“THAT AWARD COST YOU HOW MANY MILES!?!”
I like to think of myself as a hard worker. I put in long hours at the office. I volunteer for projects to keep myself busy. I eat lunch at my desk to finish that report just a little bit sooner. The salary and benefits I take home from all that effort are precious to me and I try to do the best I can to make sure I make the most of what I worked so hard to accumulate.
I take a similar approach to my stash of frequent flyer miles. Countless hours searching for low fares, the most complex routings, and confirmable upgrade space to earn status and horde airline currency can be just as taxing and time consuming as a day of work. Unlike many folks who are “in the game” I don’t really play around with credit cards too much, so the miles I earn solely as a leisure traveler don’t really stack up as quickly in my accounts as they do for others. These two things combined together make me rather cautious when it comes to cashing in my miles. I want to make sure I’m getting the best value possible from my award trips since I know I can’t take as many as those who pad their account with credit card churning or employer funded business travel.
That’s why the American Airlines oneworld explorer award is pretty much the only thing I ever spend my hard earned AAdvantage miles on. While they’re complex, loaded with odd rules, and labor intensive to plan on many levels, you can’t really beat the bang for your buck when compared to many other award redemptions available on AAdvantage (or many other airline programs for that matter).
Need a few examples? Let’s look at the only two award tickets I’ve ever booked since I started flying with American four years ago:
In 2011 I made my first award redemption for the following itinerary:
ORD-LHR-HKG-FUK-TPE-HKG-SIN-CMB-SIN-SYD-LAX-ORD
It was a First class redemption that included flights at the front of the plane on American, Cathay Pacific (CX), and 2 segments on Qantas’ A380, as well as a voluntary downgarde to business class on flights where no F cabin was available. I was able to make stops in LHR, FUK, CMB, SIN, and SYD over the course of a month.
Total miles redeemed for this trip? 280,000 AAdvantage miles. Contrast that with what it would have cost me to construct this award under the traditional award chart -
- ORD-LHR: 62,500
- LHR-HKG: 70,000
- HKG-FUK: 30,000
- FUK-CMB: 30,000
- CMB-SIN: 30,000
- SIN-SYD: 45,000
- SYD-ORD: 72,500
Need more convincing? In 2012 I booked the following itinerary that I’m still making my way through right now:
SFO-LAX-HNL-LAX-ORD-HKG-KUL-HKG-ORD-BOS-NRT-FRA-TXL-JFK-AMM
This time I redeemed for a business class award and added a few new oneworld carriers to the mix. Domestic AA flights along with Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, new member AirBerlin, and finishing off with a flight on Royal Jordanian. Stops on this trip included HNL, ORD, KUL, BOS, TXL, JFK, and AMM.
Total cost in AAdvantage miles? 220,000. The individual break out for creating the same itinerary with traditional awards for each portion:
- SFO-HNL-ORD: 75,000
- ORD-KUL-BOS: 110,000
- BOS-NRT: 50,000
- NRT-BER: 52,500
- BER-JFK: 50,000
- JFK-AMM: 67,500
Again, the value is evident.
When it comes to maximizing your AAdvantage miles, I don’t see how it gets much better than the often neglected and ignored oneworld award.
WHAT IS IT?
So you may be asking yourself at this point, “Well, what exactly is this magical award you speak of?”
And the answer is quite simple, even if securing the redemption itself isn’t – the AAdvantage oneworld award is a distance-based redemption that calculates the total mileage required for the trip solely on how far you plan on traveling. The more traditional award charts that many mileage hoarders are familiar with are location-based, requiring a set amount of miles for travel between one point and another, regardless of distance traveled. You can see the award chart for this unique award at this AA.com webpage and compare it to the traditional location-based award chart for AA’s partner’s located here.
When you look at the mileage required for some of the smaller distances, this award redemption looks like a rip off. And to be quite honest, it is. If you are looking to travel a short distance, skip this award and look at the traditional location-based chart. However, when you get further down the list, the redemption amounts become much more attractive. The further you travel, the more value you can get out of these awards. The higher end of the award chart is the sweet spot where the award really gets a leg up on the more traditional award redemptions.
