ozres

I'm reseaching for a trip June 2013 using our AA FF miles leaving Northwest Arkansas (XNA) or Springfield MO (SGF) to preferably to Zurich and return from Milan. There will be four of us traveling, DH and myself along with our two sons, ages 15 and 18. We would like to book 4 business class FF seats, but I realize that probably won't happen because of availability. So we're looking at 2 business and 2 economy seats.

In the perfect world we would like to fly home from Rome, but using FF miles from Rome looks nearly impossible without flying BA and incurring $2,000-$3,000 in fees. AA, non-code share flights from Milan look much better and don't have the expensive BA fees.

However, I can't find any "Milesaver" flights in or out of Europe booking stricly through AA. I realize I can't book flights for until I'm 330 days out....I'm just digging around at this point. All of the available awards are for AAnytime awards and double the mileage requirement. We've got the miles saved, almost 700,000. (We've been saving for this trip for a while!) So we can fly AA. no codeshare, using AAnytime awards. But I would prefer to use as few miles as possible.

Is OneWorld an option for us? I've never specifically booked anything using the OneWorld option. I have platnium status with AA and DH has Gold status with AA, if that helps. When flying from XNA or SGF, we connect in DFW or ORD. Would booking through OneWorld work for us and if so, how do I go about booking 4 FF seats through OneWorld and still avoid the BA fees?

Thanks!

Gardyloo

Any time you have a BA-metal flight in your itinerary you will be subjected to BA's fuel surcharges. It doesn't matter whether you're using strictly partner awards - now called "Oneworld and partner awards" or the old "Oneworld" award, now called the "Explorer" award. (Which is not to be confused with the "Oneworld Explorer," a paid round-the-world fare. Somebody in AA's crack marketing/branding team needs to look for a new line of work.) If BA is in the plan, open your wallet and say oy.

To be clear, "using the Oneworld option" is just a case of which redemption scheme you employ. The old "Oneworld"/new "Explorer" award requires that you fly only on Oneworld alliance member airlines, such as AA, BA, IB, Finnair, etc. The old "partner"/new "Oneworld and partner" award allows use of any AA partner, regardless of alliance membership (e.g. Alaska Airlines, not a Oneworld member.)

With the Explorer award, you have to fly on two Oneworld members <b>in addition</b> to AA if AA is used at all. So in your case, flying, say, XNA-ORD on AA, then ORD-MAD-ZRH on Iberia, then MXP-LHR on BA and LHR-ORD-XNA on AA would fit the bill, since you've flown on both IB and BA as well as AA. Explorer awards are mileage based; in the example above, you'd fly 10,552 miles all told, which would put you in the mileage bracket that requires 115,000 miles in business class, vs. 100,000 if you use a (Oneworld and) partner award. The price in coach for the mileage-based awards is much higher than comparable trips using the partner award.

AA has been very stingy of late with high-season mileage redemptions in premium classes to Europe. I assume it's at least partly the result of bankruptcy, but also I suspect that it's a way to let BA take the heat: "Hey, you can fly in business class to Europe, take BA! Oh wait, what?

AA serves Milan and Zurich with single daily 767s, which are typically full of paid pax in all cabins. Even getting space for EXP system-wide upgrades on those flights in the summer is virtually impossible. So your choices are limited.

1. Fly on AA metal to London, where they have a ton of daily flights. Then do the last leg on a paid ticket, or if you happen to have any BA/Iberia Avios laying around, use them for short-haul award flights, where Avios are generally a better bargain than AA miles.

2. Look for space on Iberia or airBerlin. Iberia has fuel surcharges, but not nearly as high as BA's. Iberia gateways include Chicago, New York, LA and Miami; airBerlin flies from JFK and LAX, also several towns in south Florida. To see space on partners, use BA's or Qantas' award websites (you'd need to register for those FF programs, free.) BA's will show availability on partner flights when you specify a route.

3. Buy enough miles for first class redemptions instead of business. You'd have to go via London, since LHR is the only European destination AA serves with first class, but surprisingly it's often easier to get F redemptions than J. The difference in round trip miles (125K v. 100K) is incredibly worth it. You'd fly in business class for the last/first legs, but the BA fuel fines on shorthaul are not nearly as egregious as transatlantic.

4. Do some price comparisons between BA fuel fines on top of the miles, vs. just buying coach seats and getting wait-listed for upgrades using miles. You can only upgrade on AA-metal flights using AA miles, but at least you'd be sure that you're going.

5. Look at the cost of buying cheap BA World Traveller Plus (premium economy) seats transatlantic, then redeeming miles for business class seats intra-Europe. Usually those redemptions are very easy to get. BA buries the fuel fines in the price of the WT+ seats, and, again, you might find that the total out-of-pocket is cheaper by doing that than in shelling out 100,000 miles AND a grand or so for their fuel fines.

Whew, wordy, eh?

BarbAnn

I was able to get Y seats out of FCO with my AA FF miles. I had to request, but booked IB FCO/MAD then AA MAD/DFW/SMF I booked 330 days out and had no trouble. Be flexible with dates and routing. Good luck!

Rastaguytoday

The AA FF miles have not been set for June 2013. You might be jumping the gun.

Looking at my OneWorld download, for May of next year, I see flights from FCO to MAD on Iberia, then AA metal to DFW, and AA Eagle to your final destination.

I did a quick check on the AA website, and it won't let me put in June 2013 just yeat.

Please note on AA International Gardyloo is gospel.

ozres

Gardyloo, this is exactly the information I was looking for! I'm going to read and re-read your post to fully soak it in. I realize that I can't book June 2013 yet. I'm just at the researching and figuring out how things work stage.

BarbAnn and Rasta, it sounds like you've mastered the AA FF system. DH and I have traveled several times to Europe but in the shoulder seasons with very flexible schedules. So it wasn't too difficult to get a FF flight. Taking the four of us, during the summer months, requires more planning. Thanks for sharing.

Rastaguytoday

Here's more of Gardyloo's wisdom.

http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...ree-ticket.cfm