# Frequent Flyer Miles



## Kauai Kid (Jan 11, 2012)

I've got over 200,000 American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles and find no seats are available for my Nov 2012 Hawaii trip.  Guess I should have started trying exactly 11 months prior to travel dates. 

Got another trip scheduled for Mar 2013 and I'm going to start trying exactly 11 months before the departure date.

If I get a rejection again the credit card is going into the fire.:mad 

Why carry a FF card that costs $85/yr when you can't get FF tickets?

My other credit card gives 5% discount for gas, 3% for groceries, and 1% on everything else.   It has no annual cost.   

May just start using it, and save the discounts in my travel envelope.  At least with cash I can buy a ticket on any airline I want.

Would appreciate your thoughts on the situation.  Thanks.

Sterling


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## nalismom (Jan 11, 2012)

Not sure when you are traveling but there are some at milesaver level available......rest are Aanytime awards.  I religiously start looking at the 330 day mark especially if I am wedded to certain dates and I haven't had any problems getting tics..I wouldn't despair yet...I would look everyday and sometimes several times a day since folks do place seats on hold.

I got tics from DFW-Hnl and OGG-DFW for late September early October in mid December


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## x3 skier (Jan 11, 2012)

As fares tend to go up dramatically closer to departure dates, I would just keep trying to get the award tix until about a month or two before.

I have been able to get Biz Class tix to Europe every year by checking periodically. Never did the 330 or whatever day drill.

Cheers


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## MichaelColey (Jan 11, 2012)

We were able to get FIVE sets of First Class Hawaii tickets at Saver rates for this coming September.  We did three things to make it happen:

1) We had to split into two groups (with flights departing/arriving within a couple hours of each other) because there were no flights with more than 4 Saver tickets.
2) We extended our trip by a day so we could get Saver tickets for the return.
3) Our trip starts in Maui, but instead of flying DFW-?-OGG (which showed nothing available at Saver rates), we went DFW-HNL and added on a (5k) HNL-OGG segment.

It takes some flexibility.  Start your search with one-way tickets and look to see what days are available at what rates.  Expand to other airports if necessary.  If you're a larger party, check to see if splitting up might help.


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## MichaelColey (Jan 11, 2012)

One other suggestions, if you're willing to throw a little money at it...

Over on FlyerTalk, one of the most recommend tools is ExpertFlyer.com.  I believe you could set up an alert to find out when/if what you're looking for becomes available.


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## JeffW (Jan 11, 2012)

At lot of the recent talk is that no longer are all seats released at the T-330 day mark.  You might get some, but supposedly release is staggered throughout the remainder of the time before the flight.  

Flexibility is absolutely the key.  If there ever were days you could pick the destinations and dates you wanted to fly, and expect to be able to select FF tickets, I think those days are gone.

The one-way plan helps.  It can take some work, but I'd your destination (HNL or any the islands), and start back-tracking on where direct flights to there originate from.  Then take those cities, and track back to your departing city (for a single connection).  If there is mainland to Hawaii flight availability, it's usually easier to find alternate ways to get there (for AA, probably ORD or DFW).  If there's no availabilty on the flights to Hawaii, not a lot you can do about that.

Definitely look at alternate days (a lot of websites now show availabilty at least +/- a few days).   Also check if you get a free stopover.  In the past, I did PHL-California, stayed there (from a day to a week), then continued on, with no additional mileage cost.  Maybe not your first choice, and it does increase costs (possible overnight hotel and car rental), but say going out to CA, staying overnight, and then taking the first flight out in the morning can be an option.

Jeff


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## dougp26364 (Jan 11, 2012)

Kauai Kid said:


> I've got over 200,000 American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles and find no seats are available for my Nov 2012 Hawaii trip.  Guess I should have started trying exactly 11 months prior to travel dates.
> 
> Got another trip scheduled for Mar 2013 and I'm going to start trying exactly 11 months before the departure date.
> 
> ...



I feel the same way about Delta. No matter when I start looking or how flexible I might be, the only FF seats I find are at full freight for 40,000 miles. I now have 80,000 FF miles and will be done with Delta once we use those miles.........for now at least. 

