FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - What are downsides to using AS miles for American Airlines flight?
Old Dec 4, 2019, 11:17 am
  #13  
eponymous_coward
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Originally Posted by PaperGlider
2. ?Free luggage is AS allowance or AA allowance? Not sure.
Again, it's the AA allowance for "I have a coach ticket on AA and nobody cares here about my AS status". Which is typically zero, assuming your JFK-LAX itinerary and coach.

If you want free baggage on a domestic coach ticket that doesn't involve status giving you a checked bag, go fly WN. Or get the AA credit card that gives you a free bag.

Originally Posted by PaperGlider
3. ?Boarding is in what AA group? Not sure.
It literally depends on your seating assignment (certain coach passengers could be in different groups, 6/7/8 depending on their seat), so nobody is going to be able to answer this before you actually cash in miles and pick a seat. It'll be "whatever's on your boarding pass". Again, no benefit applies from AS status. You might be able to goose it to 5 with the right AA affiliated credit card.

Originally Posted by PaperGlider
7. +Guaranteed AA First with just 25K miles (and presumably the AA F lounge)
No. AA flies three class planes on that route. You're in business if you cash in 25 AS miles (F is not available as an AS redemption on that route), as was stated in that post. Not first. J Lounge access is the Flagship Lounge at JFK.

Originally Posted by PaperGlider
8. + smaller plane on AA so fewer people.
No. It's an A321 so not a smaller plane, it's a less dense plane with just over 70 coach seats and a ton of premium seats.

You do get built in IFE at every seat, unlike AS (unless you get a pmVX plane that hasn't been reburbished to AS standard).

Originally Posted by ashill
If $99 is worth more to you than 12.5k AS miles, pay the 12.5k AS miles (though $0.007/mile -- really $0.006 when you factor in the $19 in fees -- is a pretty crummy return without even factoring in the ≈3900 miles you'd earn by paying for the AS flight as an MVP; you can do just as well ordering magazine subscriptions).
Oh yeah... except that route is double RDM right now.

So you're basically forfeiting almost 19,000 AS miles (miles on a redemption + the 250% flown miles you would earn on that $99 fare) for $80 (since you have to pay $19 for partner fee and segment tax anyways), so less than half a penny (about 0.42 cents per mile). Okeydoke. If you're so hard up for cash that $80 is that important, I guess it is.

Last edited by eponymous_coward; Dec 4, 2019 at 11:32 am
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