Using Miles to France this Summer
 

My son and I are infrequent travelers, flying once every few years but we have 54k and 61k miles in our AAdvantage accounts accumulated over a decade. My son's 54k expire in September, mine don't expire until mid 2006. Ideally, we would like to go to France in July and knowing that it's peak season, was wondering what the chances are of redeeming my 61k miles for a seat from PHX to CDG. AA's and other big travel websites quoted me a fare of $1054 RT. Is this a low, average or high price for PHX to CDG in the summer? If it's a low price and you all don't think the fare will get any lower between now and April let's say, then it would make sense to not use my 61k miles and just pay the fare. We both have enough miles for an off-peak flight (until 5/15) to Europe. What are the chances of getting two award seats on a flight to CDG before 5/15? Do you all think using our miles for two off peak seats to CDG is a good use of miles or is it better economics to buy a lot of Kelloggs cereal and get up to 60k on my son's account to redeem two seaks for peak travel? Thank you in advance for helping a newbie.

At this late date, your chances are not very good! But, you won't know unless you call NOW! As for accumulating miles with the Kellogg's offer, that's a heck of a lot cereal to buy (and money to spend!).
When you call, be prepared to have as much flexibility as possible in dates.
I never have used two different accounts for tickets at the same time, but I assume you'd both have to be available for the phone conversation.

Alternatively, you can check on-line. In January I booked two aadvantage award tickets on line for a trip to Italy in October. We had to be flexible in our departure / return dates as award seats were not available for dates we initially wanted to travel. Good luck.

I would also consider the possibility of flying into/out of other airports such as Amsterdam and Heathrow from which you can easily reach Paris within a few hours either by flying or by rail.

You also need to ask if you can get FF seats on any of the partner airlines which might fly to where you want to go.

You may be able to purchase the miles to finish out his mileage needs.

Forget about cereal boxes. you woudl have to wait to make a reservation until the miles were posted to your account.

Some airlines allow you to buy extra miles ( at about .02/mile). If that applies, you will be able to make attempt a booking immediately.

I would plug in dates on aa.com for an award search. I frequently use this way of finding seats utilizing aadvantage miles. You can hit "search for up to 4 days before and after" which will help narrow down the seats available. I would purchase the 6,000 needed for my son so that it's posted sooner. Be flexible about dates and patient searching - I think it could happen. In addition, I also put in different cities and consider training to my destination once there or adjusting itinerary. For example, putting in PHX - ZRH, or PHX - LGW, etc. I hope it works out. It seems a shame not to utilize that many aadvantage miles before they expire.

The fastest/cheapest way I know of to add miles fast, is to get the airline's credit card - they give you a hunk of miles just for getting the card.

I did this with UA, took about 30 days for the miles to post to my acct from the time I applied, got 15,000 miles, annual fee for card is $60. I don't know if this is an option for your son, but here's the AA link just in case:

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...card/index.jsp

Using FF miles to Europe is a huge savings when you are looking at paying $2K otherwise - hope something works out for you.

Thanks for the info on ideas on how to get up to 60k miles. HowardR was right. It doesn't look good to use the FF miles this summer. Tried many different combinations of dates on the AA website to no avail. I thought about flying Southwest to St, Louis, Chicago or Cincinnati and then taking a major carrier to Europe thinking it would be less expensive that way but amazingly it was the same rate as flying from PHX. The strange economics of airline ticket prices I guess. Back in 2000, I got a really cheap fare in the summer from STL to CDG on TWA through lowestfare.com because of Carl Ichan's agreement with TWA to sell TWA tickets at 30% off through the site. I flew for peanuts from PHX to STL on Southwest Airlines. Can you all give me names of websites (no name your own price or shady broker/consolidators) where I might get a better fare than $1054 RT or is that normal these days?

It's my understanding that if there is any activity on your AA FF account , it updates your expiration date by 3 years..so I'd either get their credit card or at the very least use your boxtops..or go to www.opinionplace.com and register for their AA awards and take the surveys.

I don't know if it would be helpful, but there's a website flyertalk.com that has info on all the ins and outs of the various ff programs. You might have a look there. It could provide some thoughts on how to increase chances of a ticket. I personally would phone and speak to an agent. If you get a good helpful one, they may offer some ideas. Sometimes if you're willing to make more flight connections, you can do it. Also, doesn't AA have any flight partners that might have tickets available?

Websites to check for better fares are

http://www.itasoftware.com/

http://www.mobissimo.com/travel/search_airfare.php

If you decide to pay for tickets, I strongly agree you should consider flying into London or Amsterdam or elsewhere and then using one of the low cost airlines from there. whichbudget.com is a website that lists prices and routes for many of these.

Agree with everything mclaurie says - AA agent on phone will likely find you something you can't get on website, tho it will involve connections.

You also might check AA website for phoenix - london flights and use Ryanair or Easyjet to get to france for just a few pounds.

Even if your son's miles will expire in September, that means you need to redeem them by September for a certificate that is then valid for travel for up to a year.
I suggest you do what some of the others have suggested, particularly get an Aadvantage credit card and get an almost immediate 7500 or more miles. Or go look at the AA website for other ideas of how to get miles. Get plenty before September, then get certificates for next year and book way ahead so you can actually get what you want.