Questions and Answers

I’m hoping to use AAdvantage miles to book two first class seats on Etihad for next September. On Saturday I started looking for guest first seats from Dallas to Delhi for September 2016. There was good availability – wish I’d put them on hold then!! The next day all availability had disappeared. Now I’m not seeing any first or business seats for any US cities to Delhi for all of next year. Same thing for US to AUH. Anyone have any idea what’s going on? Could it be related to the devaluation of the American award chart?

Etihad flights seem to disappear and come back on AA. Have a look on the Etihad guest flight booking page: [URL]http://www.etihad.com/en-us/plan-and-book/book-redemption-flights/[/URL]
You don’t need to be a member to use it – if you can see Guest First seats available then they should be there, even if American can’t see them. Call back after a few hours and see if they show up again. If they have disappeared from the Etihad system then someone has booked them/Etihad has removed the availability
I had this same issue a couple days ago, but when I called them up about 5 hours later, the flights were back on the system.

Is anyone still having problem with premium cabin availability on Etihad? I have checked the Guest First seats carefully, but every time i call the EXP Desk, they see no premium cabin availability at all. I keep calling back every few hours hoping it’s just a IT glitch. Any insight or suggestions?

[QUOTE=”John P, post: 9485, member: 1121″]Is anyone still having problem with premium cabin availability on Etihad? I have checked the Guest First seats carefully, but every time i call the EXP Desk, they see no premium cabin availability at all. I keep calling back every few hours hoping it’s just a IT glitch. Any insight or suggestions?[/QUOTE]
Yes, I’m now having the same problem John. I can see that the Guest First premium (first class) seats are available but when I call AA they can’t see any premium cabin availability. I keep calling back but nothing so far.

I am having the same problems as everyone. Ironically I see 4+ seats on the flights I want but cannot book them. Damn!!!!

I’m having these problems as well. I see availability on various days AUH-LHR and none are bookable when I call AAdvantage. Frustrating!!

Us too 🙁

Really annoying, but continuing to call every few hours is probably the best bet. Hopefully it will be restored soon!

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9498, member: 7″]Us too 🙁

Really annoying, but continuing to call every few hours is probably the best bet. Hopefully it will be restored soon![/QUOTE]

Would you mind updating us when you strike some luck?

We were just able to ticket one for a client based overseas (which means we had to call the foreign call center for them to process the credit card correctly).

So I’d try calling again, and if US agents still can’t see space it’s probably worth the Google Voice/Skype call to another reservations center.

Does it matter which foreign call center?

I am able to put 2 tix on hold on EY Biz. Looks like the glitch is resolved. This is at a US Call Center.

[QUOTE=”John P, post: 9510, member: 1121″]Does it matter which foreign call center?[/QUOTE]

Generally no, but I’ll typically call those that speak English natively just to make my life easier.

I was able to call a foreign call center and they confirmed the availability. I have one reservation on hold and another in the ticketing queue. Hopefully it doesnt take long to ticket. Hope everyone else gets their reservations as well!

Just got off phone with AA and they still cannot see first class seats available on Etihad even though Etihad shows Guest First availability. Have never tried calling a foreign call center and a bit nervous about doing that.

[QUOTE=”Kathy, post: 9528, member: 1122″]Just got off phone with AA and they still cannot see first class seats available on Etihad even though Etihad shows Guest First availability. Have never tried calling a foreign call center and a bit nervous about doing that.[/QUOTE]

Kathy, it’s easy. Call Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. 🙂

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9529, member: 7″]Kathy, it’s easy. Call Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. :)[/QUOTE]

I called Australia and was able to confirm 2 flights in First without any issues. This was just after getting off the phone with EXP Desk who could see no availability. Thanks for the help!

Thanks Tiffany and John. John are you in the US? What was the number you called in Australia and do you know if there was a charge for the call?

[USER=1122]@Kathy[/USER] you can find numbers for AA here:

[URL]http://www.aa.com/i18n/utility/internationalReservationsPhoneContact.jsp[/URL]

You’ll pay international calling charges which you can minimize them by using a VOIP client like Skyple or Google Hangouts.

[QUOTE=”Kathy, post: 9533, member: 1122″]Thanks Tiffany and John. John are you in the US? What was the number you called in Australia and do you know if there was a charge for the call?[/QUOTE]
Kathy
I’m am US-based. I used Skype app on my phone, bought $4.99 of credit through the app. My call to AUS took 12 minutes, total cost $0.35. Never used Skype before, but it was super easy. I’m sure you could just as easily call CAN or UK. Good luck!

Thank you Gaurav and John. I’ve never used Skype before but will give it a try! CAN appears to share the US call center. But first a few more calls to the US call center – before they start blocking my calls! I’m pretty new at this. Have booked business class seats on a variety of Star Alliance airlines using US Airlines miles in the past but have never run into these complications.

[QUOTE=”Kathy, post: 9537, member: 1122″]Thank you Gaurav and John. I’ve never used Skype before but will give it a try! CAN appears to share the US call center. But first a few more calls to the US call center – before they start blocking my calls! I’m pretty new at this. Have booked business class seats on a variety of Star Alliance airlines using US Airlines miles in the past but have never run into these complications.[/QUOTE]
I have never made a call with Skype either, but it was very easy. The Australian agent was very helpful and there was no problem with availability- matched exactly what was on Etihad Guest. Just download the app to your phone, buy the smallest number of credits, and make your call. In Skype, select your country then copy and paste the number into the app and you’re connected in no time. I’ve been losing sleep all week trying to book 2 First awards on 1 particular day, so I’m relieved it finally went through. If booking the award space is important to you, I’d go ahead and call.

[QUOTE=”John P, post: 9538, member: 1121″]I have never made a call with Skype either, but it was very easy. The Australian agent was very helpful and there was no problem with availability- matched exactly what was on Etihad Guest. Just download the app to your phone, buy the smallest number of credits, and make your call. In Skype, select your country then copy and paste the number into the app and you’re connected in no time. I’ve been losing sleep all week trying to book 2 First awards on 1 particular day, so I’m relieved it finally went through. If booking the award space is important to you, I’d go ahead and call.[/QUOTE]

Thank you so much John! Just finished another 20 minute hold with American and they still can’t see any availability. Will try the Skype with Australia tomorrow. Wiped out right now!

Oh it is so frustrating to be able to see 2 Guest First seats on Etihad from DEL to LAX on 25 and 26 Sep but then not to be able to book them! Have talked to multiple AA agents (both in US and Australia) and they aren’t seeing them. I’m glad you finally had good luck with your booking John and that gives me hope! I do have 2 RT Qatar business class tickets to DEL on hold but was hoping to change them to Etihad first. On the plus side, we now have Skype and love it. Any other words of wisdom out there?

Book the QR tickets! You can always play with your itinerary and upgrade for free with AA as long as your origin and destination stays the same.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 9570, member: 79″]Book the QR tickets! You can always play with your itinerary and upgrade for free with AA as long as your origin and destination stays the same.[/QUOTE]

Will definitely book before the 5 day hold is up.

[USER=1122]@Kathy[/USER] [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]
I called the UK call centre and the guy on the phone told me that there is a known issue with booking Etihad flights. They are able to see the flights in their system but they can’t issue tickets for them. They said that they are in touch with Etihad and will hopefully get an answer by Monday, so they asked me to call back then.

[QUOTE=”Sunil, post: 9586, member: 1070″][USER=1122]@Kathy[/USER] [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]
I called the UK call centre and the guy on the phone told me that there is a known issue with booking Etihad flights. They are able to see the flights in their system but they can’t issue tickets for them. They said that they are in touch with Etihad and will hopefully get an answer by Monday, so they asked me to call back then.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Tiffany! Different topic but same tickets: The award ticket for me and my husband is on QATAR right now and on hold until Monday. I noticed they had my name wrong so called AA. The first agent said I would have to cancel the ticket and start over. Yikes!! I called back and got an agent who said they should be able to fix it but it would take some work. They had to do a split P&R in order to contact QATAR to get my name corrected. So my husband and I now have separate confirmation numbers. They also extended my hold (but not my husbands) to 26 Nov because I guess this can take a while to get resolved. I didn’t ask her if they do a split P&R if they can then combine them back into one ticket. Didn’t think about it when I was on the phone with her but am now. If they can’t, I can foresee all kinds of problems when I get back to trying to change the flights to Etihad First or even if we want to change the dates at some point. Do you know if they would be able to combine them both onto one ticket after splitting them? I have a sinking feeling about this.

I don’t know about recombining into a single PNR but it shouldn’t be a problem with upgrades or changes. The rules are the same and as long as space is available your should be able to upgrade or change routing. It take a little longer because you have to do two tickets but shouldn’t affect anything else.

Thanks Gauraz. Now I know it’s PNR, not P&R. My concern is that after changing one ticket (date or airline), when I try to change the second ticket, there are no longer award seats on that flight. It’s risky. Also, if we have to cancel the trip, we then incur the $150 fee per ticket vs $150 plus $25 for the second person on the same ticket.

[USER=1122]@Kathy[/USER] — If it comes to canceling your trip, the agents should be able to see the original record and may waive the fees. There’s no issue with having two records otherwise, and a good agent can set up one itinerary, grab seats for the second, and then confirm them both at the same time.

All that being said, how “wrong” is your name? Qatar is not the most responsive of airlines, though a name change isn’t impossible.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9594, member: 7″][USER=1122]@Kathy[/USER] — If it comes to canceling your trip, the agents should be able to see the original record and may waive the fees. There’s no issue with having two records otherwise, and a good agent can set up one itinerary, grab seats for the second, and then confirm them both at the same time.

All that being said, how “wrong” is your name? Qatar is not the most responsive of airlines, though a name change isn’t impossible.[/QUOTE]
Hi Tiffany. They have my first name as Kathy, no middle name – it’s Kathleen with middle name Rae on the passport. Very interesting about what a “good” agent could do. Was not aware of that and would definitely try to explain that if I don’t get a “good” agent! Do you think they can combine 2 PNRs back to 1?

Nope, once they’re split they’re split forever. You might want to check your AA account and make sure your name is correct there, that can lead to many of the name problems on awards.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9603, member: 7″]Nope, once they’re split they’re split forever. You might want to check your AA account and make sure your name is correct there, that can lead to many of the name problems on awards.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your help Tiffany. I’ll definitely check my account.

[QUOTE=”Kathy, post: 9567, member: 1122″]Oh it is so frustrating to be able to see 2 Guest First seats on Etihad from DEL to LAX on 25 and 26 Sep but then not to be able to book them! Have talked to multiple AA agents (both in US and Australia) and they aren’t seeing them. I’m glad you finally had good luck with your booking John and that gives me hope! I do have 2 RT Qatar business class tickets to DEL on hold but was hoping to change them to Etihad first. On the plus side, we now have Skype and love it. Any other words of wisdom out there?[/QUOTE]

Follow up on my experience:
From my two Etihad reservations on hold, I called AA EXP Desk and had them processed 11/20. One was ticketed morning of 11/22 and I was able to make seat selections on Etihad website. Second reservation still hadn’t ticketed as of 11/23, called EXP line back and it showed as “invalid form of payment.” I found this strange since they took payment for both a the same time and have already debited mileage from my AA account. So as of now, just 50% success with getting these ticketed.

I called AAdvantage Australia and processed an EY F award on 11/20. I’ve had the miles deducted but still shows “On Request” as of this morning” I processed another on 11/21 and that still has not had miles deducted but shows “On Request.” My credit card has not yet been charged for the taxes and fees however. Planning on calling AA AUS soon just to check

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] is there generally an average time frame for how long it takes to ticket an EY award? Thanks!

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] – I don’t know about EY specifically but it took months to ticket a Fiji Air award. I booked almost a year in advance and kept checking online and with AA every few weeks but eventually it was processed. I have a suspicion, but no proof, that this was more due to Fiji Air than to AA.

@DavidW – I have 2 tickets on Etihad booked for next year. One of them has been pending for 8 weeks now. I just called AA for a follow up. Although it has not been ticketed they said it is not an issue and is in just sitting in queue (backlog).

I canceled AA tickets two weeks ago and the miles have still not shown up in my account. Called them and “every thing looks right, they’ll just get to it at some point…”. It’s a little crazy how things work at the AA back end.

[USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] [USER=859]@Cal[/USER] That’s real strange. I checked again and the AUH-LHR I booked for my sister is already ticket. My own HKG-AUH-LHR, which i booked before hers is still pending. I also decided to ticket BA F JFK-LHR and that went from on request to ticketed in about 10 minutes.

