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 Awards
Booking travel within North America (as defined by American Airlines) using American Airlines miles is very easy to do (if there are award seats available) and can be completed on AA.com (unless you’re booking seats on Hawaiian Airlines).
According to American Airlines, North America refers to the US (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
For flights within North America, you can use your American Airlines miles for award flights on:
- American Airlines (including American Eagle etc.)
- Alaska Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Cathay Pacific from New York (JFK) to Vancouver, Qantas from Los Angeles to New York (JFK), and LAN from New York (JFK) to Toronto
You can search for award seats on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines online at AA.com and you can complete or put the booking on hold at AA.com
You can hold your award for 5 days if booked between 330 and 15 days prior to departure, 1 day if booked within 14 days of departure, and for 2 hours if booked within 24 hours of departure. There is NO charge for holding an award.
But you have to call American Airlines reservations (& pay a $25 booking fee unless you are a top tier Executive Platinum) for flights on Hawaiian Airlines. We’ll cover how to search for Hawaiian Airlines award availability later in this post so that you don’t have to rely on the telephone agent to find you flights!
General Rules
- You can book a maximum of 4 one-way awards on single ticket
- The award booking window opens 330 days prior to the flight’s departure
- Changes to award tickets (both MileSAAver & AAnytime) are free as long as the origin and destination remain the same
- $150 fee to cancel and redeposit the miles into your account ($25 for additional tickets from the same account) waived only for top tier Executive Platinum members
- All travel must be completed within 1 year (365 days) of making the booking
- No stopovers are allowed on awards within North America
- You have to connect to another flight within 4 hours (regardless of award availability) unless the next scheduled flight is more than 4 hours away (but less than 24 hours)
Booking awards on American Airlines & Alaska Airlines
Booking awards on American Airlines & Alaska Airlines within North America is extremely easy to do on-line at AA.com.
That’s because American Airlines has the best online booking tool for domestic awards which will let you:
- See availability for both low level (MileSAAver) and high-level (AAnytime) awards
- Show you a 30 day calendar view of award availability at a time
- Sort availability by class of service
You don’t even need to be an AAdvantage member to see award availability!
Award Booking Tips for Domestic Awards
1. Book Early. I’ve noticed that availability tends to be the best once the schedule is loaded 330 days from the day of departure. Of course, airlines continually add or remove award availability, but if you know that you visit Florida every year during the 3rd week of August, it is probably best to book your seats earlier rather than later.
2. Be Flexible. It will be very hard to get your family of 4 on the same flight unless you are flexible or book early. And even then it may not be possible. Try to break up your family of 4 into say, 1 adult & 1 child and look for separate flights to and from your destination. Or look for flexibility around your travel dates. Or try to get 2 first class and 2 coach seats on the same flight. Or choose a destination based on award availability.
3. Consider Business SAAver awards. Before spending twice the amount of miles for a coach AAnytime seat (which guarantees you last seat availability) look for Business Class SAAver awards. Very often there are business class seats available for the same price as coach awards!
4. Dummy Searches. Do dummy searches using the American Airlines award tool to see award availability. It is just like searching for a flight and you’ll see what your options are. You’ll also get more familiar with the tool which will help you as you book more awards.
5. Be Patient. Booking awards can be very frustrating. But if you’re patient and flexible, you’ll usually get the award you’re looking for.
6. 1 Seat at a time. Instead of searching for 4 seats, start by searching for 1 seat and increase the number of seats with each search. You’ll get a better sense of how many tickets are available.
American Airlines Award Booking Video
Here’s a video from American Airlines on how to use the online award booking tool.
American Airlines Award Booking Screenshots
Here are a few screenshots to help get started with searches on AA.com
Step 1
Go to AA.com
Step 2
Enter in your flight information and select “Redeem AAdvantage Miles”
Searching for award flights on AA.com
Step 3
You can see award availability in 30 day blocks and can search for award seats based on MileSAAver (regular) or AAnytime (double-priced) awards.
30 day view of award availability
Hawaiian Airlines Award Booking
You can use your American Airlines miles for flights on Hawaiian Airlines to Hawaii. However, you can’t see award availability on AA.com for Hawaiian Airlines.
