A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on The Coolest Thing You Can Do with 57.5k United Miles and 10k Avios, which arose from daydreaming about booking myself more award trips.
The last few days I’ve worked myself into a frenzy planning an incredible-value American Airlines Explorer Award around the world in business class for 130k American Airlines miles and the most opulent Explorer Award possible for 280k miles.
Posted in AAdvantage, Cathay Pacific, Explorer Award, Finnair, Qantas
Tagged Award Booking, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Explorer Award, First Class, Qantas
A few months ago you could book Lima to Cuzco on ba.com with Avios. I made that redemption for family members for an incredible 4,500 Avios and $9 in taxes per person.
Lima to Cuzco meets the three criteria to be an ideal British Airways redemption.
With my personal experience booking the award, I was surprised to get an email from a reader saying that she couldn’t book Lima to Cuzco online because ba.com doesn’t list Cuzco as a destination.
She is totally correct that ba.com no longer lists Cuzco as a possible airport in award searches. Performing the following search…
…leads to an airport code auto-correct screen…
…and trying to search by country is a dead end too.
With the intra-Peru space no longer showing on ba.com, I don’t think it’s available anywhere online. That doesn’t mean you can’t book intra-Peru space with Avios. It just means you have to call British Airways to book at 800-AIRWAYS.
I called today to test out availability. I picked an arbitrary date–October 10–and told the agent I wanted one economy class seat from Lima to Cuzco.
LAN flies the route 15 times on October 10, and there was an award seat on at least the first five flights of the day.
The wide open award availability didn’t surprise me. The story was the same when the space was on ba.com, and space tends to improve the harder it is to book like when you have to call in and specifically request it.
I told the agent I wanted to book the 7:40 AM flight. He quoted me a price of 4,500 Avios plus $34.40 “including all taxes and fees.”
He didn’t break it down, so I asked him: “Does that include a $25 phone fee?”
“Yessir.”
I followed up: “Can I have that waived because this is not bookable online?”
“Be right with you.”
He returned to the line in about 60 seconds to tell me that the price was now 4,500 Avios plus $9.40.
So it’s now a three-step process to book intra-Peru flights with Avios.
I don’t expect that it’s only intra-Peru space that’s disappeared from ba.com. If the award you want is not searchable online, you should call British Airways.
This is the twenty-first post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Searching AA.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles.
Knowing how to use ba.com is crucial for making award bookings with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Why? ba.com displays award space for more oneworld partner airlines than does aa.com. That means you often need to search ba.com even if you are redeeming American Airlines miles. For instance, ba.com is a great place to search space on Cathay Pacific before calling American Airlines to book with American Airlines miles.
Award Searches on ba.com
First, you need to sign up for the British Airways Executive Club to be able search. The link is on the top right of BA.com. Next, you must log in.
Along the left side of the screen after logging in, click on Spending Avios. Several choices will emerge beneath where you clicked. Choose Book Flights with Avios.
On this screen, type in the details of your potential award trip. One trick is that if you’re willing to fly either of two classes, select the higher one. ba.com will always display worse classes with space available if the class you want doesn’t have space.
If you’ve selected a route British Airways flies, a screen will pop up asking if you want a stopover in London. Leave No Stopover selected, and click Continue.
If you’ve queried a route not served by British Airways, you’ll be brought directly to results.
The results are displayed by airline. British Airways is at the top and the rest are ordered alphabetically. You can change the sorting to Total Journey Time in the dropdown menu.
If your day comes back with no results, you can click on the nearby dates one at a time on the results screen or move one week at a time.
To get more info on a flight, click the linked flight number, and a new window will open with pertinent info including the aircraft and flight duration.
To see the price of an award including taxes and fees, select one and click the red Continue button.
If you don’t have enough Avios in your account, you will just be shown the Avios price and dollar amount without a breakdown.
LAX-HKG-MNL in First Class price
If you do have enough Avios, the price screen looks a bit different.
