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
American Airlines has 5 different types of award rates, but most folks will use either the off-peak or the MileSAAver rate.
1. Off-Peak MileSAAver Awards. These awards let you travel for less than the regular (MileSAAver) number of miles to certain destinations. The catch is that you have to travel during “off” or low season.
Off-peak awards can be used with both the American Airlines Travel Award Chart (for travel only on American Airlines) and with the AAdvantage All Airline Award Chart.
AA Off Peak Awards
Hawaii: January 12 to March 8 & August 22 to December 15
The Caribbean and Mexico: September 7 to November 14
Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela: January 16 to June 14 & September 7 to November 14
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay: March 1 to May 31 & August 16 to November 30
Europe: October 15 to May 15
Japan: October 1 to April 30
Key points about off-peak awards:
- Off peak awards are valid only in coach.
- You can use off-peak awards on partner airlines. This is great, because it opens up a lot more possibilities to get to your destination.
- Off peak awards can’t be used to fly within the US and Canada.
Off-peak awards are a terrific value because they save you a lot of miles when traveling to certain regions. Europe has 7 months of off-peak availability at 40,000 mile round trip!
However, if there is no off-peak award availability, the next level of awards in coach are not the regularly priced MileSAAver awards, but the more expensive AAnytime awards.
Before paying double price (AAnytime awards) for coach awards, you should always search for regularly priced business MileSAAver awards. These cost the same amount as the double-priced coach (AAnytime) awards, so you could fly in business class for the same amount of miles as a coach flight.
2. MileSAAver Awards. These are regular priced awards, but are capacity controlled. This means that it may be difficult to get awards during peak times and for more than 2 people.
MileSAAver awards can be used with both the American Airlines Travel Award Chart (for travel only on American Airlines) and with the AAdvantage All Airline Award Chart.
However, if you’re flexible (can leave early or later, or stay overnight in a hub airport, or break up your large travel group), you should be able to find awards to your destination. Just remember to check partner airline availability as well (which I’ll cover in later posts in the series).
American Airlines also claims to have a list of destinations to which MileSAAver seats are more readily available. I haven’t tested this out to see how easily MileSAAver seats are available to these destinations, but keep in mind these are only destinations served by American Airlines.
If you are traveling on a Oneworld (British Airways etc.) or other partner airline (Ethiad), you have to book your award using either the off-peak or MileSAAver rate, and can’t use the AAnytime rate.
3. AAnytime Awards. These awards give you the most flexibility and if a seat is available on the flight, you can book it. AAnytime awards can be used with ONLY the American Airlines Travel Award Chart (for travel only on American Airlines).
However, they cost twice the amount of miles as a regular MileSAAver Award. For example, it costs 100,000 miles on a 1-way AAnytime award to London in business class instead of 50,000 miles if you used a regular MileSAAver award.
Tip: Before paying the AAnytime rate for a coach or business class award, check the MileSAAver availablity for the next highest class of service (business or first class).
For example, before paying 60,000 miles for an AAnytime (double priced) award to London in coach, check to see if there are MileSAAver (regular) awards for 50,000 miles in business class.
Often times, you will find a MileSAAver award in the next class of service which would cost the same (or less) amount of miles as the AAnytime award!
Note that AAnytime awards are ONLY for flights on American Airlines. You CAN’T book oneworld partner and other partner airlines at the AAnytime rate.
So if your flight involves partner airlines (say, British Airways from London to Dubai), you won’t be able to pay double the miles and get last seat availability.
4. Citi AA Reduced Mileage Awards. Citi AAdvantage card holders have access to reduced mileage awards (changes quarterly) which save you either 5,000 or 7,500 miles for flights within the US and Canada. The exact amount varies based on which type of Citi AA card you have.
- Citi Gold and the Citi card: 20,000 miles (instead of 25,000 miles) in coach and 45,000 miles (instead of 50,000 miles)
- Citi Platinum, Citi Business, Citi Executive, & Citi Select: 17,500 miles (instead of 25,000 miles) in coach and 42,500 miles (instead of 50,000 miles)
However, the catch is that you have to call AA reservations and pay a $25 phone booking fee (waived for Executive Platinum elite members). I don’t like it, but I’ll pay $25 to save 5,000 or 7,500 American Airline miles.
