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AAdvantage Vacation
My mom has around 190K AAdvantage miles that she wants to spend on a birthday trip, specifically around mid-November (ex. 12th – 15th), with Nov 13 and 14 being in the vacation, which would preferably be to India, Paris or Hawaii in the “most premium class that makes sense”. I was just wondering when/if AA would open up premium award space on those flights, and, as of now, there is basically no award space to India or Paris, and a few flights to Hawaii. I was also hoping that she could experience Singapore First, if not Cathay Business, if not AA 77W Business/321T First. Thanks for your help!
Well Singapore is a Star Alliance airline so she’s not going to be able to use AA miles for that. And just for clarification she wouldn’t be able to fly Cathay to Paris as she’d have to route via Asia and AA would count that as two awards.
Where in the US would her flights originate? That might help to make a decision. For example, routing to Hawaii from the west coast she’d only get domestic first class seats which is fine if that’s as far as she needs to travel. But flying from ORD or DFW she’d at least get an angle-flat seat as the return flights are redeyes.
If she’s east coast-based, she might consider first flying to DFW or ORD. Why might she want a longer trip? Because that way she’ll have more time to sleep than if she departs from JFK/PHL/MIA.
To fly to India, also check Etihad’s award space. It doesn’t show on aa.com so you’ll need to search their website.
Here’s a post Lucky wrote last year about AA routing rules that may help:
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/06/08/american-aadvantage-award-routing-rules/[/URL]
With a little more information we may be able to offer some more suggestions.
Anonymous — if I understand this correctly, she will be at the destination for two days? If so, I would definitely skip India. Just the travel and jet lag will take up the trip. Paris might be doable. I would look for airberlin and Iberia flights for lower surcharges. You can search for these on the BA site.
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