If you click on the little “i” icon, you will see how the cash component of the award breaks down. This is how the $311 in addition to the Avios needed to get from LAX to Budapest breaks down.
If you want to book the award you found with Avios, enter your credit card info, and you are all set. If you want to book the itinerary with American Airlines miles–both itineraries above are way better deals with American Airlines miles–note the flight dates, numbers, cabins, and taxes.
American Airlines will charge all the same taxes, but not the fuel surcharges. Call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 and feed the agents the flights you found.
ba.com shows space on airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and S7, which is all of oneworld.
Continue to Using Qantas.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles.
For many people, the most aggravating travel fees are out-of-pocket fees charged on frequent-flyer-mile award tickets. At least that’s my impression from reading the comments on this New York Times article I was quoted in. Huge government taxes and fuel surcharges can make what should be a free ticket cost hundreds of dollars per person. People were furious about paying $600 for a “free” economy ticket.
And why wouldn’t they be? Most people think award miles get you a free ticket like they used to. When a phone agent tells them their two-person award will cost miles plus $3,600–yes, this really happened to a client of mine–they think the airline has changed the rules in the middle of the game.
Luckily avoiding these aggravating fees comes down to two simple tips:
1. Do not depart London, especially not in a premium cabin.
The reason is that the UK imposes a huge Air Passenger Duty on all departing passengers, and it’s even bigger on business class passengers–over $210 to the USA.
If you want to go to London and Paris on the same trip, fly into London and out of Paris. That award in business class is 100,000 American Airlines miles and $138. Flying into Paris and out of London in business class is 100,000 American Airlines miles and $284. $150 more!
Into London, out of Paris is $138 in taxes.
Into Paris, out of London is $284 in taxes. Don’t depart London on an award!
This does not mean you cannot connect through London. Connecting through London incurs an approximately $54 Passenger Service Charge, but not the $210 Air Passenger Duty. Connecting through London may not be ideal, but it will not break the bank.
Germany to the US, routing through London.
And your connection in London can be up to 24 hours before the Air Passenger Duty kicks in.
This is the itinerary with the taxes listed above. Twenty-three-and-a-half-hours in London, but the passenger is considered in transit, so there is no Air Passenger Duty charged. That means $200+ saved.
So avoid departing London to save yourself a couple hundred bucks per person. Avoid routing through London if you can, but stays of under 24 hours incur manageable taxes.
2. Use frequent-flyer miles on award partners who do not charge fuel surcharges.
United miles and US Airways miles are great because they don’t collect fuel surcharges on any awards. American Airlines collects surcharges on British Airways flights. Delta collects surcharges on a ton of its partners. See the list of Delta surcharges I’ve compiled.
If you use your American Airlines miles on a roundtrip to Europe with British Airways, you’ll pay $684 in taxes and fuel surcharges in economy class on top of the miles. That’s nearly $700 for a “free” ticket in economy!
Using American Airlines miles on British Airways flights is an expensive mistake.
If you use American miles on airberlin, Finnair, or American itself, you will pay $100 or so in taxes and no fuel surcharges. (Just remember to avoid departing London.)
So far, I’ve talked about using American Airlines miles on British Airways flights. You also should be careful using British Airways Avios for trips to Europe.
If you use British Airways miles for a transatlantic flight, you’ll pay at least $800 roundtrip in fuel surcharges if you fly most of its partners. The two big exceptions are Aer Lingus or airberlin. Use your Avios on these partners for huge savings.
Or just use your Avios for flights within the US. If you use Avios to fly American Airlines from Los Angeles to Hawaii, you’ll pay only $5 in taxes.
Finally, there’s the case of using Delta miles to Asia. If you use Delta miles to fly China Southern to Asia, you’ll see fuel surcharges of about $330 per passenger roundtrip. Use the same miles to fly to the same place in Asia on Korean Air, and you pay no surcharges, just government taxes.
