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Comments (8)
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Save/ShareWe're accustomed to hearing how airlines have yet again made it more difficult for loyalty members to redeem frequent flier miles. But American Airlines' recent revamping of its program did just the opposite, greatly increasing the chances you can get a reward ticket out of your miles.
American's new feature is called One-Way Flex Awards. The name pretty much says it all: You can now book one-way reward flights, with more flexibility than in the past. Most airlines—and American, too, until recently—typically only allow frequent fliers to trade in miles for full round trips. The airlines know very well that many travelers never reach the mileage level to get a round trip, so the policy in effect limits the number of reward seats they give away. But now, American AAdvantage program members can use miles to book one-way tickets, and only starting at 12,500 miles for domestic flights—half of what it takes to get a domestic round trip.
As for the flexibility part of the program, American lets customers use their miles in all sorts of booking scenarios. You can obviously use miles just for a one-way ticket. You can also book a rewards seat in first or business class for one part of your trip, and then in economy on the other leg. (Usually, reward flights must be booked in their entirety in the same class of service.)
What's more, American has made glancing over all of these permutations and scenarios easy with an improved reward flight calendar (shown at this demo). On one screen, you can eyeball different dates, availability in various classes of service, and the number of miles each option would cost you—which is much more handy than plugging in dates a pair at a time and crossing your fingers, hoping something's available.
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That's some great news.....for one, I have also been traveling a lot for past couple of years and even planned a camping and trekking excursion to Europe, with an eye on Switzerland in particular. Here is a trip which is almost same as mine with some amazing visuals thrown in. Have a look: http://www.ekoventure.com/places/europe-switzerland-interlaken-4026
Posted By Kevin Wang on May 14, 2009, 3:36 PM
I've turned to using miles more often in an attempt to not spend as much on travel. I even used points for a package including breakfast at the JW Marriott Scottsdale.
Posted By Pamela Johnston on May 15, 2009, 10:13 AM
This is a "clever way" of taking more miles from us of American Airlines.
Let's say before when you book a round trip award ticket with a stopover, it'd cost you 25K miles. Now, with the new booking method, it will count your booking as "3 segments", which will cost you 37500 miles instead.
Think about it: how many travellers really want to book a "1-way" award ticket?
Posted By Tony Nguyen on May 16, 2009, 3:43 PM
Nice feature. Works out for traveling between home on the West coast and college on the East coast when I can't or don't want to book both segments at the same time.
Posted By Stan Jung on May 17, 2009, 2:24 AM
Will the return (NOT the one-way award) be booked as what has usually been a very expensive one-way fare?
Posted By Doreen Langfeldt on May 18, 2009, 8:42 AM
Hi Doreen,
The nice thing is that you don't have to pay sky-high prices for a one-way ticket. You can get a one-ticket using half the number of miles you would use to redeem a round-trip ticket. The exact mileage amounts are listed here:
text
Hope that helps answer your question,
Sean
Blog editor
Posted By Blog Editor on May 18, 2009, 10:53 AM
you only had enough miles to book one way on an award ticket, would the rate charged for your return ticket (no more award points left) be those high prices that airlines always charged for a one-way ticket. I know that with Southwest and Jet Blue the one way tickets were still the same price. But normally other airlines prices for a one way ticket were very high (almost more than a roundtrip). So IF I could use my points one way, I'm just wondering how much it would cost to return.
Posted By Doreen on May 18, 2009, 11:49 AM
Ah, now I see. Well, AA’s one-way fares are all over the map. I just priced out two trips between Philly and Seattle and Philly and San Francisco, using AA.com to search. A one-way return flight from each city varied wildly. $189 including taxes from Seattle, but $800 from San Francisco. It clearly depends on the situation, and it won’t always be a good bet.
I hope you’ll be able to use your points and not have to pay much for the return one-way. You may save the most by traveling on AA one way and then, like you say, using JetBlue or Southwest or AirTran on the way back—because they’re one-way prices are usually low, even at the last-minute. Good luck!
Posted By Blog Editor on May 18, 2009, 11:53 AM