Does AA just have a different queue for OW and non-OW awards? I also ticketed a couple of flights on CX and that was fairly quick as well

Hey all, slightly different issue floating on the same lines. I managed to book EY Flights on AA miles in Business but the day later, a F seat appears as open. So as expected, who doesn’t want to take that opportunity to fly F over J. Called up AA to upgrade with the points hot in my pocket. I had them search the availability as if it were a new booking which they saw immediately, “Perfect”, I said, “Can you then upgrade my current booking on that segment to the F seat from J?”. “Nope, theres an error when we try to upgrade flights at the moment. I thought IT had resolved this but they haven’t, let me talk to them and you can call me back in 24hours”.

TL;DR Even if AA can find the availability, they cant upgrade your existing reservations. Does anyone have any ideas on how best to deal with this? They wouldn’t even put the F seat on hold so I could wait out the 24hours while they talk to tech support.

Did you call AAdvantage USA or AAdvantage Australia or another call center? I think the US center is still having trouble seeing space

[QUOTE=”scottz95, post: 9724, member: 1085″]
TL;DR Even if AA can find the availability, they cant upgrade your existing reservations. Does anyone have any ideas on how best to deal with this? They wouldn’t even put the F seat on hold so I could wait out the 24hours while they talk to tech support.[/QUOTE]

[USER=1085]@scottz95[/USER] — Yes, that’s a different issue. See the experience [USER=595]@Jermyn[/USER] had here: [URL=’http://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/threads/upgrading-exisiting-aa-award-ticket-from-business-to-first-class.3197/#post-5825′]http://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/…-from-business-to-first-class.3197/#post-5825[/URL]

Fantastic. At least I’m not alone on this one. I don’t really want to revive an old thread so a bit of an update, AU AA looked at the reference and wouldnt have a bar of it saying that they cant touch it until Technical Support has completed their investigation while they can definetly see the availability on their system as if it were a new booking.

US AA just cant see the availability regardless of how you book it but were actually nice enough to discuss it since the muppet on the AU line wouldnt even give me a chance to speak. Maybe I’ve been redflagged in the call centre as I know what I want and its too much like work for them. 😛

Lucky

I been trying to get a seat from LHR-AUH using AA miles for FC Apartment. I see the availability on Etihad website as Guest First. I try calling AA Exec Pl line multiple times and non of them can see the availability? Can your booking service can help?

Sang

What are your experiences with AUH JFK now that it’s gone a380? Are you seeing much last minute availability? Looking for early-mid December for 1 seat!

Thanks!

ive booked EY F from AUH-LHR using AA miles through Australia AA. However, the miles is not deducted from my AA yet and my credit card still havent been charged. After keying the AA Record Locator ; its Status: [B] On Request. [/B]
How long does it take on average for AA to ticket EY ?
Can i consider the ticket will be confirmed/ticketed later on ? The reason i asked is because i want to buy a positional flight which is on promo now (promo ends tomorrow) Thanks.

EY awards usually take a few days. I booked the same award you’re booking and it took about 3 days to go from “On Request” to “Ticketed”

Tiffany made a post about ticketing AAdvantage awards here: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/06/04/aadvantage-award-not-ticketing-its-not-just-you/[/URL]

[USER=1155]@Lee[/USER], I would go ahead and book your promo flight.

Thanks [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] and [USER=29]@David W[/USER] for the reply ! Cheers .

[QUOTE=”scottz95, post: 9771, member: 1085″]US AA just cant see the availability regardless of how you book it but were actually nice enough to discuss it since the muppet on the AU line wouldnt even give me a chance to speak. Maybe I’ve been redflagged in the call centre as I know what I want and its too much like work for them. :p[/QUOTE]

So a bit of an update, AA eventually allowed me to drop a segment and book F on EY 11. But because of their system glitch, I rolled over and paid their $150US fee just to get the ticket. More of a convience and a half competent agent on the other end who knew you could at least drop a segment without dropping the whole reservation.

Process at the end was:
1) Call AA AU and put F ticket on hold
2) Call different AA AU aagent to get them to cancel the segment that I wanted upgraded (although protest very clearly that this is the same flight number and same date and is simply a class upgrade for call recording purposes so you can try and get Customer Complaints to side with you when you try get your fee back which if their system worked, you shouldnt have had to pay) and confirm the segment I wanted to keep.
3) Wait for your points to drop back (20 to 30 minutes normally) into your account and call back to AA AU to process your held ticket.

Dont complain until after you get the ticket with the EY reference. Then they cant screw you over after you have that reference… In theory 😛

Hi there,

I checked Etihad Guest for award availability from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi next April and it was showing 4 Guest Seat first class seats per day. I called the AAdvantage booking center and they could (yet again) only find coach space. Is there still an issue in booking premium Etihad space with AA miles? I have heard rumors that you can call international (ie. Australia) AA call centers and they are able to find Etihad space.

[QUOTE=”Phize, post: 9845″]Hi there,

I checked Etihad Guest for award availability from Melbourne to Abu Dhabi next April and it was showing 4 Guest Seat first class seats per day. I called the AAdvantage booking center and they could (yet again) only find coach space. Is there still an issue in booking premium Etihad space with AA miles? I have heard rumors that you can call international (ie. Australia) AA call centers and they are able to find Etihad space.[/QUOTE]
Correct you are Phize. I rang a US Aagent and they couldn’t see any EY awards. Called the AU Aagents and they could see it instantly. Give them a ring instead.

Can I book two awards and have them on a single ticket? LHR-AUH-SIN
How high are taxes and fees for Etihad?

Mateusz, If you are using AA miles, then you will not be able to fly on Etihad from London to Singapore on a single award due to the fact that that would be routing via a third region. You would be able to do it on two awards, but that would result in a higher amount of milage required. Though, you would be able to layover in the UAE. You could do LHR – DOH – SIN on one ticket because that is an AA (Oneworld partner) exception. Because you would be flying out of London, your taxes and fees would be high, especially if redeeming in a premium cabin.

Best,

[QUOTE=”Mateusz, post: 9865, member: 1141″]Can I book two awards and have them on a single ticket? LHR-AUH-SIN
How high are taxes and fees for Etihad?[/QUOTE]

You certainly can book two awards and AA will treat it as a connecting flight. Only exception is if you have more than 24 hours between flights on the ground in AUH.

Taxes are very cheap, usually around 70-100USD

[QUOTE=”scottz95, post: 9852, member: 1085″]Correct you are Phize. I rang a US Aagent and they couldn’t see any EY awards. Called the AU Aagents and they could see it instantly. Give them a ring instead.[/QUOTE]
Thank you so much.

[USER=1141]@Mateusz[/USER] You can book both awards on one ticket. You will be charged for two awards though since AAdvantage doesn’t generally allow transit through a third region, the exception being on QR metal thru DOH, like [USER=1164]@phize[/USER] mentioned.

I have the reverse booked, SIN-AUH-LHR and was only charged about $33AUD in taxes. However, if departing the UK, AA does pass on the associated UK departure taxes.

Hi Lucky-
Do you know if American is blocking Etihad First and Business class awards again? I’ve tried a number of options for next September / October where the Etihad website shows multiple guest seats available, however American is seeing no inventory. I’ve spoken with multiple American agents, so it doesn’t seem to be a training issue. I’ve searched Dallas, LA, Washington and London routes, and it seems to be blocked across the board.

Thanks!

[QUOTE=”Mark B., post: 10018″]Do you know if American is blocking Etihad First and Business class awards again? I’ve tried a number of options for next September / October where the Etihad website shows multiple guest seats available, however American is seeing no inventory. I’ve spoken with multiple American agents, so it doesn’t seem to be a training issue. I’ve searched Dallas, LA, Washington and London routes, and it seems to be blocked across the board.[/QUOTE]

[USER=9]@Mark[/USER] B. see above in the previous posts. It seems the US call center is having issues seeing visibility. the main workaround is to call the Australian call center.

Good morning guys,

Would any of you know whether AA imposes the same surcharges as Etihad does – $150 in F, $100 in J, 50$ in Y (per segment) – when booking an award ticket on EY?

[QUOTE=”Tmatzkeit, post: 10201, member: 1206″]Good morning guys,

Would any of you know whether AA imposes the same surcharges as Etihad does – $150 in F, $100 in J, 50$ in Y (per segment) – when booking an award ticket on EY?[/QUOTE]

[USER=1206]@Tmatzkeit[/USER], nope, price for F AUH-LHR was only about $32AUD or about $70-90AUD for a long haul segment in J/F. Which you can just take 30% off the price to translate back to the USD price

Hi Lucky,
I was so excited to see 2 seats available on EY F (AUH-MEL), so I have called the AA Australia line to book 2 tickets, using 2 different aadvantage account, one after another.

I have had no problem to book for first account on F. I was super excited. However, when I booked the 2nd ticket for my friend using his account, the agent told me there is no availability at all on F, but there supposes to have one more seat available. Now he has been booked on business and have the tickets hold for 5 days. Is it system glitch?

I really would like to book First class apartment for him as well.

Did anyone encounter such problem before and how was it resolved?

Thanks,

Hey Lucky!
Today I had a call with American Airlines, as I wanted to place an Etihad award on hold. Unfortunately, no award space in either first and business class is available on the AUH-LHR and AUH-SYD routes. It looks like Etihad may have blocked partner awards again.
I know you have posted about this a couple of times before, so my question is: how long does it generally take before Etihad will set award space open on AAdvantage awards again?

Tried to get CDG –> AUH on Etihad on a couple of different dates via AA Australia, and struck out each time. Points of note
[LIST=1]
[*]”GuestFirst” and “GuestBusiness” awards are visible on the Etihad.com
[*]AU Agent sees the availability
[*]AU Agent can’t actually snag the seats for ticketing
[*]EXP Desk can’t even see the availability
[*]Did the same for a whole bunch of different dates (each of which showed availability)
[*]Called back and tried three different AU Agents, all of whom struck out
[/LIST]
Sigh…

That’s really frustrating and really weird as well. I was ticketed on an EY Business award and was able to upgrade to an EY First award with ease 2 days ago so I’m not sure why there are these issues. I’ve done all my EY award bookings via AA Australia and have had no issues.

[USER=1225]@Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya[/USER] & @BenjaminW – I dont think partner awards are being blocked but may just be some kind of glitch. Keep checking for the space on Etihad’s website and keep calling AA Australia. Or try another call center, like Singapore or the UK

[USER=1215]@hktramz[/USER] That’s also a strange situation and also something I saw happen. I saw 2 EY GuestFirst award seats available so I called AA to upgrade from Business. I only needed one seat but after I was done, both GuestFirst seats were gone. If there’s a seat in Business, I’d grab that first and then upgrade it later when you see available space.

Guys the Australians are great. I was unable to find any tickets with the USA AA after checking here I can confirm I now have my flight booked F (a350 unfortunately the 380 was full in late Feb but still seems to have some days in April) from LHR to AUH to BOM (Biz) and Biz return with no problems. They were able to see all of the open seats that Etihad had per the GUEST First or Biz on their website. GREAT! I was also able to book 3 Biz tickets from AMS-AUH Return also. 🙂 Lucky, a big thank you! Its a shame AA is raising the Euro to ME/India as I got the whole first leg for a nice 40K points. Funny thing was the system tried to claim that I had a stop over (1.5 Hour in AUH) and it priced out higher, then my new best AA Australian friend even got that corrected as well.

[QUOTE=”Ben Owen, post: 10414, member: 1231″]Guys the Australians are great. I was unable to find any tickets with the USA AA after checking here I can confirm I now have my flight booked F (a350 unfortunately the 380 was full in late Feb but still seems to have some days in April) from LHR to AUH to BOM (Biz) and Biz return with no problems. They were able to see all of the open seats that Etihad had per the GUEST First or Biz on their website. GREAT! I was also able to book 3 Biz tickets from AMS-AUH Return also. 🙂 Lucky, a big thank you! Its a shame AA is raising the Euro to ME/India as I got the whole first leg for a nice 40K points. Funny thing was the system tried to claim that I had a stop over (1.5 Hour in AUH) and it priced out higher, then my new best AA Australian friend even got that corrected as well.[/QUOTE]
One small update the First from LHR to AUH is the 330-600, funny thing was my LHR route ticketed almost immediately the AMS to AUH took 2 days (I got really nervous when I saw my status go from On request to Canceled, but AA just canceled the old record and made a new one, not sure why).

Folks just wanted to say thanks for the advice on this thread to call AA in Australia (actually based in Fiji). Was going out of mind with the glitching award booking system on aa.com (showed near full QF availability until you selected flights to then say unavailable) and then 1.5hrs with AA in the US on the phone to find no flights between June and December for LHR to MEL/SYD return in First on any airline. Had spent ages (due to a very flexible range of dates) finding an itinerary for the A380 on Etihad on dates (Sept-Oct) that worked for me and within 10min of calling the team in Fiji I was sorted.

