Thursday, August 28, 2008

My coming Award trip

I just made an award ticket reservation in Business class to China for 10 days later using my AA miles, coming back in November. Business Class Seats are still pretty easy to find on all Japan Airlines US Gateway from JFK, ORD, SFO and LAX.

YYZ-LGA(stopover), JFK-NRT(stopover)-PEK-NRT-JFK(open jaw)

Total cost 90000 AA miles+157 in taxes and fees, not bad.

Plus, I booked 2 nights at Park Hyatt Tokyo using my Hyatt promotional free night award in my account. Great place to spend my awards and use my 72 hours shore pass for Chinese Passport.

I used Qantas Airways website to search award availability for oneworld partners, but they don't show JL and CX flight, so I use British Airways website to search now. Although it doesn't show everying, but it does offer more partners availability than Qantas Website.

I have not found any discrepancies between BA webiste and AA call center yet. After u did ur research and call AA to book, it will be much easier for u and agent.

Another reason I am using AA miles for this trip is ability to change without a fee even AFTER my trip starts as long as I keep the the same routing and carrier.

With UA and US or BD award, you can not change anything once ur trip starts unless you are using UA miles and the remaining is on UA only

With CO, NW and DL miles, you can change anytime you want, but every change requires a fee unless you are top elite of respective programs

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't you worry about shore pass in Japan? Is it possible to be rejected?

Tmtravelworld said...

It is possible, but I have been there with both shore pass and transit visa before, so I think the chances of being rejected is very small

Anonymous said...

Why didn't you search JL for award availability? JL tool is pretty good.

Tmtravelworld said...

I thought JL award availability for its own member maybe different than rest one world partners.

Also, does JL website search other partner at the same time?

Anonymous said...

How did you accumulate your AA miles?
It seems to me that AA miles are harder to get than UA(not talking about BIS)

Tmtravelworld said...

Flying, Multiple Citi bank promotions, UFB direct bank, double miles to certain destinations on top of Elite bonus, double shopping bonus, dining. I rarely miss valuable promotions.

Tmtravelworld said...

forgot to mention credit card sign up bonus, it is churnable, 25K each, Personal, Personal AMEX, and business, we have 2 people in our household.:)

Anonymous said...

Maybe this is a stupid question, but how to redeem AA miles on JAL ticket? Is this can be done on AA's website?

Anonymous said...

Two individuals accumulate miles in different account.

Tmtravelworld said...

call AA for any partner ticket

Anonymous said...

"With UA and US or BD award, you can not change anything once ur trip starts unless you are using UA miles and the remaining is on UA only"

Can you show the rule from UA?

Anonymous said...

"forgot to mention credit card sign up bonus, it is churnable, 25K each, Personal, Personal AMEX, and business, we have 2 people in our household.:)

August 30, 2008 8:39 PM"

The miles are not combinable from different individuals

Tmtravelworld said...

Did I say AA miles are combinable btw diff individual?

I was saying two people accumulating miles at the time.

For UA change rule:

Changes during travel: Permitted for United segments that were booked as E-Tickets. Subject to applicable fees. Involuntary re-routing permitted on Star Alliance carriers only.