missjanna

FH and I are planning our honeymoon and we both have FF miles, but with different airlines. Delta won't even let him use his 51,000 miles for a ticket. But when I tried to book using mine on American (I have 27,000) somehow it said we would only have to pay a difference of $105.00 for 2 RT tickets to the Carribean!!! Is this a glitch?? Normally for 2 RT tickets I would need 60,000 miles!! And fill fare would run us $1200 total!!

Thanks in advance!!

missjanna

Meant to type full fare...it's a Monday, please excuse me!!

tcapp

I have Delta FF points. Why would they not let him use his points for a ticket?

Patty

Are you sure it wasn't saying that you could purchase enough additional miles to redeem ONE ticket for $105? When are you traveling? North America to Caribbean economy awards on AA are 35K miles for peak season dates and 30K miles for off peak dates (Sep 7-Nov 14).

There are some reduced mileage awards that require a cash co-payment but the co-payment amounts are either $125 or $225, not $105. Plus I don't think these special mileage awards can be booked online.

Patty

tcapp,
I think the OP meant there were no award seats using Delta Skymiles.

missjanna

I'm pretty sure. We're traveling in May, which is off season. When I was looking to use the miles for my flight alone, it said I would have to pay a difference of $51.25. When I added my FH for his ticket, that price doubled, which is why it's giving me $102.70. This would be from JFK to AUA.

It is allowing me to book the award travel online, you just have to select the Advantage Award option when searching for flights.

Patty

Oops, sorry. I was off by 5K. That should read peak season = 30K per ticket and off peak season = 25K per ticket from North America to the Caribbean.

Patty

That $51.35 per passenger is the taxes that you have to pay on international awards. If you look under Award Summary, under Miles per Ticket and Miles, it should still say 30000 and 60000, respectively.

missjanna

So that means we would still have to pay a difference? I was fully expecting to see the total come to around $700, or somewhere in that ballpark! Does this mean it will only show the taxes now and the balance of the fare later when we book it?

Patty

If you use the award booking function, it will show you what flights are available using miles regardless of whether you have enough miles to complete the transaction. It won't show any fare balance later because you're not booking paid flights.

If I understand correctly, you're trying to use miles for 1 ticket and purchase the 2nd ticket, right? You would need to do this two separate transactions. You're also short 3000 miles for the 1 award ticket so you would need to purchase these miles. I don't know if AA allows you to purchase miles during the award redemption process or you have to purchase the miles first as I've never needed to do this.

So you'll need to pay whatever the fare is for the 1 paid ticket, plus the cost of the additional miles, plus the $51.35 in taxes for the 1 award ticket. Possibly this would need to be done as 3 separate transactions.

LeslieC

Patty is correct. The $51.25 is the taxes payable on the award ticket. She is also correct that when booking award travel online, it will show the number of miles required but doesn't compare this to your mileage balance until you proceed to the purchase step..at which point it will tell you that you don't have enough miles for even one award ticket. You'll need to first top off your mileage balance with the 3,000 miles you need, by going online to purchase miles. This will cost you $82.50 plus a $30 transaction fee = $112.50. It may take several days or a week for the purchased miles to be credited to your account. Then you can reserve the 'award' ticket for the cost of the addition $51.25 in tax. Another option so you don't have to wait and risk the award seats being used up, is to use the AA "Special Mileage" awards. For 20,000 miles plus a $125 copay, you can also fly to the Carribean on award travel. The $51.25 will also be added. You can read about this by clicking on the Advantage program, then selecting Advantage Program Partners, then selecting Airlines and then AA Special Awards. Problem is, you cannot book these Special Awards online so you have to call AAdvantage and there will now be an additional $15 service charge for booking with a live agent.

Patty is also correct that when reserving one award ticket and one paid ticket, you have to do these as two separate transactions. You could experiment first by searching paid RT flights by Fare just to see what a good fare would be. Then, this might color your selection of an award seat flight if several are available.

Assuming you have topped off the 3,000 miles you need, you can then reserve and "hold" the award seat. Go back in as a separate transaction and book the paid RT ticket by first selecting search by "Schedule" rather than by Fare. Select the flights to match your award ticket that's on hold. Then select your preferred seat assignment for the paid ticket.

Now go back to your award reservation that is on hold by selecting Reservations, then My Reservations. Go into that reservation and make your seat selection to pair with the paid ticket. Last, go ahead and "purchase" the award seat.

If you choose to book the Reduced Mileage award w/ $125 copy via an agent, you can also ask that it be put on hold while you complete the purchase transaction for the other ticket (or just prior to calling, bring up your reserved "paid" ticket online) so that when the agent confirms the award seat, you can go ahead and complete the purchase transaction for the paid seat online. This way you don't have to pay the $15 service on the paid ticket plus you can earn the extra 1,000 miles for booking that one online.