So we’ve got to search for super saver award availability on Hawaiian Airlines using the Hawaiian Airlines website, write those flight numbers down, and then call American Airlines reservations and ask them to book the flights.
Sure, we can also rely on the phone agent to search for us, but in my experience it is much better to find the award availability yourself and then ask the agent to book it for you.
Remember, we can’t just go to AA.com and search for Hawaiian Airline availability, because Hawaiian Airlines award flights don’t show up on AA.com
This may be confusing at first, so here’s what we are trying to do. We’re trying to find award seats on Hawaiian Airlines which can be booked using American Airlines miles.
American Airlines charges 17,500 miles for a 1-way off-peak coach award, 22,500 for a 1-way regular MileSAAver coach award, and 37,500 miles for a 1-way Business/First class award to Hawaii. If we book an award using American Airline miles, we’re going to have to pay what American Airlines charges.
Not all awards on Hawaiian Airlines (if you search for awards on the Hawaiian Airlines website) can be booked using American Airline miles. Only Hawaiian Airline Super Saver awards which are 20,000 miles 1-way in coach (17,500 miles if you have the Hawaiian Airlines credit card) and 40,000 miles (1-way in First Class can be booked using American Airline miles.
We’ll check award availability for Hawaiian Airlines Super Saver awards on the Hawaiian Airlines website, but we’ll have to call American Airlines to book those flights – because we’re using American Airline miles.
Hawaiian Airlines Non-Stop Flights
Hawaiian Airlines flies non-stop to Honolulu from:
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Oakland
- Phoenix
- Portland
- Sacramento
- San Diego
- San Fransisco
- San Jose
- Seattle
Hawaiian Airlines also flies non-stop to Maui from:
- Las Vegas
- Oakland
- Portland
- Seattle
Searching for Hawaiian Airlines Award Flights
Step 1
Sign-up for a free HawaiianMiles account which will let you check award availability on Hawaiian Airlines flights.
Step 2
Sign-in to your HawaiianMiles account.
Step 3
Click on “Book Travel” on the top and then select “Find a Flight” from the drop-down menu.
Checking Hawaiian Air award availability
Step 4
Enter in your departure city, destination, and travel dates & click “Continue”
Enter your flight information
Step 5
Select “View fares by Miles” in the top left hand side.
You can click on the “View fares by Month” to see availability, in 30 day blocks, on a calendar.
Sort to see availability by miles or on a calendar
Remember, that only the Super Saver coach flights for 20,000 miles (17,500 miles if you have the Hawaiian Air credit card) or Super Saver First Class flights for 40,000 miles can be booked using American Airlines miles. And you have to call American Airlines to book these flights.
However, you can’t sort the calendar by 1st class or coach awards, so you’re better of using the “View fares by Miles” option if you’re looking for first class saver awards (40,000 miles).
If you’re looking for coach awards you can use the calendar view.
Step 6
Once you find Super Saver award availability for your flights (20,000 miles in coach or 40,000 in business), write down the flight details.
Write down the flight information
For example, “HA 3 departing at 10:30 am from Los Angeles and arriving at Honolulu at 1:15 pm on August 24, 2012.”
Step 7
If you’re NOT departing from a city from which Hawaiian Airlines has direct service to Hawaii, you would need to find availability to that city using AA.com
For example, I couldn’t find availability using AA.com from Kansas City to Honolulu.
So I used steps 1 to 5 above to check Hawaiian Airlines award availability from different cities. I found a First Class seat on August 24 from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines at the 40,000 mile level which can be booked using American Airlines miles by calling American Airlines reservations.
But I need to get from Kansas City to Los Angeles. So I look for award availability from Kansas City to Los Angeles on AA.com
Once I find availability from my departure city (Kansas City in this case) to the Hawaiian Airlines departure city (Los Angeles), I’ll write down the series of flights on both American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines and call American Airlines reservation and ask them to book the itinerary.
Since I’m using American Airline miles, I’ll pay either 17,500 miles for a 1-way off-peak coach award, 22,500 for a 1-way regular MileSAAver coach award, or 37,500 miles for a 1-way Business/First class award to Hawaii.
I’ll still pay the same amount of American Airline miles above if I book a direct flight to Hawaii from Los Angeles on partner airline Hawaiian Airlines or if I combine the itinerary with American Airlines flights from Kansas City to Los Angeles and then fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines.
