Originally Posted by
ratherflythantalk
I've read the AAdvantage website and scrolled through many posts on Flyer Talk. I still don't get it - so I'll ask my naive question.
I'm not much of a flyer. I've been saving miles for many years in hopes of one day being able taking a trip of a lifetime. (To Europe, that may happen next year.) I kind of get the dynamic pricing when it comes to miles. But one also has to, in addition to miles, pay cash for the award flight?
Last flight I looked appeared to be 60k miles plus (?) $600. Can that be correct?? If so, I spent decades collecting miles which now appear to have not much value. TIA
If you use AAdvantage miles to book trans-Atllantic award flights on British Airways or Iberia, AA will charge you the same cash surcharges that they charge on their own awards. (BA's are high; IB's are more modest.) If you redeem your AAdvantage miles on any other carrier, there will be no surcharges whatsoever, just taxes and airport fees, which are usually minimal (at least when departing from the U.S.; the return portion from a foreign country might have somewhat higher taxes and fees).