It’s now possible to book Etihad awards on the American Airlines website. Previously these awards didn’t show up on American Airlines, but you were able to book them via phone (that was a difficult process in itself as it wouldn’t show up for American agents so you’d have to call an international desk such as Singapore or Sydney). It will be interesting to see if this is here to stay, or if American Airlines is just doing some testing late at night.
Hat tip to FT user SeeBuyFly via Traveling For Miles
Yes, but the premium 388 flights available on the Etihad site do not show in the AA for saver fares?
As a point of reference, I booked an ORD-JNB flight in biz a few months ago via the Australia call center for travel in September. They priced it out by segment, thus costing me 125k each way. I called when I saw that the website was showing 75k each way and they reissued the ticket and refunded my 50k without a fee. I was happy to say the least.
This is more related to routing rules changes than EY showing up on AA site. Can now go to Africa using EY in addition to QR.
How to do the opposite? Searching AA awards quickly by using Etihad miles
Great news – Just rebooked my original ticket from Delhi to Chicago on Cathay via Hong Kong to a new ticket using Etihad via Abu Dhabi. There is a good availability on both DEL to AUH and AUH to ORD. Both Cathay hops are the same as both Etihad hops on 777 300 ER flat bed on each flight. Cathay is great and the Wing in Hong Kong rocks but Etihad is my first time. Exciting. And I will receive $18 back.
If I was you, I would’ve stuck to the HKG routing, Etihad’s ORD to/from flights are notoriously crappy cause it’s on outdated aircraft.
Still shows crappy routes with 2 stops. I can book same route with one stop and shorter travel time over the phone. For same amount is miles. I wonder if it would be like this in future.
The online AA routing has always been bad for all flights.
I had 2 on hold that I paid for a few minutes back, and thankfully, I wasn’t charged the $80 fee for phone-booking.
But finding availability in the future might be hard for me, as I’m used to calling their Australian call-center, and few people knew that trick. It was fun while it lasted.
Well.. I couldn’t see EY availability for route am looking though noticed that coach is showing 70k on some dates (normal is 40k one way). Dynamic partner Award also?
Depending on the route, it might be combining AAnytime awards with the EY award bringing it to 70k for coach.
Sounds like the routing you’re searching for might be pricing out as two separate awards.
So happy this is online now, there’s some great value out there. Let’s hope it sticks.
This also means more people contending for few seats
I’m sure this will do wonders for availability…
On the flip side, it might actually make it harder to get ’em
which is what he means…