In April American Airlines announced several updates to the AAdvantage program. In addition to elite status being extended by 12 months, some other creative initiatives were also revealed, which were overwhelmingly positive. One new benefit — an American Airlines Vacations credit — went live at the beginning of July.
In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how this benefit works, especially now that this benefit can be used. In a previous post I shared how American’s new AAdvantage award fees work.
In this post:
American Airlines Vacations credit of up to $400
AAdvantage elite members now have access to a credit of up to $400 to use towards an American Airlines Vacation package. The amount of the credit is based on your elite status, as follows:
- AAdvantage Gold members receive a $300 credit
- AAdvantage Platinum and Platinum Pro members receive a $350 credit
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum members receive a $400 credit
Now, there are some terms to be aware of:
- This one-time credit is is valid as of July 1, 2020, for travel through December 20, 2021
- Which credit you receive will be based on your status as of June 30, 2020
- You must book your American Airlines Vacations package by phone in order to use this credit, by calling (800) 321-2121
- The credit can be applied towards a minimum of a $2,500 package, which must include roundtrip flights and hotels
- Promotion can’t be applied towards existing bookings, and can’t be combined with other promotions
Save on a flight & hotel package with AA Vacations
What is American Airlines Vacations?
For those of you not familiar with American Airlines Vacations, this is American’s program for bundling flights and hotels, and you can even add in a car rental if you want. Most airlines have this for a couple of reasons:
- American Airlines is acting as a travel agent, so they’re getting a commission on the hotel bookings you’re making through them
- Most airlines have a “vacations” division like this, and it’s intended to be competitive, to get you to book a vacation package directly with the airline, rather than booking through a third party online travel agency
Pricing through AA Vacations is definitely more opaque than booking flights and hotels directly, and at times there can be advantages to consumers. Often the bundled pricing is lower than if you booked flights and hotels separately.
For those into loyalty programs, the catch is that you typically won’t earn hotel points or receive elite benefits for your hotel stay if booking through AA Vacations, since it counts as a third party booking.
You do earn miles for your flights, though it may be at the “special ticket” rate, rather than the typical rate.
AA Vacations sometimes offers lower pricing
Is this AAdvantage elite benefit valuable?
For most elite members I don’t think this will be a particularly valuable benefit. When you consider that you need to book by phone (which is a bit of a hurdle), along with the fact that there are often better hotel options through other booking methods, I don’t see this having that much appeal.
I’d say the one major exception is that often American Airlines has exceptional business class pricing through AA Vacations. This is a way for them to greatly discount business class without cannibalizing business travel.
For example, I’ve written in the past about some amazing business class fares available through AA Vacations, so if we see fares like that again, it could be a great deal if you can knock a further $400 off the package price.
One of the tricks to making this work to your advantage is that you don’t actually have to book a hotel for the whole time you’re on the ground. For example, if you book a ticket to Paris for seven days and that scores you lower airfare, then you can choose to just book a hotel for three nights through AA Vacations, and then can book the rest however you’d like to.
You don’t have to book a hotel for the entire trip through AA Vacations
Bottom line
This elite credit for AA Vacations is a smart move on American’s part, as it may get people to consider their vacations packages who wouldn’t have otherwise done so.
That being said, I don’t really view this as much of a benefit, and doubt most people will get value out of it. While there are cases where booking through AA Vacations makes sense, a vast majority of time there are better options.
With a $300-400 credit maybe there will be circumstances where this makes sense, but I don’t see this having widespread appeal. Now that the benefit is live, by all means call up AA Vacations and give it a shot, and please report back if you manage to get a deal.
Do you think you’ll get value out of this American Airlines Vacations elite credit?
Question, can your outbound flight be after your hotel departure. For instance go somewhere for 3 weeks but only have a hotel for 3 nights and score the discount?
AA Vacations works best when you use it as the name implies -- for a vacation. I might earn my points at Hilton when I travel for work, but when I kick back in Cancun for a long weekend, then a flight & hotel package at an all-inclusive resort fits the bill. It's situations like these -- when I'm staying someplace where I don't have an opportunity to earn points or if I don't care about them -- that the vacation packages work best.
I assume AAV will be coded as travel for Amex Green or CSP/CSR/CIP card? Wish they have calendar search to find cheapest J, quite PITA to do manual search or throwing darts in the dark to find cheapest fares.
@ AS -- Yes, and you will often earn more EQDs this way than through a standard ticket purchase directly from AA, especially in premium cabins.
@RobPHX
1. It depends, when booking if there's an '(*)' next to the booking code it is a special fare and earns at the rates in the link @AS posted above. The better discounts IME tend to be special fares.
2. It always books on AA code but you can use OW airlines, all of the times I've used it for example were BA metal AA marketed.
@Lucky:
1. Does the airline portion earn EQM/EQS/EQD and are they at the normal rate? Or also discounted earnings? or only earning redeemable miles?
2. Can it include travel on OWA partners? or has to be all AA?
If yes to #1, I might consider, and if yes to both #1 and #2 then maybe even moreso.
One way or another, thanks for sharing this and thanks for all that you and the OMAAT team do.
Just confirming that EQDs are earned for flights purchase through AA Vacations, just at the 10% - 40% rate per mile flown depending on booking code. Is this correct?
https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/earn/special-fares.jsp
One thing I'm unclear on is whether the minimum spend requirement refers to the total amount inclusive of all taxes, or only the base package price (which would make it much more difficult to reach $2500).
On my last AA Vacations booking, for example, the "Taxes and Carrier Imposed Fees" were higher than the "Package Price" itself.
AAVacations can be a great deal, one thing I'd point out is you don't need to stay in the hotel for the 3 days you just have to book it. Pick the cheapest hotel option, often in Europe this can be very cheap, and throw it away. That only makes sense if the discount for the flight is large enough but IME at least to places like AMS it can be (Save 2000 on flights,...
AAVacations can be a great deal, one thing I'd point out is you don't need to stay in the hotel for the 3 days you just have to book it. Pick the cheapest hotel option, often in Europe this can be very cheap, and throw it away. That only makes sense if the discount for the flight is large enough but IME at least to places like AMS it can be (Save 2000 on flights, throw away 200 in hotels). I've done 3 deals with AAV and never once stepped foot in the hotel I booked with the package.