Myer

I just checked.

I looked for a return flight from Rome (FCO) to Miami (MIA) for any time in June.

There was not even one flight that doesn't require an overnight at the minimim 30k miles.

However, fo 60k there are many of just about every day.

d_claude_bear

At this time (July-August) the only way we could book San Diego to Paris in Business Class for outbound next May and return in early July using 50,000 AA FF miles per ticket each way involved routing on BA through LHR with fees of $300+ per ticket outbound and $475+ per ticket returning. It also required the usual change of planes at DFW or JFK.

We have never encountered this with AA before when we booked similar passage using the same class of travel and the same FF plan ahead miles. All three previous times a little persistence in checking repeatedly with AA yielded tickets with much lower fees (routing through LHR adds a lot) and only the one change of planes in the US.

Myer

I see another person is suddenly seeing the screws being tightened.

Myer

And this past June I returned from CDG to MIA non-stop.

Not anymore!!!! I looked for next June and you have to pay double the miles.

How can I find out the total price including taxes and fees for a flight without actually buying the ticket? Someone mentioned ridiculous fees for LHR. I wanted to see what they are.

sassy_cat

Next June is a long way off.. did you check other dates? In March, April or May?
Can you keep checking back to see if inventory opens up?

d_claude_bear

My plan, concurred with by the amiable AA agent who searched Air Tahiti NUI and elsewhere to try to help us avoid routing through LHR, is to check the AA website daily or more often to try to change the routing to CDG to SAN with only one change, at JFK, DFW, ORD, etc., if/when Business class seats are made available for Plan Ahead miles. Persistence may pay off, although it might take several months.

However undesirable the routing, and at more cost than it should, at least we know we are departing May 21 and returning 2 July, so we can get on with planning the particulars of our 2013 France/Paris travel.

BTW, the agent told us that alhough Alaska Air and British Airways flights show up on the AA website, Air Tahiti NUI is not yet included there, so she needs to look for those flights. ATNUI flies nonstop LAX to CDG abd would have worked fo ums, but alas, no seats at all were available for FF miles on our dates.

Gardyloo

I looked for a return flight from Rome (FCO) to Miami (MIA) for any time in June... There was not even one flight that doesn't require an overnight at the minimim 30k miles.

If you had phoned AA and asked about routing on Iberia through Madrid, you'd have discovered that there are open seats virtually every day in early June (I frankly didn't look much beyond 6/15, because you're getting close to the 330-day limit by then.) By transiting MAD instead of London, you'd avoid Heathrow altogether, and wouldn't pay BA's very high fuel surcharges on any portion of the trip operated by BA planes.

As d_claude_bear (love it) pointed out, you can't see all of AA's partners for mileage tickets using AA.com and you need to speak to a representative to book tickets on those "invisible" carriers.

If you're traveling to/from Europe and want to avoid BA fuel fines or UK taxes, then you should look for connecting flights using other AA partners, in particular Finnair, Iberia, and airBerlin. None of these airlines' mileage seats are listed on AA.com, so you need to speak with a human there in order to book them.

How can I find out the total price including taxes and fees for a flight without actually buying the ticket? Someone mentioned ridiculous fees for LHR. I wanted to see what they are.

If you're booking an AA award using AA.com, then you can see the price on the final screens before you have to put in your credit card information. If booking on the phone, just ask the agent for a tax/fee breakdown before you pull the trigger, easy as that.

The big cost items in UK departures are (a) BA's fuel surcharges, which can be up to $300-$400 per flight (thus making economy-class redemptions quite silly IMO) and (b) UK Air Passenger Duty, which for US destinations is £65 in economy and £130 in business or first class. You don't pay APD if you're in the UK for less than 24h (and on one ticket) and it's only for departures. This IS a tax, as opposed to BA's fuel surcharges, the technical term for which is "profit."