Airlines and FF seats seem to be a fluid thing. One year I'll favor one airline, the next year that airline isn't any good so we'll favor another. Right now we're stuck on United and Frontier as our prefered airlines for FF miles. In the past it's been American and up until a couple of years ago, it was Delta. 

FF seats are a moving target. It's never good to be wed to one airline. flexiblility and frequent searches are necessary to stay on top of things. Even when I don't have a trip planned, I still search for FF seats with different airlines to see how things are changing. By doing that, I don't accumulate a very large number of FF miles only to find out they've become to difficult to use. Delta caught me short as we were just under 25,000 miles when things started to dry up. I used various methods to continue to increase our miles until we reached the 40,000 mile mark. Now I'm not so interested in accumulating Delta Skymiles. Eventually, I'm sure United and Frontier will make changes that will force us to look at other airlines again.


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## JeffW (Jan 11, 2012)

I think Delta & Northwest, and United and Continental, were better before they merged (I never had America West miles, so not sure how merging with USAir affected them).  Then, there were basically 4 competing airlines you could search through, with one usually being noticeable better (at least on a particular route) than another.  

Second biggest change (for me, with between myself and my wife, almost 1M Skymiles) was Delta going to that 3 tier mileage level.  Not that I do a ton of FF traveling, but in my experience, almost everything is at the mid (higher) tier or better.  You _might _for a saver coach seat "for as low as 25k miles", but more likely, it will be at the 40k level.

Jeff


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## nalismom (Jan 11, 2012)

We focus on acquiring our FF miles on 1 airline (American) and so far the last 12 years we have gotten 2  award tics to Aruba every year during high season.  Some years we have to be flexible in either going down a day or 2 before and/or coming back a day later.  We also have gotten 2  award seats to Europe twice and most recently 2 award seats to Hawaii.  I have limited flexibility with Aruba and with Hawaii due to timeshare use. With Hawaii I planned my outbound to HNL 3 days before our TS use starts on Kauai and just bought inter-island from HNL-LIH and then LIH-OGG.  My return is an award from OGG-DFW.  Both awards are nonstop.  All of our awards have been at the lowest mileage level.

I do agree that not all FF seats are released at one time and rather throughout the year although the most desirable routing will likely disappear early in the process.  If you're willing to go up a level in Awards you might have more luck but I do think it takes diligence to get the lower level awards with the best routing.  When I was looking my seats to Europe last year I noticed that the NS flight I wanted was not available right away but if I waited 10-14 days after the 330 release date I was able to get the flights I wanted albeit I booked them in two segments ie...first secured my outbound to Europe and then when available secured my return. I've done this for Aruba as well.

Don't know if this helps but it has worked for me for a long time.


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## barefootnAR (Jan 11, 2012)

Sterling, which airport are are you departing from? Houston?
We use AA mile and now fly direct out of DFW. We gave up trying to go from one of the 2 regional or from LittleRock to DFW for the FY 7 direct to OGG. We couldn't find 2 seats on the first leg. Now we drive to DFW, spend the night and take the direct. We stay at a Comfort Suite booking a Stay and fly/park package for $99 for the night and 10 days of free parking, free shuttle. Additional parking days are $5 per.
I just checked out of DFW for Nov 11 (Sunday) none, but 2 for Nov 12 Mon at 17.5 points each. On the direct.
Nov 25 forward had 2 seats for 17.5 each from OGG to DFW, forgot to see if that was on the direct (flight 6).
We book earliest time we can for the flight out, wait two weeks and book the return. This year I checked four days after I booked our DFW to OGG and there were still seats open at the 17.5 points on the direct.
If you decide to give up your miles I'll be glad for you to gift them to me..:rofl:


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## x3 skier (Jan 11, 2012)

Another trick is to search partner airlines. For example, I have gotten Tickets on KLM for low miles when Delta was showing only mid level awards. Of course Delta's Award calendar is a complete joke and about as reliable as a $10 Rolex Watch bought from a back street vendor in Bangkok.

