How To Use American Airlines Miles

How To Use American Airlines Miles

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While many long-time OMAAT readers are familiar with the ins and outs of redeeming miles with an assortment of programs, there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t get a question about how to redeem miles with one airline or another.

I wrote a post right after the merger with US Airways with the details of redeeming American AAdvantage miles, but it’s been a few years, and some things have changed, so I figured it was worth an update.

Once you know the rules, it’s pretty easy to use American miles, so I thought I’d go through the main points of the program, at least on the redemption side.

Redeeming AAdvantage miles for travel on American

If you’re traveling exclusively on American, AAdvantage does offer increased availability for their “AAnytime awards,” which start at double the cost of “SAAver” awards.

AAdvantage-award-types

AAnytime awards require a downright excessive number of miles, in my opinion, and don’t make sense unless you have a ton of miles and extremely limited flexibility.

So for the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to assume that you’re only interested in saver awards.

As far as the other rules are concerned, AAnytime and SAAver awards are equivalent, but I thought this was a good distinction to clarify up front.

Redeeming AAdvantage miles on oneworld and other partner airlines

One of the main tricks to finding saver level award space is to leverage partners as much as possible. American’s award availability has been incredibly stingy to the point of being embarrassing the past few years.

They’re not even good about releasing unsold space to award inventory just prior to departure anymore, so it’s generally pretty depressing in premium cabins.


American international business class 

Fortunately, AAdvantage miles can be redeemed on all oneworld carriers, which gives you a good chunk of airlines to choose from:

Alaska Airlines
American Airlines
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
Finnair
Iberia
Japan Airlines
Malaysia Airlines
Qantas
Qatar Airways
Royal Air Maroc
Royal Jordanian
SriLankan Airlines
oneworld airlines

As well as the following partner carriers (with some caveats that we’ll get into later):

Air Tahiti Nui
Cape Air
China Southern
Fiji Airways
GOL
Hawaiian Airlines
Seaborne Virgin Islands
American Airlines AAdvantage Partner Airlines (non-oneworld)

How to find AAdvantage award availability

While you can use your American miles for any of the above partners, not all these carriers show up on aa.com.

It’s also worth noting aa.com won’t show complicated routings. You’re allowed to make multiple connections, and can have very long layovers on international itineraries (up to 23 hours and 59 minutes), but the website won’t display those options by default.

You can still redeem your miles for flights that don’t display on the website, you just need to search elsewhere, and then call reservations with your preferred flights.

My favorite places to search for award space on oneworld carriers are as follows, though many of these will also display on ExpertFlyer:

For flights on:
Search for space on:
Alaska
Alaska
American
British Airways
American Airlines
Alaska
American
British Airways
British Airways
American
Asia Miles
British Airways
Cathay Pacific
American
Asia Miles
British Airways*
Japan Air
Qantas
Finnair
American*
British Airways
Iberia
American
British Airways
Iberia
Japan Airlines
Alaska
American
Asia Miles
British Airways
Japan Air
Qantas
Malaysia Airlines
American
British Airways
Qantas
Alaska
American
Asia Miles
British Airways
Qantas
Qatar Airways
American
Asia Miles
British Airways
Royal Jordanian
American
Asia Miles
British Airways
S7 Airlines
British Airways
SriLankan Airlines
American
British Airways
Where To Search for oneworld Award Space

For non-oneworld partners it’s a bit trickier, and in many cases you’ll need to call:

For flights on:
Search for space on:
Air Tahiti Nui
ExpertFlyer
Alaska Airlines
American
ExpertFlyer
Saver space on Alaska
Etihad Airways
“Guest” space on Etihad
Fiji Airways
ExpertFlyer
Hawaiian Airlines
Different availability for all partners
Use partner site or call
Jet Airways
Call reservations

Fortunately, AA agents are competent for the most part (at least at searching space), so calling shouldn’t be too painful.

American has a zone-based award chart

Programs with a “zone-based” chart charge a given number of miles for awards between two regions. American defines their regions as follows:

AAdvantage Award Zone:
Countries Included:
North America
U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico
Central America
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
Caribbean
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Trinidad/Tobago, Turks/Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands
South America Zone 1
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Manaus (Brazil), Peru
South America Zone 2
Argentina, Brazil (excluding Manaus), Chile, Falkland Islands, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela
Europe
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom
Middle East
Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Indian Sub Continent
Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Africa
Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Melilla, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Asia Zone 1
Japan, Korea
Asia Zone 2
Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
South Pacific
American Samoa and Samoa, Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
American Airlines AAdvantage Regions Zones

So if you’re wondering how many miles it will cost you to travel between Nashville and Shanghai, just look at the chart for flights between the US and China.

