In this post I wanted to take a look at award availability on Royal Air Maroc. Morocco has been an increasingly hot travel destination in recent years, and on top of that Royal Air Maroc has joined the oneworld alliance, so what’s the best way to redeem miles on the airline?
Continue reading: How To Redeem Miles For Royal Air Maroc Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Which program offers best value for Economy award seats? Have a family of four and limited to a few signup bonuses per year. Thanks!
"Most tourists to Morocco want to visit Marrakech (RAK), yet all of Royal Air Maroc’s long haul flights are to Casablanca, meaning a connecting flight is needed."
Disagree; there are numerous destinations in Morocco that tourists want to visit. Rail connection from Casa to Marrakech, Rabat, etc. are great. Some trains are high-speed rail as you'd have in France — infinitely better than any train in the United States.
But yes if you are visiting cities further away such as Essouira then it's likely easier to fly directly to there from Europe. Ryanair often has incredible fares.
I only use this airline for a status match to get a year of admirals and Alaska lounge entry when flying domestic, including flagship. Thanks Luck!
Royal air Maroc awards have a ton of phantom space on AA so be careful. Though sometimes I will have awards show on AA and not BA but still bookable.
There may be a workaround on the one award business class ticket per flight limitation. That is, if you book an award business class seat early enough, and wait three months, a second one may become available. That’s what happened with me, when I booked a business class award ticket JFK-CMN nonstop in late October 2022 for a flight in late September 2023 through AA. My strategy was to check the AA website periodically to see if a second ticket became available, and if not, I would purchase it with MR points. Almost exactly at the three month mark, I was able to snag a second award business class seat on the same flight through the AA website. Two business class nonstop seats for 115,000 miles total and nominal surcharge. Not bad at all!
Just as an inside for booking between Morocco and Europe, RAM considers Morocco to be in Europe (a big plus...) but its Oneworld partners do not:
Personal example last month: I needed to come back to the US from Madrid via CMN.
The 2 RAM flights were wide open for awards in both classes (departing around 1 PM and 5 PM), but the Iberia flight, departing at 11 AM was not even offered on AA.com rewards, although Expertflyer showed it as equally empy. I wanted to arrive early in Casablanca, so I booked and paid for the Iberia flight (IB Business Class FAR inferior to RAM's, on all counts). I ended up alone in J (plus 2 upgrades which seemed to be working for RAM and were moved only when the door was closed). coach did not have more than 30 pax (on a 737 Max).
I first did not see why IB had not released its own awards on this flight, even if it charged the miles corresponding to a One-Way Europe to Africa, then realized that IB would have looked terribly uncompetitive.
Apologies.... The MAD-CMN on IB was of course an A319.
The 737 Max was in the other direction (on an award).
I’ve seen lots of availability from the west coast for 22,500 each way. Domestic sectors to IAD/JFK/MIA on AS and B6 since AA transcon can be hard to find availability,
Etihad availability seems screwed up and definitely not the same as AA. I ended up with 176k stranded Etihad miles when they were showing zero availability for the entire schedule after confirming availability through AA. (which I subsequently booked)
Was about 7 months before the flights I wanted and had several workable options on AA that Etihad couldn't see/book. Called three times over a week to try with different folks with no luck.
Booked for Sept 2023 for IAD to BCN via CMN. I don’t mind the layover. I booked on AA like you recommended. Flying business to Europe for 57.5k miles is outstanding.
Problem is, just exactly as you stated, RoyalAirMaroc released one Econ and one business ticket for the flight. I grabbed em both.
I am Trying to sit next to my wife for the flight. Any creative ways to either: a) use AA points for an upgrade, b) timing for when more seats will be released (checking weekly is exhausting).
Any ideas are appreciated!
Etihad has changed the redemption rates, all of the miles required are significantly higher now.
IAD - CMN would now start at 45k miles for economy and 80k miles for business. One way.
It's really not a good value anymore.
Eithad has gone crazy, its no longer 44k miles for one-way. I found (1) seat MIA-CMN business class on AA website for the 57.5k. But Eithad site says 99k now...