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American Airlines Award Travel
Book American Airlines Awards Like a Pro:
- Part 1 – Introduction
- Part 2 – Types of Awards & Charts
- Part 3 – How Much Will My Award Cost?
- Part 4 – One-way, Openjaws, Stopovers, & North American Gateway Cities
- Part 5 – American Airlines, Alaska Airlines & Hawaiian Airlines for North American awards
- Part 6 – International Award Routes
- Part 7 – Finding British Airways Award Availability
- Part 8 – Finding Cathay Pacific Award Availability using the British Airways website
- Part 8b – Finding Cathay Pacific Award Availability using Japan Airlines’ Website
- Part 9 – Finding Iberia (& European) Award Availability using the Qantas Website
- Part 10 – Finding LAN & South American Award Availability
- Part 11 – Finding Air Tahiti Nui Awards to France & French Polynesia with FlightStats
- Part 11b – Finding Air Tahiti Nui Awards to France & French Polynesia with ExpertFlyer
Introduction
American Airlines miles are among the easiest to redeem for both domestic and international trips and will let you have lots of Big Travel with Small Money.
You can book 1-way awards which gives you terrific flexibility (albeit at the cost of a stopover except at the North American gateway city on international itineraries). For example, you can fly to Europe using American Airlines miles and fly back using United miles. And you can redeem American Airlines miles, but fly on American Airline partner airlines.
In my experience American Airlines has some of the best telephone booking agents and some of the best availability for award seats for both domestic and international destinations.
I can usually complete my American Airlines award travel booking in about 7 minutes with American Airlines compared to the hours it could take with, say, US Airways.
Oneworld and other airline partners
More importantly, you can redeem your American Airline miles for travel not only on American Airlines (this is very important!), but ALSO on Oneworld partner airlines and other (non-Oneworld) partner airlines which have partnered with American Airlines.
The oneworld alliance is a group of 12 airlines (American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian & S7) which together fly to over 750 destinations. Air Berlin, Kingfisher, and Malaysia Airlines are scheduled to become oneworld airlines soon.
You can redeem American Airlines miles for travel on Oneworld alliance partner airlines
American Airline has also partnered with other airlines (outside of the oneworld alliance) such as Jet Airways and Hawaiian Airlines. You can also redeem your American Airline miles for travel on these other partner airlines!
You can redeem American Airlines miles for travel on other airline partners
This is a BIG deal (no, it is a huge deal!), because between Oneworld and other partner airlines you can use your American Airline miles to fly to places where American Airlines doesn’t fly themselves.
Unfortunately, you have to call American Airlines (NOT the partner airline) and pay a $25 telephone booking fee to book most partner airlines, but it is well worth it. I’ll cover how to find award availability on partner airlines in future posts so that you don’t have to rely on the phone agent to find the seats you want.
Where can American Airline miles take me?
Almost anywhere in the world!
Your American Airline miles can take you to places where:
1) American Airlines fly themself
2) American Airlines’ oneworld partners fly
3) American Airlines’ other partner airlines fly
The easiest way to see where American Airlines and their oneworld partners fly to is to use the oneworld online tool.
A more time consuming, but more thorough way, is to individually visit the oneworld partner and other partner airline’s websites and see where they fly.
Use miles to fly where American Airlines doesn’t
Let’s take 2 out of many possible examples:
1. Bangkok, Thailand. You can redeem American Airlines miles for travel on Cathay Pacific from the US to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Bangkok.
American Airlines doesn’t fly its own planes (sometimes referred to as “AA metal”) from the US to Thailand, but you CAN redeem American Airline miles to fly on Cathay Pacific (a Oneworld partner) from the US to Hong Kong and then connect to another Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok.
You won’t be able to search for Cathay Pacific award seats online at AA.com, because you can only search for flights on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines online at AA.com. However, there are plans to make more award bookings via partner airlines available online.
Currently, you have to call American Airlines (NOT the partner airline) to book awards on partner airlines such as Cathay Pacific.
But don’t worry! I’ll show you how to find availability on many of American Airlines’ partners before you call and we’ll walk through how to call American Airlines and get the agent to book your $15,000 First Class seat using miles and only a few hundred dollars in taxes & fees.