We get a surprising number of questions about this, but your domestic and short-haul flights are including in the mileage cost of a zone-based award (pending availability, of course).

There is one huge exception with AAdvantage though:

American generally doesn’t allow you to transit via a third region

This is honestly the most maddening and, in my opinion, stupid rule out there.

American has a variety of routing restrictions, which limit how you can structure your award itinerary. This includes rules about Maximum Permitted Mileage on award tickets, and AAdvantage requires the “significant” carrier in an itinerary to publish a fare in order for a routing to be valid.

The “no third region” rule grinds my gears because it seems to mainly be based on old relationships, and doesn’t take into account the current route network. So you can’t connect in Asia on the way to Australia, for example, even though every other legacy carrier would allow the routing.


JAL business class

Want to travel between the two oneworld hubs of Santiago and Hong Kong? You literally can’t on a single award.

There are, however, a few exceptions to the rule:

Traveling Between:
And:
Third-Region Connection Allowed In:
North America
Central America or
South America Zone 1
North America
South America Zone 2
North America
Europe
North America
Middle East
Europe
North America
Indian Sub Continent
Europe
Hong Kong*
Middle East
North America
Africa
Europe
Middle East
North America
Asia Zone 1
North America
Asia Zone 2
Asia Zone 1
North America
South Pacific
Central America or
South America Zone 1
South America Zone 2
Central America or
South America Zone 1
Europe
Central America or
South America Zone 1
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
Europe
Central America or
South America Zone 1
Africa
Europe
Central America or
South America Zone 1
Asia Zone 1
Central America or
South America Zone 1
Asia Zone 2
Central America or
South America Zone 1
South Pacific
South America Zone 2
South America Zone 2
Europe
South America Zone 2
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
Europe
South America Zone 2
Africa
Europe
Middle East
South America Zone 2
Asia Zone 1
South America Zone 2
Asia Zone 2
South America Zone 2
South Pacific
Europe
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
Europe
Africa
Middle East
Europe
Asia Zone 1
Asia Zone 2
Middle East
Europe
Asia Zone 2
Middle East
Europe
South Pacific
Asia Zone 1
Asia Zone 2
Middle East
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
Asia Zone 1
Middle East
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
Asia Zone 2
Indian Sub Continent / Middle East
South Pacific
Middle East
Africa
Asia Zone 1
Asia Zone 2
Middle East
Africa
Asia Zone 2
Middle East
Africa
South Pacific
Middle East
Asia Zone 1
Asia Zone 2
Asia Zone 1
South Pacific
Asia Zone 2
Asia Zone 2
South Pacific
American Airlines AAdvantage Routing Exceptions

The “Doha” exception is specifically for flights on Qatar Airways, and you must both arrive and depart Doha on Qatar to take advantage of this rule.


Qatar Airways first class lounge, Doha

Similarly, the “Hong Kong” exception is specifically for flights on Cathay Pacific, and you must both arrive and depart Hong Kong.

And as of April 2019 you can connect in Abu Dhabi as well, provided you’re flying Etihad.

It’s also worth noting you can’t double dip — a routing from the US to Europe to Doha to South Africa won’t price as a single award.

Stopovers, open-jaws, and one-ways

American no longer allows stopovers on award tickets. Period.

You can have connections of less than 24 hours on international itineraries, but that’s it.

However, you can have open-jaws to your heart’s content, given AAdvantage prices all awards as a series of one-ways.

Holding AAdvantage award tickets

American will allow you to hold award tickets for five days, which is incredibly helpful if you’re transferring in points from SPG.

The exception (with AAdvantage there’s always an exception), is for travel involving Malaysia Airlines. American still has a manual ticketing process that can result in awards not being issued for up to 24 hours after you’ve provided payment. This doesn’t play nicely with the ticketing deadlines Malaysia imposes on their award inventory, so it’s not uncommon for Malaysia flights to fall out of the record, even when you think you’ve ticketed your award.

