I am an AAdvantage member & earn about 100K award miles/year from CC purchases. I only fly about 3-4 times/year for vacation travel. I use my award miles for domestic flights. However, my family of 5 is traveling to Europe 6/18/06 to 7/4/06. After reading much on here about buying tickets/earning miles, etc. I want to be sure that I understand things correctly.

It is my understanding I will still get miles from the 5 purchased Europe tickets when using my CC. But, I will not likely get any "status qualifying" miles when buying discounted fares (which for a family of five I will be looking for the best rate possible...still... expensive!) If I DO want to try to get status qualifying miles, I need to purchase the tickets from American (preferably by phone) or read the fine print on any other fare offered to be sure they qualify. Do I have this right? I'm not even sure it would matter if I get any qualifying miles since I don't fly all that much.

Any other info would be appreciated.

I'm going to let a more qualified person answer your question, but I'd like to offer some friendly advice on another note. If you need to make a correction or add another thought to a post you just made, it's a lot better to post that comment on the same thread instead of starting a new thread to clarify one that's already posted. The thread with your "edit" will probably get seperated from this one, so the person who can help you might or might not see it.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll get the answers you need.

Ok, dumb question....how do I do that? I've looked around and I can't find out how, ha. And really...I'm normally quite computer proficient!

Unfortunately we cannot edit a thread once it's posted. But all you have to do is to click the reply button to your thread, then add your new thought. I've had to do this a number of times myself. Sometimes I'll post something, then re-read it and realize that something I said was unclear. That's when I'll reply to my own thread, and add the additional comment.

I hope this helps.

Ok, I'm awake now...I get it...you said post it here. SORRY!!

My edit was to say:

It is my understanding I will still get miles from the 5 purchased Europe tickets when using my CC.

Should have added: no matter where I buy the tickets....

You got it!! =D>

<i>It is my understanding I will still get miles from the 5 purchased Europe tickets when using my CC. But, I will not likely get any &quot;status qualifying&quot; miles when buying discounted fares (which for a family of five I will be looking for the best rate possible...still... expensive!) If I DO want to try to get status qualifying miles, I need to purchase the tickets from American (preferably by phone) or read the fine print on any other fare offered to be sure they qualify. Do I have this right? I'm not even sure it would matter if I get any qualifying miles since I don't fly all that much. </i>

It doesn't matter how or from whom you buy the tickets. If you use the credit card, you, the purchaser, gets the miles from the credit card transaction. The individuals doing the flying get the travel miles, all of which are elite-qualifying miles.

Generally speaking, qualifying for AA elite status requires a minimum of 25,000 &quot;butt in seat&quot; miles in a calendar year. Only the person traveling gets the elite mileage credit. However, everybody who has an AAdvantate account gets &quot;spendable&quot; miles if their frequent flyer account number is on their ticket. If you're making reservations for five, make make sure everyone has an account, and that the account is put on the reservation when you make it. You can make it through aa.com and not pay a booking fee, or over the phone (fee) or through an agent including Expedia, Orbitz etc. (also a fee.)

If this is important to you, have a look at the AA board on flyertalk.com, for lots of interesting pointers and chatter.

If I understand your question correctly, you'll get 1 mile credit for each dollar of cost of the 5 tickets you purchase with your credit cards but these &quot;miles&quot; will not count toward any status qualifying miles no will the miles you earn from any other credit card purchases. You will earn status miles (equal to the total miles you actually fly) only for the miles you personally fly on tickets you purchasefor your own use. You cannot earn status miles for flights take with award tickets or for flights taken by others. In other words if you purchase a ticket (full fare, restricted fare, deeply discounted fares, etc.) you earn status qualifying miles for that particular trip. You cannot accrue status miles for the flights taken by your family members (even though you purchased the tickets with your credit card) as they can only be added to their FF account (assuming they are AAFF members). In order to earn &quot;Gold&quot; status (the lowest level) you must personally fly at least 25 segments (individual flights) or 50,000 miles in a calendar year. Remember you cannot earn qualifying segments or miles on flights using Award tickets.