2. Anchorage, Alaska. American Airlines has limited service on its own flights to Alaska. But since Alaska Airlines is an American Airlines partner airline, you can use your American Airlines miles to fly on Alaska Airlines routes to Alaska.
For example, American Airlines doesn’t fly from Seattle to Anchorage directly. You would normally have to fly from Seattle to Dallas and then from Dallas to Anchorage during the months when American Airlines flies from Dallas to Anchorage.
But because Alaska Airlines (an American Airlines partner) flies from Seattle to Anchorage you can redeem your American Airline miles, but fly on an Alaska Airlines plane from Seattle to Anchorage.
Even better, you can book this ticket online at AA.com because Alaska Airline is the only partner airline which can currently be booked online.
To be continued…(next post: award types, fees, and rules)
I have earned and redeemed millions of airline miles and hotel points to travel the world for free. Now I'm blogging to help more people do the same! 
Do you find it hard to find decent routing out of MCI with AA? I went forward with the AA credit card bonuses and have yet to use them, instead favoring United and Delta to the Caribbean, Central America and Hawaii. Only Hawaii had a flight schedule that wasn’t an overnight due to the lack of hub usage out of MCI but it’s not at a low-level award very often. MCI only has ORD and DFW as hubs, so if the destination is served by LAX or MIA, we can’t get to the appropriate hub early enough in the morning to catch the flight for that day to our destination and would need to stay the night in an airport hotel, taking a day off our trip. Even when we can get the flight through DFW south, those flights are never, and I mean never at the low-level award rate in my experience.
Would you recommend specific destinations for use of these miles? Maybe I’m just not using them for the routes they were intended or best suited for.
HI, I wonder if it’s possible for you to put a “print” button on your posts so we can keep some of your how to do it blogs for future reference. I’m an older guy and tend to lose those things when I try to save them on my computer.
Very nice report! One of your most useful in a while!
I’ve also found the AA booking agents to be great most of the time. Some have needed coaching on what routes to look up, others will go the extra step.
It just makes my day brighter since I have been waiting for this series
Thanks Daraius. I am looking forward to “I’ll show you how to find availability on many of American Airlines’ partners before you call…”
Good and timely post for me personally! I have moved you up my list of everyday (okay twice/day ;0) checks! Thanks and keep up the good work!
As an aside, any thoughts on chase offering any big offers this year? (75 or 100K) for united card?
Thank you so much for this post! I’m so excited for the next installment! I was able to get 150k miles during the last citi aa cards promo using your 2 browser trick! My husband and I are planning to go to Europe for our delayed honeymoon this year and this will be very helpful!
Booking thriugh AA, using AA miles, can you book awards more than 330 days out?
Can you book 354 days out like BA?
@JR – I find it pretty easy to get award seats from Kansas City to Chicago, but I have to look for only 2 seats at a time. AA has 7 flights to Chicago and 8 flights daily to Dallas, so I’m almost always able to get seats to those hubs. But you’re right – it is much harder if the AA flight leaves from Los Angeles or Miami. AA miles are great (in my experience) for flights to South America, to Europe either on AA or BA (fuel surcharges on BA), to Asia via Cathay or Japan Airlines. You may need to overnight, but AA miles can be used from Kansas City. I agree that Delta and United do have much better options from Kansas City to the destinations you suggested!
@allen – Sorry about that. I love to print out articles too! This isn’t intuitive, but if you click the orange “share” button at the start of each post, you’ll see a printer icon which will print the post. I don’t know how to make a printer icon appear, but am hoping that readers can help!
@Michael W. – Glad you like it!
@Nguyen – Coming up!
@deedee – That’s an honor – thank you! I rarely post more than once a day, but the comments on the posts are very valuable! I haven’t heard of any mega offer for the United card.
@Cheska – It is pretty easy to get to Europe using AA miles, but may not be worth it in coach if you fly British Airways because of their high taxes and fees. Stay tuned for more!
@Jim – Unfortunately not, and that’s an issue when other partners have already opened up their award seats.