The list changes quarterly, and these awards must also be used on flights operated by American Airlines themselves. This means that you can search for availability online at AA.com (which will show you AA options) and then call to book the award.
These award are subject to the same capacity restrictions as MileSAAver awards. In other words, if you find a MileSAAver award online to a destination on the quarterly reduced mileage award list, you can call AA reservations, give them the award code from the Reduced Mile Award page, and book your award for fewer miles.
The reduced mile awards to Canada are an especially good deal since tickets to Canada can be quite expensive.
You have to book a return ticket. Technically, you can book a 1-way ticket, but it will still cost you the same amount of miles as a return ticket.
Tip: Some folks have had success getting reduced mile awards even if they originate from a city on the reduced mileage list. Technically, you should receive the discount only if your destination is a city on the reduced mileage list. As always, it doesn’t hurt to see if you can get the lower price if you originate (or leave) from a city on the reduced mileage list.
5. Dynamic Air Awards. These awards are available only to Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum elite members and are only for awards within the US & in economy class.
More importantly, you can’t make changes once the award is booked.
If you’re an American Airlines elite member, it doesn’t hurt to see if you’re offered a lower price than the regular award price. But I’ve seldom found the Dynamic Air award to be a good value.
Fees
1. Telephone Booking Fee. American Airlines charges a $25 telephone booking fee which is waived only for Executive Platinum members. Paying the fee is usually worth every cent because it is the only way to book awards with partner airlines (except Alaska Air which can be booked online).
2. Close-in ticketing fee. American Airlines charges a $75 fee if you book your ticket within 21 days. This fee is waived for Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum members. You may be able to avoid paying this fee by booking an award outside of the 21 day window and then calling to change the award to a date within 21 days.
However, there are no guarantees that there will be seats available in the time it takes to book your award and call back to change it since award availability changes rapidly. Or that you won’t be charged the $75 close-in ticketing fee.
3. Cancellation/Redeposit Fee. There is no fee to cancel your award, but you have to pay a $150 fee to have the miles redeposited into your account (waived only for Executive Platinum elites). However, the fee is only $25 for additional awards after the 1st. Therefore, it may be worth it (if possible) to book award travel from the same account so that you pay lower fees if you cancel and redeposit the award.
4. Taxes and Fees. You will have to pay taxes and fees on your award ticket. These fees are usually pretty reasonable, except if you travel on British Airways or travel to/from countries (think UK & France) with higher than usual fees.
American Airlines collects fuel surcharges on British Airways flights (~$350 per long haul flight segment), so stay away from redeeming for British Airways awards in coach. However, award availability in British Airways is very good and there are often 4 seats in first or business class available!
Next in the series will be: Stopover, Openjaws , routing rules, & booking domestic and international awards.
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! 
@ darius,
Will I receive 1099 from CITI if i received 156k advantage miles from their citi aadvtange cards?
Will I receive 1099 from AMEX if i received 100k in amex membership rewards point from their amex gold and premier rewards card?
I have heared horror stories of people getting $1000 iRS taxable income letter for 50k miles .
Are fuel surcharges on BA a recent development? I flew on BA to Germany/Russia 2 years ago, and my taxes & fees were very similar to AA metal flights (~$250 r.t. in business class).
This is a great post. Thanks to you, I’m sitting on a whole lot of AA miles, and it’s nice to have someone else take me through the rules. I’m still confused about taking advantage of the domestic stopover rules on AA to add legs to my flights. Hope there’s a post on that coming soon
I like your spreadsheets. Is there any way you can make your spreadsheets downloadable as spreadsheets, and not as a pdf. That would make it easier to keep them as reference, and add my own notes.
Recently I was looking at a trip to South Africa and was having to pay a couple hundred dollars in fees for a frequent flyer ticket to London but when I split it to arriving in London and departing from Barcelona the fees dropped to less than a hundred dollars.
Thank you Daraius!
This series is very interesting and helpful. My wife and I have collected AA miles from the AA credit card sign-ups. (4 personal, 1 business).
When you cover the stopover, if you have not picked your cities for that, could you use an example of using the AA miles/ Oneworld miles for Phoenix to London for a couple day stopover, then Barcelona. On the way back from Barcelona a stopover in Paris for a few days, then to Phoenix?
