Best time to redeem AA miles?
 

Is there a time of day, or day of the week, that's best for redeeming AA miles? That is, a time when I can get more choices of flights, or more availability of award seats?

I'll be flying from the Midwest to Rome, leaving around the first of May next year and returning around the first of June. When I look at available award flights now, I get routings with long layovers and inconvenient departure times, and I'd like to improve that.

Celia

Short answer is "NO".

While schedules for any given flight first become available 330 days out and many savvy travelers will tell you booking that early will give you the most choices that's not always the case. Simply put, there's no way to predict if or when a FF Award seat will available on that or any other flight. There's also a possibly a FF Award seat may never be made available for that flight.

Also, sometimes Award seats are available for some flights if you are willing to use more "miles" (i.e. if seats are not available for say 25,000 miles you might get one for 50,000 mile.

So, start by calling 330 days before departure and if seats aren't available for the route you want keep checking back and be prepared to use more than the minimum number of miles.

All that being said over the years we've gotten FF Award seats on AA in as little as 7 days prior to departure date, as much as 330 days out and many dates in between and there's been many times we've not been able to find any Award seats on the route we wanted.

Italy is tough using AA miles as AA itself doesn't operate too many flights into Italian airports (a couple into Rome, one into Milan.) Instead they try to channel mileage redemptions to British Airways, who, in addition to requiring a change in London, will also had humongous fuel surcharges to the "award" ticket, effectively reducing the value of your miles big time.

You have a couple of options. First, look for flights into other cities, usually London, then buy a cheap connecting ticket, but be sure the transatlantic flight is operated by AA. Second, look for partner flights that don't include BA. Airberlin is one such, or Finnair via Helsinki, or even Iberia via Madrid. Iberia will also sock you for fuel surcharges (since they're owned by the same company as BA) but not as high as BA's own "fuel fines."

As to when seats open up, it's all based on very sophisticated "yield management" computer programs, which only Hogwarts graduates can begin to understand. They will become available at random times throughout the booking window period, and yes, often are easier to snag closer to flight date than earlier. Once the computers are confident X number of seats are unlikely to sell for money, they'll release some of them into award inventory. They never sleep.

I was going to suggest Gardyloo's first option. Book RT into London or some other major hub. Then fly easyJet or another budget carrier RT from there to Rome an back.

That is how I'm dong Venice 3 weeks from now. I booked RT to LHR on AA and RT LGW > Venice on easyJet (I'm staying a few days in London before flying on to Venice otherwise I would have looked for a flight out if LHR)

Thank you all.

Actually I'm going to Florence, which AA won't take you to on miles, maybe not at all. So I thought I'd spend a couple of days in Rome before either flying or taking the train to Florence.

I don't mind using BA flights; I think their business class is a lot more luxurious than AA's. Is that right? I haven't actually flown AA transatlantic business class, only BA, so I'm basing my opinion on the descriptions on AA's web site.

The routing they're showing me now is ok going over: BA to London, a few hours layover, then BA to Rome. It's coming back that's bad: BA to London arriving around 9PM, then not leaving London until the next morning. The BA biz class lounges are nice, but I don't think I'd like to sleep there all night.

By using BA in business class, the taxes and fees you'll have to pay, including fuel surcharges (not a tax, just profit) will probably amount to around $1000, vs. maybe $300 (or less) if you use other carriers including AA itself. Just a heads-up.

We regularly use Priceline for hotels near LHR and have never paid more than $100 for a 4-star place like the Sheraton Skyline, Marriott, etc.

Oops, meant to add...

<i>I don't mind using BA flights; I think their business class is a lot more luxurious than AA's. Is that right? I haven't actually flown AA transatlantic business class, only BA, so I'm basing my opinion on the descriptions on AA's web site.</i>

Personally I disagree. IMO BA's business class is a rather outdated product compared to <i>some</i> of AA's business class cabins, and even compared to Iberia's. AA's new 777-300 planes have state-of-the-art seats, more comfortable than BA's back-and-front-facing pods, AA's service is excellent, and if you find yourself on an AA 767 (most secondary airports in Europe such as Rome) those too are being reconfigured with new seats. And on AA's 767s, because there's no first class cabin (unlike the 777s and all of BA's flights) the business class cabin is the highest class, and service is much more like that in first class than in business class on the bigger planes. There's a higher FA-to-passenger ratio, more personalized service, etc. I think AA has better food than BA, too.

Iberia shouldn't be overlooked if you're flying in business class. Iberia's planes and seating are very modern, service is excellent (notably Spanish, of course) and the lounges at Barajas airport will knock your socks off. Iberia flies nonstop to Madrid from Chicago. You'd need to phone AA for redemptions on IB flights; they're not yet displayed on AA's website.

Wow, thanks, Gardyloo.

With all this new (to me) information, I'm going to rethink all these plans.

I appreciate it!

Gardyloo is spot on about BA business class seating. We fly in it a lot, having earned lots of AA miles during the 18 years we lived very close to DFW. The weird front to back seating means that in nearly every seat, one has a choice of being the climber or the climbee when someone needs to cross a reclined seat. Once, when the "privacy" screen was put away during takeoff, I wondered if it would be melted by my facing other passengers breath when it was put back in place. Sadly, they installed these seats in the 380 aircraft they recently put into service.