Although the window is closing fast, it is still possible to book British Airways award flights using US Airways Dividend Miles without a fuel surcharge. It took me a couple tries, but I just booked a mega-award redemption with two longhauls on BA without a fuel surcharge.
Unlike American Airlines, where the system knows best and there is no way to slip creative routings past agents or avoid any fuel surcharges due (on British Airways and Iberia flights), US Airways still prices awards manually and in most cases must store taxes manually. That can work out tremendously to your advantage under the right circumstances.
I had four objectives on this trip. First, Qantas First Class on the A380. Second, British Airways First Class on the A380. Third, Cathay Pacific First Class. Fourth, a North Asia award. And of course the overarching goal was to book all of this without a fuel surcharge—which adds $350-400 to each BA longhaul segment.
Based on my preferred travel dates and award space, I decided upon the following routing:
- Los Angeles to London in British Airways First Class, A380-800
- London to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class, 777-300
- (Destination in Hong Kong)
- Hong Kong to Sydney in Qantas Business Class, A380-800
- Sydney to Dubai in Qantas First Class, A380-800
- Dubai to London in Qantas First Class, A380-800
- London to New York in British Airways First Class, 747-400
- New York to Los Angeles in American Airlines First Class, A321T
A simple, but very appealing routing with lie-flat beds on each flight.
The key now was to get it booked and priced as a North Asia award and without a fuel surcharge. I figured a stopover in Australia would foul it up, so I just left myself a full day in Sydney in order to visit friends and enjoy the amenities of the Qantas First Class lounge.
The first agent put all the flights in, said it would not price, and put me on hold to contact her rates desk. 12 minutes later she came back and said the routing was illegal and we’d have to find another way to get me back. I wanted the outbound flights held to Hong Kong (LAX-LHR-HKG) so I played along and asked her to find another routing back after asking her for the confirmation number (always get the confirmation number as soon as possible in case your call drops).
I had actually found several routings back on JAL or Cathay First that would have been legal routings, but I wanted to see what she could come up with. She came up with nothing and I suggested that she leave the outbound flights in there and I would check back tomorrow on the inbound flights. She agreed.
About 20 minutes later I called back and the next agent re-inserted the HKG-SYD-DXB-LHR-JFK-LAX return. She put me on hold again to calculate the price and came back after a very long hold telling me the routing was illegal, but it would work if I just knocked off the New York to Los Angeles flight. Fine, I said. She said good, put me on hold, and came back 10 minutes later to tell me that her rates desk was still storing the taxes.
Finally she came back with a price quote—120,000 miles (good!) and $1368 in taxes/fees (ugh!). I thanked her and told her I would hold the reservation.
I let it sit a day, thinking that I may have been too late anyway, but then called back yesterday to try to add the JFK to LAX flight back in and get rid of the fuel surcharge. I reached an agent in Winston-Salem who added the flight back in and put me on hold to reprice it.
This time, the price came back 120,000 miles and $359. Even with two London connections, that was about $100 too high, but I was not going to quibble over $100 when my taxes were now $1,000 cheaper. So I ticketed the reservation on the spot.
Turns out she booked me on the wrong flight from New York to Los Angeles (an 8pm flight instead of a 5:30p flight), but I did not want to call back and argue over that, jeopardizing the whole award.
So a fuel-surcharge free award with British Airways premium segments is still available. The window is closing and as more agents read the memo, fewer will leave out the fuel surcharge, but it still might not be too late.
I redeemed a handful of awards on Star Alliance before US Airways left Star Alliance and now my account balance is at zero. US Airways is still offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles this month, which I am tempted to buy, and I may also try signing up for a second US Airways Mastercard from Barclays, which is now offering a 40,000 mile sign-up bonus with an $89 annual fee—well worth the exchange.
Award bookings are a work of patience, but with patience you can save $1,000 like I did on a British Airways award redemption with US Airways.
Two or so years ago one agent denied a NA routing which incl. changing planes in BKK, and you have SYD and DXB. Just completed a 10 segment, 7 airline NAsia 90K award incl. TPE-LHR via BKK EVA, exhaustingly long, even with lie-flat, a one-time only experience. For my long haul flight connections I structured the itinerary with a stop over, and next day connections, less than 24 hours, to get adequate rest. Happy flying.
Cool
Your JFK-LAX flight would qualify for a same day change $75 with AA when calling AA directly 24 hour before departure you might need to call a few times to get an agent willing to work on a US ticket stock
@Dov: I intend to get on the earlier flight for free…there’s always an agent willing–you just have to find one.
Your blog is getting better and better. Lately, you have added much more rich detail for me to try and emulate. I really appreciate it!
Is US booking F at J prices? How are you getting them to search F inventory or J. Are you providing them with the fare code?
@Rocky: Nope, though Australia is 140K for first, since Hong Kong is the destination and in North Asia, US Airways allowed this “illegal” routing and priced it as a first class North Asia award for 120K.
I do walk US Airways agents through the right fare codes to search for since there is no standardization in oneworld (versus O/I/X in Star Alliance). Two agents tried to book the SYD-DXB-LHR Qantas flights in Z instead of P. Z is premium economy (but first class on AA and BA) while P is a first class code unique to QF.
Emailed you on your regular contact page. Have a question about this specific trip, and would like to use your service to book a similar trip to the one above. Thank you
Looks like a great trip, not sure I would publish something like this to rub it in US’s face to quite such an extent Matthew. You usually temper your posts and make people read between the lines, i think thats wiser approach, do you really want US to focus its attention on you?
@Daniel: Thanks for your comment. Did you contact me at awardexpert.com? I am a bit leery to take on these requests as they take me or a team member a lot, lot more time than a “normal” award.
@Del: My posts are usually not this detailed when dealing with gray areas like US Airways award redemptions, but I figure this is a closing window and I want others to take advantage of it while they still can. I think it is only a matter of time before AA’s Sabre system will render the incompetence of US Airways’ call centers a non-issue because the computer will replace manual pricing. Further, it will not be long before every agent finally finds out that YQ must be included on BA and IB flights.
So I publish this much detail now as a reminder to readers that we are in the last hour, but it is not too late.
Congrats on this awesome routing!!! I think most people would have simply flown LAX-HKG non-stop on CX First for that same price of 120k US miles. Out of all the legs, which one was the hardest to find in regards to award space? The BA A380 flight LAX-LHR?
Also, why are you flying business class from HKG-SYD? I’m guessing no first class space on that route?
@Joey: LAX-LHR on BA was certainly the hardest to find–it was available exactly one day the entire calendar. The trip was actually built around that flight. I just got lucky that Cathay had space connecting from London to Hong Kong in first class. I only have a two hour layover which is a shame–little time for the lounge and I will be stuffed from the BA flight and will skip the lounge food and possibly the first dinner to Hong Kong.
Correct, no first class was available from HKG-SYD, though I am happy to review QF Business Class as well.
@Matthew, yes that would be really cool to read a review on QF business class seat on the A380!
Congrats man! I wasn’t able to get an agent to route me through Australia. I settled for LAX-JFK-LHR-DUS-LHR-DXB-HKG-PEK-NRT-LAX, with stopovers in both DUS and HKG and my destination of PEK.
And I wasn’t able to find any BA A380 flights for my dates. I’m booked in March 2014. When is your trip?