American Airlines to Russia
Aug 12th, 2006, 06:32 PM
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American Airlines to Russia
We're tentatively planning a trip to St. Petersburgh and Moscow next June or July, using AA frequent flyer miles. However, I've tried the AA website a couple times and don't find flights to either city. I'm planning to call AA to figure this out, but if anyone here can help, I'd be glad to hear from you.
Aug 12th, 2006, 06:38 PM
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Been there, done that!
AA doesn't fly to Russia. You can use your miles within the OneWorld Alliance. But, you will need to call them (AA) to make the arrangements. They put me on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to St. Petes.
AA doesn't fly to Russia. You can use your miles within the OneWorld Alliance. But, you will need to call them (AA) to make the arrangements. They put me on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to St. Petes.
Aug 12th, 2006, 09:55 PM
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EM, please confirm this: You actually redeemed AA miles on a Lufthansa flight as a continuation of an AA miles-redeeming flight across the Atlantic?
Lufthansa is not in the OneWorld Alliance (Aer Lingus, AA, BA, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN Chile, Qantas) but in the Star Alliance (United, ANA, Asiana, Austrian Airlines Group, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and Thai Airways).
Are you sure you didn't travel on United miles to Europe and then Lufthansa took over?
AA and BA combine to fly to LED. Is that what you did?
Having miles redeemed on a combination of AA and LH would open up so many possibilities - but I just don't think it's likely, they are in opposite camps. How about it?
Lufthansa is not in the OneWorld Alliance (Aer Lingus, AA, BA, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN Chile, Qantas) but in the Star Alliance (United, ANA, Asiana, Austrian Airlines Group, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and Thai Airways).
Are you sure you didn't travel on United miles to Europe and then Lufthansa took over?
AA and BA combine to fly to LED. Is that what you did?
Having miles redeemed on a combination of AA and LH would open up so many possibilities - but I just don't think it's likely, they are in opposite camps. How about it?
Aug 12th, 2006, 10:55 PM
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Lufthansa is NOT possible with AA miles.
To answer the OP's questions:
You can't check award availibility on www.aa.com anytime a partner is used. You need to call AAdvantage reservations.
There are few possible routings, but the easiest at the moment with the least connections, would be AA to London and BA to St.Pete. You didn't say were you are flying from, but AA has non-stop flights to LHR from LAX, ORD, BOS and JFK. If you fly from one of the cities you will only have 1 connection, if not and you need to get to one of the cities, you will need at 2 connections.
Unfortunately, BA has only 1 flight per day to St.Pete and the times are not very good for AA/BA connections. On the outbound you will have to arrive in LHR VERY early to catch the morning flight to St.Pete, doable, but it limits the AA flight choices to LHR. For the return, you will need to spend a night in LHR area hotel as the flight from St.Pete does not come in until 6pm or so and by that time all AA flights to US have left for the day.
Another possibility is using Swiss from Zurich to St.Pete. Unfortunately Swiss will no longer be AA partner and the last day to BOOK an award flight with Swiss is October 31, 2006 and the flights have to be completed by October 31, 2007. That would work for you, but as I said, the ticket must be booked in the next couple of months. AA does fly to ZRH but only from couple of US cities, but Swiss does fly from US as well from couple more, so it's a viable option. Not sure if they fly to St.Pete.
After that, there is FinnAir through Helsinki, Turkish through Istanbul and SN Brussels through Brussels. Although AerLingus is leaving OneWorld, they may stay as AA partner, so that may be another possibility through Dublin. Maybe Iberia through Madrid. I didn't check if any of the airlines in the last paragraph do fly to St.Pete, so they mey/may not be an option.
In any event, you have to call. You can't check this routing for award ticketing on www.aa.com.
Good luck!
To answer the OP's questions:
You can't check award availibility on www.aa.com anytime a partner is used. You need to call AAdvantage reservations.
There are few possible routings, but the easiest at the moment with the least connections, would be AA to London and BA to St.Pete. You didn't say were you are flying from, but AA has non-stop flights to LHR from LAX, ORD, BOS and JFK. If you fly from one of the cities you will only have 1 connection, if not and you need to get to one of the cities, you will need at 2 connections.
Unfortunately, BA has only 1 flight per day to St.Pete and the times are not very good for AA/BA connections. On the outbound you will have to arrive in LHR VERY early to catch the morning flight to St.Pete, doable, but it limits the AA flight choices to LHR. For the return, you will need to spend a night in LHR area hotel as the flight from St.Pete does not come in until 6pm or so and by that time all AA flights to US have left for the day.