Also, is there a 7,500 AA Citi reduced award if you book two one-way tickets vs. a round trip?
Thanks again for all your great posts!
I just used a bunch of AA miles for flight to Vancouver form NYC onCathay Pacific.
The price on Expedia was $630 for coach round trip..
AA miles were 25,000 for coach round trip
50,000 miles for business class
65,000 miles for First class.
I did the first class! It is a great value for the for the amount of miles and gives me a great opportunity to fly first class which is something I have never done.
Thanks much for this series of posts, Dairius.
Would you check the title on the 4th column of your spreadsheet? Should it say “1-Way PEAK Miles”? I was a little confused as I read it.
Thanks. Looking forward to the lesson on stopovers.
I think you should have mentioned that the off peak awards are only for coach in the very first sentence since that is a killer for many of us. Nice article otherwise.
Quick question regarding BA. Will it cost me more miles if I fly BWI-JFK-LHR as oppose to BWI-LHR? Obviously the product leaving NY has nicer seats in first than the 767 from BWI.
Thanks
Incredible series, Daraius! Well done, indeed.
THANK YOU DARIAUS! EXCELLENT POSTS! I WILL BE APPLYING FOR THE BIZ INK BOLD THROUGH YOUR LINKS! YOU DESERVE SOME REWARD!
Excellent Job! Is other airline program say UA/CO similar to AA in terms of award tickets? Hoped you will also talk about UA/CO program in the future…
@ KD.
My understanding is, You will receive the 1099′s only if you had received miles for a citi chk/savings acct. citi is not sending any 1099′s for the credit card side.
@kd – Dan’s correct. You’ll only get the 1099 if you opened a bank account (not credit card) with Citi and received miles. I wouldn’t worry much about getting a 1099 for your credit card sign up bonus.
@Max – There have been fuel surcharges for quite some time on BA flights if you book them with AA miles (or BA miles for that matter).
@Kay – I’ll post on stopovers soon and I’ll email you the spreadsheet!
@Jason – The UK has a high departure tax so leaving Europe from Barcelona would avoid that.
@Ken – Unfortunately, AA has a very restrictive stopover policy which allows stopovers only in the North American gateway city. You’d have to book your trip as 3 one way awards. Phoenix to London (1 award) London to Barcelona (2nd award or just buy the ticket) Barcelona to Phonix (3rd award).
@Israel Husarsky – Hope you have a great flight!
@jac – You’re right – it is a typo. Thanks for letting me know, and I’ll fix it!
@Richard - It will cost you more miles because you will have to pay for the Baltimore – New York segment separately But that’s only an extra 4,500 Avios point per segment.
@Darren – Thanks! It means a lot coming from you.
@wackyguy – Thanks! Emily and I are very grateful!
@Li – United and Continental are part of the Star Alliance so the options are quite different. United and Continental also have much better stopover policies. I’ll do a series on United and Continental later.
@Dan – Thanks for helping out!
Great Posting…getting so much info from your site…
One quick question…how AA’s infant policy on rewards? I plan to take my 1 year old to Asia and when I input my kids as a lap child (under 2 years old), it is requiring the same reward miles as an adult.
Has anybody have booked reward ticket with a child (lap child)?
do I get 1099 if i sell points/miles to others using paypal and receive payment?
will PAYPAL notify IRS of this payment i receive for miles/points sold?
@Ken AA books it’s award flights as one way flights. First flight AA PHX to LHR.
Then there are several discount airlines that fly from London to Barcelona. Try Easy Jet, sort of a low rent Southwest. Ticketed way in advance, that London Barcelona flight might be only $150 all in. Or less…
For around $200 without a train pass, Barcelona to Paris by high speeed train is only about 8 hours. Then fly home on your mileage.
The other option is to use your AA miles to fly on British Airlines from PHX to LHR, then stopover before continuing to Barcelona with BA. Train back to Paris. Then the second flight on BA is Paris to LHR, with or without a stopover in London, continuing BA to PHX non-stop. Or take the chunnel to London and go home from London on AA.
BA PHX to LHR and back is easier to book in Bus and First than on AA. Only problem here is BA wants around $350 per person “fuel surcharge” on those trans-Atlantic flights. Each way ! :>{ So its a better deal in Bus/First than in coach, compared to just buying a ticket.
