Trip Booking Report: First and Business Class SNA-DFW-MAD-AGP with AA Miles on American Airlines and Iberia

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Trip Booking Report: First and Business Class SNA-DFW-MAD-AGP with AA Miles on American Airlines and Iberia

This is my second installment of my Trip Booking Report series, where I show you how to find and book award flights.  My first booking was Trip Booking Report: LAX-DUS-BCN with AA Miles and MAD-MUC-LAX with UA Miles.

In this installment, I will *represent* how I booked 2 business class flights for my parents from Orange County (SNA) to Malaga, Spain (AGP) with American Airlines miles (dates and times have been changed to protect the innocent my parents).  Looking at AA’s award calendar for March shows plenty of business class seats from Orange County  to Madrid.

AA SNA-MAD Award Space Calendar View

I found seats on a very good flight from SNA-DFW on AA First Class with a 3.5 hour connection in Dallas (hitting up the AMEX Centurion Lounge) before boarding their 6pm flight from DFW-MAD on AA Business Class.

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Biz Class

The price is a steal.  50,000 AA miles and only $5 in taxes and fees.  You can’t beat that!

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Biz Class Award Price

Since they wanted to add an Iberia flight from MAD-AGP, I went through the booking process until I got to payment screen.  At this point, you can hold the reservation for up to 5 days.  That should be enough time to find a decent flight (or move SPG points to AA, if necessary).

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Hold Award

Your AA held reservation gets its own AA Record Locator Number, which you can give to AA phone reps to make any necessary changes over the phone.

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Hold Award Record Locator

You will also receive an email from AA with details about your held reservation.

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Hold Email

At this point, I wanted to find a flight from MAD-AGP.  Looking on ITA Matrix (beginner guide), I see the perfect flight on Iberia for only $54.

ITA MAD-AGP Flights

I wanted to see if there was award space for that flight, so I went to the British Airways website and looked for the flight.  For more info on booking BA flights, read this post.

BA Award Search MAD-AGP

The results look good.  There is award space on the 11:40am flight in economy from MAD-AGP.  There is also business class space on the 5:55pm flight.

BA Award Search MAD-AGP Results

I don’t care about the price of the award flight.  Since all the Avios cash prices would cost a lot more than $54.  I only care about the flight information and the fact that there is award space open on this flight.

BA MAD-AGP Avios Prices

To add the above Iberia flight onto my held AA reservation, I called the AA reservation department at 1-800-433-7300.  After giving the AA Record Locator Number to the agent, she informed me that I would have to be transferred to the international ticketing department.  After a short hold, I was talking to the friendly, and very experienced, representative.

AA Reservations Number

I gave him my AA Record Locator Number and told him I wanted to add an Iberia award flight after my flight to Madrid.

AA SNA-DFW-MAD Hold Award Record Locator

I gave him the destination airport code and he found the above 11:40am flight.  He told me that since the award was not bookable online, there would be a $35 award booking fee per person plus any additional taxes.  I asked for a fee waiver, but he said it was not possible for Iberia awards.  Then he told me that the connection time was only 80 minutes.  Iberia requires a minimum connection time of 90 minutes.  He said the system wouldn’t let him book the earlier flight, but he reserved 2 business class seats on the 5:55pm flight.  He mentioned that if the AA flight to Madrid arrived 10 minutes earlier or the Iberia flight to Malaga left 10 minute later, I should call back and try to get seats on the 11:40am flight.  Since the trip is 7-8 months out, I am not too worried.  Schedule changes happen frequently, especially on long haul international flights.

He confirmed the dates, times, flight numbers, and we proceeded to the payment section. He told me that there were no fees to change the dates or times of the award flights, but if I wanted to cancel the reservation and redeposit the miles, it would cost $175.  Since Iberia is somewhat old school, he said that the confirmation email from Iberia might take a few days, but to expect it on Sunday or Monday.  I thanked him for all his help and we were done.  I’ve never had an easier experience making changes to a held reservation.  So now we wait.  Hopefully there will be a schedule change soon.  Fingers crossed.

GC Map SNA-DFW-MAD-AGP

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!


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11 thoughts on “Trip Booking Report: First and Business Class SNA-DFW-MAD-AGP with AA Miles on American Airlines and Iberia

    1. Grant

      There’s no way you could have read the whole post that fast! Slow down, drink some wine, and enjoy the red rectangles on the white background… Have a great weekend!

      Reply
  1. chrisflyer

    Great report Grant. I guess you’d lose flexibility to change it later, but I almost think i’d rather just buy the Iberia flight for $54 than pay the $35 fee to book it.

    Reply
    1. Grant

      It is a toss up, but I got business class seats on the short Iberia flight with the *possibility* of getting on an earlier flight. It’s too early to tell which was the better option.

      Reply
    1. Grant

      The Iberia flight is included in the 50,000 AA miles price. The taxes, fees, and phone booking expense for the Iberia flight are added to AA’s $5 taxes/fees.

      Reply
  2. Gisele

    Hello Grant,
    I’ve been lurking for a while and soaking up all this great info but this is my first time posting.
    Since I’m a newbie to this, I don’t quite understand how you got the Iberia flight to be included with the original 50K miles without accruing additional ones. Is that normal procedure? Would you please break that portion of your “trip report” even further down, so someone like me can better understand?

    Personally, sometimes I fly to São Paulo, Brazil using AA. But then I get on a TAM flight which is also a Oneworld partner to reach my final destination but I don’t get those tickets together. So, I’m very interested in knowing how this works. Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Grant

      Good morning Gisele, that is a very good question. It all depends on the award chart and airlines partner. Since American Airlines and Iberia are in the OneWorld Alliance, they are able to book awards on each other’s airline. Since the AA award chart says it is 50,000 AA miles for a one way business class ticket from the Continental United States to Europe, the price of the award stays the same. If instead of flying to Malaga, if I flew to the Middle East or Africa, then the award would have cost more AA miles.

      Some OneWorld partners cannot be booked on AA.com, so you will have to call AA and have the representative add those flights to your reservation. Let me know if you have any other questions.

      Reply
    1. Grant

      It depends if it is a one way or round trip award. You can make several stops as long as they are under 24 hours. I’m not an expert on award rules though.

      Reply
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