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    How to Book American Airlines Awards

    icon-user Gabi Logan icon-comments 0 Comments July 31, 2020

    For three years straight, American Airlines has won two of the top honors among frequent flyer programs: the Freddie Awards for Program of the Year and Best Elite Program.

    Nineteen million people voted for the awards, which measure how consumers value loyalty programs. The awards have been the industry standard for more than 25 years.

    So what did American do to impress so many picky frequent travelers?

    oneworld_alliance_airlines

    American is part of the oneworld alliance, a coalition of powerful airlines that can get you most places you want to go Air Berlin, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines and TAM Airlines.

    The airline also has partnerships with other carriers, including Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air, Cape Air, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airways, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Airways, Seaborne Airlines, WestJet.

    If you’ve heard the buzz about Etihads over-the-top new premium cabin service, you’ll know these partners create some serious value, especially when traveling abroad.

    Booking American Airlines Award Tickets

    Only awards flights with American Airlines, Air Berlin, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas Airways and Royal Jordanian Airlines can be booked online, so if you’re flying on another partner, you’ll need to call.

    Sounds annoying, right? However, what this means is that rather than being restricted to the award inventory you can see on the American site, you can pretty much take your pick of award flights available on its partners.

    Build your American award itinerary like this:

    Booking through AAdvantage
    Booking through AAdvantage

    1. Search for award tickets on American and see if something is available to your destination for a reasonable number of miles. If you found something, great. Book it. Otherwise, continue.

    2. Find out which partner airline flies to your destination. A quick search on Kayak or a similar fare aggregator is the easiest way. Check the list of available airlines against the American Airlines partner list.

    3. Go to that airlines website and search for award tickets from your home airport. If the airline doesn’t have any on that route, check where their hubs are using the route map on the airlines website.

    4. Find a flight through the American website from your airport to the other airlines hub where you can connect.

    5. Return to the partner airlines website and find a flight from that hub to your final destination that works time wise with the flight you found through American.

    6. Call the American Airlines award booking line 800-882-8880 and lock in your flights.

    Important Things to Know About Booking American Airlines Awards

    Technically, all American Airlines awards are booked as one-way flights, so open-jaw itineraries (where you have a round trip that begins in one destination and ends in another) such as as Boston-Paris-New York, or where you can change the airport you return from, such as Seattle-Paris then London-Seattle, are always possible with American and have no restrictions.

    If you dont have enough points to book right now, you can hold the ticket for five days free of charge as long as departure is more than 15 days out.

    Change is Coming for American Airlines Award Travel

    As part of its merger with US Airways, there are some big changes in the pipeline for Americans loyalty program that may affect how much frequent travelers love it.
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    AAscreenchart_First

    The oneworld Explorer awards, distance-based awards preferred by people taking long, long-haul flights are gone, as are the stopovers in the North American gateway on an international award that allowed people to book a free one-way ticket elsewhere if they lived in a gateway city. Domestic layovers must now be completed in less than 24 hours, in line with other airlines.

    One of the most interesting changes to the new award chart, however, comes at the lowest redemption level. There are more categories where you see the uber low redemptions that used to be known as American’s off-peak awards, like flying to Europe between October 15 and May 15 for 20,000 miles instead of 30,000 miles each way. Its unclear how many seats per flights in this category will actually be available though.

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    American Airlines AAdvantage Program Review

    Gabi Logan 0 Comments June 26, 2023

    Who Is American Airlines AAdvantage Good For?

    Long a favorite among frequent flyers, American Airlines AAdvantage has garnered the Freddie Awards (the top honor for frequent flyer programs) for the Program of the Year and the Best Elite Program for three years straight. But it’s in a really interesting position these days for two reasons: its merger with US Airways and the huge changes going on with the United and Delta programs.

    AA’s program will change in some way in the coming year and a half as the merger completes, but it’s unclear exactly what those changes will be. Some adjustments have already taken effect, such as the dissolution of the popular One World Explorer rates. But American fans are hopeful that changes that come will be better than the ones in other major domestic programs because it’s AAdvantage has always been a generous program for frequent flyers.

    Overall, changes aside, AAdvantage is a strong program for several reasons. Award availability is generally great, even at the lowest redemption rates, which can be substantially less than other airlines thanks to AA’s great off-peak rates.

    Hubs:

    • Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
    • John F. Kennedy International Airport
    • Los Angeles International Airport
    • Miami International Airport
    • O’Hare International Airport
    • Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (through US Airways)
    • Philadelphia International Airport (through US Airways)
    • Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (through US Airways)

    How Can You Use American Airlines Miles?

    American Airlines has one of the most straightforward booking processes of the major domestic airlines. You can find awards online easily for award flights with partners airberlin, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines and Qantas Airways.

    There are three basic types of American Airlines rewards: off-peak, MileSAAver, and AAnytime awards. Off-peak awards aren’t technically listed as separate on the AA website, because they have the same restrictions as MileSAAver awards. But they’re a great way to make your miles go further if available during the off season.

