How about information regarding booking AA flights in N America using miles or points from partners?

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Booking travel within North America (as defined by American Airlines) using American Airlines miles is very easy to do (if there are award seats available) and can be completed on AA.com (unless you re booking seats on Hawaiian Airlines).
You can hold your award for 5 days if booked car rental thrifty between 330 and 15 days prior to departure, 1 day if booked within 14 days of departure, and for 2 hours if booked within 24 hours of departure.  There is NO charge for holding an award.
But you have to call American Airlines reservations ( pay a $25 booking fee unless you are a top tier Executive Platinum) for flights on Hawaiian Airlines.  We ll cover how to search for Hawaiian Airlines award availability later in this post so that you don t have to rely on the telephone agent to find you flights!
1.   Book Early.    I ve noticed that availability tends to be the best once the schedule is loaded 330 days from the day of departure.  Of course, airlines continually add or remove award availability, but if you know that you visit Florida car rental thrifty every year during the 3rd week of August, it is probably best to book your seats earlier rather car rental thrifty than later.
2.  Be Flexible.   It will be very hard to get your family of 4 on the same flight unless you are flexible or book early. car rental thrifty And even then it may not be possible. Try to break up your family car rental thrifty of 4 into say, 1 adult 1 child and look for separate flights to and from your destination.  Or look for flexibility around your travel dates.  Or try to get 2 first class and 2 coach seats on the same flight.  Or choose car rental thrifty a destination based on award availability.
3.  Consider Business SAAver awards.   Before spending twice the amount of miles for a coach AAnytime seat (which guarantees you last seat availability) look for Business Class SAAver awards.  Very often there are business class seats available for the same price as coach awards!
4.  Dummy Searches.   Do dummy searches using the American Airlines award tool to see award availability.  It is just like searching for a flight and you ll see what your options are.  You ll also get more familiar with the tool which will help you as you book more awards.
6.  1 Seat at a time.   Instead car rental thrifty of searching for 4 seats, start by searching for 1 seat and increase the number of seats with each search.  You ll get a better sense of how many tickets are available.
So we ve got to search for super saver award availability on Hawaiian Airlines using the Hawaiian Airlines website , write those flight car rental thrifty numbers down, and then call American Airlines reservations and ask them to book the flights.
American Airlines charges 17,500 miles for a 1-way off-peak coach award, 22,500 for a 1-way regular MileSAAver coach award, and 37,500 miles for a 1-way Business/First class award to Hawaii.  If we book an award using American Airline miles, we re going to have to pay what American Airlines charges.
Not all awards on Hawaiian car rental thrifty Airlines (if you search for awards on the Hawaiian Airlines website) can be booked using American Airline miles.  Only Hawaiian Airline Super Saver awards which are 20,000 miles 1-way in coach (17,500 miles if you have the Hawaiian Airlines credit card) and 40,000 miles ( 1-way in First Class can be booked using American Airline miles.
We ll check award availability for Hawaiian Airlines Super Saver awards on the Hawaiian Airlines website , but we ll have to call American Airlines to book those flights because we re using American Airline miles.
Remember, that only the Super Saver coach flights for 20,000 miles (17,500 miles if you have the Hawaiian Air credit card) or Super Saver First Class flights for 40,000 car rental thrifty miles can be booked using American Airlines miles.  And you have to call American Airlines to book these flights.
So I used steps 1 to 5 above to check Hawaiian Airlines award availability from different cities.  I found a First Class seat on August 24 from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines at the 40,000 mile level which can be booked using American Airlines miles by calling American Airlines reservations.
Once I find availability from my departure city (Kansas City in this case) to the Hawaiian Airlines departure city (Los Angeles), I ll write down the series of flights on both American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines and call American Airlines reservation and ask them to book the itinerary.
Since I m using American Airline miles, I ll pay either 17,500 miles for a 1-way off-peak coach award, 22,500 for a 1-way regular MileSAAver coach award, or 37,500 miles for a 1-way Business/First class award to Hawaii.
I ll still pay the same amount of American Airline car rental thrifty miles above if I book a direct flight to Hawaii from Los Angeles on partner airline Hawaiian Airlines or if I combine the itinerary with American Airlines flights from Kansas City to Los Angeles and then fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines.
car rental thrifty I ll feed the agent the information segment by segment and ask to put the award on hold.  Once the award is on hold, I ll check to make sure that the dates and times match and then call back and ask the agent to ticket the flight.
