elc2414

I have a simple question about my AAdvantage Miles. I am a very infrequent flyer (3 - 4 times per year is all), but between my wife and I, we have a managed to accumulate over 100,000 AAdvantage Miles. We go to Hawaii every year for our anniversary trip. We would like to use those miles this year to do the return leg in First Class since it is an overnight flight and would like to actually sleep reclining for once! I know we can use our miles for an award flight coming back, but it requires us to buy one way tickets going over, which doesn't save any money as that would be more than buying restricted round trip tickets. My main question is: Can we buy the restricted round trip going over with a return that is a day or two, or even longer, than our actual return date and then book a reward trip for the actual date? I know this doesn't quite seem honest, but why should I have to pay more for 2 one way tickets than I would a round trip in order to use our miles on one leg of the trip? I really don't understand all the jargon used on this forum, so please keep any replies to plain, newbie English. Thanks!

Wingtipflyer1

Welcome Nubie!

What city are your departing from?? This can make a big change in how to use the miles & what fare to purchase.

WT

brp

Welcome to FT.

First, what you're doing is definitely against the rules but many here (including me) are not always sticklers about following the rules

In reality, this should work. Because the award ticket is on a different day, there should be no conflict within the system causing the cancellation of either ticket. Obviously, you'll lose the return when you don't show up...but that's the idea.

It has been suggested that doing this "often" could lead to AA noticing and taking action since it is a rule violation. Since you're planning it just this one time, there should not be an issue.

So, on the surface, it seems like it should work.

Cheers.

booji

Hey OP,

Are you saying that you want to purchase a revenue round trip ticket, use the inbound into Hawaii, and then book a one way first class trip on the return?

If so, is it really cheaper to buy a round trip ticket than a one way revenue ticket to Hawaii?

The second thing I want to let you know of is the fact that you can use your miles to upgrade on a revenue ticket. Assuming you are coming from the mainland US, I think it would only cost you 15,000 miles plus 50 copay to upgrade.

JNB280

This is what I would suggest, although the data is incorrect. The price to do a miles plus co-pay to Hawaii is 15,000 miles and $175 per person, per way in the cheapest economy fares. If you were to buy unrestricted economy, it would be 8K miles and no additional co-pay per person, per way.

nitrobass24

Or trade miles for a pair of SWU's in the Coupon Connection.

jbruer

Although some of us (including the OP) do not have access to CC. At my rate, I think I could make it in a few years. Will probably hit LT status first though...

JNB280

OP is not going to have that option for a few months and quite few more posts.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

I'm not sure which route you're targeting, but try to get on the 763 (HNL-DFW) so you'll get a better sleeping experience than on the 757s.

And I'm also curious as to whether a discount round-trip really is cheaper than a single one-way.

Gamecock

I would not enter my AA number on the paid ticket, assuming your outboumd is with AA. Doing so and then getting an award ticket from the same account MAY set off an alarm somewhere.

It would be easy to concoct a plausible explanation, but who needs the headache.

dstan

Welcome to FlyerTalk, elc2414!

I've updated your thread title to make it more descriptive so that our members can best advise you.

/Moderator

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

And the problem being you would not get the miles for your outbound trip if you left out your AAdvantage number. I think looking at a copay with miles on the return is the best strategy. While getting some sleep on the way back might seem attractive I can't see buying a r/t ticket then burning miles for a return along with probably not getting miles for the outbound flight.

swag

If you plan to buy a roundtrip and throw away the return, I'd choose a date that's far off (a few weeks or more) from the date of your award ticket that you plan to fly; that seems less likely to cause issues than if it's just a day or two later.

I'd also look at whether you can schedule the return for a far-off date where you might actually be able to use it on your next trip, say, if you move up next year's anniversary celebration. Then you'd just need a one-way to Hawaii to complete booking that roundtrip; maybe by then the one way fares will be reasonable, or you may have enough miles to book a coach class one way.

Paul1976NJ

My advice would be to book a round trip and choose a return flight where A inventory is available (which will let you use miles+copay to upgrade on your return flight), that way you aren't doing anything technically against the rules that AA might pick up on, and so you don't miss out on earning miles on the return flight. I also strongly suggest going through DFW so you can fly on the 763 with the angled lie-flat seats, rather than going through LAX and taking the 757 with the Eisenhower interior (where the first class seats recline so little that you won't be sufficiently more comfortable than in coach to make the miles+copay worth it).

I assume since you fly so infrequently that you don't have an ExpertFlyer account. So if you give us folks here on FT some proposed dates, I'm sure some of us (myself included) wouldn't mind checking to see if A inventory is available on your return flight. Alternatively, you can always give AA a call and ask them, and they can tell you this as well. But if you ask us you won't have to wait on hold.

If it doesn't work out using miles+copay for the return, as someone else here also advised, I'd suggest making the return trip WAY out (such that you can use it for coming back from your anniversary trip out there next year, if you move next year's trip up a little early).

brp

Might I suggest not doing this since it is against FT rules to post information from a subscription service and, more importantly, does a disservice to EF to distribute their information in this manner?

Cheers.