Questions and Answers

We have 350,000 American airline miles and wish to travel to Prague, returning from Zagreb in June, 2018. Of course there are no available seats in Business. How do I check with the partner airlines for available seats? Do I have to check each and every flight? Thanks.

Welcome [USER=4170]@MDP MD[/USER] – sadly the best way to check is to look at the longhaul legs first and then try to add on connecting flights.

If you look on the AA site (for xxx to PRG) you’re likely going to get routed via London, which will tack on hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges. I would look at finding something on Iberia if you can. They fly to JFK, Chicago and Mexico City year-round and seasonally to Boston, LA and San Francisco. See if you can find space on one of those legs to/from Madrid (Iberia’s hub), then look to tack on flights to Prague and back from Zagreb. I think Iberia only flies to Zagreb on the weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun) so if that doesn’t fit with your plans you may need to purchase a cash ticket to get back to Madrid. Also, even if it does fit with your plans, the one flight per day from Zagreb may not get back to Madrid in time to connect with you trans-Atlantic flight so you might need to overnight in MAD. Just something to think about as you look for space.

American’s site does show Iberia availability so just look segment-by-segment to piece together what you need. You may need to get a positioning flight to one of the airports listed so be sure to give yourself plenty of time to connect if that’s on a separate ticket as you might have to claim & re-check your bags.

Good luck and let us know if you have more questions.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 51823, member: 184″]Welcome [USER=4170]@MDP MD[/USER] – sadly the best way to check is to look at the longhaul legs first and then try to add on connecting flights.

If you look on the AA site (for xxx to PRG) you’re likely going to get routed via London, which will tack on hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges. I would look at finding something on Iberia if you can. They fly to JFK, Chicago and Mexico City year-round and seasonally to Boston, LA and San Francisco. See if you can find space on one of those legs to/from Madrid (Iberia’s hub), then look to tack on flights to Prague and back from Zagreb. I think Iberia only flies to Zagreb on the weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun) so if that doesn’t fit with your plans you may need to purchase a cash ticket to get back to Madrid. Also, even if it does fit with your plans, the one flight per day from Zagreb may not get back to Madrid in time to connect with you trans-Atlantic flight so you might need to overnight in MAD. Just something to think about as you look for space.

American’s site does show Iberia availability so just look segment-by-segment to piece together what you need. You may need to get a positioning flight to one of the airports listed so be sure to give yourself plenty of time to connect if that’s on a separate ticket as you might have to claim & re-check your bags.

Good luck and let us know if you have more questions.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the prompt reply. I will check it out. If the flights are available, how do I know if it is also available for awards travel? Do I do it through AA?

Yes, go to aa.com and search for (say) ORD to MAD and be sure to check the box that says “Redeem Miles”.