taymiss2

Just found this site today.

We recently used AA points for four tickets to Hawaii.The only way we could find any seats was to use 90,000 points. The tickets are $1400.
If we had to spend the money to buy four tickets we wouldn't be going at all ,so worth it to us after literary years trying to use miles to go to Hawaii. The only way we could get it to work was bump up to 90,000 point level instead of 45,000. Are there any seats at all at the 45,000 point level or is it all a scam?

Husband doesn't fly AA much anymore since STL not a hub anymore so decided to just burn his AAdvantage miles and be done with it. Can't help thinking though that we really could have had two trips to Hawaii for those miles. What do you think. Worst deal ever?

Mrp Alert

Wirelessly posted (FlyerTalk.com/wap is fun : BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Did you consider pricing stl-lax and lax-hnl as 2 seperate tickets?

StrandedinSC

Worst deal in a while.

Did you call AA, or just use the website? The agents can find routings the web c.an't- including using Alaska, an AA partner.

Also, 4 seats are a LOT. Did you try finding 2 for the normal mileage, and then using the AAnytime 90k award for the others?

I just punched in two random dates in SEPT, without logging in. 35k round trip came right up. (EXP's have extra availablilty, so I did this test without logging in...) Same success in other months. The cheap seats are there, but 4 on a single flight is tough.

Could you fly 2 and 2, using different routings?

bdemaria

Taymiss2, Welcome to Flyertalk,

Worst deal ever: No - b/c as you state in your post, you and your family wouldn't be able to go if you had to purchase 4 tickets so in this situation it seems like an understandable decision. Different people value miles in different ways. However, as others have said - finding 4 awards at once can be tricky, esp. during popular travel periods.

Yes, there are 45K seats available, my brother and his family of 4 go almost every year from BOS to HNL on 45K mile awards. The key is planning well in advance. HNL is a VERY popular award destination.

PS: To others who have stated emphatically this is the "worst" use of miles, a couple of years ago (can't find the thread now) there was a thread complaining about the service/food/etc.. in first - turns out the poster had used an AAnytime First award to fly from LGA-ORD.

alan747

I vaguely recall American's stock going up about 5% the day he bought that ticket...

gemac

It is not a scam. There were no 45,000 mile seats available from your point of origin to your destination for the date you wanted to travel on the date you made your reservations. From the price you cited, I am guessing your travel dates may fall within Christmas vacation. Hawaii is very popular at Christmas, and often there are no MilesAAver seats released until just before the flight. On many airlines, there is no award availability to Hawaii at all at Christmas.

taymiss2

Not Christmas week but close, Thanksgiving week. We are limited when we can go as our kids are in school.

We went to Hawaii in the summer on our honeymoon (first class for only 50,000 mile I think on Northwest 17 years ago, lol) and haven't wanted to go in the summer again. I am sure we could have figured out something better if we had changed our dates.

So.. given all of our time constraints this is how it worked out. We are still just happy to have four seats which has been impossible to find up until this point. My husband will freak if I tell him people think we got the worst deal ever. lol I just kept telling him the points aren't doing us any good just sitting there and we might as well use them.

I also just looked up some plane seat selection evaluator and my daughter and I have the worst seats on the plane for some reason. I thought I chose a bulk head row for a reason (to have more leg room) but this website says we have less leg room than typical. I think I am more upset about that, Bummer.

taymiss2

My husband did call AA,

We are flying on different days. My husband and younger daughter are going a few days early as she can afford to miss more school than my high schooler. We are on the same flight coming home.

gemac

Definitely not a bad deal, considering the alternative cash price. Generally speaking, I do not consider using miles when I am getting a value of less than one cent per mile. I always use miles when I am getting a value of more than two cents per mile. When between one cent and two cents, I consider it worth while, usually explore both options to see if I can't come up with something better, but then I try to maintain status on AA and award tickets don't help that. 1.5 cents per mile is not a great deal, but solid and not anything you have to be ashamed of.

On the seats, I am assuming nothing else is available now. Try looking frequently inside the 100-hour mark, as American will upgrade its elites who have requested upgrades. Some of those passengers may have seats that you will prefer to what you have now.

TrojanHorse

well this explains a lot more than your OP

of course you are going to pay thru the nose during holiday weeks.. AA isn't stupid (ok isn't stupid all of the time ) as it knows when kids are off as much as you do and they know they have you by the *insert area here* during school breaks.. not only paid with cash but also paid with points

i'm not sure I'd compare 1992 with 2009 either. Are you paying the same for your house today as you did 17 years ago? how bout your car? how bout clothes? food??? I think you get that point

If you can't adjust your weeks to something outside of a major holiday, and you have already eliminated 3 months a year (summer).. you are putting yourself into this bad deal..

is this a bad deal.. yeah from MY perspective it is.. but then again, I would take the kids out of school or go in the summer so that I didn't have to pay thru the roof.. and I could go twice and in F

aamilesslave

The 90k mile award is for any available economy seat on the flight. These seats are far from impossible to obtain and are only unavailable for flights that are sold-out.

j3823x

If cheap award seats become available, you can put the cheap seats on hold, pay a redeposit fee to cancel original seat(s), and then use miles for the new cheap seats.

bdemaria

AA loads awards approx. 10 months before the departure date. I am quite certain that the lower mileage awards were snapped up w/in a couple of days (if not hours) after the flights were loaded in late January.

W/that said, there are LOTS of "cheaper" award seats available from HNL to DFW - if you fly home on T'giving day.

What sort of plane are you flying and what website did you consult regarding poor seats.

janetdoe

taymiss2

On the seats, I am assuming nothing else is available now. Try looking frequently inside the 100-hour mark, as American will upgrade its elites who have requested upgrades. Some of those passengers may have seats that you will prefer to what you have now.[/QUOTE]

That is a great idea. I just looked into flying the night before 6:00 pm flight to LA, the next leg doesnt leave until 8:00 am the next morning. There are better seats on that flight but we would leave 12 hours earlier and get there only 3 hours earlier, brutal, lol I will keep what I have and try to see if seats move around as we get closer. There are only single middle seats left at this point...

As far as what website I was on to see info about our seats. I was on tripadvisor and somehow ended up someplace called seatguru, I can't remember for sure. It was pretty cool except for giving me all the bad info about our seats " less than typical legroom, less padding than on a typical seat, very cold by the exit row, over head bins are for the crew only, seats width more narrow than typical, difficult to see the movie screen, right next to galley." The list went on and on and on. My god could it be any worse? lol