I've used AA Vacations sparingly in the past. Generallly, if you add up the discounted airfare and discounted hotels you do better, and have more flexibility using alternate arrangements, BUT -

1) A last minute New Years Trip to San Diego from New York, no discounted Airfares, was able to book through AA Vacations for air and hotel for less than air alone - and they used our status and we were in exit row seats.

2) Another winter weekend where if we had to cancel (Weather, Work) we would not repeat the flight. Their cancellation up to one hour before is a real offer. In my experience, $'s just show up back on the credit card.

Good Luck