They were also able to amend the booking the next day and add a SYD-MEL business Qantas leg on the way home. So after 9 years of mileage accrual finally using the chunk of unused miles for my trip to Oz to visit a friend of 10 years, at home, as we’ve always hung out in the US since it’s kind of half way.

How many seats maximum do they release at one time?

Apartments

For biz is seems like multiple (I was able to book 4 seats) but for first I have never seen more then 2 (on 77W) or 1 on A380 come up for booking. I haven’t checked all dates but have looked all over Feb/March AUH to LHR and back timeframes. USA seems to have almost no O availability not sure why Lucky mentioned a few months ago there were tons in the summer, but for grins I checked JFK to AUH and couldn’t find any for the almost the whole year.

As everyday goes by, a day is added to their calender in terms of furthers day available to book. I was trying to see if the minute they open up that date, how many first class apartments are available.

Another question. If I book business, but a first class seat opens up, what’s the route to get it upgraded (AA miles booking ethiad)

[USER=180]@FPMiles[/USER] I believe they only release one or two seats at a time and when those are taken, they may not release more, as there are only 9 Apartments available per flight serviced by the A380. More seats are usually released for Business Class and if youre booking with AAdvantage miles, it’d be a good idea to get the business class seat now and upgrade to First if a seat becomes available. Lucky has posted recently that EY does seem to release space last minute. Just call AAdvantage when you see a seat open up. As long as you have the miles, the upgrade shouldn’t be a problem. Remember to try AAdvantage call centers in other countries if you see space but the US call center cant see it.

[USER=1231]@Ben Owen[/USER] Awards were probably wide open when Lucky posted about it and since then all the available award seats have probably been booked. EY is one of the more popular uses for AAdvantage awards and with the coming devaluation, its no surprise that people want to use the miles for EY premium cabins. Same goes for premium cabins on Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.

[QUOTE=”Ben Owen, post: 10680, member: 1231″] not sure why Lucky mentioned a few months ago there were tons in the summer[/QUOTE]

Because a few months ago, there were tons in summer 😉

I just upgraded my sisters flight EY SIN-AUH from J to F. Called AAdvantage Australia and it took a while and they told me they had to do it manually (whatever that means) but the entire process went pretty smoothly. I’d assume that AA’s tech glitches where EY awards couldn’t be upgraded easily is resolved……..for now because this is AA/EY.

I’m now seeing the issue on the EY site itself. I was searching for 2 business seats from JFK to AUH and initially saw availability on Jul 18 and 19 (Guest Seat column), As soon as I advanced to the next week and then back, those dates show no availability.

In other words, EY seems to be acting up too, not just AA.

Did you try clearing browser history and starting the search new or trying the search in a different browser?

You could also try calling an AA call center and see if they can see the space

Or someone might have booked them…

Can someone remind me again… What will the new rate be from
AUH to SYD on Ethiad First post devaluation

It’ll go up from 60k miles to 100k miles oneway.

New chart is here: [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/all-partner-chart2016.jsp[/URL]

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 10926, member: 29″]It’ll go up from 60k miles to 100k miles oneway.

New chart is here: [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/all-partner-chart2016.jsp[/URL][/QUOTE]

Thanks David.

Looks like, if I secure business seats now for late 2016… and later down the road after post devaluation… if I find first class available, I am complied to pay the new first class rate if I wanted to upgrade

That’s what I’d assume. I’ve made changes to an award where i upgraded from Business to First and each time I saw the entire sum of miles redeposited and then the new amount deducted.

I just upgraded my reservation for in J for May 2016 (made back in November) AUH-JFK to F. There were no seats available in F when I first made the reservation, so availability on the A380 flights has definitely opened up. Additional 22.5k miles and about $20 in additional taxes per ticket. AA EXP desk could not do it so I had to call direct to AA AUS desk and they seem to have no problems. Follow the advice of everyone on this thread and call the Australian call center directly after checking for space on the Etihad Guest site

[USER=1121]@John P[/USER] were you told why there were additional taxes and fees and what those specifically were? $20 isn’t a significant amount but for regular paid travel, the taxes and fees for a J ticket compared to an F ticket is exactly the same.

When I upgraded my own ticket, I was told that while taxes were exactly the same, I would be refunded the taxes on the J ticket and a new charge would be made for the taxes on the F ticket.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 10995, member: 29″][USER=1121]@John P[/USER] were you told why there were additional taxes and fees and what those specifically were? $20 isn’t a significant amount but for regular paid travel, the taxes and fees for a J ticket compared to an F ticket is exactly the same.
When I upgraded my own ticket, I was told that while taxes were exactly the same, I would be refunded the taxes on the J ticket and a new charge would be made for the taxes on the F ticket.[/QUOTE]

David W, when the availability was there I was too excited to catch the exact details. After checking my charges, you were correct– the taxes and fees were the same. My original ticket in J was held in AUS and ticketed in the US, fees of USD 89. The new ticket was ticketed in AUS with fees of AUD 121, so they were the same. The agent said USD for both, but the actual charges show that the reissue was actually in quoted in AUD. Thanks for pointing out the discrepancy.

To that note, my original reservation was held after calling the AUS call center, then I called the US EXP desk to ticket. That was a mistake. I had a lot of problems with them ticketing (took over a week and had to be sent for review twice before the ticket was issued). This time I just had the AUS center ticket, and it was ticketed in less than 12 hrs.

[USER=1121]@John P[/USER] I still think those taxes are quite high. For my own AUH-JFK award that’s on hold (sadly, i’ll probably have to let it go) I was told taxes are about 35AUD….might want to ask to have a breakdown of taxes from AA and see why yours are so high

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 11010, member: 29″][USER=1121]@John P[/USER] I still think those taxes are quite high. For my own AUH-JFK award that’s on hold (sadly, i’ll probably have to let it go) I was told taxes are about 35AUD….might want to ask to have a breakdown of taxes from AA and see why yours are so high[/QUOTE]

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] Upon your suggestion, I called and got a fee breakdown.

The actual routing is AUH-JFK-CLT-ATL

United Arab Emirates Security and Safety Fee (TP) $1.40 USD
United Arab Emirates Passenger Service Charge (AE) $20.40 USD
US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50 USD
US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00 USD
USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $3.96 USD
US September 11th Security Fee (AY) $5.60 USD

For $43.86 USD per F ticket, as you stated previously, the fee didn’t change between J and F, and remember, this is for 2 tickets, so $87.72 USD for 2

I looked at ITA Matrix and it quoted the same fees and the US International Arrival Tax (US), which the agent didn’t mention nor was I charged.

Probably since EY arrivals in the US are domestic.

How long is it taking for the Status on First class tickets (AUH to JFK) to change from “on request” to ticketed?

[QUOTE=”JeffQM, post: 11035, member: 1314″]How long is it taking for the Status on First class tickets (AUH to JFK) to change from “on request” to ticketed?[/QUOTE]

I did mine at about 9PM EST, it was changed to “Ticketed” by 6AM the next morning.
It was 1) a reissue from J to F and 2) through the Australian call center.

The original ticketing through the EXP desk took 8 days.

[USER=1314]@JeffQM[/USER] — that process is highly variable for AA but it will go through (faster if travel is close)

Hi everyone,

I booked JFK-AUH-SYD in A380 business class for September 2016 using AA miles (back in the summer). When I checked my itinerary the other day to pick seats, I saw that they moved me to the later flight which is 77W “Jetihad”. I didn’t ask for this and received no notification of it until I happened to check myself. I obviously don’t want this change. Etihad still has open business seats on my original flight (not guest seats but still) so clearly they bumped me to open seats for “paying” customers. I called both AA and Etihad – neither can explain why this happened. Any ideas to sort this out?

W

Did they move you back to your original flight? They should do so without charging any kind of fees, especially since it happened without notifying you or you initiating the change.

so far they have not – it’s very frustrating. I’ll keep calling them both and see what happens

Help! I need assistance with an AA award booking.

I’m trying to book LHR-SYD on 2/29 in J, followed by BNE-LHR on 3/4 in F. Both segments are available on the Etihad site (at the correct Guest Business/First level). But when I called the US and the AUS AA centers, neither could see them available. How can I book these flights? I want to get them before it’s too late! Thanks for your help!

[USER=1079]@Rakibul Islam[/USER] Have you tried calling back? Sometimes it’s just trying a different agent. I would try the Australia office again. FWIW I can see the seats too.

Hi,

Trying to book space on Etihads new Melbourne route in August 2016. Seeing Guest Seat availability on Etihad’s site, but when I call AA, they say only couch is bookable. Tried calling a couple times, same result. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Data Point as of today. I booked 2 for the Etihad AUH-JFK apartment in October. I saw the availability on Etihads site, but when I called AA they couldn’t see it. I found this nice little thread and then called the Aus AA line with success. Thanks guys.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] Persistance over resistance? I called back today, but it only sort of worked. They were able to find business availability in both directions, but only one segment in first (AUH-SYD), and on later dates than I initially hoped for (3/2-3/6 instead of 2/29-3/4). Curiously, they said the LHR-SYD flights that were on the A380s didn’t meet minimum connection time (1h35m between arrival and departure) so they could not book them. Anyway, is it possible to change the dates/times without going back to the AA AUS line? I know there’s no charge, but I can still see Guest Business/First availability on the dates I want. Thanks again for your help!

I don’t have any personal information but there have been at least a couple of data points here about the US call center having trouble modifying AUS reservations so I would recommend continuing to work with them.

I would double check if you can book the EY flights as revenue tickets or if you have a subscription to Expert Flyer or some such look up the transfer to see the minimum connection time figures are accurate so you have that information when you call again.

@[URL=’http://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/members/rakibul-islam.1079/’]Rakibul Islam[/URL] — There are some serious issues with modifying Etihad awards through AAdvantage right now. I’m knee-deep in a [I]fascinating[/I] change adventure of my own at present, but will report back with details once I get it resolved.

In the meantime, know it’s not just you, and you’re not doing anything wrong.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] Those flights were indeed bookable as revenue tickets. In fact, the BNE-AUH-LHR flight had a connection time of less than 2h, and they had no issue with that. So I was able to resolve it.

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] Persistence over resistance! I called AA AUS again, and after a LOT of confusion with the dates and times, I finally got what I basically was looking for: LHR-AUH-SYD on Feb 29, both legs on A380 J, and BNE-AUH-GVA on Mar 4, on B789 F and A333 F. I wanted to go AUH-LHR in A380 Apartment, but the agent didn’t see any availability in any class, so I booked to GVA since I was planning to go there anyway. Strangely, I can still see availability on BNE-LHR in F on 3/4, but not on just the AUH-LHR leg (which is on 3/5). Maybe that causes them issues? Keep trying, you’ll get through!

[USER=1079]@Rakibul Islam[/USER] I like how Persistence over Resistance has changed from a question mark to an exclamation point 😀

Yeah, there are crazy issues right now with married segments and space not confirming properly. If you’ve changed EY segments within an existing PNR [I]make sure[/I] it actually tickets, and promptly.

I’m flying DFW-AUH-SYD on EY F, and my flight to SYD leaves next morning. Am I correct that EY does not provide a comp hotel for long layovers on award tickets even for F passengers? If not, what is a reasonable place for overnight stay? Reading Lucky’s recent reviews on hotels in AUH (like Rosewood), I would love to choose a city hotel, but I’m not sure it would be a good choice, since I arrive to AUH ~8PM, and depart at ~11AM next morning, and probably it would be a waste of money.

Also, is there a pattern how EY releases F seats close to departure on premium rote? I fly AUH-SYD on 777, and on A380 there are no availability, but it seems there are 5 seats available. I was monitoring the same flight few days ago (departure on Jan. 6), which had the same tendency (guest seats are ‘sold out’, freedom seats – 5), but they never went to award seats and disappeared 3 hours before departure. I would love to swap F at 777 to A380 F.

[USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER] Here is Ben’s review of the airport hotel at AUH. Might be an option if you don’t want to go into the city: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/03/18/review-the-airport-hotel-doha-hamad-international-airport/[/URL]

No pattern on the release unfortunately. You’ll just have to keep checking.

Thanks, [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], but your link is for DOH airport (not AUH). As I understand, EY (and other middle east airline) don’t do a comp. nights. I probably go to city for night, my only concern that I arrive late and leave early, so I wouldn’t be able to see a city (on the pictures, it looks very nice) and therefore, I probably don’t need an upscale hotel.

Sorry about the goof up–here is the correct review: [URL]http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2014/05/29/choose-airport-hotel-abu-dhabi/[/URL]

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 11462, member: 79″]Sorry about the goof up–here is the correct review: [URL]http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2014/05/29/choose-airport-hotel-abu-dhabi/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Thanks a lot!

