beachgirl86

Hi,

My husband and I honeymooned in Hawaii last month and sighed up for the American Airlines program, earning FF miles. Flying from Boston to Hawaii gave us each a little over 10K miles.

I looked at the awards charts and noticed that it's only 25K miles to redeem for a trip to Caribbean and 35K miles to redeem a trip to Hawaii...BUT this is under the Mile SAAver awards. How easy is it to redeem award tickets under the Mile SAAver, especially to popular places like Hawaii and the Caribbean?

Patrick

I believe the actual number is 330 -- that's the number of days ahead of the flight that you can book. I always plan way ahead and know when I want to go, so that's what I do, book my free flights on the first day you can. Once trying to get two free business class tickets to Europe I missed my deadline and was one or two days late -- I could only get one free ticket and had to change my choice of dates to get the two. What's more you can only book your outbound flight. They will hold it for you until the 330 days before your return flight and then you can call back and book that.

On the other hand, playing their "time game" I've loved my AA awards. You wouldn't believe the number of free trips -- to Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and about a dozen to Europe I've done on AA miles.

I also play the other games, have their AA Citibank card and charge everything to get miles, do ATT for long distance to get bonus miles -- the list is almost endless.

So to answer your question, it's not hard if you plan ahead!

beachgirl86

Patrick,

I was hoping you would answer, as you seem to be the resident AA/miles expert

Thanks for your tips! I am a teacher, so I will always be booking far in advance because I know I can only travel in the summer and certain other weeks of the school year.

I was plesantly surprised when I looked at the awards charts today to see how few miles one actually needs to get an awards ticket. I would definitely be using miles for Caribbean and Hawaii, so I will make sure (once I get enough miles) to book 330 days in advance. Thanks again!

Gardyloo

AA's is one of the better FF programs IMO; it can be relatively easy to attain elite status, which gives you more access to bonus miles as well as easier upgrades, an easier time getting award seats, all that. You mighr want to go lurk on the AA board at flyertalk.com for pointers. There are ways, for example, of seeing award inventory on given flights, so that if you decide you'd like to try for an award, you don't waste your time chasing seats on flights with no vacancies. Knowing in advance that there are seats available makes getting them lots easier

Patty

I noticed that AA changed the name of their standard award this year from Plan AAhead to Mile SAAver signaling a change that they may not always release award seats at the 330 day mark. I don't know in reality whether that has happened. I've always found AA award availabilty to be pretty good (I've never booked more than 6 months ahead). As a matter of fact, in a recent test by Inside Flyer, Delta and AA came out on top as far as award availability of major US carriers.

http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=1853

I still wouldn't get your hopes up too high for Hawaii though. Hawaii is one of the most popular awards and difficult on any airline (even AA and DL) and requires a great deal of flexibility. The Caribbean is usually not a problem. BTW the 25K Caribbean award is only for a very short span of time between Sep-Nov (hurricane season). The rest of the year, it's 30K.

Gardyloo

American kindly lets you know which destinations might have easier award availability. See their "Hot Spots" listings at this url: http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...ots/main.jhtml

Jacqueline1212

Never had a problem redeeming miles with AA or UA. Delta,however, is another story! Go for it.