The interesting thing about the oneworld redemption chart link (besides being the gateway to award flights beyond your wildest dreams) is that it pretty much contains all the information AA has published about the award. If you’ve taken the time to peruse the pop-up, you’ll notice that it lacks any clear information on the rules and requirements for securing one of these awards. It’s no wonder many of AA’s customer have no idea that these awards exist, or if they do, how to go about redeeming them. I suspect this lack of information may be intentional. As noted, they allow redeemers to secure much more bang for their buck, which means AA is on the line for much more with their partners every time a oneworld explorer award is redeemed instead of a traditional award.
WHAT ARE THE RULES?
So at this point you may be thinking that these oneworld awards might be something you’d like to try. Before you get your hopes up you should realize that there is quite a gauntlet of rules and restrictions that you’ll have to navigate before you’re sitting in your first class suite.
I’ll be covering some of the most important rules below and provide some thoughts on how to make sure your potential award stays within them. I will also be using examples from the two itineraries above to highlight how I managed to book these awards while staying within the award rules.
Please note that there is a fantastic FAQ on these awards on Flyertalk that was put together by Austinrunner. If you want all the nitty gritty details, I encourage you to head there and give it a thorough read.
So. Here we go.
- The award must be completed within one year of ticketing.
That’s right folks, you get a whole year from your ticketing date to complete the itinerary. Note that the rule states that it must be completed within one year of ticketing, NOT departure. Part of what makes this award so attractive to me is that I can space it out over a year and take a break between each “leg” of the itinerary.
For my first class award redemption, I decided to do the entire trip as an around the world adventure. I spoke with my boss and secured an entire month off of work. It worked out well and I had an amazing trip. That wasn’t a very realistic option for me to continue doing though, and I doubt others have jobs that will allow them to do this at all. So for my business class redemption though, I decided to switch things up a bit and fully utilize the one year time frame allowed under the award. I booked each destination with 2/3 month “stops” in between so that I didn’t need to secure an entire month of leave from work. This method is complicated due to the award rules we’ll explore below, but is much more reasonable for the every day worker’s schedule and paid time off options.
- A valid oneworld award must include 2 oneworld partners.
Please note that American Airlines does NOT count as one of your required partners. Any itinerary you create can include AA as a carrier, but it does not count toward your 2 oneworld partner minimum. Also, please note that this award is restricted to oneworld partners only. AA allows the use of miles on a wide variety of partners, but for this specific award you cannot include a non-oneworld partner. The only exception to this rule is that there have been some individuals who have reported success in securing award space on Qantas subsidiary (but non-oneworld member) Jetstar when booked under the Qantas codeshare.
For my first class award redemption, I booked space on American Airlines to start the award. To satisfy the two partner requirement, I added Cathay Pacific and Qantas. For the business class redemption, I easily met the requirement by including flights on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, AirBerlin, and Royal Jordanian.
- You can include a maximum of 16 segments.
The simplest definition of a segment under this rule is to count each flight with a unique flight number. Therefore flying ORD-LHR-HKG (regardless of whether you stop in LHR or are just connecting) would be two segments. Many redeemers think that a “segment” is simply getting from one stopover to another without any regard for the number of flights it takes to get between the two. This is not correct and will quickly sink your award before you even start.
Additionally, an open jaw segment is allowed on the itinerary but counts toward your overall segment total. So flying ORD-LHR/CDG-HKG would be counted as 3 segments despite the traveler using other means to get from LHR-CDG.
- You can only include one open jaw within the itinerary.
Related to the previous paragraph, please note that only one open jaw may be included within your itinerary. While traditional open jaws like ORD-LHR/CDG-HKG are easy to spot, please note that ending your itinerary in a city other than the one you started is also considered an open jaw. To add to the complexity of the award rules – an open jaw that is created by ending your itinerary in a city besides the one you started your award in does NOT add to the total segment count, unlike an open jaw within the itinerary.
For my first class redemption, I started and ended my itinerary in ORD and did not include any land segments, so there are no issues with open jaws on that award. For my business class redemption, I started the itinerary in SFO but ended it in AMM. This counts as an open jaw and is the only one I could have within the award.