Can anyone tell me why Etihad site shows Guest First and I have tried calling AA for a week and they keep saying there is no First class available?

[USER=108]@Chris Cain[/USER], have you called the Australia number?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 11574, member: 79″][USER=108]@Chris Cain[/USER], have you called the Australia number?[/QUOTE]
The number for American in Australia?

[USER=108]@Chris Cain[/USER] Yes. If you call AAdvantage in Australia, they should be able to see the premium cabin award space and book it for you. You can use Google Voice or Skype to call as they have very cheap rates for international calls. The number is 011-61-2-9101-1948

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 11585, member: 29″][USER=108]@Chris Cain[/USER] Yes. If you call AAdvantage in Australia, they should be able to see the premium cabin award space and book it for you. You can use Google Voice or Skype to call as they have very cheap rates for international calls. The number is 011-61-2-9101-1948[/QUOTE]
Thank you, I will give it a shot!

Good Luck!. I haven’t had any problems calling them and booking an EY award though some people said there were some issues [I]changing [/I]the tickets later. YMMV I guess. Tiffany has posted about it on the Ask Lucky forum. Go thru the other pages in this thread and other Etihad threads. Most questions probably have an answer somewhere already

Certainly seeing issues with changing a ticket. [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] – what has been your experience? I have CAI-AUH booked in J (AUH-JFK booked in F) – trying to change the J segment to an F segment that opened and they can’t find space, but when I make a new reservation they can see it.

Also strange issue that the AUS desk is pricing CAI-AUH-JFK as two awards whereas the US desk isn’t; have to call the AUS desk to hold it, and then US desk to ticket for 90k! Very strange.

[USER=1355]@Ben[/USER] — It’s just a [I]mess[/I]. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly happened with my ticket, and I don’t want to give bad advice.

If you want to do an experiment, try getting an agent to sell the space in manually. Horrifyingly, you might have to find a pre-merger US agent. If they longsell the space, it [I]should[/I] confirm, but you’ll want to insist that it’s ticketed right away. That [I]should[/I] work, but I’m not 100% certain yet.

I’m pretty sure that the problem with my ticket ended up being the ticket sitting for too long in the queue, and Etihad pulling the space back. I think.

Hi OMAAT, do you guys know what’s the issue with AA international call centers? I’ve tried australia, UK, singapore, China, Hong Kong. The automated system answers, but once I make the selection to try to get an agent, it becomes staticky and disconnects. And unfortunately, the US call center agents can’t see EY award space. Any suggestions?

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] – any idea how to get them to long sell? The ones I’ve asked won’t budge 🙁

[QUOTE=”Ben, post: 11903, member: 1355″][USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] – any idea how to get them to long sell? The ones I’ve asked won’t budge :([/QUOTE]

Well, like any longsell, you sorta have to make them think it’s their idea. If they have a Texas accent, they likely won’t do it. Your best bet is to find a Miami-based agent, or a PMUS agent. An example of how Ben talks to phone agents can be found here: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/09/23/talk-phone-agents/[/URL]

I wish I had more insights to offer on this, but I’m still in the research phase on this one. So frustrating!!

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] whats your definition of too long in the ticketing queue for an EY award? I had one ticketed after a week and a half and another still sitting in the queue and its been close to 2 weeks. I know people have had it in the queue for MONTHS before it tickets though. The ones I have in the queue are for travel in October – is it worth a call to get it moving along?

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] — Well, I think Etihad might have a “before departure” cut off. Maybe.

So with my ticket, it was sent to reissue, but it wasn’t ticketed right away. Four hours before departure (when I called to follow up), all the EY segments had been pulled.

But no, for travel in October I don’t know that you need to worry about it. I just think reissues/urgent travel might need special handling right now.

Thanks for the quick feed back Tiffany!

Don’t know if others have the same problem I’ve having with the australian call center, in that, once you select “4” for aadvantage representative, it goes staticky and then disconnects. Just don’t make any selections and the automated system will say it does not recognize your selection. It will do this a couple of times, then connect you with a rep. Finally got an F apartment ticketed.

Anyone having problems choosing your seat on EY website after it’s been ticketed?

[USER=1301]@Nolan[/USER] I’m seeing the same thing too. While my trip was On Request I was able to select my seats, but since it was ticketed I get an error saying my reservation “does not qualify for online changes.” Not sure what changed to make it invalid, besides being ticketed. Might want to try calling Etihad and see what’s going on.

Hi Lucky,

I’ve been watching Etihad award space for about a week now for mid December and just saw that Etihad has guest first availability for some days, including on the First Apartment. On December 15th, for example, I see Guest First from AUH to JFK, SFO, LAX and IAD, but the 6 different AA agents I spoke to today don’t see any of it. Any ideas on what else I could try? Thanks in advace.

Dany–have you tried calling the Australian call center?

There’s no single space in first class AUH-LHR in August. When do you think they’ll open some? There’s some space in July and September.

I think availability comes and goes in spurts and that seats may open up closer to departure.

Hello Guys,

I’m planning to book SYD-AUH-MLE, want to enjoy The Apartment and also take advantage getting all the way to Maldives.

My question is: what would happen if I decide to stop in AUH for a couple of days to look around?

I know AA awards doesn’t allow stop overs, but what’s the policy on this? Can I just ask to change my flight for a couple of days later upon landing in AUH?

Thanks!

Mike

[USER=1519]@MexicanMike[/USER], unfortunately no you can’t. Your last segment would go unflown and you’d have to book a separate ticket to get to MLE.

I hope I’m not jinxing myself here…

A month ago, I booked LHR-AUH-SYD in J and BNE-AUH-GVA in F. Each segment was a separate redemption, so the total cost was 175k AA miles. I got the 10k max back with my Citi Platinum Select Visa.

A week later, I saw that F had opened up on AUH-SYD (A380 Apartment!), so I called to change. This resulted in the ticket being cancelled and the miles redeposited. After a week of holding my breath, the new ticket went through, now costing me 190k AA miles. However, I then got the 10k max back again! That meant I could redeem SYD-BNE on QF in their new A330 J, basically for free!

How did I get the miles back twice? I didn’t see any “redeposit” of the first 10k. Did I just find a loophole?

[USER=1079]@Rakibul Islam[/USER] when your miles were redeposited did you get back 175k miles or 165k?

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] I got the full 175k back!

Was the original booking in 2015?

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] both bookings were made in Jan 2016. I got 10k back in 2015 from another redemption, so there’s no way it was a carryover.

Our award in J to SYD from USA on EY via AUH was priced as two awards – US-AUH and AUH-SYD. I see that there is 1 F seat on AUH-SYD. Can I upgrade that leg (AUH-SYD) from J to F, since it was priced separately?

[USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER] even though your pricing was cumulative, I’m guessing it was put on one record locator? In that case I think they would charge you first class for the entire route. In addition if there is more than one person on the reservation you’ll have to split your reservation into two locators so that one seat can be upgraded. [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] could you please confirm?

I think you can do that. Changing anything with American and Etihad is crummy right now, but AAdvantage award pricing is additive, and if you’re paying the price for two awards having one in F and on in J is fine.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 12986, member: 7″]I think you can do that. Changing anything with American and Etihad is crummy right now, but AAdvantage award pricing is additive, and if you’re paying the price for two awards having one in F and on in J is fine.[/QUOTE]
[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER], you don’t recommend to change Etihad awards now? I don’t want to break my award.

[USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER], you can call and see what the response is. Just be prepared for weirdness like the agent not being able to see availability etc. I might state up front that you’re looking to discuss options before making any changes.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 12999, member: 79″][USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER], you can call and see what the response is. Just be prepared for weirdness like the agent not being able to see availability etc. I might state up front that you’re looking to discuss options before making any changes.[/QUOTE]
[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], as usual US AA agents don’t see availability, but agent told me that it wouldn’t be a problem to upgrade a specific leg. So, time to cal AA AUS office? I read here if original reservation was created by US agents and modifying it by AUS office may cause a problem. Why on earth US agents still have a problem with Etihad availability?

Calling Australia seems to be the only way to make anything happen. I’d call and see what they see and say.

Do you know how long it takes to ticket an award? Also, my card was declined for some reason, I fixed it then called back to AA and provided CC’s numbers once again. The agent didn’t check it with the ticketing office, just told me I will be sent an email when the tickets have been issued. Is that alright?

[USER=1141]@Mateusz[/USER] if it’s not close in, I wouldn’t worry about it. Sometimes the ticketing queue can be interminable but they always get there. If you are traveling soon you can call in to request expediting the ticket.

Found guest first for SIN > AUH > JFK. Called AA US line and they said no availability. Also proceeded to say that inventory on EY’s site isn’t the same as what they release to AA.

Hung up and called AA in AU. No problem. Put it on five day hold. Super excited. Booked this in my wife’s name and will pay for one in my name. One way from SIN to JFK is just over 5k in F. Great bargain IMO for 787 suite and A380 Apartment. If another seat opens up in Guest First will use points though.

Guys, question about chauffeur service. I’m flying in Etihad F and my father in business (happens). Can we ride together in the limo if I order it? We are on different reservations.

Yes, you should be fine. If you are worried you can always make the reservation over the phone and ask them to make a note that there will be two people in the car.

I am sorry – it seems I posted my question in the wrong thread first. So – here goes –
I booked Etihad First (JFK – AUH) using AA miles (booked before the devaluation, but the flight date is after devaluation). My flight is on their Jet-configured 777. However, there is an earlier flight the same day – on A380.

Supposedly I find guest saver availability for A380 the day before the departure – is it possible to switch to this earlier flight (it’s all on the same day)?

If so – do I call AA to handle this change? I am afraid that the day before the departure they might not be able to help. Besides, even if they can help – wouldn’t they charge me after-the-devaluation difference?

Or should I call Etihad directly? But then – since I did not book with them directly, would they be able to help?

Hi [USER=1241]@T.A.[/USER] AA has said that they will allow simple date and time changes without repricing the award so you should be fine. In order to make changes you would contact AA since they are the ticketing carrier and are the only ones who can make changes. At some point before your flight EY will take control of the ticket so AA will have to pull it back to make changes so make sure to play with for some extra time on the phone. EY will only make changes in case of irregular operations of some kind.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9507, member: 7″]We were just able to ticket one for a client based overseas (which means we had to call the foreign call center for them to process the credit card correctly).

So I’d try calling again, and if US agents still can’t see space it’s probably worth the Google Voice/Skype call to another reservations center.[/QUOTE]

Yes, you should Skype call another AA center like Australia – they can see the award space and confirm it.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] I haven’t checked on this thread in the while, are the same ol’ problems still happening: US agents not seeing space, only seeing 1 of 2 award seats etc?

[USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER], yes unfortunately. Down under is your best bet.

New to this blog and have already learned so much. Thanks to ALL of you! As a result have R/T SQ F double bed suites for JFK-SIN booked and wife and I are thrilled!

I know this may sound ignorant, but I don’t know the answer. I want to fly EY apartment JFK-AUH about a year from now but at predevaluation AA award rates. As I’ve learned here, EY F 388 seats are only available within a week or so of booking. Can I book something before the 3/22 AA devaluation and then use the ticket up to a year from issue date as up close availability opens up for when I really want to fly? Do I need to cancel the current reservation and then just hold the award ticket or do I just no show for the original flight and then rebook later?

Thanks for helping me clarify. There was another thread that dealt with this but it seems to have gone quiet.

[USER=1579]@Babydoc[/USER], that *should* work but since AA has only published very general guidelines it is hard to give a 100% certain answer.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], thank you for responding and for all your helpful posts. Just to clarify, would I cancel the reservation and simply hold the award until I’m ready to rebook, or do I just noshow and then rebook when I’m ready?

Don’t noshow. You can cancel your tickets and hold the award. You’ll be able to use your ticket numbers to reclaim the award later.

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], thanks again. I wasn’t sure if canceling a ticket led to an automatic cancelation of an award or not – I’m still a beginner. 🙂

I’m trying to book an award flight SFO->DEL.

If I check on the Etihad website, there’s no one-way availability on those routes on my dates.

However, if I book a round-trip, ex-Delhi, and pick my date of travel as the return date, I get award availability.

Currently, if I call AA-reps, they tell they have no availability on my dates. Is there anything I can do?

