FF miles on American...useless so far..

[FINFAN]

Wehave enough miles on AA for 2 tix and 1 on United. We are trying to get to Ft.Myers to visit family...just about any dates I try are not available or there is 11 or more days from departure /return, costing more for hotel/car etc. This is so frustrating! And I'm in Chicago w/2 airports to choose from!
AAARRRGGGHHHHHHH! O.K. vent over, it's just that I can't afford to go if paying for all 4 tix, and really need to see my folks. My mom is hoping to travel back w/us as she can't travel alone, so I need a non-stop for her sake....hmmm, I guess I am understanding it now...my own criteria is what's killing me.

Pam

 

[Threehearts]

and we can hardly ever use them. Most are on American and United but also on British Air and USAir. There are so many blackout dates and even with premier membership on most programs we can never find 4 tickets at the same time for the 4 of to travel. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Threehearts

 

[RAD]

There was a story on the local news a while back about FF programs and how hard it's becoming to find seats. Basically the bottom line was that with the majors in financial trouble they've really cut back on the number of free seats available to keep them available for paying customer. We tried to use miles for two 1st class on AA 10 months in advance and we had to take flights at times that weren't our first choice (off peak). Right now DW and I have a bunch of UAL miles and we're trying to use as many as we can just in case they shut down or cancel the program which means we're using a lot of 40K awards vs. the 25K just so we can use them.

I've switched to a credit card that basically gets you actual $'s that you can use to book a flight on any airline, if I remember correctly 25K miles will allow you to get a coach ticket up to $350 dollars just like you were paying for it with cash. I probably will never see 1st class this way but at least its still a 'free' seat.

 

[Cameo]

The same is true for us on Northwest. It used to be that if you booked a year in advance some free seats might be open. That is no longer true for the places we want to go. It is possible to sometimes pick up free seats at the last minute, 2-4 weeks out. We did do that last year for an August trip to Orlando.

 

[FINFAN]

Thanks guys, you've made me feel better. At least I know it is not just me. We had to let a world-wide ticket expire last fall...to think I could've grabbed lunch in Italy, or a shrimp on the Barbie in Austrailia...but couldn't get the 2nd ticket to work out. I will keep trying tho, but not very encouraged right now.

 

[chris1gill]

Hmm, well, we've cashed in eight seats to go from Boston to Australia with lots of stops in between... having said that... you MUST plan long in advance & even when you do that, unless you are flying on the airlines own planes, it doesn't guarantee you will get the seat you want... It's a problem if you need to travel during peak season regardless.... I had to study the frequent flyer patterns on both AA & Qantas (they codeshare for Australia) & then I had to look at all possible routes... even then I had to adjust my schedule because I couldn't get my preferred dates...

It's hard, it should be easier, but it isn't.. just keep trying & try to plan ahead.... Good luck!

 

[brentalex]

Not sure if this will still work, but a few years ago my wife and I were trying to use FF points on Delta to fly from Boston to SF. We could not find flights at all. We went to a travel agent and they called and got us booked on a flight using our points, for the exact dates we were looking for. It could be worth a try.

 

[FINFAN]

Good advice....my neighbor used to be a TA..maybe she has some tricks up her sleeve...altho I know she herself has had to let miles go in the past. SIGH......I'm not giving up yet, but it sure takes the fun out of planning a trip when it's this frustrating.

 

[tjmw2727]

I have had spotty luck with AA depending on the time of year and the destination. I do find the website very helpfull if you have access (just register). When you put in your dates, destination and award travel it will either come back with flights for your dates or the "next best thing". Sometimes the NBT is ok othertimes is laughable.

I have also had success by calling the 800 number - sometimes the agents can work with you and give you an idea as to why you are not getting seats. Sometimes they can be less than helpful and if this is the case just call back and hope for better.

To tell the truth AA is IMHO much better than Delta - my fil had a slew of miles and wanted to visit the grandkids in Colorado. You would have thought I was trying to steal a ticket.

Good luck
TJ

 

[FINFAN]

Yaeh, I have been on the site and phone w/AA for the last 2 weeks trying to put something together.There is only 1 non-stop flight each day from ORD to RSW and I need to have a direct return flight for my mom's sake,can't be an evening flight as my Dad is quirky about that(long story) and that is what is messing us up...that and the fact that I can't be gone for 11 days or more. I even tried to apply the miles for a one way portion, but that got ugly as I have 2 minors flying w/me so we all need to be together, ao the 1 or 2 stop flights down and the cost for the 3rd ticket as a one way is insane....I guess I am trying to get too much out of these miles.....but after running into this, I would like to use them up and no longer feel like AA is the airline I should use. It is so much easier to fly into MCO...many more flights offered. Like I said tho...all these restrictions w/my family has made this much harder than it need be....maybe I should just fly down, get my mom and let the kids see her here...but then how does Grandpa see them, and they have a dog so only one of them is heading back up here 'cause no one to watch the dog... Ahhhhhh....the FUN part of dysFUNctional.


