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Congrats! You found award availability for some faraway destinations on one of American Airlines' partner airlines. Sure, it's not nonstop, but you found award availability on American Airlines to get you to the international gateway. Even better, since the itinerary involves a partner, the award is priced based on American Airlines' incredible partner award chart.
There's just one major issue: You can't book the award online. No matter what you do, what card information you enter, the personal details you tweak, whether or not you selected seats, the booking just won't go through.
If this sounds familiar, first of all, know that it's not just you.
This issue has plagued American Airlines for the better part of a year. Each time I call to book a ticket, the American Airlines phone agent confirms this is a known and reported error. And yet, there's been no fix. That leaves me wondering if this “bug” is intentional and if American Airlines isn't interested in fixing it.
Regardless, here's the solution that I use to snag these awards.
Which AAdvantage® Awards Are Affected
First, let's set the scope — in case you didn't find this article on Google after running into a similar situation.
This bug doesn't affect dynamically priced awards solely on American Airlines. (AA will gladly sell you those awards all day, any day.) It also doesn't affect awards that are solely on partners — such as an award involving a domestic leg on Alaska Airlines connecting to an overseas award on Japan Airlines. It doesn't even seem to affect awards combining American and Alaska.
Instead, this bug seems to be specific to awards that combine an award on American Airlines with an international partner.
Example itinerary
I ran into this issue yet again this week when trying to book an AAdvantage® award from the U.S. to Japan on a combination of American Airlines and Japan Airlines. As the award involves a partner, the award prices at the published AAdvantage® partner award pricing:
- Economy: 35,000 miles
- Premium economy: 50,000 miles
- Business class: 60,000 miles
Any time I get the chance to fly 18+ hours — mostly in JAL business class — for just 60,000 AA miles, I'm taking that option! It's truly one of the best American Airlines sweet spots.
But after selecting that result, confirming the itinerary details, entering passenger details, declining the Mileage Multiplier, selecting seats, entering payment information, and agreeing to the terms and conditions, refund policy, and conditions of carriage, I click “Pay Now” … just to have that final Review and Pay page reload without any indication of an error.
No matter how many times I confirm the payment details or even try a different payment method, the result is the same. The page simply reloads again without booking the award or giving a reason for failing.
At this point, some travelers might assume there's an issue with their account or payment method, while experienced award travelers may assume it was phantom availability.
But don't click away from that checkout page quite yet.
My “Trick” to Booking These Partner AAdvantage® Awards
My solution isn't profound, but it's the best way I've found to book these awards: Place the award on hold and then call to book.
Even though these awards error out when you try to purchase them online, you can still successfully place the award on hold online. Doing so will save all of the information you've entered so far and snag the award space from inventory. There's no cost to place a hold, and no credit card info is required — even for members without AAdvantage® elite status.
Depending on how long you have before departure, you'll get up to five days to ticket the award. That gives you plenty of time to call and wait out American Airlines' consistently long wait for a phone agent — without having to sweat about potentially losing the award availability while you wait.
How long can I hold an AAdvantage award? American Airlines will let you hold an AAdvantage award for five days if you book at least 15 days before departure. From 1-14 days to departure, you get a 1-day hold. Even when booking within 24 hours of departure, American Airlines will let you hold an award until two hours before departure.
Once you get an agent, the call should go quicker since you already entered your personal information and potentially even selected seats online. Just give the booking reference number (also known as a “PNR”) to the phone agent, and they can pick up where you left off online.
Related: A Complete Guide to American Airlines Award Travel Rules
Bottom Line
American Airlines AAdvantage® miles remain one of the most valuable airline currencies around, mostly due to a partner award chart unchanged since spring 2016 (*knocks on nearest wood*). However, unnecessary technological roadblocks and reduced access to certain partner awards (e.g., Qatar Qsuites) have effectively devalued the program.
Hopefully, this tip helps you get around one of these technological roadblocks to redeem your miles for outsized value.
Got a better solution? I'm all ears. Hit us up in the comment section below.
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