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Earning miles from an award ticket

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Earning miles from an award ticket

It never hurts to add your frequent flier number to an award ticket. What do I mean exactly? Say you’re using British Airways Avios to fly on American Airlines. Your Avios number would normally be added and the benefits associated with that status would be reflected as well. But, what happens if you’re Executive Platinum on American? You want those benefits right? Well you can add that number to the ticket. Not only will you get those perks, but in the event that there is a schedule change or a computer glitch, you may even earn American Aadvantage miles from that award ticket. Pretty dope, right? I just benefitted from a computer glitch when I flew from Abu Dhabi through London to Nice, France and ended up earning miles from an award ticket booked with American Aadvantage.

I flew Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad’s Business Studio, then from London to Nice on British Airways in Club Europe. All booked with American miles.

This was all booked with points. I shouldn’t have earned anything from the booking, but lo and behold….I did. I not only earned redeemable miles, but EQM and EQD as well. Pretty sweet huh. Never hurts.

Earning miles from an award ticket

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5 Comments

  • […] Earning miles from an award ticket […]

  • Chris June 13, 2017

    Hey Miles! Just curious, you said you booked with AAdvantage, what program did you earn the miles in? And also was it due to schedule change or did your flight go as planned? I have an award hkg-lhr in business booked thru AAdvantage on American metal and would love to try to get Avios or even better the tier points for it.

    • Miles June 13, 2017

      Hey Chris – I actually earned the miles on AA – weird glitch. I have had it before where I booked with Avios, added my AA number, and earned AA off it. You can call into AA and change the Aadvantage number on the itinerary to your Executive Club number…earning miles off award tickets isn’t something that happens very often, but when it does, it’s worth the minimal effort. The bigger benefit is having your status then on the itinerary. For instance – If you’re OW Emerald, but you booked with Avios on AA, it won’t show up until your AA account is added, etc.

      • Chris June 13, 2017

        Thank you for the info on how to add my BA number, I always wondered how that was done. Speaking of glitches, I think I commented about being rebooked into Y during the BA fiasco and earning the corresponding tier points and Avios, well a couple days ago I received the Avios and tier points for the CDG-LHR leg that originally was my first segment (which was cancelled) before I got rebooked direct to BOS. Glitch or did I get credit because it was cancelled?

        • Miles June 13, 2017

          Yes, I remember! So my experience with BA is that when there is a schedule issue and you’re rebooked the fare bucket changes – this happened to me last year when I was crediting to AA and booked into I. They cancelled my flight and I was rebooked into J and earned the corresponding EQM, RDM. It also happened to me earlier this year on AA during a storm and I could voluntarily change my flight. Did so on the website and was bumped to a Y fare bucket.

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