rekon32

Hello,

I am a long time reader of this flyertalk but I had a specific question and I haven't been able to find an answer.

I booked 2 flights from LAX to FLL during the xmas holiday (12/22-12/28). This flight cost us 50k miles from each account, total of 100k miles. I had some change of plans and I would like to travel to FLL after the holidays.

So, if I reschedule my flight for Jan 2014... I would have to reinstate my miles which would cost $150 each account, total of $300 for reinstating fees!

My question is... is it worth paying the fees and getting 2 trips out of it instead of 1? Since holiday travel costs approx. double the miles for AA. Or should i just stick with my flight and travel during the holiday? What makes most financial sense?

philemer

Welcome to FT. I'll move to the AA forum for you.

stheller

I would certainly pay $300 to save 50K miles, as that is only 0.6 cents per mile.

jridge

If you are just making a date change, there is no need to reinstate and therefore no charge. This involves a few assumptions, like the date the original award ticket was issued is later than January 2013, etc.

If there's MileSAAver awards on the new dates, then yes, it is worth reinstating.

SFOPhD

I'm a little confused... I think OP is really talking about redeposit fees, not reinstatement fees. As I read it, OP spent 100k miles from 2 accounts for 2 x 50k trips over the holidays. Instead, OP wants to redeposit those miles and spend it on 4 x 25k trips after the holidays. Is this correct OP?

Apieinthesky

I am quite confused as well. I understood redeposit and reinstatement to be one and the same, but how I read OP's post was:

Currently has round trip AAnytime tickets for LAX-FLL, during holiday times.

There is MileSAAver availability for LAX-FLL sometime after the holiday. OP wants to change his/her award to MileSAAvers, thereby saving half the miles. Is this correct?

cmjaffe

Some questions... so you originally booked an anytime award and now that you had a change of dates you will be using a planahead? (or whatever name it is). If this is correct than you'll be going for 50K to needing 25K each ticket. Do you have enough miles in your account to book this new award without reinstating the old miles? Also were the miles taken from the same account? (if so fee I believe will be $150 1st ticket, $25 2nd total of $175). Are you planning on flying anywhere else in the US within the next year (if you have miles to spare and not reinstate)? Here's why, your original ticket CAN have the routing changed without a fee. This means within 365 days from your original booking date you can change your trip to another anytime award (domestic coach) without a fee. You can also change the dates to be close in (less than 21 days from departure) without having a booking fee (which is important if you don't have status). So my suggestions is take the change and hold on to tickets/award rebooking it for a later time so you don't lose the value of the ticket. You will have time to decide if you'd like to use them for another trip when there might be high demand.
JMHO
Hope this helps
Carolyn

mvoight

That is the question. Is it worth $300 for you to have an additional roundtrip for two people? It's that simple. or am I missing something? If you can see space for both trips, I don't understand what you need to know? If not elite, there are other considerations such as baggage and seat selection. Aanytime gives you any economy seat and free checked baggage. That said, you could fly to Europe in the off season for only 40K per person per roundtrip, so using 50K is a bit much for economy.

mvoight

<retracted>

rekon32

That is correct. Sorry for the confusion. I want to change my date to 25k trips vs. my current 50k trips.

rekon32

Yes, that is my question. Is it worth $300 for me to have an additional roundtrip for 2 people. The reason why it costs $300 is because I used 50k miles from my account and 50k miles from my wife's account.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Only you can answer that question. But as someone else suggested, many people would jump at the chance to buy 50,000 AA miles for $300, which is essentially what you would be doing.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

And, of course, for only 32,500 AA miles, you could fly LAX-FLL-LAX (long stopover of weeks or months) - LHR on AA, if you can find Coach SAAver seats on the LAX-LHR flight as well.

swag

If you just want to change the dates, you can do that at no cost, without redeposit, as others have indicated.

So travel dates become irrelevant to the decision. The question is simply, should you take the opportunity to pay $300, to get 50K points back into your account. That's 0.6 cents per mile, a bargain price that most of us would consider a no-brainer. Do it.

rekon32

You guys are right. I'm just going to fork up the $300 fee for 50k miles. ^ I just hate paying fees lol

I agree with you guys 50k miles for $300 is a no brainer.