I’ll feed the agent the information segment by segment and ask to put the award on hold. Once the award is on hold, I’ll check to make sure that the dates and times match and then call back and ask the agent to ticket the flight.
Hawaii, here I come!
Next in the series will be: booking 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! 
Can i use my advantage miles?/How to book 2 one way fares from ORD to LGA, 2 days stay in NY and then from LGA to buffalo NY, ( car rental? one week stay in canada and then one way flight from Canada to ORD? all of them have to do saperate miles redemption?
thanks
Great step by step post…keep up the good work!
Quick question – do you use additional points to go from Kansas to LAX or you just use a total of 37.5k to go from Kansas to HNL but on two different bookings that are combined into one?
Thanks for all the detailed instructions. I just applied for the Citi AA Visa and American Express cards for a total of 100,000 miles ( Instantly approved for both) and I am new the American Airlines and their award booking tools. I have been reading all of your posts and they are very informative. I live close to the Columbia, SC airport which is not a huge airport. Looking forward to trying out AA!
@Anjum: I was just about to ask that
I’d need to go from DEN to the HI departing city so I’d need to do an entire route on AA metal or AA to LAX (for example) and then Hawaiian Air to HNL.
@robin – You’d have to book ORD to LGA as 1 award, LGA to buffalo as the 2nd award (because AA doesn’t allow stopovers on domestic awards), and the flight from Canada to ORD as the 3rd award.
@Randy & @Kathy - Glad you found it useful!
@Anjum & @Ken - AA will let me put up to 4 separate segments ( I can mix & match different airlines) on one 1-way award. So I pay 37.5K in total to go from Kansas City to Hawaii in total. I’ve updated the post to make that clearer!
That’s awesome, thanks Daraius!
Thanks for the clarification! This is great to know! Another question – the whole reason you booked it as two separate segments was b/c there was no availability on AA from Kansas to HNL, right?
I recently needed to book a flight from Austin to Honolulu. I spent quite some time figuring out the best way to do it and ended using Avios points to book from LAX to HNL for 12.5k (the same leg booking on AA was 17.5k!) and then purchased (is that a faux-pas?!) a one-way ticket from AUS to LAX on Southwest (only $100, so worth it). What I love is that you get the exact same flight on AA for fewer points (sometimes) when you book on BA versus AA. I flew business class to Brazil from DFW last year using Avios points and ended up spending 5k miles less than if I had booked on AA. Now that I know about Hawaiian Air, I’ll keep my eye out for that, too!
Thanks, again!
Great to know! I have been using aa.com to search for segments, then BA to book for cheaper recently. Knowing Hawaiian can be thrown in the mix is great!
How about information regarding booking AA flights in N America using miles or points from partners? It’s pretty straight forward using AA miles to book on partners but not as straight forward on the ins and outs of using partner miles to book on AA.
@Ken - You’re welcome!
@Anjum – Correct. There was no availability from Kansas City to Hawaii on AA, so I got to a Hawaiian Airline gateway city on AA and then flew on Hawaiian Airlines. It is actually 3 segments – Kansas City to Chicago, Chicago to LA & LA to Hawaii. I like Avios for the same reason – that many flights cost less than what it would cost using AA miles. Hawaiian Air is NOT a British Air partner so you won’t be able to use Avios for Hawaiian Air flights.
@Pat O – You can’t book Hawaiian Air flights with BA miles because they are not a partner airline for British Airways.
@Brant - I’ll be writing a series on using BA Avios miles soon. Was there any other partner you had in mind?
Great Post! Question: Why don’t we buy round trip? Or it is better to buy two one-way award tickets?
Daraius: Any reason you didn’t fly on AA metal on all 3 segment examples to HNL? Does Hawaiian Air have a better product than AA?
Daraius,
Since one can use AA miles on Hawaiian do you know if the opposite is true? Can I use my Hawaiian miles to book a flight on American? I would love to redeem some Hawaiian miles for an international flight.
@Ken
I guess he is only showcasing one can also try looking for Hawaii Award ticket in case you can not find low AA award ticket to Hawaii.