You can also find a ton of detailed information on using aadvantage miles in this article by Ben of OneMileataTime on travelsort. You can find links to more excellent articles on the Booking Tips page of frequentflyerpost.
Daraius, Great topic and great post!! I’m looking at options to get to Rome using your tips. I’m finding options much closer to what I want thanks to you!!
I’m not very familiar with AA miles but like many picked up a bunch with the credit cards. I currently have 215K miles. Usually I prefer trips to central Europe (Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, etc.). I got an email recently where I can buy AA miles and get bonus miles. Normally I wouldn’t buy any but if for a few hundred dollars I can bump myself up from business to first class it would be worth it. So am I reading the award chart correctly and that 125K miles would get first class R/T ticket per person?
Thanks.
Since we’re technically on the topic of AA, I have a quick question. I just did the two browser AA trick and got two AA cards. They come with club passes if I make a purchase from AA. Are the club passes just for me or could I give one to a friend. Also, what’s the cheapest thing I can buy from them to get the passes? Thanks so much. Love this site.
Perfect timing! I just racked up a ton of AA miles for myself and my family, and am looking to book a trip in March/April. I’ve never booked award travel before and am desperate for guidance.
@FrequentFlyerPost - Thanks for compiling the award booking articles!
@Melissa – Glad it helped.
@rich (arizona) - Using miles to upgrade is usually not worth it since you can use 100K or 125K miles to fly to Europe in First Class.
@John – I just got my lounge passes with the business card and they don’t have my name or AA number printed on them so anyone could use them. I don’t believe that you have to buy anything to get the lounge passes, but do have to make a small American Airlines purchase to get the $150 statement credit.
@Ariana – Award travel is tricky at 1st and it is hard to get award seats for more than 2 people, but you should be able to go most places if you’re flexible.
Daraius,
I do believe you can build in one stopover on a one-way AA award ticket. I’ve done it flying from Hong Kong back to the East Coast with a stopover in Vancouver. Although the agent specified that the stopover had to be in a North American gateway city.
Although I do have one question for you, if you book in the (I) or international business class can you be assigned “first class” on the domestic leg without an increase in overall miles cost? For example, a 55,000 mile cost for a one way from Asia back to a US city in business class.
@Charles – You’re right about the stopover at the North American gateway city. I’ve updated the post to be clearer about that.. If you redeem for an international business class itinerary, you can sit in First Class on the domestic legs.
What a great article – thanks for posting. I have 180k AA miles and just purchased 4 coach tickets on Jet Airways to India (very low price and went with purchase instead of redeeming miles). Now after purchasing the tickets, I am wondering if it would be possible to use those AA miles to upgrade the tickets to Business or First. Would it even be worth it or just save the miles for something else? Also, do you know if I could use the free AA lounge passes in EWR or BOM during my trip? I had forgotten about the $150 statement credit – what’s a good way to buy some small item from American Airlines? I look forward to the next article.
Actually I was asking if it made sense to purchase AA miles to increase my balance from 216K to 250K in order to get two 1st class tickets vs. only being able to get two business class tickets (since I only have 216K miles).
AA sent me an email where I can buy 40K miles and get an extra 12.5K miles. Not a great deal but for ~$400 I would be able to get two first class tickets vs. two business tickets. That is probably worth the $400.
Thanks
@Ned – Unfortunately, you can’t use AA miles to upgrade flights on Jet Airways. You can use your free lounge passes wherever there is an Admiral’s Club lounge. There is a lounge in Newark, but not in Mumbai. I bought a gift card from AA online, but still haven’t received my statement credit.
@rich (arizona) – Buying miles to top off for an award makes sense, but not otherwise (unless you regularly buy business or first class tickets). Also note that you will have to pay high fees if you redeem AA miles for travel to Europe via British Airways. I usually check to see that there is award availability before buying miles, but $400 to get First Class seats over business class seats may be worth it!
@Rich(Arizona)
The 40k AA miles plus bonus miles doesn’t cost $400 it costs $1,100. I got the same email and thought that it wasn’t worth the spend for an additional 40,ooo plus 15k miles.
