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Question about FF miles and flights
DH and I both have a considerable amount of miles saved up with AA. We will continue to be earning and saving for the next year in the hopes of cashing them in on flights for a Greece/Turkey trip in 2008.
I see responses about having to call 330 days before I depart to get tickets. When I use AA's website, I can pull up awards tickets for certain Europe cities in the next year without any problems, such as Frankfurt, Paris or London, but never Athens. Basically I'm just wondering why certain cities can be purchased online, and others can't. Is this because AA doesn't fly to Athens and I will have to use an alliance carrier? If I want to travel off-peak, do I really need to call 330 days before I want to leave to book them? Also, about upgrades. I see that I can purchase upgrade segments, but it says that they don't work on overseas flights. Is there a way to purchase our tickets and then use miles for upgrades on transatlantic flights, or would I have to just use my miles for business class tickets? Sorry for my silly questions. I have lots of miles but I've never cashed them in so I'm kind of naive when it comes to the whole awards ticket thing. Thanks! Tracy |
As I have always understood it (and this may have changed) the earliest any agent can book ANY ticket on an airline is about 330 days out. i assume this means that the same agent is not going to know what, if any, FF seats are available on a flight until 330 days out.
Another problem arises with the return...you have to wait until 330 days out to book that segment as well. I cannot comment on how AA utilizes travel partner awards unfortunately |
<i>Is this because AA doesn't fly to Athens and I will have to use an alliance carrier? If I want to travel off-peak, do I really need to call 330 days before I want to leave to book them?</i>
Yes, a "partner" carrier to be specific. Yes you will need to speak to AA (and thus incur a fee) for "all partner" awards. <i>Is there a way to purchase our tickets and then use miles for upgrades on transatlantic flights</i> Yes, current price is $250 and 25K miles each person each way (i.e. $500 and 50K miles RT.) You will <i>only</i> be upgraded on the portion flown on AA aircraft, not partner planes for the ATH legs. |
I about to leave on a trip using AA FF miles.
I couldn't do it online because of the things I was trying to do. So they got me for a telephone processing fee. Not a lot but enough to annoy. My goal was to visit Prague and Budapest. On the way back you can make a stop as long as you return from a gateway city. I thought of adding a week touring Tuscany towns. They could get me from Budapest to Zurich but could get FF flights from Zurich to Rom and Rome back to Miami. Kept calling every few days to see if something opened up. Eventually I gave up and chose to stop in Brussels to spend a few days in Brugge and Amsterdam. Of the four cities I had only visited Amsterdam and that was many years ago. I guess I could have picked London (been there 3 times and not a fan), Paris (been there 3 times over the years), Zurich (been to Switzerland several times). Just thought I'd share what I did. |
These days with American you can upgrade with miles after purchasing economy tickets, but they will charge you $250 per segment in addition to the miles required to upgrade. We prefer to use a 90,000 mile award for free business class. It also has the benefit of allowing a gateway stopover in the US either coming or going, plus one stopover coming or going within Europe. For example, this year with our awards we are flying Florida to New York for a stay (and we fly First class since there is no business class) then we fly Iberia to Madrid for a stay, then Iberia to Rome, and finally we fly home from Paris to Miami, all on Business. I priced the tickets and they would be over $7000 each -- pretty good for 90,000 miles each.
I'd suggest you don't claim your award until you've figured out the "most" for your miles. Incidentally, when I booked these -- 330 days ahead the Iberia flights didn't show online either, but they were able to book them. Meanwhile it is "impossible" to book the itinerary online that we're doing. It is worth the $10 charge for them to book it for me, especially since I do it in stages as the 330 days arrives for each of the individual legs of the trip. |
Thank you all so much for your replies. I tried finding these answers on AA's website but ended up even more confused. You have all been very helpful.
Wow Neopolitan, that is a great deal. So basically I am allowed one stopover in the US and one in Europe on the trip over and the trip back? Do they have a limit on how many days you can stay in your stopover city? When I book my flights online do I just tell them that I want to fly to "x" and stop over for, say, three nights and then continue on to "y"? And 90,000 miles for business is pretty good. For some reason I thought it would be more than that. We should both have 90,000 by then, so that's good to know. Thanks again! Tracy |
No limit on the number of days for a stopover. We've used this award for trips of up to 5 months with a "stopover" for as much as a month or even more.
Basically you are allowed two stopovers, they can both be going one way or one each way. Essentially our trip is Ft. Lauderdale to Rome, with stopovers of 10 days in New York and 10 days in Madrid, but a direct return from Paris to Miami. Another time our trip was Miami to Istanbul with a stopover in London, and our return was from Rome to Miami, with a stopover in Paris. Again, that was a 90,000 mile business class award. |
Neopolitan, you have had some great trips using the stopover idea!
Now my brain is really in gear. Are there only certain cities that are designated as "stopover cities"? My husband and I have been going back and forth our this trip idea. We both want to see Greece (an island or two) and Istanbul, and we also really want to see Cairo. The only way, so far, that I found to feasibly do this is by cruise, and I'm not loving the idea at all. So I'm wondering if I could use awards tickets to fly into Athens and out of Cairo with a "stopover" in Istanbul or something along those lines? I'm assuming this won't work, but I thought I would throw it out there. If that won't work, can you use FF miles for intra-Europe flights? Like could I use miles to fly between Athens or Istanbul and Cairo? Thanks again! Tracy |
You can book flights from Europe to Athens rather cheaply, so consider just getting a flight to anywhere in Europe with rewards and booking your own flight from Europe to Athens. It was also cost you less miles.
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The AA Advantage award website will only show you seats available on American. Since they codeshare award travel with other carriers, it's a much better idea to call the Advantage desk to work out an itinerary. For example, American codeshares with British Airways. While I don't know if they fly to Athens or not, for my example let's say they do...you could use 90,000 to fly on American in Business class form DFW to London Gatwick - then change to British Airways to Athens. This can only be done on the phone since you're changing carriers. On the other hand, if you're flying solely on American from, say DFW to Zurich, you could book it on the website. I've always called though because they have more choices. The secret to using the miles for Business/First class seating is planning ahead. We've done this for several years running with success. Happy planning!
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I will definitely call. It sounds like the agents have much more options. I'm getting excited about all the possibilities!
Tracy |
Because Cairo is in Africa, not Europe, you won't be able to include it on a Europe ticket, but it would be possible to book a separate flight round trip from Athens to Cairo via another source.
By all means call 1-800-882-8880 and speak to someone in the international aadvantage department. They can spell out the current alternatives and tell you exactly what you can do. Meanwhile go to aa.com and look at the "where we fly" map found under "Travel Information" then "Destination Information" then "Where we Fly". This will show all cities (after clicking Europe) that you can include. |
Understanding stopover rules on AA awards is very important and not as easy as some might suggest. Have a look at this thread on flyertalk - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=440733
2008 is a long way out; I would not assume there won't be rule changes in the meantime, in addition to possible new members in the Oneworld alliance (and some non-alliance AA partner departures, a la Swiss.) |
And BTW Egypt is in the Middle East award region, not Africa.
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Duh. Tells you how often I go to Cairo.
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Gardyloo, thank you for your comments. 2008 is indeed a long way out. I love to plan vacations and have three in the works between now and the time frame we would consider taking that trip. I am going to start thinking about possibilities but will probably wait and call AA sometime early next year just to find out some of my possibilities before I start making actual arrangments.
To everyone else, thank you so very much for your help. Learning about this stuff is almost like learning a new foreign language to me! Tracy |
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