Fly on Korean to Asia with Delta miles to avoid the surcharges Delta collects on China Southern, China Eastern, and China Airlines.
Recap
There’s nothing worse than paying hundreds of dollars for what should be a “free” award ticket. Luckily, there are two simple ways to save yourself the money and aggravation: don’t depart London on awards and make sure you fly on airline partners that don’t collect fuel surcharges.
Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Delta, United, US Airways
Tagged American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, United, US Airways
Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday, meaning you now have more options for your American Airlines AAdvantage miles and British Airways Avios to, from, and through Southeast Asia.
courtesy of Google Maps
An unaffiliated airline joining an alliance is always a good thing for us because our miles have more uses, and usually the new airline will have incredible award availability, at least until it adjusts to having more people snapping up its awards.
Where Malaysia Airlines Flies
Malaysia Airlines flies from its Kuala Lumpur hub all over Asia and Australia. It also has four flights to Europe–Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, and Paris–and one flight to the US–Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur flight flies via Tokyo in both directions. The entire route is operated by the same plane, so there is no worry about missed connections. The journey takes 21:40 heading west, and you land two days after takeoff. The journey takes 18:05 heading east, and you land the same day as takeoff.
What Planes and Premium Cabins does Malaysia Airlines Feature?
The two main longhaul jets in Malaysia Airlines’ fleet are the 777-200 and A380.
The 777-200 flies the Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur route as well as Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The 777-200 plane will disappoint people looking for luxury. There is no first class–just economy and business–and the business class seats are angled lie flat.
This photo is from Malaysia Airlines’ page on its 777-200s.
The angle of the photo seems to be designed to disguise the angle of the bed, but look at the bed in relation to the windows, and you can see this would be quite an uncomfortable angle for sleep.
I would generally pass on flying this business class cabin unless it was the only option available.
The A380 flies from Kuala Lumpur to London-Heathrow and Paris-CDG. The A380 has a more luxurious configuration. First Class suites have fully flat 7’3″ beds according to Malaysia Airlines’ page on the aircraft.
The rest of the suite sounds pretty incredible too with the same jumbo-sized 23″ screen Emirates First Class has, and single and double suites for people traveling alone or with a companion.
Its business class seats also claim to be fully flat beds, though I can’t verify that elsewhere. This seat map and this review make me think the seats are angled lie flats.
The menus for both premium cabins look incredible, and include the option to order your entree in advance.
Where do I Search for Malaysia Air Space?
I search for oneworld space in three places: aa.com, ba.com, and qantas.com.au. (Here’s where I specifically search for each oneworld partner’s space.) For Malaysia Airlines, the choice of search engine is easy. Of the airline sites I use to search oneworld space, only ba.com displays Malaysia Airlines space.
ba.com search result
For me, that makes ba.com the best place to search award availability. BA.com is an easy-to-use search engine. Sign in to your BA account, then click Spending Avios under the Executive Club tab.
Along the left side of the next screen, click Book Flights with Avios.
I’ll do an example search of Adelaide, Australia to Kuala Lumpur–a new route open to your American and British miles.
The one thing I recommend is selecting the highest class of service you might want. If it’s not available, you will always be offered lower classes. But if you search economy, and it is not available, you will not be offered business.
In this case, I requested first class even though the airplane operating the route doesn’t have first class. As you can see the results are returned showing business class with a note explaining first class was not available.
On ba.com, direct British Airways flights are returned first–there are none on this route–followed by direct partner flights, followed by routes with layovers. In this case, since Qantas–the biggest Australian airline is a oneworld partner, there are routes with Qantas and Malaysian flights.
If you ever want to know more info about one segment–its duration or aircraft for instance–click the flight number.
Clicking the MH0138 of the direct flight shows the flight time as 7:30 and an A330 as the jet operating the flight. For more information on what business class in like on a Malaysia Airlines A330, I would google “Malaysia A330.”
