AAdvantage Mileage Question

I think your problem is using the multi-city feature. Book one way tickets when redeeming an award.

I don't think so, or at least I was able to do exactly what i am attempting to do this year.

There are others more experienced than me with this, but I generally book a miles ticket as soon as it is possible - 331 days out. That being said, I haven’t found a pattern to release although I am sure the computer algorithm has one. I have also found good redemptions kind of last minute. It’s the mid-range that is difficult.

That said, I just found a good miles ticket home from Europe for 6 months from now. But I always keep my eyes open for a good deal on miles in business - and those seem to be more findable early. Another tip - I almost always book one ways when booking with miles. I found a great return ticket on miles months ago (different trip) and then later booked a very cheap one way ticket there in cash. Plus you often need to be flexible on dates. Just keep looking.

Edit to add: I almost exclusively use AA.

There is no rule. The computers predict demand on certain flights and then allocate Award tickets. This can change at any time.

I've tried to get award tickets months in advance and saw none. I've also tried to get award tickets two weeks out and didn't have a problem.

The only suggestion I can make is keep trying. At some point you'll have to decide but i's a long way until May. I rarely get any tickets more than three months out--award or paying.

TexasTravelMom,
If you don't mind elaborating, how have you found deals for the flights in business using miles?
Do you just check random dates?
I have some flexibility in my travel so, I might be able to make something work.
Thank you!

Hi. You may want to call AA and see if the agent can book it for you. On AF, I have found that they need to book multi city.

I've found multi-city using miles is a problem on AA.
More experienced miles users have told me they always book them separately because it's easier to deal with if they need to make a change, and I don't think there is a downside.

My guess is all the awards tickets for May and June were snapped up months ago - if they do open up 331 days ahead and knowledgeable people jump on them then. Add to that that it's a very popular time to travel . . .

Just about all of the inputs here are accurate.

AA flights that exist at the time are released into the schedule 331 days out.
Some new seasonal routes may not be entered until later once schedules
are finalized.

Partner flights, which I suspect make up part of the multi-city routing OP
is trying to book, may or may not ever get released into AA's Advantage
inventory.

Since you can cancel an award booking for no charge, the input that you
should book one leg at a time is correct. For an intra-Europe leg, consider
just buying the ticket. Or use alternate means, such as Avios points, to
book it. Every airline in OneWorld's network has different ways to determine
how many points it costs to book a flight in their point currency and what
flights are open to them.

Not to criticize agents, but they have no more visibility into award inventory
than you do, and they don't know the rules for award bookings any better either.

Thank you all for your replies. Appreciate the advice.

jules, there’s nothing scientific about my searches. If I want business, I start looking as soon as they are available. I start with a certain date, but my app will show me options over about a week, with my selected date in the middle. That at least tells me when mileage flights are an option within a week of my target date. If I am specifically looking for business, I can also tell my search that and it doesn’t show me flights with economy available.

Within Europe, sometimes I play around with searches for other airports that I might be able to fly cheaply to from wherever my trip is ending. I wish there was an easier way. A week ago I started playing with a business flight home from Spain for the end of November and found one from Madrid 2 days later than my optional return date. It still got me home by TG, so it worked (and gave me 2 more days for my trip). That’s an example of booking nearly as far out as possible. And to get there at the front end, I found what seemed like a ridiculously cheap price for economy (prices coming back this direction one way were twice as much). I wish it were the other way around. I would rather fly business there and economy home…..

I tend to save my miles for business every now and then and just pay money for economy, but I needed a ticket home from Orkney for the end of July and found an economy miles flight from Dublin, as opposed to Edinburgh or London - so about 6 months out. The miles flights were a lot higher from either London or Edinburgh and I could fly from Orkney to Dublin just as cheaply as the other two.

Is there a benefit in booking multicity? Does it require less miles or does AA just treat it as two one way legs and prices accordingly. It seems you are looking for a US-Europe-US type of ticket on miles. If so, I would use the flexibility of two one ways.

Also remember, you can cancel award tickets any time and get your miles and taxes back. Also, AA’s IT is not that advanced and it will let you book the same routing on multiple days as well as multiple tickets to different destinations for the same day. This gives great flexibility when you are nailing down dates. I know If I try this with United, the system will automatically cancel one of my tickets as it prevents double bookings.

I book two, one-way tickets rather than a round-trip ticket when I'm using miles on United. I've often tweaked my departure date and left the return date alone, so it's advantageous to me to keep those flights on separate tickets.

A have a friend who uses American for transatlantic mileage flights. I know she has seen round-trip mileage requirements that were lower than two one-ways, but I guess that could vary by routing, and American could change that policy at any time.

I have done both multi-city and two one way miles bookings on AA. I haven’t encountered the better deal for a multi-city but it certainly could happen. It’s like checking the cash (and miles) price from my small regional airport as well as from DFW. You would think it would always be more from here, but often (not just sometimes) it’s the same price or even cheaper to add that leg and fly from here.

Two one way miles tickets makes it a lot easier to cancel and change one leg of your trip. Arnold is right about AA’s tech. But it’s good to find a benefit to it….. :)

Exactly what itinerary are you trying to book? If you give us that information someone on these boards can probably give you some details.

I will give two one-way bookings a shot. Thanks, everyone!

as someone who has flown to Europe, quite often on mileage tickets what I have discovered is it’s often significantly more miles to fly into one city and out of another. A lot of times they’re much better round-trip deals going in and out of the same city. This means I have to back track which creates negative judgment on here, but it saves me a lot of miles. ( some posters assume that I just don’t know what I’m doing and feel the need to lecture me about how I’m clueless LOL) )

You may also discover that two one-way tickets are also much more expensive. It’s not always true, but it can be. It definitely was when I was booking last year on Delta.

I know on American they generally release at least a couple of tickets on most flights at the 330 window. People do book those up very quickly especially for key seasons and you’re going in the heart of the season. I agree that calling an American agent is generally good. if you get one that you feel like really isn’t working with you or saying things just to get rid of you (like call back next month) a time honored tradition among frequent flier is HUCB (hang up call back). Some agents are better than others. If you get one that’s not working with you or is telling you stuff that makes no sense, HUCB

And the keyword in my recommendation is a call. You need to actually talk to an agent do not chat. These chat services for the airlines are pathetically bad they really do just want to get rid of you. They are incentivized to get people off chat not to actually give you good service.

@carol: Indeed, I think I will just make the phone call and see if it works any better than the chat.

By the way, to answer a previous question, I plan to fly into LIS and out of OSL. In-2nd week of May, out-3rd week of June.

Just an update for everyone kind enough to offer advice. I booked two one-way tickets: USA-Portugal and Norway-USA. My AA points covered the USA-Portugal leg entirely. The Norway-USA leg is on Finnair, paid using my AA credit card and listing my AAdvantage number, so hopefully I will earn some miles there.