American Airlines miles can now be redeemed for travel on Brazilian airline TAM

oneworld airline LAN merged with Brazil-based Star Alliance airline TAM, and there was initially speculation about which alliance the combined carrier would wind up with (or wondering whether the standalone entities, owned by the same holding company, could remain in separate alliances).

It became fairly clear or at least likely early on that the winner would be oneworld, which is already the strongest alliance between North and South America for scoring award availability.

And one more move in that direction, though TAM remains in Star, is that American AAdvantage introduced a relationship with TAM — first for accruing American miles by flying on TAM, and now the ability to redeem American miles for travel on TAM.

TAM flies from New York JFK, Miami and Orlando to Sao Paulo and from New York JFK and Miami to Rio De Janeiro and has an extensive Brazil-based route network within South America. I do not often, however, see premium cabin award availability on TAM between the US and Brazil.

American Has Introduced Online Award Booking for oneworld Partner Royal Jordanian

American has added the functionality to book awards on its partner Royal Jordanian through its website. That makes it easier to find award space without relying on American’s agents, although ‘in the know’ frequent flyers could already find the award space themselves by searching for award travel on the Qantas and also the British Airways websites.

Having the functionality online is additionally good because it means you don’t have to speak to an agent to book the space, and do not have to pay te telephone ticketing fee to do so (which is of course waived for American’s 100,000 mile flyers, but is not as easily waived “because you cannot book it online” as such situations are with other airlines like United and US Airways).

Currently the partner awards supported on the American website are:

• Air Berlin
  
• Alaska Airlines
  
• British Airways
  
• Finnair
  
• Hawaiian Airlines
  
• Royal Jordanian
  
• Qantas

Business class award availability on Royal Jordanian is really quite good.

They fly to Amman, Jordan from Chicago (five times weekly), Detroit (twice weekly), New York JFK (four times weekly). For US residents they’re useful for traveling not just to the Middle East but also to India and Pakistan.

American’s routing rules do not allow, however, travel via the Middle East to Asia or Africa on a single award.

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