American Airlines Miles question

[ski_mom]

My mom got an application in the mail to get 50,000 frequent flier miles with a new credit card sign up. It stated that it was enough to get 2 round trip tickets in the continental US. She showed it to me and asked about having her sign up for a card and then having us sign up for a card so that we would have 4 round trip tickets for next year's vacation.

I know nothing about frequent flier miles, so I was wondering if these can be used as easy as it makes it sound. For instance, would she be able to get tickets for herself and one of our kids with her 50,000 miles and then we could use ours for 2 more in our family?

I'm a little leary of these type offers, but she thinks it sounds like a great deal, so I'm not sure what to do - so I though I'd ask the DISers!!

 

[DebbieB]

My mom got an application in the mail to get 50,000 frequent flier miles with a new credit card sign up. It stated that it was enough to get 2 round trip tickets in the continental US. She showed it to me and asked about having her sign up for a card and then having us sign up for a card so that we would have 4 round trip tickets for next year's vacation.

I know nothing about frequent flier miles, so I was wondering if these can be used as easy as it makes it sound. For instance, would she be able to get tickets for herself and one of our kids with her 50,000 miles and then we could use ours for 2 more in our family?

I'm a little leary of these type offers, but she thinks it sounds like a great deal, so I'm not sure what to do - so I though I'd ask the DISers!!

You are going to find that it might be difficult to get a 25,000 mile ticket. They only allow a small number of 25,000 mile seats per flight. Then they put others for more miles. For example, I have a FF ticket on Delta for October, they were 32,500 miles. I want to go to Disneyland in May, USAir only has FF seats for 60,000 miles for my dates.

Also check what you have to do for the 50,000 miles. Sometimes you get a certain number of miles for getting the card, then you need to spend a certain amount within a certain time to get more, then transfer balances for a certain number of miles or add additional card members. It's usually not the full amount for just getting the card.

Also watch for an annual fee.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Will she be using the cc just to get the huge amount of miles or will that be her primary credit card?

We have the card but since we fly southwest to Fl we dont use the miles for flights. However since my dh flies alot internationally we use the miles to book through american airlines vacations. You can get park tickets and the room. The room will be at rack rate, no discounts. In May we did the room,tickets and $750 gift card deal at the Poly. It was about $3,000 just for dh and I. We cashed in 200K miles, so our cost was about $1K.

As the others have said, if you are just going for the seats, you have to book really well as there are only so many seats per flight etc.

 

[ski_mom]

Thanks for the quick replies!

In order to get the 50,000 miles, you just have to spend $750 in the first 3 months. That would not be a problem for either of us since we put almost everything on a credit card (and pay it off every month). There is an annual fee after the first year - it didn't say how much, just stated that it was free for the first year. We would both probably cancel after the first year though.

That's interesting about using the points towards things other than the flights - I didn't realize you could do that. I guess that would be another option if we got the cards and then couldn't use the miles for flights though.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

You should check out the American Airlines ff program - Aadvantage and sign up. Also the flyertalk website is a good source of info.

 

[ChristmasElf]

AA has one of the best frequent flier programs out there. In fact, they are the airline that first started the whole frequent flier idea.

You can save a ton of money using points on hotels and merchandise.


Being flexible with your travel dates also helps as what may be 30,000 points round trip one week, may only be 25,000 points the next.

 

[bonoriffic]

You can go to aa.com and check if frequent flier seats are available for the flights you want now. You only need an account (and the actual miles) to redeem the flight. Keep in mind it will take 3 months (plus whatever other processing delays are stated) for the miles to hit the account. Just click the redeem miles check box when looking at fares.

If you plan your trip 1 year out, you will get the flight you want. If you are less than 6 months away, you probably would have to be OK with getting an odd hour or have a layover if you want a weekend flight. Otherwise everything will be wide open still. If you are 3 months out and going to nowhere popular, you will get your flight. If it is a popular destination, you still can get a flight just not Fri., Sat., or Sunday departure / return and more than likely not direct.

I just checked and Chicago to Orlando for end of October has plenty of availability for midweek departure and return.

You really are only going to get burned if you want to go to Hawaii, or other very expensive destinations. Or any place that only has 1 or 2 direct options and 1 or 2 flights a day. Those places need very advance planning.

I've gone to Hawaii twice (once first class), and Europe 3 times with AA miles. It really isn't hard to get a flight.

 

[Jeafl]

We've been AAdvantage members for a LONG time and have NEVER had a problem with it. We took the whole family to Hawaii (5 of us) for free, and even flew between 3 islands for free with their partner miles on Hawaii airlines.

What I like about the program is that if there are seats available you can use your miles, and there is no cost to change flights if you need to,

Back in June we needed 5 flights to Miami for our cruise. We booked about 10 months in advance and got a decent flight. However, we decided our return flights were not as convenient as we thought. I was able to change them all to a better flight only 3 weeks before we left with no penalty whatsoever,

The caveats: There are different tiers, and each tier costs you a different amount of miles. Some flights will be 12,500 miles each way,(or 25,000 miles round trip) and some will be 17,500 miles each way. The flights with the most convenient times usually cost you more miles. The cheaper ones will often have a layover too. However, they add new flights all the time, so if you find somthing with a long layover you can book it and keep checking the website for a better time.

It is really easy to see all flights, and choose your seats. The website in general is really easy to navigate. You can always call the AAdvantage desk too and they are very helpful. Be aware though, if you book by phone there is often a small fee (Like $10 per ticket).

We've used this program extensively, so if you have any specific questions I would be happy to help you.