Oneworld Multi-Carrier Awards: What You Need To Know

American Airlines flies to an impressive 123 international destinations across 61 countries. However, American doesn’t fly to every international destination that travelers want to visit. So connecting between American Airlines and its Oneworld partner airlines is essential for flying to many international locations.

Not all airline loyalty programs let you combine multiple Oneworld airlines in the same award. However, some mileage programs have special Oneworld multi-carrier award charts.

The smartest way to book these awards is with American AAdvantage, British Airways Avios, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. Whether you want to visit Bali or Budapest — or both on the same trip — here's what you need to know about booking Oneworld multi-carrier awards with these airline loyalty programs.

» Learn more: Your guide to the Oneworld alliance

The easiest way to book Oneworld multi-carrier awards is using American Airlines AAdvantage miles. That's because American lets travelers combine awards from different airline partners in the same award without any limitation to the number of airline partners. You can also book awards on almost all of American's partners on its website.

The only limitation you may hit is AAdvantage's cap of three segments for award travel within the U.S. and Canada and four segments for all other travel. Besides that, the only limitation is your creativity.

Want to combine an American award with an Alaska award? That's easy. This option can come in handy when using Alaska awards to connect to American's new international flights out of Seattle — such as Seattle to Bangalore, India.

You don't even need to fly a segment on American. For example, you can fly from San Jose, California, to Seattle on Alaska Airlines, then connect to a Qatar Airways award to Doha.

Or combine Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and British Airways to fly from Bozeman, Montana, to Budapest, Hungary. A saver economy award on this route will cost you 22,500 AAdvantage miles each way during off-peak dates.

Earning AAdvantage miles

To take advantage of one of these redemption options, you'll need AAdvantage miles. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to earn these miles.

One way to earn AAdvantage miles is to transfer points from Marriott Bonvoy. Bonvoy points transfer to American at a 3:1 rate.

» Learn more: Which American Airlines credit card should you choose?

For most British Airways awards, awards are based on the distance of each flight segment. If you book a nonstop award from Denver to Miami, British Airways charges the price for the distance of the trip. However, if you connect in Dallas on the way, British Airways prices each flight separately and adds the two costs together — usually leading to a higher award price.

However, if you combine two or more Oneworld airlines on the same award ticket, British Airways uses a different award chart. Instead of basing the award cost on each flight segment, you'll pay a flat rate based on the total distance of the trip.

You may be able to save Avios by using this Oneworld multi-carrier award chart rather than the standard award pricing. For example, a business class award between 3,001 and 4,000 miles in distance costs 62,000 Avios in the standard award chart. However, you can fly up to 10,000 miles in distance — meaning potentially three flights in this distance band — for just 140,000 Avios.

There are a few downsides to using British Airways Oneworld multi-carrier awards. First, the rules are numerous, yet unpublished by British Airways. Some travel sites report successfully booking British multi-carrier award tickets with up to eight flight segments and multiple stopovers.

However, since you can't book these awards online, you'll need to call British Airways to price out and book these awards. And the agent might not be knowledgeable about the rules of this type of award.

» Learn more: The complete guide to the British Airways Avios program

Earning British Airways Avios

If you need more Avios to book a multi-carrier award, you're in luck. You can earn British Airways Avios through a myriad of ways. In addition to flying and British Airways credit cards, you can transfer points to British Airways Executive Club from the following programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Capital One Miles (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Chase Ultimate Rewards® (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio).

Like British Airways, Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles program uses a separate Oneworld Multi-Carrier Award Chart for award bookings that combine two or more Oneworld airlines.

When using the Asia Miles award chart, you're limited to only two Oneworld airlines in the same ticket if your itinerary doesn't include Cathay Pacific. However, if your itinerary includes a Cathay Pacific flight, you can book three or more Oneworld airlines in the same booking.

Maximize the Asia Miles Oneworld Multi-Carrier Awards chart by booking up to five stopovers, two transfers and two open jaws. The only limitations are that you can't book premium economy awards and your itinerary can't exceed 50,000 miles. Besides that, you can build as complex of an itinerary as you want.

Earning Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Although Asia Miles is a foreign program for many travelers, it's fairly easy to accumulate Asia Miles. You can transfer points to Asia Miles from four major transferable point programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Capital One Miles (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Citi ThankYou Points (1:1 transfer ratio).

• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 transfer ratio).

Learn more: A points collector’s guide to Cathay Pacific

The Japan Airlines Mileage Bank program also lets members book a combination of Oneworld airlines in the same award ticket. Like British Airways and Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines adds the total distance of the flights to determine the price of an award.

Japan Airlines Oneworld multi-carrier awards are about as generous as they get. Members can book up to eight flight segments and seven stopovers on the same award ticket. If you can book nonstop flights throughout your journey, you can potentially visit seven different destinations on the same ticket.

Earning Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles

The hardest part of taking advantage of Japan Airlines' sweet spots and partner award pricing is the difficulty in earning JAL miles. Japan Airlines is a transfer partner of only one major transferable program: Marriott Bonvoy.

With Marriott Bonvoy you can transfer to JAL at a 3:1 transfer ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for transferring 60,000 points.

Many Oneworld programs let members book multi-carrier awards. However, the award pricing for these awards may be different from the airline's standard award pricing. In many cases, this can open up the opportunity to book amazing multi-stop awards on several amazing airlines.