There are a couple of ways of viewing FF miles. You can accumulate them with no effort by using your credit card and just letting them mount up over time, then complain about not getting something for nothing when you can't redeem them with comparable effort (i.e. none.) Or, you can spend the time (really not many minutes required) to figure out the system, just a little, and turn a little effort into travel worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. That's not called "something for nothing," it's called "leverage."

d_claude_bear

Gardyloo--

As noted, we ask a live person to pursue other AA partner airlines and expect, one way or another, eventually to re-book to to avoid some of the BA we currently have booked.

We found that using AA FF miles for Business Class travel is far more worthwhile than for Economy seating, and for lengthy flights across many time zones, such as CA to Europe, Business class is far more conducive to being alert upon arrival. One bonus is that on flight segments with no Business Class seats on the plane, as in AA's San Diego to DFW or JFK, the Business Class booking puts us in First Class.

Myer

Gardyloo,

This past june I flew Iberia on air miles but now I don't see them on aa.com. So I assume that they might no longer be a partner.

I figured that if BA shows up on aa.com then then the available partner must also show up if any. Why would they show one and not others unless they somehow want you to fly BA?

I'll call AA tomorrow and see what I find out from them.

d_claude_bear

Logandog--Like you, we use our Citibank Aadvantage charge card everywhere we can (except overseas, where we use Capital One to avoid any currency conversion fee) including insurance payments, cable company and cell phone monthly charges, etc., pay the annual card fee, and haven't paid any interest/finance charges for a least 35 years. We also get AAdvantage dining miles and a few other sources of FF miles. Until this year we easily got two Business Class tickets to Europe every 3-4 years for not much more in $ cost than the 3-4 years of annual CC fees. Then along came the AA diversion to BA and their fuel surcharges and LHR landing fees.

Patty

The only partner airlines currently bookable on aa.com are Alaska, British Airways, Hawaiian and Qantas. For all other partners, you need to call. You can do a little legwork in advance by signing up for an account and searching on qantas.com or ba.com for many carriers that don't show up on aa.com. FWIW I just redeemed flights on airBerlin for a family member and availability seemed very good. I agree that it has generally been more difficult this year than previous years to redeem flights on AA metal.

spirobulldog

Should it really be this complicated?

logandog

It's not really complicated.
This year is was LA to Boston last year Philly, the year before D.C.
I book about three months in advance. For 25k I get Business Class one way but I only book on planes with First and coach. It takes just a few clicks and they bill my credit card for ten bucks.

spirobulldog

That isn't complicated. To use it at the minimum is.

Gardyloo

This past june I flew Iberia on air miles but now I don't see them on aa.com. So I assume that they might no longer be a partner.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/main.jsp

Mileage redemption flights can only be booked online with AA, BA, AS, HA and QF; that leaves 18 partners that require phone assistance.

Myer

I don't know what got into me. In the past I've always called. This time I checked aa.com.

I will call tomorrow.

Myer

This thread has proven to be quite informative.

While only BA shows up as a partner on aa.com calling AA resulted in other carrier being available for Rewards flights.

Thanks.

Myer

In case anybody was wondering taxes and fees come to about $250 per person.

And this is flying Iberia thru Madrid.

I just looked at Travelocity just to get an idea about costs.

Flights including all taxes and fees run around 1300-1400 for the same time period.

Don't the taxes and fees on AA read a bit hight 250?

Patty

There are fuel surcharges imposed on the Iberia flights though not nearly as exorbitant as on BA flights. The airBerlin itinerary I booked came to less than $100 in taxes.

Gardyloo

Iberia also adds fuel surcharges to their "award" tickets, just not to the degree that BA does. (They are, you might recall, parts of the same company.)

Probably something like this. "IB YQ" is Iberia's fuel surcharge.

USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $5.00
US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00
US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50
Spanish Airport Services Charge (JD) $25.91
Spanish Security Tax (QV) $4.74
US International Arrival Tax (US) $16.70
IB YQ surcharge (YQ) $160.42
Italian Embarkation Tax (IT) $6.56
Italian Security Charge (VT) $2.23
Italian Security Bag Charge (EX) $2.53
Italian Council City Tax (HB) $6.79
Italian Passenger Service Charge (MJ) $1.12
Total $244.50