My daughter had an American Airlines award ticket to fly home to Chicago from Berlin on Jan. 18. It required 20,000 miles. A $150 fee was incurred to transfer some miles from another family member so she'd have enough miles for that ticket. She is staying until July now (no visa issues-that's taken care of), so she asked me to make the necessary calls to change her return flight date. She wants to be home on time for a July 12 wedding. While the AA Advantage awards program normally allows a traveler to change his/her return date without any fees, there will be a cost involved if award travel for the new date is more expensive than award travel for the original date. Today a AA Advantage reservation agent told me that July is peak travel time, and an award ticket will cost 30,000 miles, so she has to pay $300 to buy another 10,000 miles. That sounded okay, but the AA rep told me that checking the first 10 days in July, he could only find one flight with award seats, and that flight has two stops (2.5 hours in London, then 6 hours in Toronto), and taxes and fees for that flight would be $418. Getting home with AA miles isn't sounding like such a great deal anymore. ($150 + $300 + $418 = $868 for a one way flight with two stops.) Paying out of pocket, instead of with miles, she can get a non-stop flight for $911. It seems like it would make sense for her to pay the $150 fee to restore the 20,000 AA miles to her account, plan on using them at some future time, and book the non-stop flight. Is $911 a good price for one-way Berlin to Chicago? It looks like you can get a one way ticket from Berlin to Chicago in the range of $500 to $750 during the winter and spring, but prices jump up a lot for July and August. Should we watch the fares for awhile, or for travel in July, is it likely they're just going to keep going up, and it's best to book the $911 ticket now?
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