Difference between Mile Saver Peak and Aanytime??
 

Ok - I need some help - I originally thought that in order to only "cost" 90000 miles for first/business class to Europe I would need to fly during the off-season, either before May 15 or after September 15, because this time was considered "off-peak". But then upon looking closer at the award chart, I realized that there WASN'T any off-peak difference for first/business class awards, only the difference between 40000 and 60000 miles if you were flying Economy. So... then I was thinking "cool, for 90000 miles it doesn't matter what time of year I fly since the awards start at 90000 miles for Mile Saver Peak." (which to me Peak would include the high season - namely, summer)

But when I put in some hypothetical dates during this July (I'm not planning on going til next July), it says I need 180,000 miles to complete this travel, and I only have 94,000 right now so that's not enough. However when I go in and put October dates in, it does say that the 90000 miles is enough.

So - how do you know when it's a Mile Saver time or not?? I mean, should I assume that I can't travel first/business class in the summer because I don't have enough miles??

Fewer "Mile Saver" seats are available during peak travel times (i.e. summer). Book early!

Ok so you're saying it has nothing to do with the time of the year.... just based on availability? I'm not even going til next summer anyway, so I can't book til the beginning of August.

It could even vary by flights - a call might cost you, but might also get you a less expensive seat if you are flexible. You don't mention your status, but that can make a difference when you call as well.

OTOH if it must be say, AA 110 ORD-FCO, it's probably time to be earning miles.

My status is as basic as they come. I don't think any of the flights I've ever taken earned me elite miles.... I only go to Vegas a few times a year and for the most economy fare possible. And the majority of my miles were earned with the Citi AA card.

One piece of advice to make sure you get the dates you want with little downside risk of having to redeposit your miles when the return leg's not available.

Book your outbound leg on the very first date you can (normally 329 days out). However, adjust the booking date to permit an immediate return flight (so probably 327 days out from the outbound flight). Then, rebook your return flight on the very first date it comes available. Whether the return is two weeks or two months after your outbound flight, this technique should get you the flights you want on the dates you want them. As insurance, make the res at the first possible moment on the day you can make the res.

Unless you use this technique, you may well be out of luck when you go to book your journey in peak travel months since while your return flights will be available, your outbound flights will already be booked up at the mileage-saver level.

Yes, whether you need a "Mileage Sver" or an "AAnyime" award is based solely on availability, and not time of year. The number of miles required for a miles saver award is different during different seasons for certain routes.

Of course in a broad sense, availability typically depends on the time of year, as well as other factors.

There are two issues here: seasonal award requirements and capacity controls. They are totally separate.

A coach MileSaver award is either 60,000 or 40,000 miles, seasonally based.

A J MileSaver award is 90,000 miles no matter what time of year it is.

All awards have capacity controls. They can be waived for 2x the miles.

If you want a coach award in low season and all the MileSaver seats on a flight are gone (but there are still seats on the plane) it takes 80K miles to waive the controls. In high season, 120K. In J, 180K year-round.

As noted, flights where AA expects higher demand for paid tickets have lower MileSaver award availability. To some degree this is related to seasonality, since demand is the basis of both, but it's influenced by other factors (such as day of the week) as well and can be adjusted flight by flight as AA tracks demand for each one individually.

So, if you want to fly when everyone else does, get in line early and be flexible.

As a FWIW, all flights that earn miles on AA earn elite qualifying miles, irrespective of the booking class. There is no such thing on AA as an AA-metal flight that earns miles, but not Q-miles.

Mike