If I am flying from a Hawaiian gateway city (LAX) to honolulu by using Hawaiian super saver miles, is it necessary for me to use AA supersaver award to travel from my hometown to the Hawaiian gateway city? Or can I use AAnytime awards to get to the gateway city? I am asking because it is easier to find AAnytime award availability. Thanks.
thnx Daraius for this post. i completely forgot….duh that Hawaiian is part of OneWorld. they are also part of star alliance. are they the only airline that is a part of both?
also Hawaiian has non stops to Maui from San Jose (SJC) now as well. new service.
FYI… if you have Alaska Airline miles and want to use them on American… it’s sometimes LESS miles if you go thru their website. I’m flying DFW-BTR in 2 weeks. On AA.com it would cost me 37k AAdvantage miles, however for the same flights… if I use my Alaska Air miles it will only cost me 25k. thought i would just point it out to some of the readers.
@Li – AA only books 1-way awards and I was using that as an example. You’d just book another 1-way award for your return flight.
@Ken - No availability on AA, so I tried Hawaiian.
@Scott – Unfortunately, not. Here’s a list of Hawaiian Air’s partners.
@Li – You got it!
@Sara – If you are using an AAnytime award, you can get availability on AA to Hawaii because you are paying double miles. You wouldn’t need to fly Hawaiian Air!
@mike- Hawaiian isn’t part of either alliance, but they do have partnerships with certain airlines in both alliances. Nice to know about the service to San Jose.
Thank you so much for your detailed instructions!! I especially like when you repeat important details several times throughout your post…you’re a great teacher!
Interesting. I booked the whole thing online last year from RDU-ORD-LAX-HNL – round trip for 75,000 in first. I know it was one too many flights, but I love the lounges.
Hope you have a fantastic trip! While still an American flight to HNL, the menu was actually fantastic. They advertised Sam Choy as a gimmick I thought, but the food was some of the best ‘domestic’ I’ve had.
Cecil (from Winterhaven the weekend you stayed at Z South Beach).
Sweet post – just in time for booking my flights to Maui this coming August.
Quick question though: there are no direct flights (SFO-OGG) for the dates I’m traveling, only SFO-(HNL)-OGG. The AA agent I spoke to said that to book the flight connecting through HNL, I’ll have to book a separate intra-island flight for 5000 miles, while the SFO-HNL can be booked using 17500 miles. Is that correct? Or is she wrong?
Thanks in advance.
Per flyertalk thread, it states that inter-island flights are not included. So I think she was correct.
@Houstonmama – Glad you found it helpful!
@cecil - I’m not actually going to Hawaii (I wish I were, though!). I just made a dummy booking for the post!
@BBL- She’s correct – the inter island flights cost extra.
Is it true that you can’t combine MileSAAver and AAnytime awards on one award ticket?
Once the agent puts the itinerary on hold, can you use AA.com to pay and ticket it and thus avoid the $25 booking fee if you were to call back to ticket?
@Churnity – I’m not sure I understand the question. If you pay the AAnytime rate you have access to the last seat on the plane so you wouldn’t need to combine the MileSAAver rate. However, you wouldn’t have access to the last seat on partner airlines.
@M – Unfortunately not. But it does work with Delta!
You CAN fly OAK-OGG with American points on Alaska Airlines non stop. I will be on this route March 2.
@Ernie – Enjoy your trip!
Million Mike Secrets,
My Citi AA Visa/Amex comes up for renewal next month. I called to cancel and they offered retention bonus of $85 statement credit for making 5 purchases within the next 3 months. So, I kept the cards. Then, it got me thinking on my first Citi AA churn later this year (18 months). If I have the existing cards, will they still issue me another Citi AA card with the current bonus (now at 50k)? Should I close the cards now, wait a few months?
@MMS
to clarify, flights on Hawaiian air are considered MileSAAver awards. When I tried to combine another segment, which was an AAnytime award seat, the agent told me mixing AAnytime and MileSAAver on one award ticket is not allowed.
Hi Again Darius!!
Because of your advice!! We were able to get 100K miles through AA Citi visa and amex!! Correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve read all your part 5 series and I just want to make sure hubby and I make use of our miles smartly.
