American award travel to Europe
 

I need to learn about Americans frequent-flier program. I have a reservation on hold from Philadelphia to AMS next March. The flight out is direct; the flight home has a connection in Heathrow.

The cost for this flight would be 40,000 miles and $174 in fees.

I see that American has a liberal policy about changing flights if they become available.

If I was able to change to the direct flight home and avoid the connection in Heathrow, would American credit me the fees?

The absolute best place to get an answer on FF awards is Flyertalk. Those folks know all the ins and outs of award redemption.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...s-airways-744/

What is the fee difference?

American only offers one-way mileage redemptions, so what I'd do is book the outbound PHL-AMS flight and be patient for a while before you book the return flight. The fees you're seeing are most likely for British Airways-operated flights on one or both the return sectors (AMS-LHR, LHR-PHL) and getting them refunded by AA can be a serious pain in the tuckus. Doable, but no fun. Worst case, you'd have to use BA after all, but at least you'd have your own money in the bank in the meantime.

Gardyloo - to make sure I understand:

I can right now book the outbound. And...I can change the date and time of the outbound at no fee IF i find a different itinerary?

Do you have any insights onto how likely I would be to get the direct USAir flights using FF miles in March? I know it's not a popular time to travel to this neck of the woods.

And...how likely would I be to snag another BA flight at the 20K level?

Thanks...I can't even figure out which thread to post on Flyertalk - it seems the Preconsolidation area is very active, but aren't we not post consolidation?

I appreciate any insights,

k.

Post in the post-consolidation thread since that represents the current program.

Yes, you can change the itinerary without a fee as long as the original city pair (PHL and AMS) remains the same. There might be additional fees if you transfer at an airport (e.g. London) that has landing fees or taxes different from PHL and AMS by themselves.

Guessing at availability that far out is pretty useless, especially given the fact that US and AA are merging their operations, redeploying their fleets, and all that in the interim. However if the past is any guidance, I'd say that getting space on the AMS-PHL return nonstop would be decent, but obviously no promises. As for availability on BA metal, it's not usually a problem, although BA-operated flights come with punishing fuel surcharges levied by BA on mileage redemption flights, so best avoided if at all possible.

As for where to post on Flyertalk, hell, I'm a volunteer moderator on FT (Oneworld alliance board) and even I don't know which AA board (pre, post, consolidated...) to send messages to when I have to move them. Go with post-merger and let the mods move it if they have to - it will click through to the right place.

Flyertalk really needs to close threads for the sub-forums with legacy programs.

Yes, I don't consider myself an internet idiot, but Flyertalk is pretty confusing right now - plus they have a Newbie area which makes me want to post stuff there but that thread is long and things can get lost in that.

Gardyloo, I was hoping you would also respond to this.

In your opinion, you would wait for more availability?

I did put in another itinerary with all USAir flights, but at a higher mile award, and without the BA flight, taxes/fees were $120 cheaper. My current itinerary only has one BA flight from AMS - London (shortest flight possible?) and I guess that is the flight that incurs the additional $120.

(My current itinerary is USAir direct PHL-AMS and then home AMS-Heathrow on BA and USAir Heathrow-PHL).