Go to www.aa.com and click on AAdvantage program link for complete details.

The most amazing thing? The <b>www.aa.com</b>.... it has sooooo much info.

Here is a start:

<b>https://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage/programDetails/eliteStatus/qualificationRequirements.jhtml</b>

It will explain which fares do/do not earn miles or points per miles on any given fare.

To make it simple...

<i>Tickets between North America and Europe, India, Asia and Latin America booked in O and Transatlantic tickets booked in Q are not eligible.</i>

You could buy the tickets from ANYBODY, as long as it's not the fares mentioned above.

and, finally, just because it's the cheapest fare it does not mean it's O or Q. Actually I flew to Dublin in November on $400 ticket (ALL IN) from LA and it was a W fare, earning a mile and a full point. per mile flown. The Q fare was more expensive.

The point is, you should always check the fare code if you are worried about miles, but don't assume that just because it's the cheapest fare, it doesn't earn miles.....

Have a great trip!

<b>A_Traveller</b>

it's 25K miles for Gold, not 50K...

AAFrequent Flyer - thanks for pointing out my error. You, of course, are right. I was confusing Gold and Platinum miles requirements. Sorry if I misled anyone.

AAFF - Thank you, I was hoping to hear from you, have read many of your posts. I have been to the aa.com site, as well as flyertalk but its all a lot to take in even though I have spent 3 days reading all this stuff. One question: how do I check the fare codes on a particular flight when just comparing and searching flight costs on various websites? I was on Orbitz and didn't see anywhere that I could find out what fare code it was for the flight I was looking at.

Gardyloo - You said &quot;The individuals doing the flying get the travel miles, all of which are elite-qualifying miles.&quot; Ok, but even if the miles were posted to our individual accounts, none of us fly enough to get us to any elite status level, certainly not my children. But you make a good point about each of us earning spendable miles! Now that part I like, if only I could have their miles so my husband and I can get away for a weekend more often

loves2sing - &quot;Elite&quot; status are designed to award the actual frequent flyers. That's the whole point. If all you do is to fly to Europe once a year, you aren't a frequent flyer.

As for looking up fare class on Orbitz, after you put in the traveler's name and decline the hotel &amp; rental car offers, you'll come to a page called &quot;Traveler Information&quot;. #7 on that page is called &quot;Review fare rules, terms and conditions&quot;. The fourth line has a link for &quot;rules and restrictions&quot; applicable for this fare.

You click on that page, and you'll see the &quot;Fare basis codes&quot;. The first letter is the fare class.

For example, I use your dates to pick a flight on AA for DFW-LGW. The price is something like the $1,059, and the fare code is &quot;VHX7E3B&quot;. So, your fare class is &quot;V&quot; and will earn the 100% AA miles and Elite Qualifying Points.

BTW, if you book directly on aa.com, you should save about $10 per ticket that Orbitz and other agent charge you.

I can't help you with Orbitz or Expedia or??? as I always book on aa.com. I'm sure that somewhere along the booking process you are able to click on <b>fare rules</b> or something similar. It should tell you what fare code you are looking at.

You are allowed to <b>share</b> miles, but there is a fee involved. It's not the best way to use miles, unless it's a situation where the giver knows for a fact the s/he will NEVER use the orphan miles.

Recently I paid ~$175 to get 15k miles (max into any one account per year) from a friend that had expiration date coming up (for most programs, it's 3 years) and he would never, ever use them again. It was worth it to me, but only because I'm on a mission to get the first million (Gold status for life) and with AA, ALL the miles count. I'm not sure I would pay for the transfer if I was not close to the million mark. (I will be there in about 2 weeks)

rkkwan - Thanks, my husband does fly a bit more than I do, so all this elite information is useful at least for him. And thanks so much for the info on how to find the fare codes!

AAFF - I have tried to teach my kids to share their miles...umm I mean toys...

Fare rules on Orbitz and/or Expedia are accesed by clicking on &quot;detailed fare rules&quot; on the screen just before you enter your credit card info. The first letter (V, Q, etc.) is the important one.