American Airlines has been impressing me recently by adding a variety of partners to its online award search tool. In the past I’ve written about how I thought that British Airways was the king for oneworld award searches, but it may have just been dethroned. Lets take a look at the partners you can and cant book between the two airlines.
| AA/BA Partners | OneWorld Partner | Award Bookable Via AA.com | Award Bookable via BA.com |
| Aer Lingus | X | X | ✓* |
| Air Tahiti Nui | X | ✓* | X |
| Air Italy | X | X | ✓* |
| Alaska Airlines | X | ✓* | X |
| British Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cape Air | X | X* | X |
| Cathay Pacific | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Etihad Airways | X | X* | X |
| Fiji Airways | Sort Of | ✓ | ✓ |
| Finnair | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | X | ✓* | X |
| Iberia | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Japan Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| LATAM Airlines | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Malaysia Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Qantas | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Qatar Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Royal Jordanian Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| S7 Airlines | ✓ | X | ✓ |
| Seaborne Airlines | X | X* | X |
| SriLankan Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
As you can see, American has access to a variety of different partners that aren’t a part of oneworld, but are lacking on 2 key fronts from British Airways; as you still can’t book awards on Cathay Pacific or LATAM on AA.com. If American airlines were able to add 1 of those 2 partners, they would be the go-to when looking for oneworld awards seats.
A part of me loves that they are being proactive in adding these partners to their online search, but adding partners to the online search does hurt the savvy traveller who knows where to look for award space. Regardless, I can’t say I’ve seen significantly less partner award availability since their last round of additions, so maybe my concerns are unwarranted.
Japan Airlines Business Class
Great Uses Of Miles On JAL
Japan Airlines is a great redemption partner, whether you’re using American Airlines miles or Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
If you are planning on using your American Airlines miles you can expect to pay the following rates per one way:
- US to Japan or Korea — 35,000 miles economy, 60,000 miles business, 80,000 miles first
- US to Asia 2 — 37,500 miles economy, 70,000 miles business, 110,000 miles first
When using your Alaska Mileage Plan miles like Sam did a few months ago, you can expect to pay these rates:
To see Sam’s full review of Japan Airlines first class check out his video below:
JL flights with Alaska miles are of excellent value. I can pull off stuff like CGK-NRT-SIN with a stopover in NRT for 25k AS miles in J. In fact, I am doing that routing in September with a 5 day stop in Tokyo.
Exactly, this is currently a sweet spot on Alaska.
I tried this today for Sfo to hnd in many dates and the Hal flights are not showing. The aa flights show up at varying levels bet often 240000 miles one way for business!!!