Good Luck….
Great post, Daraius, thank you very much! We currently have a OGG(Maui)-ORD-BRU ticket on AA metal, one way was 20k miles pp (Economy Saver award-incredible deal!!!!) using the gateway city concept you mentioned in one of your responses (several month layover in ORD in our case) and starting the trip at an off peak (to Europe) time from OGG (early April). Trouble is, it’s economy class. Subsequently, they’ve gotten rid of the direct ORD-BRU flight, making it OGG-ORD-JFK-BRU. My question is, how would an upgrade to First work on a First Saver award – shouldn’t it be 37.5k miles for the one way and each leg would be upgraded to First? I’ve called AA 5 times on this and I get 5 different answers each time (including it can’t be done), perhaps due to the additional legs AA added when they cancelled their nonstop ORD-BRU flight. Your insight is appreciated!
@Sam
Points/miles are not really your property, that you can sell. They are a feature of your contract with the company that issues them. Check that contract to determine if the issuer would transfer or reassign your points to another person.
In case of AAdvantage program, I know you can do the following:
1. You can reassign your miles to another person for a fee that’s about as high as buying points from AA. Thus it makes no sense.
2. You can use your miles to buy a ticket for another person. If you then charge that person for the ticket, it may violate your contract with AA. So be careful how you arrange the transaction, or AA can cancel the ticket.
@Jack – If your infant is a lap child, you’ll have to 10% of the fare for that route. You also have to call in since you can’t do this online.
@SAM – Max is spot on. I don’t recommend selling miles because that is against most airlines’ policy and could result in you losing all the miles in your account.
@Robert Hanson – Thanks for helping out! AA limits you to less than a 24 hour stopover while traveling internationally, so it won’t be possible to fly from Phoenix to London on BA, stop for more than 24 hours and then go to Paris on an AA award ticket.
@BothofUs2 – Perhaps I’m not following, but it is 62.5K miles each way to Europe. So you’d need to pay (62.5 – 20) or 42.5 to upgrade to First Saver seats if available. The upgrade should be valid in all segments, but some segments may not have 3 classes or may not have first class availability.
@Max - Thanks for helping out!
Daraius, you are correct, actually I should have indicated that we are just trying to upgrade to First on the OGG-ORD segment. My apologies for that miss. Perhaps thats where American has the issue; in other words you have to redeeem First points for each segment of your itinerary (not allowed to fly First for 1/2 the itin and coach the other half). I got the 37.5k number from the AA website when I searched OGG-ORD. Thanks for looking at this and your advice.
@Max, you are absolutely incorrect and wrong! Doesn’t know what he is talking about and just trying to sound smart!
the points are what you earned and you can privately sell by transferring to another person’s account , use by urself, buy ticket for someone else and get paid by check, paypal or however you want to be paid.
@ Dairius, you also don’t know what you are talking about!
@Max, you are absolutely incorrect and wrong! You don’t know what you are talking about and just trying to sound smart!
@ Sam,the points are what you earned and you can privately sell by transferring to another person’s account , use by urself, buy ticket for someone else and get paid by check, paypal or however you want to be paid.
@ Dairius, you also don’t know what you are talking about!
@BothofUs2 – If you have the flight booked all the way from OGG to BRU on 1 PNR, you have to pay miles to upgrade the entire journey. But you can always sit in coach or business class on some segments if there is no availability in first (but won’t get a refund for just those segments)
@Rajesh – You can use the miles to get a ticket for someone else, but accepting money for that is against AA’s terms and conditions. As is selling the miles (besides exchanging on points.com). There are more details here: “At no time may AAdvantage mileage credit or award tickets be purchased, sold or bartered (including but not limited to transferring, gifting, or promising mileage credit or award tickets in exchange for support of a certain business, product, or charity and/or participation in an auction, sweepstakes, raffle, or contest). Any such mileage or tickets are void if transferred for cash or other consideration. Violators (including any passenger who uses a purchased or bartered award ticket) may be liable for damages and litigation costs, including American Airlines attorneys fees incurred in enforcing this rule.”
I’ve heard of AA cancelling folks accounts and award reservations made for selling/trading miles. Sure, you may get away with it a few times, but you will eventually get caught.