[USER=1600]@Abeer Agrawal[/USER] That’s interesting. What date are you looking at for your SFO-DEL trip? Also, have you tried calling the Australia AA call center?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 13655, member: 79″][USER=1600]@Abeer Agrawal[/USER] That’s interesting. What date are you looking at for your SFO-DEL trip? Also, have you tried calling the Australia AA call center?[/QUOTE]

I’m looking at Dec. 16th. I tried calling the US center twice, and the Australia center once.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 13655, member: 79″][USER=1600]@Abeer Agrawal[/USER] That’s interesting. What date are you looking at for your SFO-DEL trip? Also, have you tried calling the Australia AA call center?[/QUOTE]

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] I’m looking at Dec. 16th. I tried calling the US center twice, and the Australia center once.

Business? How many people?

Tried for 1 J seat with a R/T leaving 12/1 and returning 12/16 and you’re right it does work. Haven’t noticed this before. [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] does this have to do with EY marrying segments in some way?

[USER=1600]@Abeer Agrawal[/USER] do you have any TYP you can transfer and book with?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 13658, member: 79″]Business? How many people?[/QUOTE]
[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] Business, one person.

Who could I book with using TYP? I have a fair number

My guess is that’s phantom space. If agents can’t see it, and it’s only visible as part of return routing, I’d wonder about it actually being bookable.

[QUOTE=”Abeer Agrawal, post: 13660, member: 1600″][USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] Business, one person.

Who could I book with using TYP? I have a fair number[/QUOTE]

Well you could transfer your TYP to EY and book directly but check what Tiffany mentions above. I would call EY and make sure the space is actually available before making any irreversible transfers.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 13663, member: 79″]Well you could transfer your TYP to EY and book directly but check what Tiffany mentions above. I would call EY and make sure the space is actually available before making any irreversible transfers.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, probably what I’ll end up doing.

Just FYI, there seems to be an issue with Etihad booking AA tickets to India. See post #654 on this thread:

[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1738929-booking-aadvantage-award-travel-etihad-ey-2016-consolidated-44.html[/URL]

Hi guys just tried to book first class using AA via AUS – a no go- anyone has an update ? Maybe they also do not see the availability?id be grateful for any tips

Welcome [USER=1633]@Justyna[/USER]! Can you give us more details on what you’re trying to book?

Hi was trying to book F from LHR to SYD 12/28 for 1 person

[QUOTE=”Justyna, post: 13982, member: 1633″]Hi was trying to book F from LHR to SYD 12/28 for 1 person[/QUOTE]

Ah, so you need “Guest First” availability in order to redeem American miles, which isn’t available for either segment on the 28th:

[ATTACH=full]88[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]87[/ATTACH]
See this post for more: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/06/04/search-etihad-award-space/[/URL]

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 13992, member: 7″]Ah, so you need “Guest First” availability in order to redeem American miles, which isn’t available for either segment on the 28th:

[ATTACH=full]88[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]87[/ATTACH]
See this post for more: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/06/04/search-etihad-award-space/[/URL][/QUOTE]
Dear Tiffany it was available when i originally made the call. Tried 27 only auh segment and also they did not see the availability

We are flying in F/J TPA-DFW-AUH-SYD. Am I correct that I don’t have an access to AA Admirals club in TPA and DFW, because EY is not oneworld partner?

[QUOTE=”Sergey, post: 14283, member: 1107″]We are flying in F/J TPA-DFW-AUH-SYD. Am I correct that I don’t have an access to AA Admirals club in TPA and DFW, because EY is not oneworld partner?[/QUOTE]

Correct, unfortunately, unless you have an AA Executive or Citi Prestige card.

I have EY F AUH-JFK for October 2016 that is on request for ticketing and has been that way for a couple of months now. I know it takes a while but do I have a reason to worry if it hasent ticketed by March 22? AA wouldnt increase the number of miles needed since i requested ticketing WAY before March 22nd, would it? Lastly, is there a way to expedite ticketing?

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] — Nah, you should be fine. If you’re worried, you can always give them a call and make sure the ticket is set up correctly for ticketing.

Thanks Tiffany! I called maybe once every 2-3 weeks since requesting and i was told each time its setup fine and in the queue for ticketing. This was just a random thought that crossed my mind when i woke up this morning

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 14329, member: 29″]Thanks Tiffany! I called maybe once every 2-3 weeks since requesting and i was told each time its setup fine and in the queue for ticketing. This was just a random thought that crossed my mind when i woke up this morning[/QUOTE]

Why does it take so long? Is it normal? My flight on EY is in 2 days and I’m monitoring F availability (my spouse in J currently), but honestly I’m afraid to make any changes so close to departure due to potential ticketing issues.

I’ve changed my sisters EY flights a few times and each time it was ticketed in 48 hours or less…i guess if space opens up and its so close to departure, you could ask that the ticket be expedited? I think [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] mentioned that. She also mentioned having trouble with some changes so I’m not entirely sure what you should do.

[USER=1107]@Sergey[/USER] – I used AA miles to book a ticket on Fiji Air awhile back and it took months to ticket. Could be because I booked nearly a year in advance so it wasn’t high in the priority queue. As I recall it was finally in the May-June time that it ticketed my October trip.

I am monitoring my flight on EY (DFW-AUH-SYD), leaving on 3/11 (tomorrow). I want to upgrade my wife and daughter from J to F. I see that AUH-SYD released all F seats for awards, while DFW-AUH still doesn’t (3 seats are for sale). Am I correct that EY wouldn’t release these seats to awards? It seems that they release all seats in 48 hours, so if it is <24 hours before departure, than it's not going to happen. I called AA to upgrade my family at least AUH-SYD segment, but I have to pay a difference in miles for all segments (i.e, US-AUH and AUH-SYD). I asked if I can split reservation in 2 parts (US-AUH and AUH-SYD), since the total price is cumulative, but agent said it would mean that I changed a final destination that would result a $150/ticket fee (I'm not elite member with AA).

Hi [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] Are AA agents having trouble seeing Etihad Award Space? Tried to book Guest Business for 1/15/17 from DAC-JFK, while on Etihad it shows guest business is available, but AA agents can’t see anything. Thought it was an anomaly with the first agent but called back two more times and same reply. Any guidance soon will be appreciated. Thanks.

I have a dilemma here – wanting to use AA miles for first on Etihad A380 for early next year.

The JFK > AUH route has availability a week out, but nothing further out.
The AUH > JFK route has availability on Jet Airways for next year (book this as a holder)

Question is – should I book JFK > AUH and keep changing the date further out or book AUH > JFK and hope that the A380 flight opens up closer to the date?

Or am I completely off?

[USER=1693]@ngockieg[/USER] Have you looked at the non-380 flight from JFK-AUH? Or other routings say JFK-IAD-AUH? You *should* be able to change the routing to the 380 if/when space opens.

Just FYI the space visibility embargo for AA still seems to be in effect. Australia was able to see an book space right away that US could not even see.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 14556, member: 79″]Australia was able to see an book space right away that US could not even see.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, y’all would be horrified at my Google Voice bill this month…

[USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] – thanks for the tips!

Hi Lucky,
Do you know if Etihad is not showing award seat availability for the next 330 days? I tried your suggestions from older posts i.e. book thru American airlines Australia calling number, etc. I don’t see any Etihad award availability past April-May on the Etihad website. AA Platinum desk doesn’t seem to see either. Do you know what’s going on?
Thanks.
Subru Subramanyam

Hi Lucky,

I tried all the tricks you have listed your posts on the topic but I am still unable to plan for travel on Etihad using AA miles any time after Sept 2016? Any suggestions?
Thanks
VR

Hi @VR, and welcome! Check out the thread at the top of the page with tips on booking Etihad. Space is very limited at this point, and US-based agents can’t see it regardless.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 14680, member: 7″]Hi @VR, and welcome! Check out the thread at the top of the page with tips on booking Etihad. Space is very limited at this point, and US-based agents can’t see it regardless.[/QUOTE]
is the best way still for booking Etihad using AA miles calling AU call center?

[USER=1716]@Vr Subramanyam[/USER] If you are checking the EY website directly for award space and checking alternate routings other than directly from your most convenient airport, there really is no other way. As [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] mentions people are making bookings now to beat the devaluation so space is likely limited. I was able to find space for next January this past week but you’ll have to spend some time looking.

[USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER], yes definitely still have to call AU.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 14702, member: 79″][USER=1716]@Vr Subramanyam[/USER] If you are checking the EY website directly for award space and checking alternate routings other than directly from your most convenient airport, there really is no other way. As [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] mentions people are making bookings now to beat the devaluation so space is likely limited. I was able to find space for next January this past week but you’ll have to spend some time looking.

[USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER], yes definitely still have to call AU.[/QUOTE]
Thanks all for your help.
VR

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 14702, member: 79″][USER=1716]@Vr Subramanyam[/USER] If you are checking the EY website directly for award space and checking alternate routings other than directly from your most convenient airport, there really is no other way. As [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] mentions people are making bookings now to beat the devaluation so space is likely limited. I was able to find space for next January this past week but you’ll have to spend some time looking.

[USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER], yes definitely still have to call AU.[/QUOTE]
at AU center do they have the problem where two seats are open and they can only see one until that first one is put on hold/booked?

[USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER] I did not experience that. Haven’t seen that be an issue with EY either.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 14717, member: 79″][USER=104]@Jacob McCarthy[/USER] I did not experience that. Haven’t seen that be an issue with EY either.[/QUOTE]
that’s good 🙂

Has anyone tried to reschedule placeholder awards yet? I had placeholder award booked on Etihad in F and just tried to move them forward to an earlier flight and AA told me that there would be a difference in points based on the new chart.

Wondered if I just got an agent who didn’t know what they are doing and if I should call back again.

[QUOTE=”series, post: 14898, member: 1482″]Has anyone tried to reschedule placeholder awards yet? I had placeholder award booked on Etihad in F and just tried to move them forward to an earlier flight and AA told me that there would be a difference in points based on the new chart.

Wondered if I just got an agent who didn’t know what they are doing and if I should call back again.[/QUOTE]
Nevermind. Was an agent who didn’t know what they were doing.

Hi, is it possible that AA Australia has availability for a first class seat JFK-AUH but it doesn’t show on Etihad’s website?

Also there is availability on EY’s website for the last leg of my trip AUH-BLR but AA Australia is not able to see it….

I am trying to change my departure date to be able to flight on the A380, I’ve been calling twice a day to see if they are able to find the AUH-BLR availability

Thanks

I’d keep calling. Generally whatever shows on EY’s site is bookable by AA Aus but you never know when an IT glitch or other program might come up, causing issues.

It [I]could [/I] be possible that AA Aus can see a seat thats not on EY’s site. Call and ask. I was already to book CX J based on availability I found online but when I called the agent told me F was available so I grabbed that seat. It wasnt showing on BA’s site at the time though.

David Thanks for the response.

When trying to change my current award ticket there is no availability but for some reason there is award availability if you issue new tickets separately JFK-AUH and then AUH-BLR but it wouldn’t make sense to spend such amount of miles.

I’ll continue to wait and see if EY opens availability for the whole route

That’s very strange. Maybe [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] has a suggestion?

Try and get the agent to see availability separately. If they can see it separately, have them grab the JFK-AUH leg then try to add the AUH-BLR. If there are issues, they should be able to escalate it since they’re able to see availability separately.

There are crazy married segment issues with Etihad, and if you read through the thread you’ll see other people having issues with changing itineraries. I don’t have a consistent workaround to share yet 🙁

I am still having the same issue of not being able to re-schedule my trip JFK-AUH-BLR due to missing availability from AUH-BLR as a connection. There is availability as a new ticket/award. If anyone has found a solution to solve the AUH-India connection issue please let me know

the JFK-AUH leg can only bee seen by AA Australia, not US

OK, I’m ready to book a pair of business class seats – Etihad shows 2 guest business available, but AA United States call center says they aren’t available, only economy. I need to transfer SPG points to AA to do this, so I don’t wanna transfer them if this won’t happen. How can I be sure the flight is really available? Do I really need to call AA in another country?

I called the Australia number and sure enough, the seats are available.

[QUOTE=”savon, post: 16061, member: 1790″]OK, I’m ready to book a pair of business class seats – Etihad shows 2 guest business available, but AA United States call center says they aren’t available, only economy. I need to transfer SPG points to AA to do this, so I don’t wanna transfer them if this won’t happen. How can I be sure the flight is really available? Do I really need to call AA in another country?[/QUOTE]

Yep, thats the way to book the seats!

Hi everyone, I have a dilemma I’ve been trying to solve.

I was fortunate to snag a couple of first class tix from London to Dubai on Qantas First, and then Abu Dhabi to Sydney on Etihad First. AA put everything on the same ticket and my layover in Dubai is 10 hours.

I called Etihad to book Chauffeur service, but they said I wasn’t eligible because they don’t offer this service for travelers who are transferring, and since I simply had a 10 hour layover instead of a stopover, they aren’t able to offer me this service. I also asked if I could use the free Coach they have between DXBAUH, and they said no because it’s only for economy passengers. So, basically, my only option is to take a cab, which runs about $100.