Pam

 

[Amberle3]

Most airlines have at most 4 FF seats available per flight. Once the flights go into the system those seats are booked pretty quickly, so the best bet for redeeming FF points is to try and book your seats at roughly a year in advance of when you want to go.

 

[FINFAN]

Well, that would explain it then...I am about 10 months behind prime booking time! Oh well....there are much bigger problems out there....cashing in miles is pretty low on the list.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

Between DH and I we had enough FF miles on UAL for 3 tickets. We're going to WDW/DCL this Nov and I started checking as soon as I could (which I think was 300 days out). I had no luck day after day. Last month I remembered that 2 years ago we flew on Delta using UAL miles-UAL had a partnership with Delta at the time. I called UAL in April and asked if they still had a partnership with Delta and they told me no, but they now had a partnership with US Airways. They tried to find me seats, but I needed to purchase 1 ticket (there are 4 in our family) and that 1 ticket was going to cost $1123 . I said no thank you and hung up. On a whim, I called back UAL about 3 weeks ago, and lo and behold...we were able to get 3 seats to Orlando and I only paid $261 for the other ticket. They did charge me $15 each to book the FF miles over the phone, but it was better than paying full price for a ticket. I think all together we paid $330 for all 4 seats with all the taxes and fees. I live near Chicago too. I would call both AA and UAL and find out if they have partnerships with other airlines, and if they don't give you good options that day, try another day.

 

[Oh Kay!]

You do know you can use the AA miles to book WDW resorts.

 

[Brian Noble]

I've got status on NW, and have earned almost 500,000 miles with them---though 400,000 of those have been used for tickets. I often find that I can't use them on some particular trips, but on other trips, I can---depending on how popular the route is for leisure travel, and how far in advance I've been looking. NW is frequently cited as the most difficult airline to cash award miles with, but I've had good luck on balance.

For example, Detroit to Florida in February is just about impossible---even trying to book at the 330-day mark I lose out to people with faster internet connections! We did snag four round trips from Detroit to Orange County for a February Disneyland trip, but those had to be gotten early---the entire Southern California area was unavailable after about two weeks if you wanted to travel on the weekends.

When the kids were babies and not road-trip-tolerant, we used to fly to my MILs in Baltimore for Christmas, and always managed that 3-4 months out. Now, however, we drive that route, so I'm not sure if it is still easy. We sometimes can get tickets to Norfolk during summer beach season in the Outer Banks, but this year I was too slow on the draw, and we ended up buying those instead. Just a few weeks ago, I booked a long weekend for DW and I to MCO in September---a slow time, but I booked them only 4-5 months in advance. In April I booked a ticket for my daughter to join me on a weekend to Charlotte only two weeks in advace---we got an early start to our summer amusement park season at Paramount's Carowinds.

I feel like I've gotten good value for these because I view them for what they are--a nice perk, but only with the leftovers that aren't going to be otherwise sold.

 

[Cora]

I have to tell you we just booked 3 seats non-stop from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale on Delta for Easter week next year. I guess we're just lucky, but we've never had any problems using miles when we want to.

 

[Mary Anne]

I have my American Express card tied to Frequent Flyer miles. I was able to get 4 round trip tickets on Jet Blue the day the tickets came out NY to California. Jet Blue also let me use the Frequent Flyer miles I had with them to mix and max with my Am Express points. I had no problem at all.

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

Super easy usually to use miles on delta. Just reserved a award ticket on delta for next week. Also found tickets available for hawaii in spring break next year.


Matt

 

[Brian Noble]

Yes, and those delta flights often make up a leg of my NW roundtrips, because they allow cross-booking of award flights.

 

[FINFAN]

Oh, Kay! .....NO! I did not know that! DH has recently added up these miles on AA due to work travel to China and Austria so I am learning as I go with this airline.....WOO-HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I feel SO much better now..I am going to PM you, I am still trying to use them for flight travel as I need to fly my mom up from Naples to Chicago....and I'm broke, but what an awesome back-up plan! We are hoping to go back to WDW next summer, most likely driving. Using miles for the resort will really help make the trip a reality. Glad miles have been working out for others...DH work always books on AA and UA...so unless that changes, we're limited to them. We have asked to let us book on our own miles card and then just fill out an expense report for reimbrsement, but co wants to have full control over it. Just as well I guess, that last minute flight booked to Austria was over $5,000...gulp...booking that on the CC would've been slightly traumatic even with knowing we'd get the $$$$ BACK.
Have a great wekend all!


Pam