One way to get three international tickets to Europe is to get mile saver flights outbound for 3 tickets and 2 returns and later [if mile saver does not become available] paying AAnytime for the one return. That is what I had to do for this summer. I used 60K for one Alaska account, 60K from another alaska account for two round trips LAX – BRU in July and only could get the outbound for 30K on the same AA flight to Brussels with the family. I did not have the return, but was not worried, as soon as the AA credit card posted, I spent 60K for my return only, a total of 210K miles for 3 round trip coach flights [2.3 cents a mile]. But thanks to Daraius, I am definitely looking forward to going Business class for all in 2013! Also, I have found [on various airlines] that if you tell them you tried to get the ticket on line but it was not possible/working, the ticketing agent sometimes waives the $25 fee for calling in. Just my thoughts on D’s great article.
Darious,
you don’t make sense. there is no such thing as MILES for sale, any one can transfer the miles/points to another account. be it your own or someone else’s account and that is not any violation. ADVANTAGE MILES are always transferable , when you transfer miles, it doesn’t ask you if you are selling . you can transfer miles or points and can get paid by cash, check, money order , paypal or whatever that is. stop talking nonsense!
@Daraius
Thanks for including the link to the official program terms (about selling miles).
I am also looking forward to the upcoming part of your article about the stopover rules. That’s been a confusing part of AAdvantage program for me.
I absolutely LOVE the AA off peak awards. I feel that they have the most generous off peak chart compared to the other North American Legacy carriers by a long shot. I mean 40k r/t to Europe for pretty much every season except Summer?! That’s amazing!
I also love the reduced mileage awards from their credit cards in North America, but I haven’t actually ever booked one. Saving them for whenever I can arrange enough time for a 16 stop RTW ticket in business.
@Marriott Marty – Thanks for sharing! Flexibility is the key to getting multiple awards on the same flight and sometimes you may have to pay double miles. You may want to see if you can get the return at the BusinessSAAver level of 50K (seats could open up) and you save 10K miles and get to fly in business class!
@Rajesh - Yes, you can transfer miles to someone’s account or book an award for them. But when you take money for that it becomes a sale and goes against the terms I linked to above.
@Max – I’ll post on stopovers next week!
@Travel and Credit – Agreed. It is a very generous chart!
I am trying to use AA miles to take a ticket from Brasil (GRU) to Las Vegas and all options I have in AA website is to use 30.000 or 60.000 miles + up
to 775,00 USD.
Can any one inform what dos the +up 775,00 USD means?
Does it means that I have to use 30.000 miles and pay more 775,00 USD?
@ramon - Ignore that. It seems to be showing up for a lot of flights, but your actual taxes and fees will be much lower when you book the flight. It will likely be 30K or 60K miles + approx. $150.
hi, do you know when the next quarter’s list for Citi AA Reduced Mileage Awards will be published? i want to book a early April ticket, but do i have to wait till the last minute? will AA be able to tell me over the phone? thanks
@allen – I don’t know when they will release them for Q2 2012, but you could call and ask. But I expect the list to come out pretty soon since we’re already in March!
You’re so awesome! I bought a ticket to Israel and Jordan with the AA miles I got after reading your summer post, and I’ve more to spend. I’m thinking of taking advantage of the stopover rules to create this routing:
ticket 1: EWR-LAX (Aug 31 – already have this ticket)
ticket2: LAX-NYC (stopover)-LIM (return from LA on Sept 3, fly to Lima on February 16)
ticket 3: LIM-NYC (return from Lima on February 18)
Ticket 2 is the one I’m not sure about. If I’m reading the rules correctly, I can have a stopover in NYC from September to February. Since I’m flying in February, I’ll be able to take advantage of the lower Miles Saver Offpeak redemption. I want to fly on LAN, which has a direct overnight flight from New York to Lima, so I’ll need to call up AA, and pay them their $25 ticketing fee. Do I have it all right?
@Kay - Glad you’re enjoying your miles! Lima is in Peru so it is in the Central America/South America 1 zone and I didn’t see an off peak award. You should be able to book this by calling AA and paying the $25 ticketing fee.
Planning a trip to Lima this summer. Originating at DFW, any tips or thoughts on getting a business milesaaver ticket? The go to route is with a stop in Miami but I would go another route if it was beneficial. Thanks!