Other Ways to Search
Interestingly Expert Flyer–a paid service I explained how to use here–shows Malaysia Airlines economy award space and business and first class upgrade space.
See the letters in parentheses, A, I, and S? Those are the fare codes for first class upgrades, business class upgrades, and economy awards according to Expert Flyer. According to an American phone agent, the fare codes we want for award space are:
That means Expert Flyer search results should not match up with ba.com or what an American Airlines agent can book.
My searches indicate that economy class space does not line up. Expert Flyer usually shows nine award seats in economy, while ba.com usually shows fewer.
Business upgrade space and business award space do not match up for every airline, but on all the searches I performed, business upgrade space displayed on Expert Flyer and business award space displayed on ba.com matched up perfectly.
Calling in to American, I could book the same business class space too, so Expert Flyer is an option to search Malaysia Airlines business space if you prefer its functionality to ba.com and you understand that its results might not always be accurate.
First Class Upgrade space on Expert Flyer didn’t match up with anywhere else. And I couldn’t find any First Class space on ba.com or with an AA agent. First Class might be off limits to American Airlines and British Airways miles at the moment.
How’s the Space on Key Routes
To me the most important routes for my likely needs are:
Los Angeles <-> Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur <-> London
Kuala Lumpur <-> Paris
intra-Malaysia
All of these routes had phenomenal space. I saw business and economy space on almost every longhaul route I checked–usually 4+ seats.
And intra-Malaysia had at least two economy class seats on every flight I checked.
At least for now, Malaysia Airlines space is wide open. That may change as miles-collectors take notice of that and American Airlines agents learn to route customers on Malaysia. Consider beating the rush.
Relevant American Routing Rules
If you haven’t read the Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards yet, now is the time. I’ll highlight a few relevant rules.
Stopover Rule
Since stopovers on American Airlines international awards must occur at the North American international gateway city, if you are flying between your home airport and Kuala Lumpur, you have only one stopover option–Los Angeles. In either or both directions, you can stop in Los Angeles since it is the gateway city both directions. (If you live in Los Angeles, you can get a free oneway both directions.)
That means you can’t get a free stopover in Tokyo en route to Kuala Lumpur, and you can’t get a free stopover in Kuala Lumpur on your way somewhere else. If you want multiple stops in Asia, look into Avios awards, United awards, or cash tickets on Asian low-cost carriers.
Published Fare Rule
If you fly Malaysian from the US to Asia, Malaysian must have a published fare from the starting airport of your journey to the final airport. I do not know on which routes Malaysian publishes fares. You can search on Expert Flyer–How to Use expertflyer.com–or ask an American Airlines agent.
Transiting a Third Region
American Airlines makes you fly directly between your starting and finishing region. If you don’t do that, you are charged for two awards instead of one. There are a few exceptions. One relevant exception is that you can fly from the US to Malaysia (Asia 2) via North Asia (Asia 1) on one award.
One relevant problem is that you cannot fly from the US to Asia via Europe. Nor can you fly from the US to India via Asia.
Relevant BA Surcharges
British Airways adds huge surcharges to its longhaul award redemptions. If you have enough Avios in your account to make a booking, you can click the little “i” in your booking price window to see the size of the surcharge. On an economy flight intra-Malaysia, there is no surcharge.
But on a business class roundtrip between the US and Malaysia, there would be $750+ out of pocket in addition to 200k+ Avios.
The standard Avios advice applies: use Avios for short, direct awards. Don’t use it for long awards with stops, especially not in first class.
How to Book
Avios Awards
You’ve found the space online, and you can easily book online. If you have trouble, call 800-AIRWAYS to book.
AAdvantage Awards
To book an American award that involves travel on Malaysia Airlines, call AA at 800-882-8880. The agent I spoke to was already competent in booking Malaysia Airlines. If you have trouble, tell the agent the Malaysia fare codes listed above. If you still have trouble, hang up and call back.
You can always put your AA award on hold for five days. You will be charged $25 per person for ticketing over the phone, and there is no way around it.
