I just called AA last night to inquire about their similar promotion, buy 2 tix nonstop from NY airport to FL or CA, get a ticket to anywhere that you can use by 4/15/2005. it is promotion AANYC.

My findings are that the free award is coming from the same bucket as the standard award tickets, which as you know are completely under the control of the airlines and completely undisclosed to the public. If I were to take advantage of this offer, I would want to use it next year and I only have a 3.5 month window to get a ticket to the place that I want from that award bucket. At least with miles I do not lose them in 1 year, basically if you are stranded with the ticket voucher, you are out of luck. Not that the airline would do it, but they *could* (by their T&C) simply tell you that every flight you request is not available with that voucher - and that may be the case of a lot of people take advantage of this promotion. There may be a lot of people who either get stranded with the voucher or are forced to use it for something that makes it not worth it.

The deal could be lucrative, but anyone participating is completely unprotected from the airlines' completely undisclosed policies, so the airline, in the T&C, essentially reserved the right to make the voucher worthless if they so desire. I was considering booking a couple of weekend trips to Florida, but now I am reconsidering.