Many AAdvantage agents are aware of this, and won’t hold flights on these carriers for more than 24 hours. Until about a week ago this situation also applied to tickets on Iberia, but longer holds seem to be working on Iberia at the moment.

The good news is that both Malaysia and Iberia consistently return seats to award inventory, and if for some reason the flights are pulled after ticketing but prior to final issuance, it’s a pretty easy fix.

Changing AAdvantage awards

American doesn’t charge any fees to change award tickets as long as the origin and destination and award type remains the same. You can change the routing, dates, times, airlines, and so forth.

If you do change the origin, destination, or award type (like switching from an AAnytime award to a SAAver award, downgrading, etc.), the change fee is $150.

It’s also worth noting that changing the combination of carriers can equate to a change in award type. This isn’t really published, so you’d think that the award types just consist of “AAnytime” and “SAAver,” but the SAAver awards are broken down a bit more beyond that:

  • American only
  • American + oneworld
  • American + non-oneworld partner
  • oneworld only
  • non-oneworld partner only
  • oneworld + non-oneworld partner
  • American + oneworld + non-oneworld partner

So if you have an award from say, Phoenix to Hong Kong, there are several possible combinations (depending on availability). As an example:

Phoenix to San Diego (American) to Tokyo (JAL) to Hong Kong (JAL)

is a different type of award than:

Phoenix to Dallas (American) to Hong Kong (American)

But you could change the first award to this with no penalty:

Phoenix to Los Angeles (American) to Hong Kong (Cathay Pacific)

Clear as mud, right?

For Asia it’s relatively straightforward, as there are only so many options, but this becomes more relevant for awards to Africa and the Middle East where there’s more potential to mix partners.

Canceling American awards

In order to redeposit an AAdvantage award ticket, American charges $150 for the first passenger, and $25 for each additional passenger on the same record locator.

In other words, if you need to redeposit an award ticket and have three people on the same record locator, you’d pay a total of $200 in cancellation fees, which is comparatively reasonable.

The policy for making a change from one award type to another is that you must reinstate the award ticket, which will cost $150 (though this generally isn’t charged if you’re upgrading the class of service).

Getting more American miles

Outside of flying, which is honestly probably the worst way to accumulate AA miles nowadays, there are several other ways to rack up miles on American.

You can also technically transfer points between accounts, but it’s not a good value, so I don’t really recommend it unless you’re in a pinch and just need a few thousand for a certain redemption.

Bottom line

Despite the quirks, American miles are still incredibly valuable.

And once you understand the general rules and guidelines you’ll find many more opportunities to use your miles.

How have you used your AAdvantage miles? Any favorite redemptions?

Conversations (54)
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  1. Elizabeth Carty Guest

    Can anyone recommend a European Destination in 2018 that I can bring my family to (4 total) at the end of June and into July using miles saver rates? In other words, I only have 240,000 miles to use so each flight cannot be more than 60,000 miles. It seems every place I plug in requires 50,000-100,000 per segment!

  2. Jennifer Montgomery Guest

    Hi Tiffany,

    Thanks for the explanation. It's all fairly confusing for someone like myself who has never booked using miles before.... If I understand what you wrote correctly, it might make more sense for me to fly to mainland Europe rather than London in order to not incur the BA fuel surcharge when using AA miles. Since my husband and I dont really care where we fly in and out of (just need to be...

    Hi Tiffany,

    Thanks for the explanation. It's all fairly confusing for someone like myself who has never booked using miles before.... If I understand what you wrote correctly, it might make more sense for me to fly to mainland Europe rather than London in order to not incur the BA fuel surcharge when using AA miles. Since my husband and I dont really care where we fly in and out of (just need to be in England mid June 2018 for a wedding), it seems like it would be much cheaper to fly to Spain or France or Italy from California......

  3. Andrew Guest

    Any tips on qf?

    I found U availability on EF but doesn't show on AA and Fiji call centre couldn't see it either

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ Andrew -- Does the space show on the BA or JAL tools? It could be phantom otherwise.

    2. Andrew Guest

      Yep it shows on ba, asiamiles, QF etc. but not on Alaska either. Is well within 330 days though.

  4. Gregory Vaysman Guest

    On several occasions American's agents wouldn't see availability on Iberia when Iberia's own website show plenty of it. Is this possible or agents were not experienced enough?