Thanks Daraius for another great post. I am new to this. I was able to earn 150K AA in 2011 (thx to you!) now I am trying to figure out how to spend them. I live in Honolulu (HNL) and I want to travel to Asia (exampe: japan, HKG) and Europe (2 separate trips)…how can I book it so I’d use the least AA points (i.e. 25K
Economy MileSAAver Off Peak) so I can explore more parts of the world. I tried the AA reservation site from HNL to NRT or HND but it is routing me thru DFW or LAX….there must be a way to get direct from HNL to NRT or HND. As far as Europe trip search, AA is routing me with multiple long stops or get in at 10p then out at 8am crazy hours….Thanks so much for your help!! Look forwarding to your future posts!!
@corinne – Thanks for helping out.
@Lee – If you search online, you get only American Airline and Alaska Airline options. Japan Airlines flies from Hawaii to Japan, but you have to call AA to book those awards. You can search for award availability either through the Cathay Pacific, British Airways, or JAL website. Europe is going to be tough, b/c it really is a long way from Hawaii to the mainland US and from the US to Europe!
American also doesn’t go to Tel Aviv. I am currently in NY on a rewards ticket from Tel Aviv. I booked EL AL to Paris and American to JFK. The reps at American are so helpful and quick! I couldn’t believe how quick it took to book the reward ticket!
Also take note that Etihad is a great way to fly to India from JFK or ORD using AA miles.
@ DealsSeeker – Hope you’re having a nice trip!
@Jason – You’re right – that’s a great use of AA miles to India and saves on the BA fuel surcharges if you travel from London to India on British Airways.
I am super excited for this series as I am going to be booking tickets within 6 weeks for a trip to Japan next year! I want to fly in F on Cathay (2 pax) to check it out in all of it’s glory!
@Katie - It will be a long series, but I’ll try and complete it in the next 2 weeks. I wouldn’t reccomend Cathay to Japan, because it is much longer to fly to Hong Kong and then go to Japan. You could fly directly on Japan Airlines or American Airlines to Tokyo. Or visit Hong Kong and Japan!
@Daraius and @Katie,
Just my two cents, from my own experience JAL Japan Airlines stands MILES and MILES away from Cathay F Super awesome service, I’m talking from my own personal experience, if you don’t mind the extra hours flying to HKG by all means Fly Cathay First. I did it and I have no words for Cathay F product.
Hi Daraius, Need your advise around how can I save for excess luggage in the airline? I’ve 50K AA miles, 50K United etc. I would like to carry LCD TV from US to Seattle. Most flights allows only 23KG and has size restriction so; do you know good way to consider flight, or use miles effectively ?
@Mehul – If you have elite status or are traveling in first or business class (even using miles) you should be able to avoid paying the baggage fee (as long as it is within restrictions).
Mehul: It might be cheaper to send it Fedex if you don’t mind shipping it. The baggage fees can get excessive quickly. You can calculate pricing at the Fedex.com site provided you can weigh and measure the item with a tape measure.
Great information. Unfortunately, I have more BA miles than AA. Can I use BA miles to pay for a flight on American?
@Ken – Great idea!
@Patty – You can use BA miles for a flight on American. BA has a distance based award chart, so sometimes the flight will cost fewer miles than AA or sometimes it will cost more miles. I’ll do a series on BA miles and how to use them next.
That’s great – thanks
Mexicana ceased opertions in Aug/2010. Why Oneworld still keeps it listed as a partner?
I understand that Star Alliance still keeps SpanAir as its case is too recent, but Mexicana is a mistery to me.
@Philipp – I really don’t know why it is still listed, but you’re right that having Mexicana listed makes no sense!
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Any sense of best AA/partnership routes from Philadelphia?
@Deborah Fitzgerald Correll - British Airways flies out of Philly, but you’ll pay surcharges. However, you can connect to any other city for the same amount of miles since AA has a zone based award chart.