Would love to get any thoughts on more affordable ways to transit. Thanks!

[USER=1838]@txl1k[/USER] is that booked as a single ticket, but priced as 2 awards (Europe to ME, ME to South Pacific), or one award Europe to South Pacific? I dont recall AA allowing connections in the Middle East, unless both flights are on Qantas or Qatar.

If you booked as 2 awards, maybe ask if AA can split the ticket into two itineraries without repricing the award? In that case, the Etihad ticket would be separate, making you eligible for chauffeur service.

Otherwise, the only cheapest option I can think of is the local bus that runs between the two cities, specificall E100 and E101 [URL]http://dubai-buses.com/InterCity.aspx[/URL]

[USER=29]@David W[/USER] unfortunately, this was booked as 2 separate awards on the same ticket. I’ve contacted AA and they said there’s nothing they can do now…Do you think I should call again? It is now within the 21 day window, not sure if that matters…

Cant hurt to try again. I’m also seeing that [URL=’https://www.etihad.com/en-us/plan-and-book/book-etihad-express/’]Etihad [/URL]has a paid option for their coach service, if traveling on another airline. I’d also try calling them again and requesting the paid coach, instead of the complimentary one for coach passengers.

If neither option works out and you have to choose between paying for a cab or a bus, I’d go with a cab, especially if there multiple or large pieces of baggage is involved. More expensive but it’d be from airport to airport instead of having to get to and from bus terminals.

Also, that price seems to be on the higher side. You might be able to get something cheaper in the $70-$80 range.

Anyone else seems to be having trouble booking Etihad Business Class flights? I see online on Etihad website “Guest Business” is available on multiple days. However, when I call AA whether US # or AUS #, they just don’t see it. Do note, I got them to look segment by segment and still same issue. Any help or workaround will be helpful. Thank you.

I needed to modify an EY booking, US still couldn’t see the listing but Australia could. Not sure why you didn’t have any luck [USER=1684]@SCA[/USER], hopefully you were able to find something!

Hi,

Is it correct to say that Etihad seems to have closed all A380 GuestFirst availability?
Sometimes you get availability within 2-3 days of departure.

Geoff

[USER=1753]@Geoff[/USER] EY 380 availability has always been tough other than a couple of spurts. This post has a couple of pointers:

[URL]http://asklucky.onemileatatime.com/threads/where-has-all-ey-guestseat-availability-gone.6745/#post-17904[/URL]

If I want to book JFK-AUH-DEL (in F) but want to make a stopover in AUH – I cannot do it using AA miles, right? Because AA does not allow stopovers? So my best bet is to book the itinerary as 2 separate awards. I wonder how much more (in miles) it would cost than booking the itinerary without this stopover?

[USER=1241]@T.A.[/USER], that is correct. You would pay the sum of both awards. AA award charts are at [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/all-partner-chart2016.jsp[/URL]. You would pay 115,000 + 40,000 for a total of 155,000 miles.

thank you!
that’s one expensive stopover! 🙂
looks like if I make it as a single itinerary (no stopovers) it will cost me just 115,000 (as opposed to 155,000 with a stopover).

AUH DEL is not a long flight. I might look at a Y award or even a paid ticket. Not sure that number of miles would be worth it too.

I agree with [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER]. Unless prices were ridiculously high, I wouldn’t book an award for flights under about 4-6 hours, as most of these flights are operated with single aisle planes with regional products.

Hi,
Can I make a booking on hold from U.S call center – and then add a segmanet form AUS call center – since the U.S call center dont see availability ?

I have a reservation BAH-AUH-DFW
I was able to make a hold on AUH-DFW on C from U.S call center, but they dont see any availability from BAH-AUH. I suspect Australia call center may be able to do so …

Should be fine, give AA Aus a call. If they cant modify your reservation, have them create a whole new one, assuming space is still there.

Hi,

First of all thanks for all the great support and help I get here.

I would have two questions.
– Is it correct that flying Etihad from SIN to SFO or LAX would require me to book two award tickets on AA as they only allow pacific crossing for Asia to US?
– Is it possible to change or cancel a partner award ticket on the same rules and fees?

Regards,

Geoff

Yes, EY SIN-AUH-LAX/SFO will prices as 2 awards on AAdvantage.

You can change a partner ticket but fees may apply if you change the mix of airlines or origin/destination. Do you have an example of what changes you would want to make?

For work reasons I might have to change my trip between now and then.
I might even have to change the destination.
If there’s no availability on the new date but there is on another carrier, can you make these kind of changes? (respecting rules and fees)

Changes shouldnt be a prob but just know that fees might kick in, and maybe a reprice of the award, if you booked it before devaluation. Can you provide further info, like carrier and routing of the existing booking and possible changes?

Hello, I just tried to change just dates of my award flight from Australia to Dubai and I was told that even date change now triggers re-price so it would cost me 80K instead of 45K as charged originally. Call agent confirmed there is a change in the policy. Is that right or am I missing something. Please help, because I have AUH-SYD booked on 777 for now and want to change to A380 closer to departure and this would be an issue. Thank you

UPDATE: Just called AA again and since I made one change in June, second change sees the ticket as issued after devaluation, hence the reprice. All clear now 🙁

Try calling again? Not all agents have the right information. Unless you’re changing the airline, origin, destination, or class of service, it shouldn’t reprice. If the agent is correct and that is the new policy, it really sucks.

Maybe [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] can find out more?

[QUOTE=”Filip, post: 19190, member: 1222″]Hello, I just tried to change just dates of my award flight from Australia to Dubai and I was told that even date change now triggers re-price so it would cost me 80K instead of 45K as charged originally. Call agent confirmed there is a change in the policy. Is that right or am I missing something. Please help, because I have AUH-SYD booked on 777 for now and want to change to A380 closer to departure and this would be an issue. Thank you[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=”David W, post: 19193, member: 29″]Try calling again? Not all agents have the right information. Unless you’re changing the airline, origin, destination, or class of service, it shouldn’t reprice. If the agent is correct and that is the new policy, it really sucks.

Maybe [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] can find out more?[/QUOTE]
Hi,
thanks for the reply. However I called again and the fact is that there is no new policy, but once you change your itinerary once, exchanged itinerary is then issued with current date (post-devaluation) hence all subsequent changes are according to new prices. In other words, you can change only once. 🙁

That’s interesting. I’m sure an official policy change would have been very widely circulated online so I would still suspect these are agents who are providing misinformation. I would try one more time at least. Do not mention anything about the policy change, just call in like you normally would and request the change.

Hi,

I just tried looking for a flight from LONDON to SYD using AA on Etihad. I see the flight on guest but the US nor Australia call in center was able to see it. Did something change?

Not that has been publicized. Did you try to call the Australian center again?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 19383, member: 79″]Not that has been publicized. Did you try to call the Australian center again?[/QUOTE]
just once, should i try again?

Still don’t see anything. Do you have any suggestions? Its available on Guest but not showing on AA

EY availability never shows on AA. You have to call Australia for someone to see and book it after searching on the EY website. I would call a couple more times to verify that the agents are not making a mistake. If a few of them can’t see it you might have to find another date.

called australia, they said nothing in month of August for etihad. Really strange

Sometimes the Etihad website lies if you look at connecting routes. You need to make sure space is available for [I]both[/I] LHR-AUH and AUH-SYD separately, and ask the agents for those specific flights.

Hi I have a flight booked with AA on an EY flight which is prone to schedule changes, often changing up to 5-6 times before departure.
These changes are only for 5min but nevertheless every time the schedule changes the AA award will be reticketed and the seating reservations will be deleted.
Is there any possibility to somehow preserve the seating reservations?

[USER=1719]@nevek[/USER] — Hi, and welcome!

Unfortunately not that I know of. Super annoying.

Trying to book a flight on Etihad using AA miles. AA-Australia can’t see the availability. Since you need 115K AA miles anyway, is there a disadvantage of transferring TY Points or Membership Rewards directly to Etihad and book the trip that way?

Well, if you book with EY miles, it can be more or less than 115k miles depending on the routing. You will receive EY chauffeur service if using EY Guest miles though. Partner awards (ie booked using AA miles) is ineligible for chauffeur service if tickets are issued or reissued after 8/10/16

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 20605, member: 29″]Well, if you book with EY miles, it can be more or less than 115k miles depending on the routing. You will receive EY chauffeur service if using EY Guest miles though. Partner awards (ie booked using AA miles) is ineligible for chauffeur service if tickets are issued or reissued after 8/10/16[/QUOTE]

Thanks David. The route is JFK-AUH. The pricing is coming up as 117,700 Etihad miles vs 115K AA miles. It may be worth it to have the chauffeur service and not have to deal with AA not seeing the flight. I may have to book a separate flight from to get from my hometown to JFK though.

The surcharges might be a little higher but other than that there shouldn’t be any downside. I’m not sure how EY handles changes to dates etc so might be worthwhile to check on that. Have you tried calling Australia a couple of times to see if they see seats?

I called a couple of times today and in both cases they couldn’t see the availability. I may wait a few more days to see if that changes. I have time, but it would be nice to get things nailed down.

I’m having trouble booking two first tix SYD-AUH-IAD. Etihad website shows two saver first tix available SYD (A380) AUH (787) IAD, however when I call the US number, they say nothing is available.

When I call Australia, they say there’s no availability for that routing on the date I choose (and Etihad’s site is showing WIDE OPEN availability for two seats in saver first for weeks on end SYD-IAD), but they do show the sector SYD-AUH available on the 777. I didn’t ask about the AUH-IAD one-way, as my hope is to minimize the connection time in AUH (the A380 has a five-hour connection to the IAD flight).

So I’m not sure what’s happening with AA award booking for EY.

[USER=2274]@TravelinWilly[/USER] did you try AU a couple of times?

[QUOTE=”TravelinWilly, post: 22768, member: 2274″]I’m having trouble booking two first tix SYD-AUH-IAD. Etihad website shows two saver first tix available SYD (A380) AUH (787) IAD, however when I call the US number, they say nothing is available.

When I call Australia, they say there’s no availability for that routing on the date I choose (and Etihad’s site is showing WIDE OPEN availability for two seats in saver first for weeks on end SYD-IAD), but they do show the sector SYD-AUH available on the 777. I didn’t ask about the AUH-IAD one-way, as my hope is to minimize the connection time in AUH (the A380 has a five-hour connection to the IAD flight).

So I’m not sure what’s happening with AA award booking for EY.[/QUOTE]

[USER=2274]@TravelinWilly[/USER] I think you need to try book it segment by segment. Try it.

Make sure it’s available if you look segment-by-segment, as sometimes Etihad will show a false-positive if there’s only space on one segment. If Australia can’t see the space, try another call center, possibly Hong Kong.

Thank you [B]Guarav, Filip, and Tiffany[/B], I’ll give it a try when I have some time.

I really appreciate how quickly people jump in to help here, I’ll report back on what I find!

TW

Hi ! Is it still possible to book Europe-Sydney in first class as one award (115k) instead of paying 162?

To precise my question the Agent sees availability for the whole route but they proce it as two separate awards- was it always the case?

[USER=1633]@Justyna[/USER], it depends on the routing you’re taking. As you’ll see at [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/06/08/american-aadvantage-award-routing-rules/[/URL] you can only route through Asia 1, 2, and Doha so Etihad won’t work unfortunately.

Hi. I’m wondering if its possible to book Etihad First for JFK-SIN via AUH and how many miles would that take? AA award charts shows Lower 48 to Asia 2 (Singapore) is 115000 for one way F. Is that true? Thanks!

With AA miles, flying North America-Asia must be done via the Pacific for it to be a single award. What you’re proposing would cost two awards: JFK-AUH (115K in F) and AUH-SIN (50K in F). So 165K each way in First.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 23579, member: 184″]With AA miles, flying North America-Asia must be done via the Pacific for it to be a single award. What you’re proposing would cost two awards: JFK-AUH (115K in F) and AUH-SIN (50K in F). So 165K each way in First.[/QUOTE]
Ahh so i have to find award availability for 2 segments and have it align. that makes it harder. Thanks for the info! Can i still book it into a single ticket with the price of 2 awards or does it have to be 2 separate awards? Thanks!

I’ve never done this so am not sure. Hopefully someone can chime in here.

[QUOTE=”William12, post: 23580, member: 2553″]Ahh so i have to find award availability for 2 segments and have it align. that makes it harder. Thanks for the info! Can i still book it into a single ticket with the price of 2 awards or does it have to be 2 separate awards? Thanks![/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 23581, member: 184″]I’ve never done this so am not sure. Hopefully someone can chime in here.[/QUOTE]
I’ve never tried this before, but what I have succesfully done before over phone was a sAAver award + a normal cash fare.

