Programs: AA Advantage Gold, United Premier, Marriott Rewards Gold, Hilton Honors Gold, Starwood Platinum
Posts: 160
Just about worthless anyway! 14 Day advance purchase, can only use it on certain fare codes, etc.
Funny thing is I've noticed that a lot of the eligble fare codes open up with less than 14 days to departure. I've have 3 and have yet to be able to use 1 effectively!
Programs: DL GM, AA Gold, HHonors Diamond, National Emerald, Hertz 5 Star
Posts: 13
I never called, and more or less forgot about the cert. It came yesterday, 3.5 months after I signed up for the card. Expires 6/30/07, so at least they give a little longer than one year from the enrollment date.
My question is, when you try to look up prices on AA.com, since the certificate is only good for reservations booked in V, M, L, K, and W, how do you select the class in your search?
Programs: AA Plat/1MM; Marriott/LoewsFirst/PC/SPG Plat; Hilton Silver
Posts: 14,589
What I did when I used some was to use aa.com to find the best fare for the flights I wanted. I then would call the special reservation number on the back of the cert. The reservation agent would then help me to find the best price for use with the tickets. Then if it is cheaper to buy two tickets from aa.com I would. If cheaper to buy using the cert, I would do it that way.
You will have to call the special reservation number to purchase the tickets anyway (if using the certs), so that seemed to be the easiest way for me. I would assume you might be able to use a tool like ExpertFlyer to give you a good idea what each fare would cost, but as I have never used it, I can't say for sure.
Was just about to call Citi when lo and behold my (virtually worthless) companion cert finally arrives almost 5 months after my Citi Business application was approved. I think I hold the record for now.
The fare restriction ($299+ ) is a real deal-killer - I don't think I've paid that much to fly AA domestic except to Hawaii. And I can't even transfer the cert to someone who could actually use it like my in-laws. But it was still worth getting the card for those 25K bonus miles, which posted very quickly.
On http://matrix.itasoftware.com you can use
origin XXX:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
destination YYY:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
where XXX and YYY are, of course, your origin and destination. You can also specify multiple airports using
XXX;YYY;ZZZ:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
This doesn't take care of the $299 minimum, but it does at least get you into the right booking codes.
Programs: AA EXP/OW Emerald, SPG Plat, HH Gld, Marrtt GLD
Posts: 3,976
For everyone's eager anticipation of receiving the certificate, I think it's a "wanting is not always as good as having" thing. Once you get it, it's hard not to notice how many restrictions there are on using it---the $299 minimum purchase, the fare is non-upgradeable (altho' the EXP desk says that an EXP could request their "usual" EXP domestic upgrade with it), certain fare classes it has to use, only valid w/in the contig. 48 (no Alaska, Hawaii, etc.)...they even put in the fine print that one could find a cheaper deal for two people than the use of the cert. Oh well.....
__________________ "The world is a book--those who do not travel read only one page." ---St. Augustine
I received two companion certificates yesterday, assumedly for different accounts that I applied for over the past three months. I have no idea which account caused which certificate to be generated, but it seems interesting that I _know_ I applied for accounts about a month apart, and yet the arrived at the same time. I guess they periodically print and send companion certificates....
It's unfortunate that so many people think that they are worthless. I was actually thinking of going to NYC (from LAX) sometime over the next couple of months and taking my partner...
On http://matrix.itasoftware.com you can use
origin XXX:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
destination YYY:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
where XXX and YYY are, of course, your origin and destination. You can also specify multiple airports using
XXX;YYY;ZZZ:: AA+ /f bc=k|bc=l|bc=m|bc=w|bc=v
This doesn't take care of the $299 minimum, but it does at least get you into the right booking codes.
) is a real deal-killer - I don't think I've paid that much to fly AA domestic except to Hawaii. And I can't even transfer the cert to someone who could actually use it like my in-laws. But it was still worth getting the card for those 25K bonus miles, which posted very quickly. 
You can also specify multiple airports using
