Originally Posted by
MathMusic
AA generally has the policy of protecting you on separate PNRs if the long MUC-CLT is delayed and you miss your CLT-DCA connection. You'd have to retrieve your bag at US Customs anyway, I'd think about booking two separate tickets if you cannot get them to book it as one.
Yes its annoying to have to pay the extra 7.5k for the CLT-DCA ticket, but I don't think it would be much of an issue if you had to book it that way.
Thanks to all for the helpful and informative responses to my inquiry. Here is how things have developed and stand now.
1) The 30k award ticket MUC-CLT is no longer available on the 3-4 dates when I prefer to travel, so the option of obtaining a 30k award ticket MUC-CTL and a 7.5k CTL-DCA award ticket is no longer on the table.
2) I have therefore booked and put on hold a 30k award ticket MUC-MAD-BOS-DCA. The hold will last until September 12th. I took this route on an award ticket last July and it's quite satisfactory, apart from the need to get up about 4:30 AM to drive to the airport. If nothing better opens up in the next few days, I'll purchase this set of flights.
Once again, thanks very much!