Can i use my advantage miles?/How to book 2 one way fares from ORD to LGA, 2 days stay in NY and then from LGA to buffalo NY, ( car rental? one week stay in canada and then one way flight car rental thrifty from Canada to ORD? all of them have to do saperate miles redemption?
Thanks for all the detailed instructions. I just applied for the Citi AA Visa and American Express cards for a total of 100,000 miles ( Instantly approved for both) and I am new the American Airlines and their award booking tools. I have been reading all of your posts and they are very informative. I live close to the Columbia, SC airport which is not a huge airport. Looking forward car rental thrifty to trying out AA!
@Anjum @Ken - AA will let me put up to 4 separate segments ( I can mix match different airlines) on one 1-way award. So I pay 37.5K in total to go from Kansas City to Hawaii in total. I ve updated the post to make that clearer!
I recently needed to book a flight from Austin to Honolulu. I spent quite some time figuring out the best way to do it and ended using Avios points to book from LAX to HNL for 12.5k (the same leg booking on AA was 17.5k!) and then purchased (is that a faux-pas?!) a one-way ticket from AUS to LAX on Southwest car rental thrifty (only $100, so worth it). What I love is that you get the exact same flight on AA for fewer points (sometimes) when you book on BA versus AA. I flew business class to Brazil from DFW last year using Avios points and ended up spending 5k miles less than if I had booked on AA. Now that I know about Hawaiian Air, I ll keep my eye out for that, too!
How about information regarding booking AA flights in N America using miles or points from partners? It s pretty straight forward using AA miles to book on partners but not as straight forward on the ins and outs of using partner miles to book on AA.
@Anjum Correct. There was no availability from Kansas City to Hawaii on AA, so I got to a Hawaiian Airline gateway city on AA and then flew on Hawaiian Airlines. It is actually car rental thrifty 3 segments Kansas City to Chicago, Chicago to LA LA to Hawaii. I like Avios for the same reason that many flights cost less than what it would cost using AA miles. Hawaiian Air is NOT a British Air partner so you won t be able to use Avios for Hawaiian Air flights.
Since one can use AA miles on Hawaiian do you know if the opposite is true? Can I use my Hawaiian miles to book a flight on American? I would love to redeem some Hawaiian miles for an international flight.
If I am flying from a Hawaiian gateway city (LAX) to honolulu by using Hawaiian super saver miles, is it necessary for me to use AA supersaver award to travel from my hometown to the Hawaiian gateway city? Or can I use AAnytime awards to get to the gateway city? I am asking because it is easier to find AAnytime award availability. Thanks.
FYI if you have Alaska Airline car rental thrifty miles and want to use them on American it s sometimes LESS miles if you go thru their website. I m flying DFW-BTR in 2 weeks. On AA.com it would cost me 37k AAdvantage miles, however for the same flights if I use my Alaska Air miles it will only cost me 25k. thought i would just point it out to some of the readers.
Interesting. I booked the whole thing online car rental thrifty last year from RDU-ORD-LAX-HNL round trip for 75,000 in first. I know it was one too many flights, but I love the lounges. Hope you have a fantastic trip! While still an American flight to HNL, the menu was actually fantastic. They advertised Sam Choy as a gimmick I thought, but the food was some of the best domestic car rental thrifty I ve had.
Quick question though: there are no direct flights (SFO-OGG) for the dates I m traveling, only SFO-(HNL)-OGG. The AA agent I spoke to said that to book the flight car rental thrifty connecting through HNL, I ll have to book a separate intra-island flight for 5000 miles, while the SFO-HNL can be booked using 17500 miles. Is that correct? Or is she wrong?
@Churnity car rental thrifty I m not sure I understand the question. If you pay the AAnytime rate you have access to the last seat on the plane so you wouldn t need to combine the MileSAAver rate. However, you wouldn t have access to the last seat on partner airlines.
My Citi AA Visa/Amex comes up for renewal next month. I called to cancel and they offered retention bonus of $85 statement credit for making 5 purchases within the next 3 months. car rental thrifty So, I kept the cards. Then, it got me thinking on my first Citi AA churn later this year (18 months). If I have the existing cards, will they still issue me another Citi AA card with the current bonus (now at 50k)? Should I close the cards now, wait a few months?
car rental thrifty to clarify, flights on Hawaiian air are considered MileSAA