SEA part of the same award or booked with cash or other miles.

@ Jamie -- Yep, it was part of the same award. That should be allowed as part of an international award.

Does this mean that Etihad awards from USA to Africa will no longer cost the extra miles for two separate awards (USA-->AUH and AUH-->Africa)?
I have an award ticket for 112,500 miles already booked for 2015 - would love to see if I can get some of the miles back!

@ gobots -- The exception only applies to Qatar and not Etihad as of now.

Any US to Australia (Perth) exceptions thru the middle east yet (using American miles)?
Any US to Australia (Perth) exceptions thru SE Asia yet (using American miles)?

(Qatar) Doha and (Etihad) Abu Dhabi are now one stop destinations for me.

Are we able to use US Airways miles (instead of American miles) on Etihad and Qatar to circumvent the ridiculous AA routing rules?

@ Cody -- No, you can't route US to Australia via Middle East or Asia yet using American miles. You can redeem US Airways miles for those routes, though (they don't partner with Etihad).

I'm currently posted to Africa, Nigeria specifically and am looking to use my AA miles for inter-Africa travel. I thought the Qatar angle would be a good one but keep running into trouble when trying to book routes to JNB, CAI etc etc. Is it possible to fly through DOH on QR for an Africa-Africa flight at the 10k one way award level?

@ Nick -- Since it's not a published routing or within the MPM, generally not.

I would like to travel from jfk...ny to lun...zambia in may 2015. I have 64,000 aamiles...what is my best option...

Lucky--do you think the Europe/Middle east routing can be combined? Could I do JFK-CDG-AUH-JNB?

@ Gaurav -- I don't think so. And beyond that, you can only route to Africa via the Middle East when traveling on Qatar, and not when traveling on Etihad.

That's unfortunate. Thanks for the clarification though!

Can you route Europe to US through AUH on EY? Thanks.

@ JW -- Nope, that requires two award tickets.