Avios are also excellent for short haul international travel in North America. We are based in SAN, have used Avios several times to book SAN-SJD on AS; should be the same for short hops on AA from JFK, ORD to Canada; DFW, MIA to the Caribbean.
We also use Avios to fly SAN-OGG on AS - 25k Avios versus 35k miles.