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Using your AA miles can be difficult, while occasionally there is great space available on AA metal, more often than, recently, AA award availability has been tough to come by. Because of that, looking for awards with partner airlines, especially transatlantic, has been a better option. AA has now added Iberia awards to the list of partners that you can search and book online.
Sadly, quite a few of AA’s Oneworld partners are still not bookable online. Currently, you have to book the following airlines via phone:
- Cathay Pacific
- Japan Airlines
- LATAM
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qatar
- S7
- SriLankan
If you do book an award over the phone with one of the above, you won’t be charged the phone booking fee, since they are not bookable online.
Iberia offers one of the best options for transatlantic travel since it has a decent Business Class product and does not impose huge carrier fees, unlike its sister airline British Airways. At the moment award space seems a little limited, and there seem to be some IT gremlins with the search functionality, but in the long run, this should be smoothed out, and Iberia generally releases a decent amount of partner award space.
The AA search feature is excellent and is now the best online option for searching for Iberia space. This is because you can search 11 months in advance, and you can use a month-long search feature.
Overall
While there sometimes are some sweet spots on AA award space, there is limited availability. Any move that increases your options for using your AA miles is to be welcomed. Ultimately finding and using AA miles has its good points and its bad points, and the good points just got a little better.
Source: One Mile at a Time
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This is news to me, so thanks for the heads up. Iberia has quite a nice product on the TATL flights, so I might consider using them in the future.
If IB brings new or more frequent routes this is a good move.
I hope AA adds AY to its online booking for alternative transatlantic routes. And CX for pacific and asian routes.
Good news !! This will come handy for my trip to Europe next year
Great news. Makes it easier to redeem American miles.
I will use Iberia over AA any day ! Good deal !
Does anyone know how to utilize multi-city search to “guide” AA engine to find more exotic routings?
I have not flown Iberia before but looking to go to Spain so this should come in handy.
I hope AA adds some of the other OW airlines to its online booking engine as well.
I think this is really good news. Sitting on a ton of AA miles so any expansion in the chance to use them pleases me.
More partners online is always good.
This is a very good news.
Choosing Iberia instead of British Airways allows to save a lot in fuel surcharge.
So I have booked IB before and had them just cancel tickets and send no notifications about it. I just happen to catch it. Now they were coach tickets. Is this something that is normal for them? Is booking first better? Would I be relatively safe booking that instead? It does make we worried about booking them. I see that some people said they have never had an issue. Since IB is part of American’s alliance, how safe is it that my ticket wouldn’t be canceled or easier to fix if IB canceled? What are the experiences you’ve had, Howie?
Sometimes airline frequent flyer programs seem to make things difficult to use for partner airlines. I suppose they really want you to use points on their own planes. Not making things available online is perhaps an easy way of doing this.
This is good news. Surely in 2017, all partners should be available online?
Far from it unfortunately 🙁
I know – AA is not only, or even the worst offender for this. I just find it ridiculous that in 2017, there cannot be more integration.
Iberia is better than people actually think..Sure, its not SQ, but hey, they are cheaper – so all fine
I agree that being able to book online is a great improvement, but award availability has been so limited lately!
Limited? Almost non-existent!
You will think that in the 21st century this should have been done, but no, it takes that long to accomplish this. Still, one more carrier added without going through hoops. Thanks.
why did it take so long to include IB in the online list? why does it take so long to include the other airlines????
We can only assume technology limitations and no business need to complete the task.
technology limitation shouldn’t exist in this century anymore. i think it is something else, more malicious…
I would strongly disagree with your comment here. Sure, technology can be built, but it isn’t free or necessarily easy.
Being able to search and book online is a great improvement. I really don’t like having to book over the phone.
This is great information. I have also heard that Iberia’s business class is a good product though it might be aircraft specific. If they have only some of their fleet updates, those flying on older aircraft might have a very different experience.
This is a welcomed change! Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
I have not booked award tickets with any airliness which add fuel surcharges. I am sitting on a lot of AA miles which are extremely difficult to use due to lack of saver awards. I cannot believe they keep sending me emails to buy their miles.
Best news all day! Won’t have to call up anymore every time I need a TLV-MAD. IB availability has been pretty good, and the service is totally fine. They have comfortable normal business seats on this route.
Best thing I have seen AA add to award availability booking post merger.
Very rarely would it make sense to book IB rewards using AA miles instead of Avios, but I suppose this is good news for some.
Agreed that more partners are better, but award space is so limited. My advice is to look as far in advance as you can when planning trips and book as soon as you see any award availability, because it disappears quickly (if it’s made available at all in the first place).
I wonder if IB availability on AA vs. IB websites is similar/identical?
Regardless, a nice improvement (although it probably hurts overall IB availability now, as it opens up those seats to folks who previously would not have been aware of the option).
They’ll definitely be more space available on Iberia’s site, that is available to their members, but they’ll charge a premium for those seats.
AA is down to the level of United in terms of service now. This is one of the first good things that they have done recently.
I’ve recently had several flights on AA and I was happy with the service.
I did not realize that it would be better to use these other airlines to book AA award flights. I’ll have to pick up the phone and give it a try.
Does Iberia still have some YQ attached to it?
You mentioned it doesn’t have huge YQ, and it sounds like it is not zero.
Just curious…thanks!
It does but significantly less than you’ll pay with BA.
Sweet, an ‘enhancement’ that is actually positive! Thank you for the heads-up!
Too bad it’s Iberia Airlines…. they get terrible reviews across the board. Book at your own risk
I personally can’t agree with that generalization based on my flight experiences.
In my experience Iberia have a good reputation for a solid product in E or J!
That’s not true. I flew them a couple of times in last 5 years and it was at the very least not worse than US-based airlines
I have only ever flown them on short haul and I can’t say they were any better or any worse than any other airline.
Thank you. Going to check this option for London trip. Maybe 1 day stopover in Madrid can sweeten longer flight…