Recap
Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday meaning we now have more options with our American Airlines and British Airways miles to, from, and through Southeast Asia.
The good news is that award space is incredible in economy and business class on Malaysia Airlines, first class looks fantastic, and the awards are easily searchable on ba.com.
The bad news is that the business class bed in angled, first class award space is not available, AA’s routing rules make certain Malaysia redemptions tough, and BA will gouge you on longhaul Malaysia flights.
Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Malaysia Airlines
Tagged American Airlines, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines
According to this thread on FlyerTalk, British Airways has tweaked the functionality of their website for the better. Searching for award tickets, especially on oneworld partner airlines, is quite a bit easier now. I had to see for myself, so I tried out a few dummy bookings.
Scott has actually written up a helpful post on this for newbie travelers. To read his step by step, check out Free First Class Next Month: Using BA.com for oneworld Awards. Using BA.com to search for partner awards can be really useful. As we have mentioned before, Avios are great for short haul domestic awards on American Airlines. Expensive short haul flights within South America, South Africa and Australia are another great use for Avios. For more reading, check out Scott’s post, How Much Are Avios Worth? The Value of British Airways Avios.
In this post, I want to show you some sample partner bookings and how the award search process has vastly changed for the better on BA.com, though the improvements aren’t necessarily that obvious at first.
The first thing you need to do is to log in to your British Airways Executive Club account on BA.com. British Airways won’t let you search for award space if you aren’t logged in.
After logging in, you are taken to your Executive Club account summary page. There are a host of options here, but you want to burn some of your hard earned Avios on partner awards. Click “Spending Avios.”
You will then be taken to a spending Avios page. Click “Book flights with Avios” to be taken to the actual award search page and booking tool.
I wanted to show you a simple domestic search, so I plugged in an award that I am contemplating. Baltimore’s dreary weather in January is downright depressing. I would rather be relaxing on Miami Beach and strolling down Collins Avenue.
Let’s enter Baltimore <-> Miami as our city pairs and some random January dates.
Previously, this search would have yielded an error message that said “British Airways does not fly all or part of this route.” You then had the option of searching another route or including oneworld partners in the search. We know that British Airways doesn’t serve Baltimore to Miami directly, so this error message was an annoying and unnecessary step in the search process. Now, the message has been eliminated. Availability on American Airlines pops right up!
There are several other changes to the partner award search. Now the logo of the partner airline is clearly displayed (it was previously only shown as text). That’s just a cosmetic tweak, but it still helps when trying to book a specific carrier.
The real improvement is in how you search for dates with availability. As you can see at the top of screenshot above, you can now hop around by date or jump to a different week. That’s a huge benefit, especially when availability is scarce and you are flexible in your travel days.
I happened to luck out. There was space from Washington-Reagan to Miami on the days I wanted. I selected the best flight times and was taken to the booking page for payment.
Avios award chart is distance based. Flights under 650 miles cost a mere 4,500 Avios. Flights 651-1151 miles cost 7,500 Avios. No other program can match those redemptions for low mileage cost. This award would be 25,000 miles if booked using American Airlines miles!
Are there any other partners you can search for using BA.com?
Absolutely! Japan Airlines, or JAL, is another oneworld partner that displays availability on BA.com. To test out the improved award search functionality, I plugged in a route that JAL serves directly: Boston <-> Tokyo-Narita in January.
With the old BA.com award search tool, you would have to first check British Airways routings (always via their hub at London-Heathrow). Only then could you include partners like JAL. Now, partner award space is included along with British Airways flights.
Cathay Pacific is another oneworld carrier that is easily searchable using BA.com’s booking tool. I was pulled up Cathay’s Chicago <-> Hong Kong direct flight in October. My initial dates weren’t available, but I could hop around days quickly using BA.com’s improved functionality.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, intra-South America flights are another solid use of your Avios. I plugged in Buenos Aires, Argentina <-> Lima, Peru. This route is served by oneworld partner LAN Airlines. I tried a sample date in October of next year.