I am trying to get to Africa- open to South Africa, Kenya, Botswana , Namibia in that order of preference . Shooting for this August. Any ideas? BA is pretty booked. Was wondering if combination of Iberia/ BA might work… Thanks
@Deborah - You can fly on Air Berlin as well to Africa. Or try American, Iberia, BA, Finnair to Europe, and connect from there to BA or Air Berlin to Africa.
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I must be missing something here. I read your “Book American Airline Award Flights Like a Pro” series and I just can’t figure out how to book my AA flights.
My wife and I each have 100,000 AAdvantage miles (thanks to your two browser “trick”). We want to use our miles to take a trip to Europe next year (March 21, 2013 to April 4, 2013…though our dates can be moved some). Ideally we’d like to travel first class, but wouldn’t be disappointed with business class, and would even settle for economy class if we have to. We can leave from most any California airport, with SFO, OAK, and LAX equal distance from our home (the “dream” would be to leave out of our local airport: FAT – Fresno), but we can get to any CA airport. We want to fly into FCO- Rome. Approximately 2 weeks late we want to fly home from ATH – Athens (we will make alternative flight accommodations from Rome to Athens).
The dates I want to fly are not yet available for booking (because it is approximately 12 months in the future), but in an attempt to learn about AA’s availability (as we thought our miles would go the farthest with the least fuel surcharges on AA) I have logged into my AAdvantage account, go to the book award flights tab, and enter dates several different date and airport combinations (all combinations are in January or Feb of 2013, using the above listed airports, such as SFO to FCO or LAX to FCO or ATH to LAX). I tried every variable I could think of (one way and round trip, flexible and exact dates, economy/business/first, milesaver and anytime). In the end, despite every combination I’ve tried, I get this exact same message:
There are currently no awards available on AA.com for your requested Origin and Destination. Please modify your request or contact AAdvantage Reservations for award opportunities on all AAdvantage participating airlines.
What am I missing/doing wrong? We are traveling off season, can fly out of major airports, and are looking at flights as far out as possible. I must be totally missing something.
Any help (from Darius or others) is greatly appreciated!
@Ryan - It is 100K in business or 125K in First Class to Europe. You could either get the Citi Business card for another 50K miles or get 25K Starwood points from the SPG card and transfer them to 30K AA miles to get enough for a First Class trip.
You CAN not search for partner airlines using AA.com, but have to use other ways to search for partner airline award availability. Your best bet if you don’t want to pay fuel surcharges ($400 each way) is to fly to London on AA (search for that on AA.com) and THEN connect to a British Airways flight to FCO. For the return do the same thing, fly to London on BA and then connect to an AA flight. Piece together your flights first, and then call AA to place them on hold and later book them.
If you’re flying in business or First Class, it could be worth it to pay the fuel surcharges for 1 segment to get access to the better British Airways routes and seats.
@Darius
Thank you very much for the reply and information!
I’ve applied for the AA Business card (in hopes of getting enough points to make our Europe trip in first class), but I’m having a very difficult time getting approved. I’ve talked to them on the phone three different times and so far the application is still pending. Not for credit reasons, but because of their request for either: a business license, a federal tax ID number, or a business bank account (which requires a business license or DBA statement). I used my Ebay “business” (I sell a few things a year on Ebay) as my startup company and my personal SS# for my business application, so I wasn’t expecting a need for any of these items. Advising Citi that I was a sole proprietorship and that I don’t have a business license or business bank account has been insufficient thus far. I sent them a Paypal statement (it is a “business account”) in hopes that it will appease them, but I’m not optimistic.
I still feel like I’m missing something in regards to our flights. I do grasp the concept that I can’t search partner airlines on AA.com, but I didn’t think I would need a partner airline to fly on AA to Rome (does AA not fly directly to Rome or Athens?) If AA doesn’t fly their own planes to Rome/Athens then it all makes sense to me. If they do, then I’m still confused.
Assuming the issue is that AA doesn’t fly directly to Rome/Athens, then I think I got it, but do have one more question:
If I use my miles to book the two segment flight in first class (American Airlines from the USA to London and then British Airways from London to Rome), is the BA flight from London to Rome in first class? Do I still incur the $400 fuel surcharge from BA on the connecting flight from London to Rome (if not is it just a lesser fuel surcharge or no surcharge at all). If BA still charges the $400 surcharge then it seems well worth it to just use BA for the entire trip, if they don’t, then I think I’ll try the two segment setup.