It can be a single ticket for the price of two awards 🙂

[USER=2553]@William12[/USER] In my experience, SIN-AUH in F has plenty of award space, usually 2 seats per flight. I’d expect the same great availability for AUH-SIN. JFK-AUH is much, much harder. I’d focus on getting a seat on that flight first.

I know that AA’s award availability for EY First class space doesn’t always match what shows up as available via Etihad’s Guest Saver awards, but I’ve recently experienced more and more examples where EY shows a lot of space and/or space on the same flight over a series of days…and AA sees zero. I’ve tried HUCA, but got the same results. Just curious if this is a trend or maybe I’ve just been lucky in the past.

mike

Are you calling the US call center? Have you tried an international call center? I’ve always had luck with the Australian center. Google Voice/Hangouts can call internationally at pretty low rates.

Call the AA Australia office. They should see it. Use skype for inexpensive call.

Hi Mike, are you calling the Australian center or the US?

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 24878, member: 29″]Are you calling the US call center? Have you tried an international call center? I’ve always had luck with the Australian center. Google Voice/Hangouts can call internationally at pretty low rates.[/QUOTE]
Yes – I was calling the US. Completely forgot about calling Australia, which I did for some flights last flights last year – thanks for the reminder!

Also, I realized that now if there are no guest seats on any flights on a particular day, instead of showing “sold out”, then entire guest seat column disappears, which then makes it seem like there is more availability (but really only in the “open seats” category, which becomes the far left column. Should be obvious, but when scanning through a bunch of days it’s easy to think those are guest seats.

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 24885, member: 2121″]Call the AA Australia office. They should see it. Use skype for inexpensive call.[/QUOTE]
thank you!
[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 24885, member: 2121″]Call the AA Australia office. They should see it. Use skype for inexpensive call.[/QUOTE]
thank you!

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 24887, member: 79″]Hi Mike, are you calling the Australian center or the US?[/QUOTE]
US – totally forgot about Australia option. thanks!

Hello everyone,

I am trying to book a flight from MLE to JFK using my AA miles w/Etihad The award space shows up on Etihad for business class under “Guest Seat” but when I called Australia and USA several times, they were not able to see the award space.

Any advice?

[U]UPDATE:[/U] I checked for the flights on separate segments and it seemed like there was no award space for the 1st segment of the trip. So with economy in mind for the 1st segment and business for 2nd segment, I called one last time and the award space was available for business on both segments.

It was a lovely surprise. I called about 8 times over the course of 5 hours (only once to USA). I used Skype.

Really excited for my trip!

No secret that I’m aware of other than keep trying unfortunately (just Australia, the US hasn’t had any luck in a while).

Hi [USER=2693]@Jenny C[/USER], and welcome!

Make sure you’re searching MLE>AUH and AUH>JFK separately. Sometimes Etihad will show a false positive otherwise.

Can you book an etihad award with mixed cabins? I am looking to Kathmandu to New York via Abu Dhabi. Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi does not offer a first class cabin. If I call AA can I feed them the business class Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi segment and the first class Abu Dhabi to New York and get it books?

[QUOTE=”Bethany, post: 26519, member: 2808″]Can you book an etihad award with mixed cabins? I am looking to Kathmandu to New York via Abu Dhabi. Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi does not offer a first class cabin. If I call AA can I feed them the business class Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi segment and the first class Abu Dhabi to New York and get it books?[/QUOTE]
Yes. The award will be at the higher (First Class) level since there will be at least one F segment.

Is it possible to drop segments on EY Awards?

Currently i have AUH-ZRH (EY)-TXL-MUC (AB) booked but think about staying in ZRH for a few days. On AA / Oneworld awards you’re able to drop legs as long as the destination zone stays the same.

Thanks!

I’d call and ask but usually I think it’ll carry a few since it’s changing the destination. Though if you’re not planning to fly the last 2 legs at all and you don’t have checked bags, just skip the last 2 legs.

[SIZE=4]Does anyone have experience using AAMiles to book EY/QF from DXB/AUH to India?[/SIZE]

[QUOTE=”The Airline Kid, post: 30451″][SIZE=4]Does anyone have experience using AAMiles to book EY/QF from DXB/AUH to India?[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

No but are you running into trouble? Generally for EY, you have to call a non-US call center to get the seats. I call the Australian call center and I’ve never run into problems.

Currently booked on EY using AA miles for the following route:

DEL-AUH A330 with 2 class service (economy)
AUH-LAX 77L with 3 class service (business)

If business class seats open on the DEL-AUH, is there a fee to change from economy to business? I have no status with AA. And I assume it would be best to call Australia call center to make the change.

EDIT: Thanks MidSouth for your answer. It looks like Etihad likes to open up seats close to departure date, so whatever changes I make will most likely fall within 7 days of departure. Hoping to find out the answer if close-in fees applies to changes. Thank you

Welcome [USER=3239]@Vinh[/USER] – since you’re using AA miles there should not be a fee to change if business class opens up on the first leg. Your origin and destination are staying the same and when those change, that’s what incurs the fee. I know AA has a close-in ticketing fee but *think* that only applies to new bookings, not to changes but perhaps someone else can confirm.

If you do find space I’d certainly try the US call center first and call Australia only if they can’t see it.

Does anyone know what the approximate taxes and fees on AA award for RT JFK-MLE in the apartments? We were lucky enough to snag 2 seats in February of 2016 from JFK -AUH and paid a little over $48 pp RT, but looking at Etihad awards/ miles now it is significantly higher at around $800 JFK to AUH . And looking by segments when I add in the MLE leg on both parts it jumps to 2K!! Hoping it is a lot cheaper with AA awards.

[USER=3274]@JRV1[/USER] Where are you seeing the $800 and $2k+ rates? And do you mean Feb 2018?

You need to use Etihad’s website to check for award space but what AA charges is different from what Etihad charges for the same award.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 32382, member: 29″][USER=3274]@JRV1[/USER] Where are you seeing the $800 and $2k+ rates? And do you mean Feb 2018?

You need to use Etihad’s website to check for award space but what AA charges is different from what Etihad charges for the same award.[/QUOTE]

Hi David,
Thanks for the reply, yes I am looking for February 2018 from JFK to MLE, I was using the flight that we had taken in 2016 as a reference for what we had paid at that time, sorry for the confusion.
I am using the Etihad site and they are quoting $820 for the JFK to AUH segment for 2 people and then $1165 more when I add add in the MLE segments. I know what AA charges is different then what Etihad does but when i booked the flight in 2016 there was not that big a discrepancy between the 2.

Are you sure youre not looking at a cash ticket instead of an award?

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 32385, member: 29″]Are you sure youre not looking at a cash ticket instead of an award?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I’m positive. If I could find a RT JFK – MLE in the apartments for 2k for 2 people for a cash ticket I’d book it right now! That’s why I’m a bit confused especially with the $1165 when adding in the MLE segments using Guest First miles.

[USER=3274]@JRV1[/USER] — Etihad charges high fees and surcharges that vary based on origin and destination. They are not at all related to what AA charges (other than both paying the same airport taxes).

Hey all,

Just booked a couple AAdvantage tickets for Etihad First/Apartment SIN-AUH and AUH-JFK (staying in AUH for a couple days). Anyone know if you’re able to choose your seats in advance? AA desk says they can’t, and Etihad says to contact the third party I booked with. I’m traveling with my wife, so I’d like for us to sit next to each other. Thanks!

[USER=1079]@Rakibul Islam[/USER] You should be able to get seats in advance – I’ve always been able to do so in the same situation. Get the EY confirmation code from AA and then call EY and give them their code and they should be able to select seats for you.

In continuation from the question I posted, I understand that the fees listed on the Guest Miles site is higher than what American actually charges.

What is the typical difference between the two fees?

Is it possible to force pick connecting flights with a <24 hour layover different from what the Etihad site lists? Basically, I am searching for a one-way itinerary from the Middle East to ICN. Guest Miles shows availability for Friday and Sunday. The Friday flight listed would require me to take more leave. There is no availability for the first regional let on Saturday. Is it possible on AA to book the first regional leg on Friday night arriving right before midnight, attempt to explore Abu Dhabi and survive the heat in a 22 hour layover, and then the Saturday longhaul flight departing at 22:15?

AA allows for connections of up to 23 hours and 59 minutes. Search each leg of your trip separately and then call AA to book by giving them the dates and flight numbers..

Called AA to book an award seat in business that showed availability on EY website as a guest seat JFK-AUH-CAI. The agent saw the space and confirmed the JFK to AUH however when he went to add the AUH -CAI leg the EY system wouldn’t release it. I held the first leg and confirmed via the EY website and Expertflyer that 3 guest seats are available. Called back three times….twice agents saw no space, once she saw it but couldn’t add it and when she tried again the space disappeared from her view. I asked her to try other flights earlier or later that same day and she was able to add it on a different flight that showed no availability on EY or EF. Really??? Possibly a glitch? I am looking for advice on what to do…. what to tell the AA agents to do. I would really appreciate any insight … Thanks

Which call center were you calling? Did you try Australia?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 37481, member: 79″]Which call center were you calling? Did you try Australia?[/QUOTE]
I made the original reservation by calling NZ…. I called them back 24 hours later they saw no space. It was a U.S. agent that saw the space that she couldn’t book

Try calling Australia.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 37488, member: 79″]Try calling Australia.[/QUOTE]
I called Australia and she also saw the space but could not book it. I asked her to start a new reservation any try from there however she does not see JFK -AUH space even though there is plenty. Called NZ back and she saw space on both legs but once again could not add the AUH-CAI to the reservation. I wound up creating a second res with the AUH-CAI flight in coach. I guess I will work on upgrading it and see how that goes….Very Frustrating

Hello, hope everybody is doing well.

I’ve been trying to book two flights with Etihad using AA miles, despite showing good availability in the two flights at EY site as guest award (search separated as the first leg is in F and the second on intra gulf C), I’ve tried the US, UK, NZ and AU cc’s at least 2 times each and none of them could find the space. All the time they say the intra gulf leg is available but not the LHR-AUH, only in coach. There is any other trick that would work besides keep calling? And to be sure, when they can see it, first ask for the two flights in C, then put reservation on hold and call again to ask the first flight to change to F?

Thanks in advance.

I second Gilbert! This is urgent & worthy of a blog post. Totally bizarre… 2 seats open for EY F AUH-LHR. Plenty of guest seats in F and even more C space on various other dates too but no one at AA can see any of it. Called Australia / NZ / US and all they can find is Y space. Similarly to Gilbert, they found the short haul BOM-AUH F/C seats. I did manage to find a seat CDG-AUH but it’s in the wrong direction, different date, and will require me to shift all my plans around. The point here being there is a serious mismatch between EY & AA at the moment and not even the foreign call centers can help. Not just the A380 flights are being blocked but rather it seems almost all medium/long haul seats are unavailable from AA’s side. Glitch or intentional? That is the real question…

@ Gilbert [USER=3555]@William Church[/USER] — Thanks guys, we noticed the same thing, and are looking into it!

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 38147, member: 7″]@ Gilbert [USER=3555]@William Church[/USER] — Thanks guys, we noticed the same thing, and are looking into it![/QUOTE]
Thank you!!

I am also having the same issue. So frustrating. EY shows wide open availability for AUH-JFK in F and J in the weeks in 2018 that I’m searching–so many seats!—and AA cannot see any of the availability–I tried calling AU, NZ, US, France, HK and China. It is definitely not showing up anywhere.

AA sees shorter legs, like MLE-AUH, but only sees economy in AUH-JFK.

Looks like the AA-EY data connection is happening again, or EY is not releasing their premium cabin awards to AA.

It would be great if someone could pressure AA or EY into a response on this. If it’s technical, we can hope it will be figured out in the coming days / weeks however if this is intentional blocking of premium award space on their A380 & other routes, that’s a far more severe situation which warrants investigation. Interestingly the AA agent (Australia call centre) could find the F seats from AUH to LHR as part of a Jet Airways codeshare… however, was unable to actually book them. I noticed some of the latest posts in the EY redemption thread are also regarding this issue.

[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1738929-booking-aa-award-travel-etihad-ey-2016-master-thread-202.html[/URL]

[USER=4]@Lucky[/USER] [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] Please help! If anyone could pressure AA or EY into looking into this, it would be you guys!

After checking availability on etihad guest, I called Australia to book COK-AUH-JFK in business class. Etihad guest showed business class availability. But the agent could not see availability on the dates that I saw. Instead he was able to find a different day where the AUH-JFK was operated by a 77W. The COK-AUH leg had to be booked in coach because he couldn’t see any J availability. Bottom line: There seems to be little to no correlation between what Etihad guest shows and what is actually showing up for the Australia AA agents. I was able to place the COK-AUH-JFK itinerary on hold.