Instead of immediately being told their was no availability on British Airways, I was immediately shown several great nonstop options on LAN.
At the booking page, I only had to pay 20,000 Avios + $103 in taxes/fees for the itinerary. A cursory check on Kayak showed nonstop itineraries for $545 and up! By booking using Avios, I would be redeeming them for 1.85 cents in value according to the Mile Value Calculator (545, 103, 20000, 3910). Flights within South America can be surprisingly expensive. Avios are one great method to hop around the continent.
Recap
British Airways’s Avios offer great redemptive value for shorthaul domestic flights as well as flights within South America, Australia, and South Africa. Unfortunately, searching for oneworld award availability on the site used to be an exercise in frustration.
You were initially forced to search British Airways availability before including partners in your query. Now, partner itineraries display along with British Airways flights. You can also jump around by day or week.
These are simple changes, but as I outlined above, the booking process is smoother and it is now a little bit easier to spend your Avios on otherwise very expensive short haul flights.
Avios aren’t the best currency for long haul flights from North America to Asia, but using BA.com is still a great method to search for Cathay Pacific and JAL award space, even if you plan on booking the flights with AAdvantage miles.
Hey there, you’re reading an outdated post! The updated series from March 2013 can be found here.
This is the twenty-fifth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.
Knowing how to use BA.com is crucial for making award bookings with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
Why? BA.com displays award space for more oneworld partner airlines than does AA.com. This post will teach the basics of how to use BA.com to book with either currency.
First, you need to sign up for the British Airways Executive Club to be able search. The link is on the top right of BA.com. Next, you must log in.
Along the left side of the screen after logging in, click on Spending Avios. Several choices will emerge beneath where you clicked. Choose Book Flights with Avios.
On this screen, type in the details of your potential award trip. One trick is that if you’re willing to fly either of two classes, select the higher one. BA.com will always display worse classes with space available if the class you want doesn’t have space.
If you’ve selected a route that BA doesn’t fly, a calendar will appear noting that fact. Click the red button that says Include Partners, and you are on your way.
BA doesn’t fly LAX-JFK
If you’ve selected a route BA does fly, a screen will pop up asking if you want a stopover in London. Leave No Stopover selected, and click Continue.
BA does fly LAX-LHR-BUD
If for some reason your dream award does involve flying BA and stopping over in London, you should just search segment by segment anyway. And most likely you are trying to avoid flying BA because of the insane fuel surcharges American and BA impose on awards on BA planes.
Hopefully, if you’re trying to avoid BA, you have selected a date when no award on BA planes is available on your route. In this case, you’ll have the option to click the blue Search button in the Partner airlines box on the left.
If the date you select does have BA availability, it will be shown to you automatically. The trick in this case is to figure out a date that doesn’t have BA availability, search that date, and click the blue Search button in the Partner airlines box.
If the exact date you’ve selected has no availability in any class, you can click to search up to seven days later or earlier. You can continue clicking those buttons to see the availability in your desired date range.
If you find a desirable award booking, and you’re using Avios to book, click continue and book.
If you click on the little “i” icon, you will see why BA wants $311 in addition to the Avios needed to get from LAX to Budapest.
If instead you were just using the search engine but will book the award with AAdvantage miles, note the times, flight numbers, and classes of your desired award and call American, which will have access to the exact same space.
(I wouldn’t recommend using AA miles to book this itinerary. But if you had found space on airberlin for example, this is where you would call AA.)
BA.com has access to airberlin, AA, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and S7, which is all of oneworld.
(As of 9/7, JAL availability has not been displaying on ba.com for weeks. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. Also BA.com shows tons of phantom LAN space that AA can’t book.)
BA.com is not intuitive, not user-friendly, and not good for visualizing when availability is wide open or hard to find. But it does have great coverage, so it’s an important place to know how to search.
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!