Originally Posted by
frostin
I've got 13k miles that are expiring on January 7. Any recommendations on where I can go? My home airport is SMF. I prefer to go somewhere domestic but AA has a terrible domestic routing network out of SMF. I don't mind traveling from SFO if it is for an international destination. Any recommendations on the best destination for 13,000 miles? My schedule is free so departure date is no constraint.
With AA's dynamic award pricing you can go pretty much
anywhere (in North America at least, one-way) with 13k miles. So it's really going to be a personal preference on what you want to do, hot weather or cold weather, city or beach or mountains, etc.
For example looking at a few random dates in Jan and Feb I see the following destinations available for 7k-13k miles one way from SMF: Miami, Tampa, New York, Boston, Denver, Vail, Chicago, Cancun, Grand Cayman, Toronto, Montreal, the list is almost endless.
That said, there's an easy way to keep your miles from expiring. Just book a one-way award to anywhere for under 13k miles, pay the $5.60 in taxes and let the award fully ticket and make sure the miles are deducted. Then pull up the reservation at aa.com and cancel it, the miles will be refunded almost instantly for no charge and the expiration date will be reset, and the taxes will be refunded in a few days.