Between that approach and pinging Delta or AA periodically, I always get to Europe every year in Biz Class for low miles. 

It also helps to have about 500000 in the bank with AA and DL both plus another 650000 in AMEX Membership Rewards for a reserve. 

You might try a One World Partner for AA Miles.

Cheers

PS, I too will take any and all miles someone is too frustrated to use.


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## GetawaysRus (Jan 11, 2012)

x3 skier said:


> You might try a One World Partner for AA Miles.



Good advice - be sure you are looking at partner redemptions.

If you are doing the searches yourself on the AA website, you may not be seeing all possible partner redemptions.  To get info on partners, you usually have to call and speak to an AAgent.  It costs more to do things over the phone, but sometimes it does help.

My impression is that MileSAAver redemptions on AA have gotten tougher this year.

I'm working on a trip to Spain for Fall 2012.  I have one seat outbound in Business class on AA metal as a MileSAAver award (50K miles).  I have an ExpertFlyer request in place, but a second seat has so far not opened after nearly 2 months.  I may have to use 100K for an Anytime award.

For our return, there were lots of options with partner airlines and nothing that I could find on AA.  So we've got 2 seats on Iberia from Spain to Heathrow in Business class, and then 2 seats on British Air in First Class back to the USA.  Both of those return seats were at MileSAAver award levels (62.5K miles per person for First Class).  I cringe at the BA fuel surcharge, but this will be our first time on a First Class award ticket, so I'm hoping we enjoy the flight.


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## Rent_Share (Jan 11, 2012)

I call Bull Shoot on Continental applying an international mileage rate for Hawaii travell


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## tiel (Jan 11, 2012)

We booked our Jan/Feb 2012 FF tickets for IAD/HNL at the 330 day mark.  Booked the trip out first, then waited 3 weeks to book the return separately.  We were going for the Milesaver business class awards and were successful for the most part...wanted to go on Jan 27, but couldn't get anything.  Going a day later, so all is well as far as we are concerned.  

I did log on to AA early in the morning, around 4:00 am or so ET, to get what I wanted.  I was told by AA reps the seats would be released at midnight, but found they didn't become available until 4-5 am.  This approach may have not been necessary, but it worked for us. 

I did notice some Milesaver business class seats became available after the 330 day mark, and am guessing somebody had a change in plans and cancelled their reservations.  Hope that happens for you!


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## winger (Jan 11, 2012)

Kauai Kid said:


> I've got over 200,000 American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles and find no seats are available for my Nov 2012 Hawaii trip.  Guess I should have started trying exactly 11 months prior to travel dates.
> 
> Got another trip scheduled for Mar 2013 and I'm going to start trying exactly 11 months before the departure date.
> 
> ...


 What exact dates are u looking to travel and from/to where ? I've been really studying the calif-to-lih nov flights, particularly around thanksgiving, and for around 14 days leading up to and including the weekend after thanksgiving, I am pretty certain AA have NOT released *any *saver economy awards, yet.


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## winger (Jan 11, 2012)

tiel said:


> ...
> I did notice some Milesaver business class seats became available after the 330 day mark, and am guessing somebody had a change in plans and cancelled their reservations....


 Or maybe AA is following a new release schedule as reported over in FT


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## elaine (Jan 11, 2012)

I booked 5 tickets DCA-HNL at 330ish days for July 2012. During the 330 day week, I had a choice of several routes, all with at least 5 seats. Within 10 days, all availability for 5+ seats were gone, and many did not have seats for even 2 persons. Same for our return. There was no lower point availability for KOA-DCA at all. Some routes from hubs (LAX-KOA) were only at the higher rate, even though connecting flights via LAX were at the lower rates. We are paying out of pocket from HNL-KOA and back, to the tune of $1000. But, we still got 5 FF tickets from the East coast (and a great RCI trade), so the trip works.
I advise that you start trying to book about 2 days before you really want to go--make a reservation and hold it for 5 days, then if your date is open, great--cancel the other. If not, at least you have something. Same for the return. We planned to come back on thursday vs. sat anyway---good thing, as sat did not have much, if any, availability--which I guessed.
Good luck, I still really like AA FF program for getting seats, but you have to be the early bird, esp. for more than 2 seats. Elaine


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## rcshelton (Jan 14, 2012)

Kauai Kid said:


> I've got over 200,000 American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles and find no seats are available for my Nov 2012 Hawaii trip.  Guess I should have started trying exactly 11 months prior to travel dates.
> 
> Got another trip scheduled for Mar 2013 and I'm going to start trying exactly 11 months before the departure date.
> 
> ...