Our trip is fairly simple and hoping to accomplish it either Nov or Jan 2013
Fly from IAD – NAP stay in NAP and do an open jaw since last stop will be Rome and fly back to IAD. So you mean I buy 2 award ticket for each of us? second can I do I dummy search on AA website cause the way I understand your posts I can’t search for international flights and will have to do it with their partner airline but I want to check on availability. Hope to get some advice from you on this! hate to make a mistake on our first “free” trip! Thanks so much!!
@Dave Op – They may issue you the new cards if your credit exposure to them is not too high. You could always cancel the cards after the $85 credit posts to your account.
@Churnity – That’s correct to the best of my knowledge.
@carmen – There’s more to the series coming up mainly focusing on international awards. If you are willing to pay fuel surcharges and fly in Business or First Class, you could fly British Airways from many US cities to London and connect to Naples. Or connect in Spain via Iberia. For the return, you could either fly from Rome back to the US direct on AA or connect in London through British Airways or in Spain through Iberia. However, you can’t search for partner availability online as yet, so you have to call American Airlines to check those routes. I’ll be writing how to check BA award availability next week. But you can also call AA and specifically ask them to search for BA or Iberia flights on certain routes. There are rumors that BA awards will be on aa.com as soon as March!
Hi,
it is good to know that AA does not charge for changing award tickets. could you write about different airlines’ policy regarding changing reward tickets? a chart will be helpful.. thanks.
I am trying to fly hnl-ord and there is no availability on aa.com for the date I want. I found a super saver award on Hawaiian air from hnl-las. I also found a milesaaver award on aa.com from las-ord to get back home. The problem is the flight to ord departs 6 hours after the first one arrives. Am I correct to think this won’t work because of the 4 hour limitation? There is an aanytime award available within the 4 hour window but not a milesaaver award.
@allen – There are no change fees for date and time changes, but they *are* fees for changes to the origin/destination.
@Sarah – I believe it won’t work b/c of the 4 hour connection time. But you can always call and try. AA agents can generally match Hawaiian super saver in business class, but I’ve had issues with getting them to match the super saver awards in coach. Good luck!
I took advantage of the 2 AA credit card offer, finally got my miles and the milesaaver awards for the flights I have been looking for have just been sold out! Do I have any options?
Thanks again for this blog, it is more helpful than you know!
@Leo - Depending on when and where you want to go, additional saver seats may open up. Your options are to be flexible or to use partner airlines (if available).
Thanks! I am really flexible, it looks like all of the outbound flight for Brazil in the month of May are full miles! Getting back on milesaaver is not problem, odd. I believe AA is the only one I can use to get down there but I will be taking your advice and using a partner airline (GOL) while down there to spend less than 24 hours in one city.
@Leo – You can always fly to Brazil on LAN if there is availability, but you will have to use the British Airways website or call AA to check availability.
Thanks Daraius! LAN only flies to the western coast of Brazil, so maybe I should go to Peru and see the ruins.
Right now I have an open jaw European trip on hold (into Milan and out from Zurich), not sure if I can afford the high expense of Europe! Trying to stay around $1,000 (boy am I finding this challenging).
Do you have any suggestions for the budget travel wanting to spend 40,000 miles in May. Looking for a trekking/hiking/high adventure trip, not really interested in big cities.
@Leo – South America or Central America (Costa Rica etc.) will be cheaper than Europe!
I am looking for 4 saver awards from JFK to HNL. There is availability on Hawaiian’s website for the 4 seats at the mileage saver rate (20,000 miles), but when I called to book it, the American agent said there was only 1 seat available. Is it possible that Hawaiian doesn’t release all of it’s seats to American to book? Or did I just get an uninformed agent?
@Sarah - Another reader wrote in with the same issue. For some reason, American can see the same amount of seats at the business saver rate on the Hawaiian website, but not the coach seats.
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I read this post back in early March and decided to give it a try. I found a super saver award from OGG to LAS on HA and a super saver from LAS to ORD on AA. I called AA to book the flight and everything was great (22,500 miles redeemed). Now I have checked my reservation again and the HA flight has been changed. It is now arriving at LAS 6 hours later which is obviously to late to catch my flight to Chicago. I am really new to all of this and haven’t even flown much. Was nobody at either airlines going to contact me? Both flights were under one reservation. Who should I contact? AA or HA?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
@Darren – Since you booked the flight using AA miles you should call American Airlines. I’d search for other award flights which meet your needs so that you’re prepared when you call and ask them to change the flights. If there are no flights which work, you should be able to ask them to cancel and redeposit the miles into your account and waive the usual $150 fee. Unfortunately, airlines aren’t very proactive about monitoring your schedule.