Another possibility is using Swiss from Zurich to St.Pete. Unfortunately Swiss will no longer be AA partner and the last day to BOOK an award flight with Swiss is October 31, 2006 and the flights have to be completed by October 31, 2007. That would work for you, but as I said, the ticket must be booked in the next couple of months. AA does fly to ZRH but only from couple of US cities, but Swiss does fly from US as well from couple more, so it's a viable option. Not sure if they fly to St.Pete.
After that, there is FinnAir through Helsinki, Turkish through Istanbul and SN Brussels through Brussels. Although AerLingus is leaving OneWorld, they may stay as AA partner, so that may be another possibility through Dublin. Maybe Iberia through Madrid. I didn't check if any of the airlines in the last paragraph do fly to St.Pete, so they mey/may not be an option.
In any event, you have to call. You can't check this routing for award ticketing on www.aa.com.
Good luck!
Aug 12th, 2006, 11:02 PM
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Couple of corrections:
AA also flies from Miami to LHR.
Also, there is a direct(same flight number), but not non-stop from Dallas to LHR. It stops in Chicago.
and, while there is one evening flight from LHR to New York, ~8pm the connection would be tight, and you will not get to JFK until ~11pm, so unless you live in New York, the only difference in this connection would be spending a night in JFK area hotel instead of LHR area hotel.
AA also flies from Miami to LHR.
Also, there is a direct(same flight number), but not non-stop from Dallas to LHR. It stops in Chicago.
and, while there is one evening flight from LHR to New York, ~8pm the connection would be tight, and you will not get to JFK until ~11pm, so unless you live in New York, the only difference in this connection would be spending a night in JFK area hotel instead of LHR area hotel.
Aug 13th, 2006, 07:21 AM
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You are all correct, and I apologize for my haste.
The first part of my statement is right. AA doesn't fly to Russia. It is possible to use miles to get there on their partner airlines. When I first booked my tickets, that's what I used, though it wasn't Lufthansa. The only way they could do it with the dates I gave them was so convoluded, that I ended up buying a direct flight from Munich to St. Pete's on Lufthansa, as it was the cheapest.
I don't remember the airline(s) they had me on to get there. St. Pete's was really hard...they could easily get me to Moscow or Helinksi using a partner, but I didn't want to have to take a train or another airline for my final leg.
The first part of my statement is right. AA doesn't fly to Russia. It is possible to use miles to get there on their partner airlines. When I first booked my tickets, that's what I used, though it wasn't Lufthansa. The only way they could do it with the dates I gave them was so convoluded, that I ended up buying a direct flight from Munich to St. Pete's on Lufthansa, as it was the cheapest.
I don't remember the airline(s) they had me on to get there. St. Pete's was really hard...they could easily get me to Moscow or Helinksi using a partner, but I didn't want to have to take a train or another airline for my final leg.
Aug 13th, 2006, 10:41 AM
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We flew SAS out of Newark with the added incentive that they throw in an inter-Scandinavia ticket for about $70/pp.
Our itinerary had us connecting to St. Pete in Copengahen. We had three hours layover in Copenhagen, so we took a taxi and tour the city. Worked out great. Some days later, we took land transportation to Helsinki and flew Helsinki-Stockholm ($70/pp).
By the way, you need a VISA to get in/out of Russia, that may be the reason why you can not do that type of transaction on the internet.
Our itinerary had us connecting to St. Pete in Copengahen. We had three hours layover in Copenhagen, so we took a taxi and tour the city. Worked out great. Some days later, we took land transportation to Helsinki and flew Helsinki-Stockholm ($70/pp).
By the way, you need a VISA to get in/out of Russia, that may be the reason why you can not do that type of transaction on the internet.
Aug 13th, 2006, 11:39 AM
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AAFF-The reason why I suggested the nonstop was from past experience on this board. When people have trouble using miles or cannot get the right airline to use miles,others have suggested just buying a cheap ticket for the nonstop destination that they want and trying to use their miles for another time. Sorry! (I will just keep quiet and stress out till I leave for London on Weds.)
Aug 13th, 2006, 11:47 AM
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You've received great info from the other posters. While you can't check award availability on aa.com utilizing partner airlines, you can check where the partner airlines route (as if you wanted to purchase a ticket) by hitting the oneworld option. You can then have an idea of which partners fly where so that when you call aa Advantage desk, you'll have done a bit of research on your own. This has helped me tremendously in the past. Good luck!
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