Similiar to an earlierposter, I have been monitoring FF miles to Hawaii as we have two weeks finalized - one on Maui starting on Nov 24 and one on Kauai the following week.  I focused on 331 day time, both before and after, and discussed with American Reservations on more than one occasion.  We will be flying from the East Coast (Raleigh-Durham), and wanted the 37.5K Business/First Class due to the long haul in one day.  Based on my monitoring, I don't think American has released any MileSaver Award level seats to date for the period from Nov. 14 to Nov.26, the Thanksgiving holiday travel period.  In fact, one Reservation agent told me that on my travel day to OGG, which showed no Milesaver availability, no Milesaver award travel had been sold.   

In spot checking other flights throughout the US, it appears that AA may have not released Milesaver award for this holiday time period through out their system.

For our trip, I have reserved Aanytime miles(45K) for the RDU-DFW-OGG.  American has advised that, if 37.5K Milesaver becomes available I can convert at no cost as we would be moving from coach to First Class.  Realistically, I don't see this happening.  

I had no problem getting a return flight in early December from Kauai (LIH-LAX-DFW-RDU) at the at the First Class Milesaver level.


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## lvhmbh (Jan 14, 2012)

I find it is best to talks with the awards desk people.  You don't have to book through them but they can tell you what is available, what has been released, etc.  JMHO, Linda


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## MichaelColey (Jan 14, 2012)

FWIW, we couldn't find Saver First to OGG either, but we DID find Saver First to HNL and then added a HNL-OGG segment for 5k miles.  You might check that.


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## Amy (Jan 14, 2012)

JeffW said:


> Also check if you get a free stopover.  In the past, I did PHL-California, stayed there (from a day to a week), then continued on, with no additional mileage cost.  Maybe not your first choice, and it does increase costs (possible overnight hotel and car rental), but say going out to CA, staying overnight, and then taking the first flight out in the morning can be an option.



I've only booked a stopover on FF ticket over the phone; is it possible to book with that option online?  I don't recall seeing it when I've check award availability on AA and Alaska (what we will probably end up using).


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## nalismom (Jan 14, 2012)

As far as I am aware AA no longer allows for stopovers on their FF Awards unless it falls within a limited number of hours.  For example, we can book nite before flights if our next flight is the first available next day.  Coming out of Dallas and going to Aruba we would take one of two available evening flights to Miami and then the next AM flight to Aruba since there was no way coming from DFW someone could have made that AM flight.  This however is no longer an issue since AA has re-worked their schedules and now has a 545 AM slight from DFW to MIA in more than enought time to make the newly rescheduled AM flight from MIA to AUA.

Sadly the days of an extended stopover included your mieage award are long over and they now consider it another segment requiring more miles.


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## winger (Jan 15, 2012)

nalismom said:


> As far as I am aware AA no longer allows for stopovers on their FF Awards unless it falls within a limited number of hours.  ...


Is this a new rule applied to gateway cities when traveling international?   For example, if I flew from SFO-DFW-CDG, as of last month, the rule stated I can stop over in DFW (gateway = last US city) for say three or four or five months before flying onto CDG. The only issue was I had to complete this entire one way trip within one year of original ticketing date.