    AAnytime Awards, which can be booked on any flight with no blackout dates, include a number of perks that make them more akin to premium economy fares, justifying the sizable increase in points required for booking. In addition to expedited check-in, security screening and priority boarding, you get complimentary upgrades to preferred seats, such as exit rows.

    Program Perks:

    • You can hold itineraries for free for five days
    • A new MileSAAver level, with fewer points than are required on most legacy airlines, has been introduced as part of the US Airways-American Airlines merger
    • All awards are technically one-ways, so it’s easy to book open-jaw itineraries, and mix and match cabins in one itinerary
    • AAnytime awards can be booked on any flight with no blackout dates, so if you’re willing to pay extra miles and there’s a seat, you can even use awards to fly on busy holidays
    • Miles expire in 24 months, which is standard for, if not longer than, some programs, but American allows you to pay to reactivate them

    Booking Quirks:

    • Only awards on American Airlines, airberlin, Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas Airways and Royal Jordanian Airlines may be booked through the AA website
    • $150 fee for changes to arrival or departure location
    • $150 cancellation and redeposit fee, plus $25 for every additional passenger on the same itinerary
    • $75 fee to book a flight or change date or time on a reservation within 21 days of departure
    • American sets a maximum permitted mileage for each city pair, and award itineraries cannot exceed this number by more than 25 percent, so it can be difficult to be creative on routings to maximize miles earned

    Best Value Awards:

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    What were previously known as off-peak awards, and now fall into the category of MileSAAver level one on the new five-tiered award chart, are some of the best redemptions in the industry for a number of destinations.

    The 40,000-mile round-trip flights between the U.S. and Europe (matched only by British Airways Executive Club, and there only to and from select destinations) and 50,000-mile flights to Japan and Korea are the best rates you’ll find anywhere for these routes.

    Worst Value Awards:

    While the American Airlines AAnytime rewards have long represented a decent value proposition a significant increase in perks for around twice the miles, similar to booking a premium economy award the new award chart that went into effect this June has completely changed that landscape.

    Now AAnytime is not the most accurate name for these awards. You can book a seat anytime without blackout dates, but you have no idea how much it will cost. It’s not even published, so the airline may charge a point value akin to 1 cent per mile or worse in relation to the price of purchase of that ticket in cash.

    AAnytime awards are now split into three levels, so if you can get one at the lowest level, it’s a decent value, but avoid any AAnytime awards beyond that.

    The Good Stuff: Upgrades and Elite Status

    oneworld alliance PartnersOther Airline Participants
    airberlinAlaska Airlines
    British AirwaysHawaiian Airlines
    Finnair
    Qantas
    Royal Jordanian Airlines

    With AAdvantage miles, you can only upgrade American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia flights, unfortunately. However, they are marvelously transparent, compared to many other airlines, about which fares you can upgrade and how much that will cost.No matter how far you are flying, you’ll never have to pay more than 25,000 miles to upgrade the most discounted cash economy or business fares to the next level of service, and you only need 15,000 miles for North America, Central America and northern South America. From full fare economy, upgrades start at 5,000 miles.

    Upgrades are done on a one-way basis, for a maximum of three segments. You’ll have to be careful with this on long, complex itineraries, but it offers a nice level of flexibility. If you have a round-trip that has a red-eye in one direction, you can upgrade that direction, and keep the other in coach.

    American Airline AAdvantage Elite Levels and Perks

    Each subsequent level includes the perks of the previous level, unless stated otherwise.

    • Gold: Eligible for upgrades 24 hours in advance, priority check-in, 25 percent mileage bonus
    • Platinum: Eligible for upgrades 72 hours in advance, priority baggage delivery, 100 percent mileage bonus
    • Executive Platinum: Eligible for upgrades 100 hours in advance, unlimited upgrades, service fees waived, expanded award availability, free food in economy

    Associated Credit Cards

    American partners with Citibank for its co-branded credit cards, offering three different levels of fees and services:

    Currently, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® offers 50,000 bonus points after a $2,500 minimum spend in three months and includes early boarding on all flights, one free checked bag for you and four additional travelers, $100 AA flight discount and 10 percent of your redeemed miles back every year all for a $99 fee, waived the first year. The Business card is similar, except you get a 5 percent bonus at the end of the year, rather than 10 percent,  and a companion certificate in lieu of the flight discount.

    The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® comes with the same sign-on bonus, but an annual fee of $595, which earns a host of additional benefits, including Admirals Club membership, expedited security screening and boarding, double miles earning, no foreign transaction fees and concierge service.

    As far as credit cards with fees go, it has fewer perks for that outlay than its competitors, but it’s the only card that includes Admiral Club membership, after its been stripped from American Express cardholders. For several months this year, Citi also ran a promotion for 100,000 bonus miles with a $10,000 spend in the first three months.

    Many frequent travelers are stocking up on US Airways points through the Premier World Mastercard from Barclays, which carries a very generous bonus, in anticipation of the final consolidation of the two airlines. As the merger with US Airways progresses, the US Airways cards may completely disappear, or they may turn into additional options connected to American.

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