American Airlines adds online award booking for Royal Air Maroc
As reported by AwardWallet, American Airlines AAdvantage members can now book Royal Air Maroc award tickets online. American Airlines started offering reciprocal mileage earning and redemption on Royal Air Maroc shortly after the airline joined the Oneworld alliance in April, but award tickets had to be booked over the phone.
This change means that AAdvantage members can now skip the call center and book Royal Air Maroc award tickets from their computer. This is an overwhelmingly positive change that saves travelers time, especially during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, when airline call centers are experiencing massive hold times.
The addition of Royal Air Maroc means that AAdvantage members can now book flights on 20 partner airlines through the American website, up from just eight airlines at the beginning of 2018. This continues to make American's website one of the best for finding Oneworld award space.
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Pricing Royal Air Maroc award tickets
Royal Air Maroc is based in Casablanca (CMN), which American previously considered a part of Africa on its award chart.
Thankfully, American moved Morocco to the Europe award region in April, making award tickets on Royal Air Maroc less expensive.
This change also means that AAdvantage members can book connecting tickets to Europe through Casablanca and pay no additional miles. Previously, AAdvantage members had to book two separate tickets in order to connect to Europe through Casablanca, making for a far more expensive award ticket.
Here's a look at American's pricing from North America to Europe, including Casablanca:
- Economy Off-Peak: 22,500 miles one-way
- Economy Standard: 30,000 miles one-way
- Business Class: 57,500 miles one-way
Award taxes and fees are low too — one-way tickets from the U.S. to Casablanca awards have just $5.60 in associated taxes and fees. This makes Royal Air Maroc a great way to fly to Europe without paying the huge fuel surcharges attached to British Airways tickets.
We're seeing wide-open award space from Royal Air Maroc's U.S. gateways in Boston (BOS), New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Casablanca in late-2020. This may be worth considering if you're planning a post-coronavirus outbreak trip to Europe, but be sure to keep American's change and cancellation policies in mind when you book.
Related Reading: American and Alaska launch full reciprocal mileage earning
This change is good for Etihad bookings, too
One of the best parts of the Etihad Guest program is its partnership with Royal Air Maroc. This partnership was recently devalued, but you can still use just 22,000 Etihad Guest miles to fly from the U.S. to Morocco in economy class or 44,000 miles in business. This is one of the cheapest ways to cross the Atlantic with points and miles.
Until now, there hasn't been a way to find Royal Air Maroc award space online, so you had to call Etihad and have the phone representative find award space for you. Now with award space showing online, you can find Royal Air Maroc award space on AA.com before you call and speed up the booking process.
You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles and Citi ThankYou points to Etihad Guest.
Bottom line
It's great to see American Airlines add online Royal Air Maroc bookings so quickly. Not only are Royal Air Maroc award tickets a good use of AAdvantage miles, but it makes booking these tickets with Etihad Guest easier than ever.
Feature photo by Brendan Dorsey/The Points Guy
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