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## Carolinian (Jan 15, 2012)

Delta is the worst these days, but none of them are what they used to be.  Delta often charge numbers of miles that are off their own milage charts.  Some at FlyerTalk have reported being asked for 600,000 miles (yes that many zeros) for tickets to Europe.




dougp26364 said:


> I feel the same way about Delta. No matter when I start looking or how flexible I might be, the only FF seats I find are at full freight for 40,000 miles. I now have 80,000 FF miles and will be done with Delta once we use those miles.........for now at least.
> 
> Airlines and FF seats seem to be a fluid thing. One year I'll favor one airline, the next year that airline isn't any good so we'll favor another. Right now we're stuck on United and Frontier as our prefered airlines for FF miles. In the past it's been American and up until a couple of years ago, it was Delta.
> 
> FF seats are a moving target. It's never good to be wed to one airline. flexiblility and frequent searches are necessary to stay on top of things. Even when I don't have a trip planned, I still search for FF seats with different airlines to see how things are changing. By doing that, I don't accumulate a very large number of FF miles only to find out they've become to difficult to use. Delta caught me short as we were just under 25,000 miles when things started to dry up. I used various methods to continue to increase our miles until we reached the 40,000 mile mark. Now I'm not so interested in accumulating Delta Skymiles. Eventually, I'm sure United and Frontier will make changes that will force us to look at other airlines again.


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## winger (Jan 15, 2012)

Carolinian said:


> Delta is the worst ......Delta often charge numbers of miles that are off their own milage charts.  Some at FlyerTalk have reported being asked for 600,000 miles (yes that many zeros) for tickets to Europe.



I've read Delta's computer system is pretty bad, this being one example


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## Carolinian (Jan 15, 2012)

winger said:


> I've read Delta's computer system is pretty bad, this being one example



It gets reported often enough, and not just at 600K but also 300K, 400K, etc. that it is clearly more than a computer problem.  There are long threads on this over at FT.


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## Timeshare Von (Jan 15, 2012)

While the FF travel programs have all changed over the years, making it more difficult to score free (or highly discounted) tickets, I'm still pretty happy with what I've been able to do in the past year or so.

David (DH) and I did Fairbanks on Delta flying coach there and 1st class back in Sept 10 for the minimal number of miles.  The miles used were largely obtained through the DL/American Express offer.

I then went to Anchorage in March last year for the Iditarod (also on DL) for  just 25k miles.

My trip to Kenya was on British Airways using miles obtained primarily through a credit card offer from British Airways.  (I did have to supplement purchase around 15k miles so that I could fly home in 1st class.)  Using the "miles + cash" option I paid $2,000 (total including the miles purchase) for a World Traveler + ticket to Nairobi and the first class ticket home.  (A R/T coach ticket would have been around $1,700 had I not used miles.)

Coming up, the 3 of us (me, DH and MIL) will be flying American to Dublin . . . again thanks to a credit card offer.  Our R/T coach tickets cost $250 (for the 3 of them) which was largely taxes and the call center fees.

I think what this also highlights, is that with more and more people jumping onto the mileage promos offered by credit card companies, there are more people out there with inflated mileage accounts (like me) competing for the limited inventory of reduced and/or free tickets available.

It has become clear to me that the rules have changed and yes, tickets are not always available at that 331 day mark.  I have had to book some trips as 2 one-way bookings.  For my BA trip to Kenya, I had to book my departure out of Dulles, which required a 1way purchased ticket from Milwaukee to Dulles . . . and my return was to Chicago O'Hare, with my hubby driving 2 hours to pick me up.

For the Ireland trip coming up, DH and I had to be booked on different Milwaukee to O'Hare flights as only 1 seat per flight (the small puddle jumpers) were available as FF inventory.  I booked these flights back in June and just yesterday, I was able to change DH's flight out of Milw to my flight as "another seat" had been opened up for FF ticketing.  Hurray!  Fortunately my MIL is flying in from Indy, with no issues with inventory.  And oh . . . these flights only cost 35k for the R/T coach ticket (105k total for the 3).

Anyway, long winded to say yes things have change and yes they require some degree of flexibility.  If you are not already a member of FlyerTalk, you owe it to yourself to join so that you too can maximize your utilization of your airline mileage programs and to learn about mileage enhancement opportunities such as the credit card offers and "mileage runs".