Thanks again for your time and sharing your knowledge!
-Ryan
@Ryan – I’m self employed, but my business is a sole proprietorship. I gross nearly 200k a year, but I use personal bank accounts and all personal credit cards. Also, since I work from home, I don’t have any business utility bills. I have no employees so there’s no need for an EIN from the feds. I don’t have a store front, so no business license either. I guess I could forward them my taxes, because I have no other way to substantiate my business.
@Ryan – If you applied as a sole proprietor and listed your name as the business name, Citi will usually accept a utility bill and a bank statement in your name.
Here’s the deal with partner airlines – you don’t necessarily have to fly them, but they open up a LOT more options. In your case, AA has limited flights directly to Rome on their own aircraft. So you’re competing with a lot of folks for the award seats on AA flights. But if you’re willing to either fly to London on AA and then connect on BA to FCO or fly BA to London and then connect on BA to FCO, you have a lot more possible flights to find awards on. And you almost certainly will find a seat!
BA doesn’t have 1st class from London to Rome, so you’d be either in business class or coach. Since it is a very short flight, you should check for coach routings as well from London to Rome. If you fly BA from London to Rome, you’ll pay a very low amount for taxes and fees ~$20. If you fly BA from the US to London, you’ll pay ~$400 per segment, but it could be worth it for one segment to experience a really nice First Class product.
@Ken – Citi is very rigid in what they accept as proof of a business, in my experience.
Hmm… Since I do sole proprietorship I can easily use a utility bill or bank account statement since they’re all in my name anyways. If that’s adequate for Citi I’m good to go
@Ken – That’s what I’ve done in the past, but as always, YMMV. Just be sure that you enter your business name as your name.
Great post! Do you have a series like this on United? I thought I remembered you said it was your favorite program currently.
@TSO – I don’t have a series on United as yet, but American is my favorite program currently.
did you ever get your $150 statement credits with your gift card purchase? thanks
@E – I did get them and got double miles since it was an AA purchase.
D any other ideas for purchases to get the $150 statement credit? They won’t sell me a gift card because i’m a NJ resident. And when i called the AA phone agent they said other purchases other than a flight would not qualify as the AA web purchases got thru points.com. She claimed not even purchasing miles would be an AA purchase. I think the rep may be wrong though? Where did you get your gift cards?
I don’t have an AA flight anytime in the near future. I’m mostly Delta for a while.
Thanks E
@E - Points don’t count as a purchase since they come from points.com. You could pay the taxes and fees on an award ticket or buy an American Airline lounge pass at the airport or pay for someone’s baggage fee etc. to get the credit.
Hi Daraius,
I was wondering whether you linked your Citi AA cards together with the same username/password online, or if you kept them separate cause we might get dinged for having both cards using the 2 browser trick?
Thanks!
Annie
@Annie - I’ve linked both cards in the same online profile, and once you have the cards, you usually get the bonus on both cards.
Hi Darius,
How many miles does it take to fly aa to thailand using aa to hk then cathy pacific to thailand? Would I book aa to hk on aa site? Then Cathy site to thailand with aa miles? We are will be booking a trip this winter?
I also got an email offer for buying AA miles 40,000miles for $825.00 USD at 25% off discount and i was wondering if that’s worth it? We’re trying to fly a family of 5 to thailand. We should be getting 100k from the 2 citi browser trick, 50k BA airways, 35k spg. Thanks you
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Hello,
You’ve mention using aa points to fly europe or asia first class or business class. If we don’t have enough points , can we buy coach instead? Or do they not have coach award seat?
Thanks
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@leslie - You can always use your miles for coach as well! It is usually half the price as first class, so you’ll be able to have more flights.
Hi
I have 70,000 AA miles and would like two tickets to London or Paris in the spring. It looks like it will cost me 80,000 miles plus almost 1,000 dollars on the AA website. Is there a trick to booking these tickets for less and no fee or a lower fee?
