American Airline 'verbiage' for using ffmiles

[Cathyb]

AA seems to give out lots of mileage when you sign up for one of the credit cards; but how do they keep separate the miles that are 'contiguous US states, Canada' vs. regular miles achieved through purchases.

Does anyone know? We use our AA ffmiles mostly for Hawaii and, of course, it is not contiguous.

Has anyone used those type of miles for Hawaii without a problem?

 

[learnalot]

AA seems to give out lots of mileage when you sign up for one of the credit cards; but how do they keep separate the miles that are 'contiguous US states, Canada' vs. regular miles achieved through purchases.

Does anyone know? We use our AA ffmiles mostly for Hawaii and, of course, it is not contiguous.

Has anyone used those type of miles for Hawaii without a problem?

I may be misunderstanding your question, but I don't think they attempt to determine HOW or WHERE your FFmiles were earned (contiguous, non-contiguous, internet shopping, skymall, credit card purchases, etc.) when you are redeeming miles for a ticket (or for anything else). I think the contiguous, non-contiguous language only comes into play in determining the NUMBER of miles required to redeem a ticket. I don't know what American's mileage point cost is for a contiguous US FF ticket - most airlines will be 20 or 25K, with flights to Hawaii requiring more miles. FYI, contiguous excludes Hawaii because it is not attached to the mainland. If it says contiguous US, I believe it would apply to Alaska as well. A dictionary definition of contiguous is "sharing a boundary or touching each other physically." You can redeem your miles for anything you have enough mileage for, it's just that a ticket to a non-contiguous destination will usually cost more miles than a contiguous destination.

 

[Pat H]

There is no restriction on where you can use miles no matter where they come from. Can you imagine the nightmare trying to do that?

 

[nalismom]

HUH??

I have been an AAdvantage member for about 15 years and never has it been an issue where the miles come from or how they are earned.

Your miles all go into one pot for your use and as the previous poster said AA has a chart which explains how many miles you need where and when you are flying.

For example - a domestic ticket requires 25000 miles, a trip to Caribbean islands requires 35000, a trip to Europe in high season, May 16-October 16 requires 60000 but that same trip to Europe from October 15-May 15 requires 40000.

I have found AA's system to be very user friendly and I have never had difficulty in acquiring seats for miles. It is not complicated and with planning ahead for the destination and flights you want - you can pretty much get it.

 

[DeniseM]

Cathy - I think you are mixing up earning FF miles, with spending FF miles. The rules you are referencing are about spending FF miles - not earning them.

 

[beejaybee]

A mile is a mile

no matter how they are accrued. Go for the credit card mileage bonus. The biggest plus for me in having an airline affiliated cc as opposed to a generic rewards card is that your flight miles are combined with all other types of mileage credit. We just got a promo for a Capital One card that touted if you had 27500 points you'd be able to use them for a $275 airline flight. Whoopee! I used 25k AA miles in '08 for a r/t to Barbados that would've cost around $800 or 80000 points.

 

[MichaelColey]

The only place where the source of miles makes a difference is for determining STATUS on the airline. In that case, you qualify for elite status based on the EQM (elite qualifying miles), EQP (elite qualifying points) or EQS (elite qualifying segments) earned within a calendar year.

For regular redeemable miles, it doesn't matter how you earned it. They're all the same there.

 

[x3 skier]

One nice thing about AA is that all miles count toward Million Miler status (but not annual Elite Status) while others only count BIS (Butt in seat as it is known on Flyer Talk). Various Million Miles status gives you lifetime elite status. While I earned my Million miles + on AA with BIS, I am also close to 2 Million Miles all told which would get me lifetime Platinum Status.

Cheers

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

FYI, contiguous excludes Hawaii because it is not attached to the mainland. If it says contiguous US, I believe it would apply to Alaska as well. A dictionary definition of contiguous is "sharing a boundary or touching each other physically." You can redeem your miles for anything you have enough mileage for, it's just that a ticket to a non-contiguous destination will usually cost more miles than a contiguous destination.

I believe that "contiguous US states" excludes both Alaska and Hawai'i. That's the interpretation used by Alaska Airlines anyway.

 

[MichaelColey]

One nice thing about AA is that all miles count toward Million Miler status (but not annual Elite Status) while others only count BIS (Butt in seat as it is known on Flyer Talk). Various Million Miles status gives you lifetime elite status. While I earned my Million miles + on AA with BIS, I am also close to 2 Million Miles all told which would get me lifetime Platinum Status.

There are rumors that the lifetime status programs will change to BIS miles soon. These rumors have been around for years, but it seems more persistent this time around. If you're close to 2MM, I would lock LT Plat in ASAP.