I’m also having similar problems as stated above. Primarily looking at DFW-AUH and AUH-SYD. For all the dates I’ve looked at there is plenty of guest seats available in business, but when I’ve called AA Australia several times over the past week and they can’t seem to see any availability.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a workaround at this time. Very annoying since this is a primary reason for me to collect AA miles…

Can I redeem bkk-sin-auh-cdg-edi first class 90,000 mile one way? bkk-sin, cdg-edi in J

Unless I’m mistaken, I think you have to travel on Qatar if you want to use AA miles and transit from Asia to Europe.

Also, there are no AA partners flying CDG to EDI. Cathay flies BKK to SIN, but I don’t think you can tag a Cathay flight to an Etihad award.

I think you’d be looking at multiple awards if you need to do that routing.

Thank you rickyw
I read rule of aa partner
1. International flight can up to 4 segment in 1 award
2.asia2 – europe can via doha if fly qatar airway

Can I plan bkk-sin -auh – lhr- edi?
BKK – SIN by Cx J
LHR – EDI by BA J

You can route via ME/India with QR however if you decide to fly EY, it will result in two separate awards. Up to 4 segments. You can fly via AUH but it will be Asia 2-ME and ME-Europe will be priced separately. Also finding premium cabin space AUH-LHR has been very difficult over the past 3 months so unless its last minute, it may be difficult to secure a seat

Might I suggest CX BKK-HKG-LHR-EDI or QR BKK-DOH-LHR-EDI?

[ATTACH]428[/ATTACH] [QUOTE=”William Church, post: 44178, member: 3555″]You can route via ME/India with QR however if you decide to fly EY, it will result in two separate awards. Up to 4 segments. You can fly via AUH but it will be Asia 2-ME and ME-Europe will be priced separately. Also finding premium cabin space AUH-LHR has been very difficult over the past 3 months so unless its last minute, it may be difficult to secure a seat

Might I suggest CX BKK-HKG-LHR-EDI or QR BKK-DOH-LHR-EDI?[/QUOTE]

Thank you William Church
I want to try first apartment. Can i use 90,000 mile aa for asia2- europe by EY? I see SIN is only Asia2 that EY have operate first class. I read now LHR is difficult to redeem for apartment, i route CDG instead.

No, it would be 2 awards. Singapore to AUH 50,000 miles (including connections) in First Class and AUH to Europe 62,500 miles in F so total 112,500. I’m sorry, I know its complex but AA doesn’t consider EY in the same way as QR in regards to connections on award tix.

Yes, I recently did EY A380 to CDG, not sure if they’re still flying it there but I highly recommend trying the apartments! 787 First Class from SIN also fantastic. Worth the miles!

Can I redeem EY use AA for my friend? I know US airlines can redeem for someone but this situation I not sure.

Yes – find GuestSeat availability on Etihad’s website then call AA to book. Just let them know that youre not traveling but your friend is. Maybe call AA in Australia or another country – not all call centers are able to see EY space even if it’s available. It’s an ongoing issue that has not been resolved.

Hi,

I thought I’d post here asking for some advice completing the domestic leg of an upcoming award trip. I have a couple of award seats on hold with AA for travel on Etihad F BOM-AUH-JFK (A380 – First Apartment), so we’re pretty pumped! We’re having no luck finding sAAver awards (in any cabin) to get back home from JFK-SFO/SJC. I’m seeing pretty cheap transcon one-way fares at the moment, so that seems to be the best option at this point, but wanted to check if there might be any obvious options I might be missing. AA has a miles fare sale going on which is not super attractive (would cost $1700+ for 2 passengers to get enough miles for the trip back in Saver Business). I have a 30k AAnytime Economy award added at the moment, as a worst-case backup, but don’t have the miles in hand yet. Any ideas? I redeemed a boatload of SPG miles to make this award possible, so kinda bummed that the last segment is screwing us up for now. I’d have to burn another 50k Starpoints to get the 60k AA miles required for this, so trying to see if that’s avoidable.

Thanks!
Nash D

You might have some luck finding award seats on Alaska Airlines form JFK or EWR to SFO/SJC. If it shows up on AA’s search then you should be able to add it to your ticket.

I’d buy a cash ticket instead of an AAnytime award, especially if you’re getting points from SPG.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 51985, member: 29″]You might have some luck finding award seats on Alaska Airlines form JFK or EWR to SFO/SJC. If it shows up on AA’s search then you should be able to add it to your ticket.

I’d buy a cash ticket instead of an AAnytime award, especially if you’re getting points from SPG.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, David – I do see something out of EWR in Coach. I also see that Alaska has flights available on alaskair.com out of JFK in that timeframe (in First) but those are not seats they seem to let AA book with AAdvantage miles. Does that happen? I assume they’re restricting it to their own mileage program.

AS’s site also shows points+cash awards for it’s own members, which AA has no access to. AA’s site is the best place to find AS partner awards, which is what youre looking for.

I have been trying to book a first class apartment on Etihad for many years now using my miles with American Advatage awards. Following the advice from a previous post, I paid $6.99 for 300 minutes with Skype to call Australia Advantage. In just six short minutes they were able to get me two first class apartment seats from Abu Dhabi to New York flawlessly without any questions or confusion. After hours and weeks Of American Airline employees, mission accomplished!!!

Time and time again I call American Airlines AAdvantage awards only to get reservationist after reservationist who do not have a clue how to do their job. During this process one of the reservationist may have stole my credit card information and didn’t book my flight. Another took all the information and never book the flight

I find that I am being challenged and the reservationist have become more and more argumentative. From the rude tone of voice to the absolute ignorance in preforming their jobs, AA reservationist are becoming more and more intolerable

I wanted to thank everyone here for the sound advice and will continue to enjoy your blog!!

I followed the previous advice I saw on this blog to use Skype to book Etihad’s First Class Apartment from AUH to JFK. It worked like a charm.
After countless attempts of trying to book AA miles through the international reservation desk, it was handled on AA Australia in less then 5 minutes. The reservationist was courteous and polite and preformed the task in record time.

My experiences lately with the Advantage reservationists has slowly gone down hill over the last few years. 50% of the time they are argumentative and rude to say the least.

So, for the record, if you want to book Etihad First, check Etihad Guest for the availability and then using Skype to call Australia is golden!!!

[QUOTE=”Grateful, post: 52939″]I have been trying to book a first class apartment on Etihad for many years now using my miles with American Advatage awards. Following the advice from a previous post, I paid $6.99 for 300 minutes with Skype to call Australia Advantage. In just six short minutes they were able to get me two first class apartment seats from Abu Dhabi to New York flawlessly without any questions or confusion. After hours and weeks Of American Airline employees, mission accomplished!!!

Time and time again I call American Airlines AAdvantage awards only to get reservationist after reservationist who do not have a clue how to do their job. During this process one of the reservationist may have stole my credit card information and didn’t book my flight. Another took all the information and never book the flight

I find that I am being challenged and the reservationist have become more and more argumentative. From the rude tone of voice to the absolute ignorance in preforming their jobs, AA reservationist are becoming more and more intolerable

I wanted to thank everyone here for the sound advice and will continue to enjoy your blog!![/QUOTE]

It’s good practice to at least get the confirmation numbers (AA and partner carriers’) before hanging up the phone – dont wait for the email.

[QUOTE=”alaskaforever, post: 52947″]I followed the previous advice I saw on this blog to use Skype to book Etihad’s First Class Apartment from AUH to JFK. It worked like a charm.
After countless attempts of trying to book AA miles through the international reservation desk, it was handled on AA Australia in less then 5 minutes. The reservationist was courteous and polite and preformed the task in record time.

My experiences lately with the Advantage reservationists has slowly gone down hill over the last few years. 50% of the time they are argumentative and rude to say the least.

So, for the record, if you want to book Etihad First, check Etihad Guest for the availability and then using Skype to call Australia is golden!!![/QUOTE]

I dont book AA awards that often but I dont think I’ve gotten an AAgent who was actively rude or argumentative. Regardless, you should always stay calm and courteous. If you dont like the agent you’re working with, let them know that you no longer need help and hang up. Then call back and get another agent!

Can I travel from Asia region 1 or 2 to South Pacific for 50K miles in First class using etihad?

Do you mean you want to fly from Asia to South pacific on Etihad using American Airlines miles? You can but you’d be charged two awards

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 61295, member: 29″]Do you mean you want to fly from Asia to South pacific on Etihad using American Airlines miles? You can but you’d be charged two awards[/QUOTE]
Thank You so much

Hope someone can clarify this for me –
Using AA miles I would like to book an award flight on Etihad in F from Johannesburg to the US via Abu Dhabi.
I am confused whether this route can be done as one award or two separate awards? AA award chart shows 120,000 miles from Africa to the US in F. Would this routing qualify?
Also – to slightly complicate things – Etihad does not have F cabin on JNB-Abu Dhabi leg; so the whole award will be charged as F while one leg will be in J – in this case, would it be better/cheaper to book as 2 separate awards?

You can book it on one ticket, but it will price as two awards, so you’d pay the F price for the first one, and J for the second.

[URL]https://onemileatatime.com/how-to-use-american-airlines-miles/[/URL]

Hi,

I’m trying to figure out what might be the best points strategy to use for an upcoming award to/from the US to India on Etihad using AA miles. I’m looking at flying Etihad First Class from SFO/SJC-JFK-AUH-BOM, and business class on the return, BOM-AUH-LAX-SJC. It’s myself and my wife, and our infant son (under 2).

For this redemption, I have a couple of options at the moment:
[LIST=1]
[*]Transfer points to AA from Marriott (had a stash of Starwood points that converted to Marriott Rewards (MR) after the merger). I have 20k AA miles, meaning I have to transfer in 840k MR to get to 370k (350k factoring in the bonus, plus the existing 20k in the account).
[*]Buy AA miles, with the current AA buy miles promo going on, which looks like it would cost roughly $6k + taxes (buying 175k * 2 = 370k).
[/LIST]
Assuming a 0.9c/mile valuation for MR, the value of the reward seems to be $7560, and assuming a 1.4c/mile valuation for AA, the value of the reward seems to be $5180. Retail value for the award seems to work out to 25k for the outbound, 8k for the inbound, so $33k, which works out to 3.9c/mile for MR, and 8.9c/mile for AA.

I’m not sure if that’s the best way to compare, but what I’m trying to figure out is whether burning our entire stash of Marriott Rewards is a strategic use of points, or would I be better off doing it through AA miles (it’s actually quite a lot of cash too, though). Perhaps split the difference, and do a combination?

Also looked at Emirates+Alaska for the inbound, but that would cost more MR (82.5k Alaska miles per person, versus 70k for AA per person). Any other options that I might be missing?

In general, I don’t hoard miles with no planned use in mind. I suggest you consider how easy it will be for you to earn more airline/hotel points, and whether you anticipate a need for them in the next 18 months.

Hi Ben & community,

I think there may be an issue with AA being able to see Etihad seats. I tried reaching out to the Australia call center as well as the US one without any success.

I need to book 2 seats in J for my parents from AMD-ROC at the end of Feb / beginning of Mar of 2021. As expected, the AA site shows no availability whatsoever. Neither does it show any EY availability for the AUH-ORD flights.

On the Etihad site, 2 “Guest Seats” are available almost every day on EY289 (AMD-AUH) connecting to EY151 (AUH-ORD). Separately, AA shows at least 2 seats available on AA4049 (ORD-ROC). When I call to book this, one agent claimed that there are no seats on EY151 but EY289 is fine, while another said the reverse. The Australia call center saw neither — in prior years, Australia agents often saw seats that US ones could not.

Fortunately, my parents’ travel date is quite some time in the future and I plan to keep calling. But this variance between Etihad and AA is frustrating.

Is anyone else having issues finding EY availability? Any thoughts on my situation?

Hey Ben, Tiffany, and others. I wanted to mention my latest issue (and resolution!) on booking Etihad F Apartment on AA. As we all know this has always had a checkered history of inability of AA agents to see EY award tickets. Well recently I decided to look for dates and found several options that showed availability from AUH to JFK in EY F with award availability on expert flyer. I dutifully called up AA reservations in the USA and they could not see availability. I also checked the website and no seats showed as available. I next relied on the old trick of calling Australia AA reservations, but still no luck. Then I tried the backup NZ call center and still no lucky. Finally a read a comment from years ago that people have had success calling the UK center. Sure enough, the UK agent was able to see the space and booked my awards (2 actually 😉 with no issues. So if anyone is running into trouble call the UK center. As a bonus the agent was quite lovely to deal with.