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## elaine (Jan 15, 2012)

AA stopovers:
less than 4 hours domestic, Hawaii, Carib. Really stinks for Hawaii--we used to always stopover in CA on the way back to DC. We are taking a red-eye from HNL-ORD-DCA vs pony up more miles for 5 persons!

If you get the right agent, I have "heard" you can still do the "last in, first out" flights and it does not count as a stopover.

For international (to Europe): 
unlimited stopover allowed going/coming from US city. 
Europe stopover less than 24 hours. We did a 22 hour stopover in London on AA FF miles with our kids---just enough time to "run" by Buckingham Palace, ride a red doubledecker bus, see the London Eye, and do a quick view of the Tower!


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## nalismom (Jan 15, 2012)

I believe you can still do 'last in first out' without it counting as a stopover for domestic flights.....it really equates to a sleepover:zzz: but it is worth it if you can leave late on a workday and still arrive at your destination earliest possible the next day.

I thought flights to Europe Stopovers were only allowed at gateway city in US.  Was your stopover in London due to going onto another destination in Europe?  22 hours isn't bad...can sleep and see something but a far cry from an unlimited SO which I think is still possible but is a different type of award with different requirements and levels.


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## LisaRex (Jan 15, 2012)

Because I was so tired of planning my trip around award seat availability, and because they gave me a sweet signing bonus (110,000 miles) I switched most of my spending to CapOne Venture card.  I love the flexibility of this program: 

Double miles for every dollar spent. 100 miles for each dollar spent on travel, which is subsequently reimbursed in cash.  Example: I pay $1000 fare to Hawaii on my CapOne card.  I apply for reimbursement of the entire flight at the cost of 100,000 CapOne miles, which equates to $50,000 in everyday spending. Since I paid cash, I get to pocket the frequent flyer miles after I fly.  Since I haven't been able to fly to Hawaii for fewer than 70,000 Delta miles in years, which is $70,000 in Delta AMEX spending, I come out ahead on all fronts.  And since I'm free to pick my own itinerary, I don't have to do creative things like flying into another island on a Wednesday. 

So, except for the fact that I still accumulate miles for flights flown, I'm done with the award ticket game.  In the future, I'll just book the best itinerary I can find, for the best price, and then get reimbursed in cash.


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## elaine (Jan 15, 2012)

In reply to----------- "I thought flights to Europe Stopovers were only allowed at gateway city in US. Was your stopover in London due to going onto another destination in Europe? 22 hours isn't bad...can sleep and see something but a far cry from an unlimited SO which I think is still possible but is a different type of award with different requirements and levels."

For Europe on AA, they will allow anything less than 24 hours and it does not count as a stopover. So, into LHR from Rome landing @ 2pm Sat and takeoff at noon Sunday is 22 hours and allowed.


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## exyeh (Jan 15, 2012)

LisaRex said:


> I pay $1000 fare to Hawaii on my CapOne card.  I apply for reimbursement of the entire flight at the cost of 100,000 CapOne miles, which equates to $50,000 in everyday spending.




Do you mean 10 miles for $1 on travel? otherwise Capone reimburs you $1000 after you spend $1000.


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## stevelb (Jan 15, 2012)

LisaRex said:


> Because I was so tired of planning my trip around award seat availability, and because they gave me a sweet signing bonus (110,000 miles) I switched most of my spending to CapOne Venture card.  I love the flexibility of this program:
> 
> Double miles for every dollar spent. 100 miles for each dollar spent on travel, which is subsequently reimbursed in cash.  Example: I pay $1000 fare to Hawaii on my CapOne card.  I apply for reimbursement of the entire flight at the cost of 100,000 CapOne miles, which equates to $50,000 in everyday spending. Since I paid cash, I get to pocket the frequent flyer miles after I fly.  Since I haven't been able to fly to Hawaii for fewer than 70,000 Delta miles in years, which is $70,000 in Delta AMEX spending, I come out ahead on all fronts.  And since I'm free to pick my own itinerary, I don't have to do creative things like flying into another island on a Wednesday.
> 
> ...




