I'd like to take our family of 4 to Italy next year. Plans are somewhat flexible but ideally we'd fly into Venice (VCE) and out of Rome (FCO) (from Indianapolis, or ORD in a pinch).

I'm not a FF expert, but we have accrued enough miles with AA to make the trip. AA doesn't fly to VCE. We have some miles with Delta, but not enough to do it all.

Questions:

1) Do any AA partners fly into VCE?
2) Do both AA and Delta programs allow for 1-way FF awards so I could fly each airline?

Thanks for your help with these basic questions.

AA is part of OneWorld, so yes, you can get to Venice. Usually AA will put you on British Airways, which means connecting in London.

AA does offer 1-way award, but I don't know about Delta

You didn't mention when this trip will be, but AA offers off-peak (Oct thru April, I think) Europe Awards for only 20k one-way; so you can fly to Europe and back for just 40K. Best deal among all the airlines.

Delta doesn't offer one way awards (at least yet.) Only AA among the major US airlines does so, although I understand United may be moving in that direction.

AA partners with British Airways who fly to Venice via Heathrow and Gatwick, and with Iberia who fly there via Madrid (and also with Malev/Hungarian, on a puddle-jumper from Budapest.) With AA awards you can use any combination of partner airlines, except BA for any transatlantic portions between the USA and Britain (but Canada and Mexico are okay.)

I have flown to Europe a few times using AA frequent flier miles and always before April 15 or after October 15. I have been able to fly on Iberia before but have had trouble finding FF mile tickets from AA using other European airlines.

AA does allow multi-city trips (I flew into Madrid and out of Barcelona last April).

Sometimes AA won't give you FF trip using partners. In that case, I fly into an AA city using FF miles and then head to where I need to be from there.

I did a quick search an AA's website for a sample IND-VCE, FCO-IND. I used Oct 20-Nov 3 as my dates. According to my quick research, the booking option does not allow you to fly to VCE because "no American Airlines operated flight" flies there. You can, however, easily get IND-FCO roundtrips for 20K each way if you go Oct 19-Nov 3.

Maybe call AA directly to see if they can get you to Venice. Venice is not too bad by train from Rome (I took a night train once - journey time was about 7 hours).

I did some more playing and I think, if you choose to use AA, ORD gets you a better flight schedule (less connections = less hassles)

To book partner airlines (OneWorld Alliance in the case of AA), you always have to call AA to book; it's not possible to book Award on partner airlines online. However, you CAN see partner airline schedules/flights online if you go to AA.com and try dummy booking (and check the box for OneWorld).

Maybe they have a special arrangement with Iberia, then, because I did book my FF ticket online and ended up with an Iberia flight in 2009(straight from Bos-Madrid - I was ecstatic!). In the past, there have been options for JAL online but that was in 2008. It *may* depend on the partner airline.

Good luck!!!

You can't see partner availability for redemption trips on aa.com; only the AA reps can see it. If you sign up for the BA or Qantas FF programs, their websites allow you to see most (not all) partner availability. I don't know what happened in the case of <b>usernameistaken</b>'s Iberia award; but AA has no special arrangement with any partners that allow on-line booking for partner award flights.

In general intra-Europe connecting flights on partners are seldom an issue with AA mileage redemption; it's getting over the pond that's the main issue.

Since AA instituted the all one-way award scheme last year, you're no longer allowed a stopover at any foreign connecting point, e.g. London. So if you want to go USA > London > Venice with a stopover in London, the transatlantic award will only get you to London; the second leg (LON-VCE) would require a second one-way (intra-Europe) award.

On the other hand, if your route requires a connection at a US point (e.g. ORD-xJFK-LHR) you can stop over in New York if you choose.

You would do very well if you listen to Gardyloo's advice and comments.....he's our "guru" when it comes to AA and Oneworld!!

Maybe it was some weird codeshare thing. I am no expert, but I did book online and I did miss out on a JAL flight (waited too long). Weird.

Thanks so much for the advice. I knew this was the place to come.

FYI, my trip isn't until next spring (I like to plan ahead ) so I might be able to squeeze in the outbound if not the inbound off-peak.

Looks like my best bet will be to call AA as my window gets closer.

I'm assuming that a stopover is different (e.g. overnight +) than a connection, right? So a connection in London (AA/BA) would be okay? I'll have to weigh the options ($$$, car time to ORD, air time, train time, etc.). Or just stay in Rome

Thanks again.

Yes, a stopover usually means 24h or longer. AA to LHR then BA to Italy would be fine.

Award itineraries are door-to-door. If you're starting at IND there's no reason to travel on your own to ORD - AA will fly you there as part of the award, e.g. IND-ORD-LHR-VCE, or IND-ORD-MAD-VCE etc. Again, the domestic part of the itinerary, and the intra-Europe part, are not usually very hard to obtain, it's the transatlantic parts that can be more difficult.