Pingback: American Airlines Award Chart | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: American Airlines Award Travel - Stopovers & Openjaws | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: American Airlines Awards | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: Cathay Pacific Redeem | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: American Airlines Award Travel | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: American Airlines Award | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: British Airways Award Booking | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: Book American Airlines Award Flights Like a Pro: Part 9 – Finding Iberia (& European) Award Availability using the Qantas Website | Million Mile Secrets
Pingback: Odds & Ends | Million Mile Secrets
My wife and I have AAdvantage Cards with 50000+ miles each and British Airways Viza with 50000+ miles each. How can I used the miles together to fly to Germany in December 2012. What is the best way to use these miles together?
Not previously answered.
My wife and I have AAdvantage Cards with 50000+ miles each and British Airways Viza with 50000+ miles each. How can I used the miles together to fly to Germany in December 2012. What is the best way to use these miles together?
@Ronny Horton – You could use AA miles to fly to Europe on either AA or their partners which includes BA. And you can use BA points to fly back to the US. It is 30K AA miles in coach and 50K for a 1 way business ticket. You will pay fuel surcharges if you use BA points to fly to Europe, so perhaps save the BA points for use later and use AA miles to Europe.
Something I’ve come to find is that since AA signed their deal with BA if you want to go to Europe from the US and not get hosed with the LHR fees you’re screwed… You used to be able to book the saver awards for coach, business and even first and not go through LHR but since they’ve partnered with BA they pulled all those flights (no matter what time) to the full fare. That make a HUGE difference – before my wife and I could fly business class to Milan for 200k points and about $75 total in taxes. Now that exact same trip but going through LHR using 200k miles costs over $1300 just in taxes!!! Do you know of any way to avoid this?? I’ve even looked into CDG and it’s all LHR transfers. I knew it had to be too good to be true when they announced the partnership and now I know why – they are trying to scam Americans out of about $500/person given directly to LHR – what a joke…
Well after I looked around for a while I found out that it’s not an LHR thing is a BA thing… BA charges the crap out of you for the fuel no matter if you’re paying or using miles – what a waste… Also, it turns out that my previous thought is true – AA sold their soul to the devil when it comes to European award travel and now the only way to get there using saver awards is on the penny-pinching, fee-sucking British Airways. To call me disgusted would be an understatement. The 200k miles I’ve accululated just lost over a $1000 in value. Thanks a lot AA and BA (mostly BA). And the Brits think the US is bad about hiding their fees…
@Tim - Try searching for an AA flight to LHR and then connect to a BA flight to the rest of Europe. The taxes and fees are much lower that way!
what about booking europe award (non saver) non lhr 6ok and then upgrade to first class 62.5k award if seat is available? am gold…would aa do that on the day of flight?
I know that you can book AA Award travel starting 331 days prior to the date of travel. What time does AA put these online? Is it 12:01 am or some other time? Also which time zone is this based on? Thanks much for your great site!
Pingback: LAN Awards | Million Mile Secrets
America can issue seats anytime after midnight Central Time. Rarley at 12:01am central time. It can take up to 6am CST for it to occur. Wish the would just a pick a time and stick to it!
hi, thank first
I have a question about this situation.
2. Close-in ticketing fee. American Airlines charges a $75 fee if you book your ticket within 21 days. This fee is waived for Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum members. You may be able to avoid paying this fee by booking an award outside of the 21 day window and then calling to change the award to a date within 21 days.
Do you have any suggestion to avoid this fees? since the CS told me it’s unavoidable if it within 21 days.
@Zhao - Unfortunately, that is no longer working and you can’t avoid the fee unless you’re an elite member.
have done that frequently….before i became gold.
Pingback: Air Tahiti Nui Award Booking | Million Mile Secrets
Booked an award ticket in July of 2012 to fly one way to London via AA in coach. Noticed exit row seats are available at an $89 fee or MCE for $118. Called award reservations and spoke to two different agents to pay the upgrade for exit row and was told I couldn’t because I was using award tickets. Is this correct or am I getting some inexperienced agents?
@Rod – You should be able to do that online without calling an agent, but it is very strange that they wouldn’t take your money for the upgrade!