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ Gregory Vaysman -- Iberia makes more space available to members of their own program. I'd check the British Airways tool or Expert Flyer to get the best sense of partner award space.

  5. Pierre Diamond

    Hi,

    How can one access the reward flights availability on other airlines information on the BA site if one is not a member of the BA FF program?

    It seems that the first thing you are asked is to log-in. I know I could register with BA but it is not enough. Apparently the info is only displayed if you have enough Avios for the trip you are considering. I have no Avios, just AA redeemable miles.

    Thank you.

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ Pierre -- You have to create an account, but you don't need to have miles to search: https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-search-tool/

  6. George Member

    @hank

    You're welcome. :)
    Lan is really making a shitty merger with Tam, which is very sad.
    If you go to www.pontosmultiplus.com.br and input the data you are looking for, you will see that there is award availability for pretty much all the flights and dates. And right now they are running a weekend special where a lot of flights cost around 3.500 points - PROMO fare (which is very cheap).

  7. lee laurino New Member

    thanks for such a timely article, i am trying to use all my AA pt this winter but was told by someone who 'claimed to know all about FF Pt" that AA was not a good source for flights to Asia.....
    just not sure i can skillfully find the best fares.

  8. George Member

    @Hank
    Tam/JJ still is avaiable, but the brazillian market is quite big and the Multiplus currency (like Aeroplan to Canada or Asiamiles to HK) is easy to acquire for a regular non average brazilian flyer. What this means is that JJ is still the major and easy choice (albeit not always the cheap) for many brazilians who does not know anything about miles and other airlines companies.
    I recently redeemed the following award...

    @Hank
    Tam/JJ still is avaiable, but the brazillian market is quite big and the Multiplus currency (like Aeroplan to Canada or Asiamiles to HK) is easy to acquire for a regular non average brazilian flyer. What this means is that JJ is still the major and easy choice (albeit not always the cheap) for many brazilians who does not know anything about miles and other airlines companies.
    I recently redeemed the following award with AA : FRA-MAD with LA, MAD-BOG with IB and BOG-GRU with JJ.
    The avaiability is quite sarce, but it exists. And JJ provide just some of the awards for the other OW alliance.
    There will be changes, I think, when both Latam Pass (Lan) and Latam Fidelidade (Tam) merge in the future, but I doubt it will be good for the passenger.

    1. hank Guest

      George,
      Thanks for the reply. I tried again today to get a connecting flight from GRU to CWB (Curitiba) on TAM (JJ) by calling LATAM in the US directly. They were unable to find any connecting miles award flights for me with JJ (the still semi-independent operator in Brasil).
      LATAM and TAM are still in the OneWorld system and the person on the phone didn't understand why she couldn't get a flight.

  9. brian Guest

    TVT: looks like from above, the change in time has to be 90mins or more before you'd get the waiver

  10. Hank Guest

    Tiffany
    Yes. TAM has been difficult in the past but now they have completey stopped even though they are OneWorld partners. Is this a breach of contract with AA? Is there a work around? Otherwise AAMiles are only good to Rio and Paolo.

  11. The Value Traveler Guest

    I tried to change my current booking of KUL-HKG-SFO-PDX on a J ticket in CX, to an Etihad business class availability of KUL-AUH-LAX-PDX , and the Australian agent (which you forgot to mention about the Etihad quirk) told me I'd have to cancel the ticket first ($150+ additional pax...there are 4 of us) and then rebook the new flight. HOWEVER, they sent me an email recently there was a change in the times.....the departing flight...

    I tried to change my current booking of KUL-HKG-SFO-PDX on a J ticket in CX, to an Etihad business class availability of KUL-AUH-LAX-PDX , and the Australian agent (which you forgot to mention about the Etihad quirk) told me I'd have to cancel the ticket first ($150+ additional pax...there are 4 of us) and then rebook the new flight. HOWEVER, they sent me an email recently there was a change in the times.....the departing flight on CX out of HKG is now 6:45PM instead of 5:55PM.....so can I cancel and book the Etihad flight without incurring the fees?

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ The Value Traveler -- You can certainly call again and see if you can cancel with no penalty given the time change (though as it's less than an hour I don't know if they will), but the info the agent gave you was correct.