Yesterday, I checked flights one-way from PHL-ORD on Aug 3rd and it was 12.5k, today I went back on to purchase and it’s up to 25K. Once flights go up to 25k do they ever come back down to 12.5k or is that it?
Thanks!
@Jasmine - The prices keep on fluctuating, but it may not change until a few days before departure (if at all). That’s why you should always put your flights on hold. If is free to put them on hold and gives you more time to make your decision.
AA is very generous with a schedule changes. Agents will accomodate most changes with flights that have open seats. They are usually not bound by award availability once a schedule change has occurred by aa or their partners. You might even get all AA metal, which isn’t too bad out of ORD and DFW.
@Joe – Very interesting – thanks for sharing. Do you have status with AA?
I am taking a cruise that ends in HNL in September. I need to fly from HNL to DFW but there are no non-stops available using my miles. Is it possible to use my AA miles to take a early morning flight from HNL to LAX on HA and then take another flight a couple hours later to DFW via AA? I want to fly business class on all of the flights so I saw that it would be 40,000 miles for HA which is fine. But would I have to use more AA miles to fly from LAX to DFW?
@Robin - As long as your flight from LAX to DFW is not more than 4 hours apart (or overnight) you will be able to combine 1 segment on Hawaiian Air and the other segment on AA for the same amount of miles as a Hawaii- US award. We’re just using HA to see award availability, but will have to pay the miles charged by AA which is 37.5K 1 way regardless of a HNL-LAX routing or HNL-LAX-DFW routing. However, you’ll have to pay $25 to call in and make the booking.
I just booked two roundtrip flights from SJC to OGG (Maui) using my American miles. The flights ended up being direct on Hawaiian Air. We are not able to book seats until we check in for our flight is what the American agent told me. I’m afraid we will end up split up in middle seats…any information on this. Will Hawaiian book my seats if I call them? I’m flying there for my wedding…I’d really love to sit with my fiance!
@Stephanie Caprino – Congrats on your wedding! I’d call AA and get the Hawaiian Air record locator (this is different from the AA record locator). I’d then call Hawaiian Air or try to select seats online —> http://help.hawaiianair.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/419/~/seat-assignments
Let them know that you’re traveling for your wedding, and I’m sure they’ll do their best to get you sitting next to each other.
Hi there,
I just used my miles to book a round trip from LAS to HNL. The departure date is on Dec 23 and the return date is Dec 31, while my real origin is Miami or Fort Lauderdale…..
The reason I hold the ticket is the price is so high when flying to HNL during Christmas/New Year holiday (1000 coach round from LAS and 1500 coach round from MIA) and I do want to redeem the miles to save around 5000 dollars for 3 people. However, the award tickets for MIA/FLL – LAS are not available now.
My question is : if I ticketed the LAS-HNL round trip ticket (under the same reservation locator and ticket number) and asked the agent to add continental segments ( MIA-LAS or/and LAS-MIA), is the origin/destination fee 150 or 300? For example, on Nov 30 (21 days before departure), I found there are award seats for both MIA -LAS on Dec 21 and LAS-MIA on Jan 1, I would call the agent to add these two segments to my ticket. As I changed both origin and destination, would such change cost me 150 or 300?
Thank you very much. I didn’t realized Hawaii airlines could be booked by AA miles until I search my google reader and found this blog.
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I want to sign up for these cards and have my husband do the same so that we will have enough points for our family of four to travel PHX-HNL next summer on HA. The problem is, we won’t be able to finalize our dates or book until around January. Do you believe there will be seats remaining at that late date? It freaks me out a little to think that, like the other poster above, they may not allow us to select seats until check-in. We have two young daughters and waiting for seat assignments would be too stressful. Any thoughts?
@Carrie – 4 seats on an award flight will be tough and award availability always changes. But you can always do “dummy” searches on AA.com to see what availability looks like. You will be able to select seats if you travel only on American Airlines and don’t include Hawaiian Airlines.
