Anonymous wrote:American miles are really hard to use at saver rates IMO. They don't have any nonstops to Europe from DC and if you fly British Airways there are really high fees.

I only like to book tickets to Europe on saver fares (60k) and have only been able to do so on United or Delta (Air France). They have nonstop flights to several destinations but you must be flexible with dates and book in advance.

On American you can sometimes find saver first class flights to Hawaii. Also Alaska Air nonstops from DCA to LA are good.

If you don't care how many points you use you can get to Europe or Asia but you have to connect.

Yeah trying to get miles tickets to Europe is difficult because so many are on British Airwsys, which charge ridiculous fees. I had a hard time getting tickets to Rome for DH and I, I can't imagine trying to do it for 4 people. When we went to SE Asia a few years ago we used my AA miles to go one way and DH's United miles to return. I used to travel on American a lot for work and still have an AAdvantage credit card but I'm kind of over it. Now we have a kid and trying to get 3 seats anywhere just seems like it will never work.

There are some direct flights to Europe on AA from Philly, so look for those. Also I don't think all of the partner flights are available in the online search, so you may have more luck calling.

I have done this a number of times. My only issue has been sometimes I want family to be on points and I want to pay for my ticket (business expense) which has sometimes caused an issue. Sometimes the bizarre path you need to take to use FF miles is outrageously expensive if I want to pay etc. Someone mentioned having an agent help which can make sense.

One cool feature about using FF points to Europe (and I guess other places- but I have only done it to Europe) is no "penalty" to fly in to City A and fly home from City B. So we can fly into City A, take trains/buses on our vacation and end up closer to City B and go back from that city.

Used United miles to go business class to London; Delta miles to go First class to Paris and Moscow; american miles to go first class on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong; American miles first class to Buenos Aires, Quito, Lima, Panama, santiago, and Bogota. These have been great use of our miles...l

Anonymous wrote:I would call the FF desk at AA and ask them to help you put an itinerary together for your trip. You will pay $5 extra a ticket but it is worth it because they will find better ways to use your miles for flights than you could find on their website.

AS has a great map tool in the AAadvantage part of their site. You can put in how many mile you have, # of passengers, and the dates and it will show you where you can travel.
https://www.aa.com/awardMap/home.do

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I traveled the world in the 90s, but have laid low since then - momhood and all.

A few weeks ago, I tried to use United miles to upgrade to Business Class to Europe, and they were going to charge me a "co-pay" of $550 per leg per person to do that, plus take 80,000 miles. I realize I've been asleep for the past two decades, but when did this co-pay stuff start??

It is not a copay, it is taxes. Avoid London at all costs, and they will be lower.

I don't think these were taxes. We were quoted other amounts as London taxes, and for some reason the tax for my daughter was twice as much as the tax for me!

Yes, I've done this multiple times.

That said, it's like using any FF "miles"--depends on when you're going and what the price is. Just check when you want to go and what the mileage requirement would be. If you have flexibility, you might find some very good deals.

Anonymous wrote:I almost never use FF miles for free tickets as you can often find a ticket for cash for < $1,000 to most places. In comparison, the same number of miles can be used to upgrade an economy ticket to a business ticket, which has a value of about $4,000 USD.

Take a look at FlyerTalk.com for some recommendations on how to best use miles on American.

What if you don't care about economy vs. business? Then the value is $0, not $4000.

I almost never use FF miles for free tickets as you can often find a ticket for cash for < $1,000 to most places. In comparison, the same number of miles can be used to upgrade an economy ticket to a business ticket, which has a value of about $4,000 USD.

Take a look at FlyerTalk.com for some recommendations on how to best use miles on American.

Anonymous wrote:I traveled the world in the 90s, but have laid low since then - momhood and all.

A few weeks ago, I tried to use United miles to upgrade to Business Class to Europe, and they were going to charge me a "co-pay" of $550 per leg per person to do that, plus take 80,000 miles. I realize I've been asleep for the past two decades, but when did this co-pay stuff start??

It is not a copay, it is taxes. Avoid London at all costs, and they will be lower.

We did this and it was difficult to get the dates we wanted.

I traveled the world in the 90s, but have laid low since then - momhood and all.

A few weeks ago, I tried to use United miles to upgrade to Business Class to Europe, and they were going to charge me a "co-pay" of $550 per leg per person to do that, plus take 80,000 miles. I realize I've been asleep for the past two decades, but when did this co-pay stuff start??

Can you transfer your AA miles to Air France? You can usually get a better deal there with miles.

I have done it for several trips recently. My threshold is around the $1000 level if it's a saver award (60k miles on united) and about $1500 if its a higher level of miles. I did a trip last fall for 60k miles each and am doing a trip next week that was 95k miles each. I have gold status on United which helps with award travel - they open up more seats for premium frequent flyers so I haven't had much trouble getting tickets.

I had no problem booking United online - it shows availability and fees easily enough to compare the bottom line cost vs discounted airfare.

For me, the annoying thing is how they deal with minors. After booking DH & myself with our respective FF accounts, I opened my kid’s FF page to do the same. It wouldn’t let me book DS with his own points without applying an unaccompanied minor surcharge. The only way to avoid this is to call and have an agent book it and link the travel. By the time I called the next day, our flight had sold out and the agent had to redo them all. Now I know, but what a pain. Seems like it would be so easy to let you link the trips yourself online.