Originally Posted by Beachfun71

I’ve booked hotels using AA miles several times, and often when planning family vacations, I’ve found better usage of my miles for the hotel, rather than the flight.

Be sure to keep a copy of your reservation though. I’ve never been one to print/save confirmations, as I always just assume “it’s in my email somewhere”, but last year I learned a lesson.

I had reserved a Homewood in LAS with AA miles for my family of 4. We spent a few days in PHX and then drove to LAS via The Grand Canyon. We rolled in to the hotel at about 10:30pm, and while the reservation was fine, there was no record of it having been booked with AA miles.

The desk agent gave me a price for the room, and I replied that this was a reward stay through AA. She had no record of it. I quickly pulled out my phone and found that I had absolutely no record of my reservation in my email. Since my responsibility in family vacations is to eliminate stress and ensure a good time for all those in my family that don’t travel anywhere near what I do, I forked over my CC and got everyone happily up to the room.

Internally I thought I must be losing it! Now I am in a room that I have double-paid for: cash AND AA miles.

After the trip I began calling AA. After several re-routes I found someone that could help me with my non-existent reservation. I finally found an agent who told me that quite frequently the confirmations get lost in spam blockers, but she found my reservation and understood my dilemma.

I took almost most two months, but I did get my points refunded. I would have rather had the $$ back, but oh well.

The vacation was great!