      You were changing from an AA + oneworld award from Asia 2, to two new awards -- one from Asia 2 to the Middle East on a non-oneworld partner, and one from the Middle East to North America on a non-oneworld partner + AA.

  12. Evan M Torch Guest

    You obviously have not flown through London much, perhaps because you rank higher than I do (gold level--lifetime million miler). Even just TRANSITING THROUGH HEATHROW you have to pay HUNDREDS of dollars in taxes! I have made it 90% of the way thru the redemption of business class ticket awards to a European city and been stopped in my tracks by a $1500--$2000 fee charge.
    Doug Parker and his gang use the insane British...

    You obviously have not flown through London much, perhaps because you rank higher than I do (gold level--lifetime million miler). Even just TRANSITING THROUGH HEATHROW you have to pay HUNDREDS of dollars in taxes! I have made it 90% of the way thru the redemption of business class ticket awards to a European city and been stopped in my tracks by a $1500--$2000 fee charge.
    Doug Parker and his gang use the insane British transit taxes to discourage booking AA awards to Europe, at least from Atlanta, by sending every passenger award flier through London.

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ Evan M Torch -- I fly through London all the time, but I think I understand the confusion here. There aren't any extra fees for transiting London -- the airport taxes are equivalent to other European airports.

      The fees come into play if you're flying British Airways, as they levy hefty "fuel surcharges" on award tickets -- even when they're ticketed by other carriers.

      The UK also has pricey departure taxes, but those only...

      @ Evan M Torch -- I fly through London all the time, but I think I understand the confusion here. There aren't any extra fees for transiting London -- the airport taxes are equivalent to other European airports.

      The fees come into play if you're flying British Airways, as they levy hefty "fuel surcharges" on award tickets -- even when they're ticketed by other carriers.

      The UK also has pricey departure taxes, but those only apply if you're originating in the UK, not if you're just connecting.

  13. Nathan Diamond

    My absolute all-time favourite was, barely a few months prior to their prior devaluation, booking a JFK-LAX-SYD-MEL. F with AA on their transcon A321T in 1A, F with QF on their A380 in 1A, followed by the short J on QF to my home port in MEL. All up? 72,500 Advantage miles! *sigh*

  14. the award tourist Guest

    P.S. Canada and Alaska are separate from the the Contiguous 48 States; Hawaii is a separate region too

  15. the award tourist Guest

    Tiffany - are you sure about your regions? It seems that Caribbean is separate from NA and Central America is separate from South America region 1

    https://www.americanairlines.com.au/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/oneworld-and-other-airline-partner-award-chart.jsp

  16. Christian Guest

    I love the award chart prices to Yugoslavia. Booking by phone might be easier, though.

  17. kakazulu Guest

    actually on the phone with an aa rep and manager now...says the doha rule is no longer...asking 70K PHL-->DOH and then another 40K DOH-->BKK in business...told them to go to hell...aa has seriously gone to complete sh*t

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ akazulu -- The Doha exception doesn't apply for travel to Asia 2, just the regions I listed above.

  18. hank gehman Guest

    I can no longer make an AAdvantage reservation from SFO to Curitiba (CWB) Brasil. I am told that now that TAM has been absorbed by LATAM that TAM no longer gives mile award seats. If I book a pay flight there is no problem. The connecting flight from Sao Paolo has an American flight number and is operated by TAM.
    Purchasing a separate ticket from GRU to CWB starts a new itinerary and I...

    I can no longer make an AAdvantage reservation from SFO to Curitiba (CWB) Brasil. I am told that now that TAM has been absorbed by LATAM that TAM no longer gives mile award seats. If I book a pay flight there is no problem. The connecting flight from Sao Paolo has an American flight number and is operated by TAM.
    Purchasing a separate ticket from GRU to CWB starts a new itinerary and I am limited to one bag of 50lbs. So I would have to pay an exorbitant charge for my two overweight (70 lbs for Brasil) bags.
    What is happening? Is there a solution? Are all my AA miles useless now?

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ hank gehman -- Yeah, TAM has always been pretty horrible about releasing award space, unfortunately. :(

  19. John H New Member

    A little nugget on miles re-instatement fees when canceling an award ticket. i called AA to cancel a DFW-LAX-HKG-DFW award itinerary. I was fully prepared to pay the $150 to re-instate the miles to my account. The agent told me that AA had modified my itinerary. I was unaware of this change. My outbound from DFW was changed from a 1:00 pm departure to a 9:00 pm departure (still plenty of time to meet the...

