Questions and Answers

Hello,

Trying to fly on Qatar from ATL to DPS on business using AAdvantage Miles. I went to BA and used their reward tool to check availability. My actually dates are next summer, so there is limited availability for rewards right now, but I picked some other dates that are available and called AA. When i spoke to the agent, they said to get to DPS I have to fly over the Pacific and cannot connect through the Middle East. They want to put me on Cathy Pacific, which is OK but the flight would be longer. Any idea a way around this without booking separate tickets, one to ATL-DOH and then one DOH-DPS (since that would cost more miles).

Thanks! This is my first travel hacked flight…

DPS is part of the Asia 2 region and therefore, American wont allow you to book one award to get there via DOH on QR since that’s a third region, hence requiring 2 awards.

AA does have an exception that allows you to fly to Asia 2 via Asia 1. But if they’re offering Cathay I’d definitely take that.

Thanks. how do you recommend i check for award space? Both on ba and qantas, their reward search returns the qatar flights, it does not show any cathay flights.

If you’re checking from ATL the connection to US gateway might be the issue. Try from JFK/EWR/ORD/LAX/SFO to dps. If you find it then work on the connection. The 2 sources your using are going to be your best options unless you have a paid service like award nexus.

Its a bit frustrating, that both BA and Qantas allow me to book the Qatar flight with miles, but not AA…. Almost worth getting miles with either BA or Qantas, maybe even Qatar instead of AA. 900k avios with BA or 550k with Qantas total for 2 people, vs 280k with AA so it is a ton cheaper with AA. Seems that availablity with Cathay is much more limited then with Qatar (checking flights from LAX to DPS since that would be the connection)

Lax is not the connection. Cathay opens plenty or reward space. But you can book 2 rewards on American if you want. Just call them and they’ll put it on the same pnr and waive the ticket fee. Otherwise be patient and Cathay will show up.

While this site has a ticketing service I can help you as well. Go here [URL]http://www.rewardflying.com/ticketing/[/URL]
And fill in the form I’ll see what I can do.

Hey [USER=2226]@Ric[/USER], and welcome!

To clarify, you [I]can[/I] book this through AA, and on a single ticket. It will just [B]price[/B] as two awards, so you’d pay But that’s not the worst thing ever, and from Atlanta Qatar will certainly be more convenient, so it might be worth the extra miles (110,000 each way for business versus 70,000 for the Pacific routing).

I don’t think you need to pay a service to book this for you though — just take some deep breaths, and start piecing things together. The fact that you’re interested in this stuff will be the biggest advantage 🙂