Yes, I have also begun to structure my spending as you relate.  Miles have become very difficult to use and CapOne and Chase Saphire seem to be the better approach at this time.  Of course I still many miles to burn, when possible, on several airlines.


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## nalismom (Jan 15, 2012)

I have CapOne Rewards as well ...not the Venture but the original Rewards and have 40k rewards which would could be used by using 35k to reimburse me for the equivalent of $350 inclusive of fees and taxes for an air ticket.  Conversely 35k on AA would get me a coach RT tic to either Caribbean or Hawaii which for me prices out to approximately $750 so I will stick with my AA FF program.  I looked at cashing 30k rewards on CO but that came to $150....hardly worth it.  What I have decided to do instead is use my CO rewards to cover hotel costs here and there....especially the ones that would add up close to $350.

Elaine...that is good to know about the Europe stopover.....I wonder how stopovers would work flying US to LHR-NBO? The BA flight is an ON getting in early and the flight on to Nairobi is several hours later but it is another long flight and doesn't land in NBO til 9 PM....essentially 24 hours of travel....might be useful to break it up by staying in London for a day or so.  The one that is a killer is the NS flight from DFW to Australia......I just don't see there being a stopover other than LAX which only 3 hrs into a 22 hr flight.


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## elaine (Jan 15, 2012)

I only know the "under 24 hr connection" from US to Europe and under 4 hr US-Hawaii. The 24 hrs is a hard rule, 23:55 is OK, 24:05 is not. Africa/Asia, etc. could have different rules per AA FF miles. I would hope they let you break it up.
The new rules really messed up our big European trip with the kids--but we improvised. Thanks to Rick Steves, I found out there is a Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London that starts at 10pm---you have to write for free tickets months in advance--we got the tickets and it is a very formal ceremony with the Beefeaters that takes you into the locked gates to the Bloody Tower/Traitor's Gate area---pretty good for 3 kids on the whirlwind "London in 22 hours" pit stop---LOL!


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## nalismom (Jan 15, 2012)

Love RS......always go to his books first for the scoop...we just came back from Spain and Morocco using his guides and TA for Morocco.


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## x3 skier (Jan 15, 2012)

*Please send me your miles*

If anyone has miles they do not want or cannot use, please send them to me since I seem to get flights close to what I want without an inordinate amount of effort.  

Actually, most airlines have a donation program for charities for "orphan" or actually, any miles, like Make a Wish or others. If you don't want to put up with frequent flier programs anymore, please consider donating. 

Cheers


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## pwrshift (Jan 15, 2012)

There is no plan as bad as Air Canada"s Aeroplan.  Almost any seat is available if you are prepared to part with an excessive number of AC FF miles...sometimes as much as 600,000 for a tough to get flight.  Just for fun, try it here...

http://www1.aeroplan.com/adr/AirBooking.do

Although it's a partner of Star Alliance there's no relation to the normal FF levels on most flights.


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## winger (Jan 15, 2012)

pwrshift said:


> There is no plan as bad as Air Canada"s Aeroplan.  Almost any seat is available if you are prepared to part with an excessive number of AC FF miles...sometimes as much as 600,000 for a tough to get flight.  Just for fun, try it here...
> 
> http://www1.aeroplan.com/adr/AirBooking.do
> 
> Although it's a partner of Star Alliance there's no relation to the normal FF levels on most flights.


This 600,000 stuff is "crap" (sorry for the language) - if I had to pay something this high, I will NEVER go any where with the family of four


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## Carolinian (Jan 16, 2012)

The best one out there right now is BMI, which is 45K miles on TATL flights on *A all year, and intra-Europe as cheap as 12K on any *A carrier, both RT.  The said thing is that they are being bought by BA, so this program will go away in the next few months/


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## LisaRex (Jan 16, 2012)

exyeh said:


> Do you mean 10 miles for $1 on travel? otherwise Capone reimburs you $1000 after you spend $1000.



I earn 2 miles for every $ spent.  So after $50,000 in spending, I'll earn 100,000 miles.  