- One stopover per city, 2 connections per city.
Under the rules of this award, you are allowed to stop in a city only once, and to connect through a city twice. Please note that stopping over in a city does not prevent you from connecting twice through that city later (or earlier) in the itinerary. Also, remember that you are not allowed to stopover in your originating city. So if your award started at DFW, you cannot return to DFW for a stopover later in the trip.
While this can all seem confusing at first and makes redeeming the award difficult, there are ways to work around it.
For my first class redemption, I connected in HKG twice – once on my way to FUK and once on my way to SIN. Because of this, HKG was essentially “dead” to me as a connection point at that point in the itinerary. However, I could have returned to HKG as a stop on the trip if I so desired. I simply chose not to do so.
For my business class redemption, I got a little more creative. As noted above, I decided to space this trip out over a year so that I didn’t need to take an entire month off of work again. This wasn’t easy since my job is in ORD and the award rules only allow me to stop in a city once and prohibits me from stopping over in my originating city. I needed to find a way to structure my award ticket so I could experience the products I wanted to experience and visit the destinations I wanted to visit and still return to the office for long periods of time.
To meet the “no stopovers in your originating city” rule I simply started my award in a city besides ORD, in this case SFO. I was then able to return from HNL and stop in ORD for several months before picking up the award ticket and heading off to KUL. Since I’m now banned from stopping in ORD again, I terminated the return leg of the KUL trip in BOS where I was able to purchase a cheap roundtrip ticket between BOS-ORD to return home and to work for the few months before my trip to NRT. So with regards to the award ticket, AA thinks I’m in BOS for 3 months, but in reality I’ve returned to ORD to continue living my life. I did the same when returning from my trip to TXL by ending that leg at JFK and purchasing a cheap roundtrip ticket back to ORD for a few months.
In order to keep in line with this requirement, you should do some research and figure out which cities around the US (or elsewhere) often have low fares to your hometown. I often see low fares between BOS, JFK, and DCA to ORD, so when I’m booking my awards I almost always look for opportunities to stop in these cities. I also avoid MIA and DFW since fares tend to be higher on these routes.
- Once ticketed you cannot change the routing or the carrier. Date changes are allowed.
This restriction can be a bit difficult at times. Unlike AA’s more traditional awards, one cannot book a ticket with the award space that is open at the time and simply change to a better carrier when space becomes available closer to your travel date.
For example if you ticket your award traveling from ORD to LHR on AA, you cannot switch to the BA ORD-LHR flight at a later date. You are restricted to an AA flight between ORD-LHR after ticketing, though you can make unlimited changes to the date of your flight (following the 1 year requirement above of course). Similarly, you cannot ticket your award flying ORD-LHR on AA and then change the routing to ORD-DFW-LHR on AA. Even though the carrier remains the same, since ORD-LHR is the route that was ticketed you are required to fly that exact routing, no changes at all.
This means that booking a oneworld explorer award comes with a certain amount of give and take. By ticketing an itinerary, you are locking yourself into the routing and carriers you have selected.
So how do you cope with this rule? The routing issue cannot really be modified, but you can take some chances on the carrier route. Let’s say you really wanted to fly LAX-NRT on Japan Airlines but cannot find space on the date you want. Only AA is showing availability. You’d have two options:
1. Ticket the itinerary with available AA award space and commit to flying on AA for that leg with the option to change dates if you needed. The “safe” route.
2. Ticket the itinerary with JL award space on a date that is not ideal and hope that you can find award space at a later date and do a date change. The “risky” route.
Again, this type of award requires flexibility, bravery, and in some cases the ability to swallow your pride and take a less than ideal flight/route. For example on my First class redemption, I originally booked a seat on Qantas’ 747 between SYD-LAX since no space was available on the elusive A380. My goal was to locate space on the date I desired and make a switch, or to simply bite the bullet and enjoy the lower quality cabin on the 747 if need be. I was lucky and was able to find and secure space on QF’s A380 five days prior to my departure from SYD. My gamble had paid off. I had to be prepared for what it meant if my gamble hadn’t paid off though. That’s the name of the oneworld award game.