    A little nugget on miles re-instatement fees when canceling an award ticket. i called AA to cancel a DFW-LAX-HKG-DFW award itinerary. I was fully prepared to pay the $150 to re-instate the miles to my account. The agent told me that AA had modified my itinerary. I was unaware of this change. My outbound from DFW was changed from a 1:00 pm departure to a 9:00 pm departure (still plenty of time to meet the 11:45 pm LAX-HKG segment departure). Since the change in departure time was more than 90 minutes and was initiated by AA, they waived the $150 change fee. Disappointed to cancel the trip, but fee waiver took a lot of the sting out of the transaction.

  20. KW Guest

    Cathay business HKG-LAX for 130k for 2 people (10% back due to Aviator card). Partner redemptions are the way to go!

  21. Andy Gold

    Thanks Tiffany! This was really helpful!

  22. Rob New Member

    We were planning to print our AAdvantage miles and use them for kindling over the Winter.

    These *may* offer a little more value so thanks for the post.

  23. MikeBoston Guest

    Before chart adjustments, in Dec 15 I used AA mikes for F class BOS to BKK via HKG. BOS to HKG, 16.5 hours direct. On return, had 23.5 hour layover in HKG, so got to maximize a one day visit. Gave me chance to visit both Wing during 3.5 hour layover to BKK and Pier n return flight. Total cost $110 in taxes. Amazing.

  24. Matt Guest

    What partners are bookable on AA's website? Doesn't seem to be too many...

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ Matt -- In theory: airberlin, Alaska, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian, Iberia*, Royal Jordanian, and Qantas. In practice, many of those show phantom space, or don't display space that is available. I only rely on aa.com for flights on American, Alaska, or British Airways.

  25. brteacher Guest

    Tiffany, I'm pretty sure all available HA space shows up on AA.com (interisland flights, Asia, S. Pacific).

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ brteacher -- I've seen both false positives and false negatives show up on aa.com when it comes to Hawaiian, so I don't really trust it. In theory it does display online though, yes.

  26. ktide Guest

    Thank you so much for this - it is quite helpful. However, I have two questions regarding award tickets that combine AA and other oneworld partners.

    First, does the flight routing need to be a ticketed route for the oneworld carrier? (For instance, let's say I was trying to use my miles to book a J ticket from BUF to HKG. So long as AA has sAAver award space from BUF to ORD and CX...

    Thank you so much for this - it is quite helpful. However, I have two questions regarding award tickets that combine AA and other oneworld partners.

    First, does the flight routing need to be a ticketed route for the oneworld carrier? (For instance, let's say I was trying to use my miles to book a J ticket from BUF to HKG. So long as AA has sAAver award space from BUF to ORD and CX has space from ORD, does it not matter that there is no CX service from Buffalo? [what I mean, is that one cannot use the CX website to search a flight from Buffalo to HKG - so I wasn't sure if it needs to be a "ticketable" route to be possible?]

    Second, provided sAAver ability is there, is the MPM the only/main limitation on domestic AA flights to one's international gateway. (Using an example again, let's say I was flying DEL-AUH-JFK on EY and found space on AA from JFK - DCA - BUF. Could this be all on one award ticket from the Indian subcontinent to the US?)

    Thanks!

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ ktide -- An airline can "publish a fare" without necessarily offering that origin/destination city on their website. You can check published fares on ExpertFlyer, but neither of the examples you gave would be a problem.

  27. Flyer Fun Guest

    Well, for AA awards, I use Award Nexus and I usually search the BA method on Award Nexus. It is a paid site that searches specified airline sites. It charges for searches. When I find availability on BA I call American to book.

    So, for example, I have a First Class ticket on Sunday, 9-10-17, But I want to fly earlier. I want fly to First Class or Business from 9-5-17 to 9-8-17 (4...

    Well, for AA awards, I use Award Nexus and I usually search the BA method on Award Nexus. It is a paid site that searches specified airline sites. It charges for searches. When I find availability on BA I call American to book.