Thanks
Alex
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Hi Darius, great info as always. Just a minor update, AA.com is now capable of checking availability for Qantas awards directly. I just used AA.com to hold two F suites in QF1 and QF2 next year for myself and the misses. Very pleased.
@Albs – Thanks for the update. I need to refresh this series since there have been updates since when I wrote it. Safe travels to Oz!
Hello Darius.
I received 100,000 AAdvantage miles from 2 AA CC’s and hope to use them to get 4 RT tickets from STL to SEA during summer 2013. There are 5 in my family so Ill have to purchase an additional ticket out of pocket. This is my first time to navigate the AA website using awards and I’m finding that even 7 months out that the availability is virtually non-existent for more than 2 travelers using the economy awards. I was counting on 4 free tickets for this trip. Did I have unrealistic expectations? Or is there a strategy that I need to employ? Like get two awards now for 50,000 total points? And then hope 2 more open up later? Suggestions? Helpful strategies? I’m somewhat flexible on dates.
@Richard Sorrell – You have to be flexible when booking award seats and 4 seats could be tough. Perhaps you could plan on splitting up and traveling? That way you can book 2 tickets now, and set Expert Flyer Seat Alerts for 1 additional award seat at a time. You’ll get an email when the additional seat open ups and can then book it. But you should also plan on having others in the family fly before/after you in case additional seats don’t open up.
AA doesn’t charge a fee for changing the date/time of the flight as long as the origin and destination remain the same.
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Can one upgrade an international AA (and it’s oneworld partners) flight when the flights are booked with miles? Used 20,000 miles on flight from U.S. to Germany on AA & Air Berlin because it was a better connection than business class. Used the 60,000 mile aanytime award from Paris to U.S. (on AA) because business class was non-existent or offered terrible connections. I would prefer to upgrade to business class. If it’s possible, what is the best way to do this or request it?
@Barbara – Unfortunately, you can’t upgrade an award seat unless the make you an offer to buy-up to business class when you check in.
Love your blog!
We are trying to get to Johannesburg from Atlanta using AA miles in mid-August. Trying to avoid British Airways because their fuel surcharges are crazy! It seems like all the options we try ultimately re-route us back to BA. Any ideas?
@Ana – There aren’t many options, but you could fly Iberia to Africa (not South Africa) and buy a separate ticket to Johannesburg.
thanks for this great guide
is there anyway to avoid the fees when using jal to get to us?
@adam – There shouldn’t be much fees if you’re using AA miles on JAL.
This article series on AA is invaluable. Thanks so much. Have you done one for UA by chance?
@Yuhao – I haven’t done one on United as yet.
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You said:
“You won’t be able to search for Cathay Pacific award seats online at AA.com, because you can only search for flights on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines online at AA.com.
Currently, you have to call American Airlines (NOT the partner airline) to book awards on partner airlines such as Cathay Pacific.
But don’t worry! I’ll show you how to find availability on many of American Airlines’ partners before you call and we’ll walk through how to call American Airlines and get the agent to book your $15,000 First Class seat using miles and only a few hundred dollars in taxes & fees.”
I’m interested in traveling to BKK out of SFO! Did you post instructions somewhere on finding availability on AA partners? My husband has 423,000 AA miles….. I’m having the hardest time trying to add a stopover to HNL (or any Hawaiian destination) on a Europe trip (with SFO in between). I don’t know how you can possibly book anything in 7 minutes!
Anyway…If you can show me how to find availability on AA partners, I would so appreciate it!
Also, if you can give me any help as to getting a Hawaii stopover added on to Europe (again, with SFO in between). It seems like I should be able to get BKK, HNL and CDG or LHR out of 400,000 miles for 4 people! What do you think??
Thanks!!
@Tricia – You can’t get a stopover on an AA award unless it is is the international gateway city, so you could fly to HNL, stop and then fly on JAL to Japan and connect on JAL, Cathay, Malaysian Air to BKK. But availability for 4 will be tough. You can use the British Airways website to search for partner flights on JAL, Cathay or Malaysian Air. Or you can hire an award booking service to book the flights for you.