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Currently Im trying to book two award tickets for a return date that only has 25,000 one-way and business class available. There is a 12,500 ticket available two days after the date I want. I know there is a good chance in 10 months AA will change the flight time and Id be eligible to adjust the ticket. Whats your estimate of the likelihood I’d be able to bump the return flight up 2days if I book the cheaper award ticket? Is that too risky?
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@mo - I can’t really say, but you could set ExpertFlyer seat alerts to let you know when a seat opens up.
You mention changes of date/time are free.
On the AA site I see: “A $75 USD award processing charge will apply for a confirmed change to the date on an AAdvantage MileSAAver® and AAnytime® award ticket if the change results in a new outbound travel date that is within 21 days of the original booking date (waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum®, AAdvantage Platinum® and AAdvantage Gold® members using miles from their account).”
That seems like a $75 change fee, correct?
@ET – I believe that was implemented to keep folks from avoiding the late booking fee, but yes, it is a fee.
@MillionMileSecrets But as I read that rule, it applies to ALL changes, not just those close in. (The 21 day component is about the relation between the original departure day and the new one, not the original departure date and the date of the change.)
Am I correct in my understanding?
I want to book 5 round trip award tickets from Boston to Maui for Feb. 2014.
What’s the best way to do this and use the least amount of miles?
I’m ticketed on an AA Award ticket that includes One World partners for a trip in August. For my first domestic leg (DCA to ORD then ORD to DUS), the connection time is very short (40 minutes). If I call AA to try and get an award seat on an earlier flight (there appears to be plenty of inventory), will I be charged the 150 dollar fee?
@David Racine – There’s no change fee if you make a date/time change to your flights.
Daraius, Need you help please, My wife and 3 year old daughter is in Ecuador, We live in in Minnesota. My wife has 50000 miles, daughter 15000 and i have 15000. How can we utilize these miles to offset some of the cost of flights. They will be traveling here begenning of June and returning back to Guayaquil Ecuador in end of July. I was searching but the prices so high. If we use miles for one for example for wife then we can’t purchase just one ticket for the 3 year old daughter. AA does have flights from Guayaquil_Miami_Minneapolis and sometimes have another stop through Chicago. I appreciate if you can help where to start.
Thank You!
Janek.
Sorry Darius I spell you name wrong in the above question,
Janek
@Janek - It is 17.5K for a 1-way in coach. Your wife could book the trip using her miles for 2 1-way tickets from Ecuador to the US for 17.5K X 2 or 35K miles. If there are award seats for 17.5K for the return, both your wife and daughter can buy 2.5K miles from American Airlines and get the 17.5K needed for a return award. Or you can apply for a credit card for the remaining miles. You can check award availability online at AA.com
Is there a way to get an alert if saaver inventory opens up on a certain flight?
Quick question, just booked a flight from the US to the Caribbean for August. Points and everything was good (35K RT), but the taxes of $75pp seemed a bit steep. I am new to this game, so I wanted to see if you had any feedback if this fee/tax amount sounds about right or if its on the high side as for the noted itinerary. Thanks D!
Hi – question about the $75 fee associated with changing the departure date of AA Milesaaver tickets.
The AA website says “A $75 USD award processing charge will apply for a confirmed change to the date on an AAdvantage MileSAAver® and AAnytime® award ticket if the change results in a new outbound travel date that is within 21 days of the ORIGINAL booking date.”
In early March, I booked a Milesaaver ticket departing on May 7, and want to change the departure date of the flight to May 11. May 11 is more than 21 days from the original booking date (in early March) but less than 21 days from today, which is the date on which I would like to make the change to the flight. It appears to me that the $75 fee will not apply to this change because the new departure date is more than 21 days from the ORIGINAL booking date (in early March), even though it is less than 21 days from today. Is that correct?
(The ticket is a British Airways itinerary from Dublin to Boston, connecting in London Heathrow.)
@jam – You can set an ExpertFlyer seat alert.
@Joseph – That sounds around right for a trip to the Caribbean because of the international taxes.
@MC – You will pay the fee if you will travel in less than 21 days from the day you call to make the change.
Thanks for the help!