I should also note that should your flight be canceled or a schedule change impact your itinerary, AA’s agents tend to stick to the “no routing changes, no carrier changes” requirement of the original booking and only are willing to book you on dates where award space exists. This can be frustrating since this often means you are being asked to arrive at your destination several days before or after you originally planned as AA refuses to rebook you on available flights that would break your original routing or place you on a different carrier.
I can, however, speak from personal experience and state that if you are persistent you may be able to get AA to allow you to break this rule and rebook you with a new routing or carrier. On my current business class award, Royal Jordanian changed their JFK-AMM flight from daily service to lower frequencies. AA insisted I had to keep the same routing and carrier and rebooked me on a flight departing several days later than I had originally planned. Normally I wouldn’t have been too concerned with this, but on this particular leg I was meeting a friend in AMM who is an extremely nervous traveler and refused to be left alone for several days. I researched award space and asked to be placed on JFK-MAD-AMM with IB/RJ or on JFK-ORD-AMM using AA/RJ. Both routings would get me into AMM much sooner than the rebooking option AA offered me waiting for RJ’s JFK-AMM flight. Since both options broke the “no routing changes, no carrier changes” rule, AA refused to book me on those flights and insisted I take the RJ JFK-AMM flight at a later date. I escalated the issue through a friend and explained that I felt in the case of a flight cancelation that I should be given some leniency. Eventually AA acquiesced and I am now heading to AMM through ORD.
There is no guarantee though.
Anything else?
A few other rules and booking tips to keep in mind with regards to oneworld explorer awards:
- Business class awards book into First class on AA’s two class domestic aircraft.
- The dreaded fuel surcharges levied by British Airways and to a lesser extent Iberia still do apply to these awards.
- There are some flights that you cannot include in an explorer redemption (such as flights to Cuba, or Royal Jordanian’s flights to Iraq).
- I use GCMAP.com to calculate the distance on potential bookings and have found it to be very close to AA’s distance estimates.
- Websites like KVS and AwardNexus provide assistance with locating award space. If you want to use free websites you can use a combination of AA, BA, QF, and JL’s websites to find space on all oneworld carriers.
- When in doubt, always refer back to the FAQ linked above on Flyertalk. It’s a great one-stop resource for all things explorer award. Or feel free to send me a note, I’m always open to talking about travel.
WHAT NEXT?
The oneworld explorer award is a bit of a beast and can be difficult for people to grasp the first time around. As you read through the post, it should be clear that my first class award booking in 2011 was designed to much simpler and straightforward than the 2012 booking I created in business class. I took all my flights in a single trip without spacing them out, I did not include any open jaws, and I kept the number of carriers and the routings for each destination as simple as possible. After I had one successful booking under my belt, I was more familiar with the rules and more comfortable constructing something that was a bit more “outside the box”.
I’m currently in the beginning stages of planning my third oneworld explorer award. Despite being a smaller alliance, I still have yet to take flights on Iberia, LAN, or S7 Airlines. Additionally, the alliance is set to have three new carriers come on board over the next year or two, and I’m eager to experience their premium cabin products. With my AAdvantage miles balance slowly creeping higher and higher, I’m looking for a way to burn through that stockpile and experience a few new carriers, and what better way to do that at the affordable rate offered by the oneworld explorer award?
Hopefully my thoughts and experiences will help you to consider the possibility of booking one of these unique awards sometime in the future. It can be a daunting task and is far from easy. It takes quite a bit of patience, planning, and an ability to speak with customer service phone reps (who often are unfamiliar with the award rules for these redemptions) for long periods of time.
As is always the case on this blog, on MilePoint, or on Twitter, I am very open to speaking with folks about the AAdvantage program. So if you have additional questions or comments about these types of awards, feel free to leave a comment below, send me a tweet, a private message on MilePoint (TravelWithAlex), or email me using the “Contact Me” button at the top righthand corner of this page.
Safe travels and Happy New Years to all!
Featured Image: American Airlines volvio a Paraguay Credit: LINK.