    So, for example, I have a First Class ticket on Sunday, 9-10-17, But I want to fly earlier. I want fly to First Class or Business from 9-5-17 to 9-8-17 (4 days) BKK-NYC. I set an email search, it searches BA every day and sends me an email every morning. Right now there is availability, but I have not made the change yet.

    Suppose I do a search BKK-JFK (on BA) and don't find anything. I to on Award Nexis and search BKK-SAN, BKK-LAX, BKK-SFO, BKK-Ord, and BKK-BOS. It that does not show anything then I do a daily email search. Eventually, I find something. Once I have booked, I have a trip. I try to add on a connector. Also, I then start searching direct BKK-NYC.

    This has several advantages over searching BA directly, like I sometimes do. (1) Saves hours every week I am doing a search. (2) In my experience, when I do too many searches on BA, the website gets sticky (maybe it is my imagination). Award Nexis has some sort of better access, so that is not a problem.

    Anyway, that is how I do it. Just though I would let everyone in on it. For the record, I am a customer of the site, and nothing more. Except as a customer, I so have not any relationship with Award Nexus.

  28. Richard Guest

    To Lucky's point about expensive Aanytime award tickets, just today I tried to book a one way from Cancun to Philadelphia on Jan 1 using AA miles. Now I will grant you that Jan 1 is a very busy travel day, but a minimum of 80,000 miles for a coach one way. Really American ????

  29. Bill N DC Diamond

    For my RTW17 trip I used AA miles for Etihad Apartment SYD-AUH. Took 100,000 but w AA cc get 10,000 back. Couldn't find availability for AUH-IAD on AA, so transferred into Etihad guest program and booked direct with Etihad (123,000 miles ). But on a Dreamliner-9 with enclosed suites First half of trip on Korean JFK-ICN-SYD. A 747-8i & 380. For 1st class just 120,000 miles this is a deal! ✈️

  30. echino Diamond

    I don't think you can redeem aa miles on WestJet.

  31. George Member

    This just makes me miss US Airways FFP so much more, lol.

  32. JL Member

    Thanks! Love this detailed explanation and outlining the quirks.

    One thing I'm curious is for places like the NYC area, does changing the destination from say JFK to LGA or EWR count as changing the origin/destination? Or are all 3 airports treated as "NYC" and interchangeable as far as avoiding change fees is concerned?

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ JL -- American doesn't recognize co-terminals when it comes to changing the origin/destination.

  33. High end hobo Guest

    Some mistakes here.

    1) you cannot use AA miles for travel on West Jet

    2) you cannot use AA miles for travel on HA to/from mainland US

    3)You can search for Fiji award space on Alaska site
    4) you can search for Jet space on Delta site

    1. Tiffany OMAAT

      @ echino @ High end hobo -- In re: WestJet, I didn't think so either, but saw it when I was double-checking things on AA.com last night. I had assumed I was missing something, but I am leaning back towards my first inclination now. Thanks :)

      As far as FJ goes, AA has access to more space than Alaska does, so you don't want to rely on that.

  34. Travel With Leo Guest

    My favorite redemption of AA miles was this July. Etihad First Class Apartment from London to Abu Dhabi for 62.5K AA miles!!

  35. DCjoe Guest

    If you are looking for Qantas space you pretty much need to search the Qantas site. For some reason aa.com seems to show about 5% of the true availability, so search Qantas and then call AA to book.

  36. Sergey Guest

    Thanks, I found out something new. Please write a detailed article on how to use How To Use Delta Miles. Also want to read.

  37. Rich New Member

    Chart links are broken

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Elizabeth Carty Guest

Can anyone recommend a European Destination in 2018 that I can bring my family to (4 total) at the end of June and into July using miles saver rates? In other words, I only have 240,000 miles to use so each flight cannot be more than 60,000 miles. It seems every place I plug in requires 50,000-100,000 per segment!

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Jennifer Montgomery Guest

Hi Tiffany, Thanks for the explanation. It's all fairly confusing for someone like myself who has never booked using miles before.... If I understand what you wrote correctly, it might make more sense for me to fly to mainland Europe rather than London in order to not incur the BA fuel surcharge when using AA miles. Since my husband and I dont really care where we fly in and out of (just need to be in England mid June 2018 for a wedding), it seems like it would be much cheaper to fly to Spain or France or Italy from California......

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Tiffany OMAAT

@ Sam -- South Pacific

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