Need advice for AA OneWorld award
 

Wondering if it makes sense to try and put together 2 oneworld business class award tickets for this itinerary:

In October,
Bos (or BDL)/HAM
HAM/NCE
NCE/BOS (or BDL)

In Jan,
BDL/MEX
MEX/PVR
PVR/BDL

Some questions/issues:
1.) There are no oneworld flights from MEX to PVR. The agent told me that even though they don't offer any flights, this will still count as an open jaw in the itinerary. True? If true, then I must fly out & return to Boston on the January flights, correct? (BDL is much easier for us)

2.) Having some trouble finding award tickets for the October flights. Looking to leave approx Oct 16 (no earlier than 12th, spend 3 nights in Ham, and approx 10 nights in Nice). Any suggestions on routings to try?

3.) I need to have at least 2 partner airlines, correct? I have generally been able to fly back from Nice using IB; but seem to be getting odd results when I try that. I'm recalling that they only fly on certain days - is that right? How can I find out what days they fly from Madrid to Boston? I was using the oneworld multi-city itinerary planner; and when I put in NCE/BOS on Oct 29 all I got was a routing through London. When I put the check in the box that said flexible +/- 3 days, the MAD connection came up, but it appeared to be on the 29th also. I'm confused.

4.) I have 4 SWU's; and I'm wondering if it would make more sense to try & use those for the October flights, but when I look at the econ flights for bos/ham/ncr/bos they are very expensive. I once found some flights from a post on flyertalk for one-way business class tickets for approx $600 each. Has anyone seen anything like that? (There seems to be good availability on milesaver business class tix for the bdl/mex & pvr/bdl for 60,000 each (total of 120,000 miles for 2 tix)).

5.) If I'm able to somehow put together the flights on both trips, it would be a total of 115,000 miles per ticket, correct?

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated!

Cyn

You can't transit your start point; the trip ends there. So if you want to stay under the 14,000 mile tier (115K miles in business) your route could look something like this: BOS-LHR-HAM-LHR-NCE-MAD-<b>JFK</b>-DFW-PVR//MEX-DFW-BOS, i.e. starting and ending in Boston, with the one allowed open jaw at PVR//MEX. You'd use JFK as your interim stopping point. NCE-MAD would be on Iberia (op. by Air Nostrum, which is okay) so that would be your second non-AA carrier (BA the other, either on BOS-LHR and/or LHR-HAM-LHR.

Starting and ending in BDL would require you to go to ORD for the shortest transatlantic routing; that would take you into the 130K redemption tier.

To see availability, I'd sign up for the Qantas FF program; once you're enrolled you can use Qantas' award search engine, which is very good. Once you see availability using the Qantas site, you'll have to phone AA to make the booking. You will, of course, need to be very flexible with your dates.

Another option is to originate at JFK. Easy and relatively cheap to get to JFK by air (lots $49 flights from BOS) or Amtrak (via Penn Sta).

Don

Check out flyertalk.com, wealth of information there!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm trying to work something out using the itin you suggested Gardyloo; but going through BDL for the return from Madrid/ & flight to DFW/MEX. I am running into a road block getting from NCE/MAD/ORD/BDL or something similar for that segment. I'll try again tomorrow.

Don - getting to JFK never seems easy from here. I live in S. VT; and it no matter how I've looked, it always seems that it will cost me approx $500 to get there. :-)

Yes, aimeekm - flyertalk is an amazing site! Thanks.

Cyn

<i>...but going through BDL for the return from Madrid/ & flight to DFW/MEX...</i>

Okay, but like I said there's almost no way you can involve BDL in this itinerary and still stay within the mileage limit you desire.

Ohh! You see - this is why I need help. I finally get one point down, and forget about the other things. And yes, you did say that! I'll keep working.

Thanks!
Cyn