In order to redeem those miles, I have to apply for reimbursement for a travel-related expense, at a rate of 100 CapOne miles for every dollar charged.  So if I want to be reimbursed for a $1,000 flight, I must have 100,000 miles in my account.


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## glypnirsgirl (Jan 16, 2012)

Amy said:


> I've only booked a stopover on FF ticket over the phone; is it possible to book with that option online?  I don't recall seeing it when I've check award availability on AA and Alaska (what we will probably end up using).



Sure - just use the multi-city option.

elaine


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## BurleA (Feb 2, 2012)

*Citibank says frequent flyer miles are taxable*

You really have to book earlier because you're not the only one who hold that FF card. There are a lot! Anyway, have you read this already? Last Feb. Citibank gave away thousands of frequent flyer miles as part of an offer. Now, customers who took advantage of the promotion are getting 1099 forms, declaring that those miles can be taxed income. Article source: Citibank says frequent flyer miles are taxable


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## artringwald (Feb 3, 2012)

Carolinian said:


> Delta is the worst these days, but none of them are what they used to be.  Delta often charge numbers of miles that are off their own milage charts.  Some at FlyerTalk have reported being asked for 600,000 miles (yes that many zeros) for tickets to Europe.



I love your signature "Driving Every Loyal Traveller Away - the new Delta". Delta drove away even more people recently by getting rid of the two McDonalds in the Minneapolis airport. They're being replaced by more upscale restaurants.


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## Talent312 (Feb 3, 2012)

artringwald said:


> Delta drove away even more people recently by getting rid of the two McDonalds in the Minneapolis airport. They're being replaced by more upscale restaurants.



1. Delta does not "own" the airport and does not decide who the venders are.
That's the province of the airport management. They may have made a  suggestion or request, but the contracts are with the port-authority.

B. Are you seriously upset about losing McDonald's?
You do know that what they sell is not real food, just a mash-up of industrialby-products, right? Personally, I'd be delighted.


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## heathpack (Feb 3, 2012)

We were looking for flights using AA FF miles on a multistop itinerary: LAX to NYC the day before Thanksgiving and then NYC to Cancun on either the Tuesday or Wednesday after.

We called exactly 339 days out (or whatever youre supposed to do) for the day-before-Thanksgiving tickets.  The only thing available were 2 business class tickets, we took those because we figured award tickets would be tough to come by that particular travel day.  It also doesn't hurt to upgrade to civilized travel on the busiest travel day of the year.

We called exactly 339 days out for the second part of the ticket.  Nothing available on the nonstop itinerary, not even business class.  I was frustrated and the agent commented that award seats are no longer necessarily released 339 days out.  They can come available any time.  So I've been checking diligently and today they suddenly pop up as available, two ecomony AAsaver tickets JFK-CUN.

The moral of the story is don't conclude the award seats will remain unavailable just because you can't get them 339 days out.  Keep checking and maybe you will find what you want.  

H


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## MichaelColey (Feb 3, 2012)

heathpack said:


> The moral of the story is don't conclude the award seats will remain unavailable just because you can't get them 339 days out. Keep checking and maybe you will find what you want.


I've seen more and more comments about that on FlyerTalk.  Inventory seems to be released more gradually now.

You're spot on about business class as well.  Even if you don't normally travel business class, it's worth checking.  Business class at a saver rate is the same number of miles (or less) as an anytime coach ticket with most airlines.


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## artringwald (Feb 4, 2012)

Talent312 said:


> 1. Delta does not "own" the airport and does not decide who the venders are.
> That's the province of the airport management. They may have made a  suggestion or request, but the contracts are with the port-authority.
> 
> B. Are you seriously upset about losing McDonald's?
> You do know that what they sell is not real food, just a mash-up of industrialby-products, right? Personally, I'd be delighted.



Delta doesn't own the airport, but with 95% of the flights, they control it. Here's the article.

Industrial by-products? You mean like the chemical ingredients listed on most of the things sold at the grocery store? We eat them because they taste good. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's (except maybe for breakfast), but Delta PR people should have know that with billions served, people are going to react to the decision to boot McDonald's.


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