donotblink

I suppose if the OP really made it their life mission to hurt AA, they could become the travel manager of a large consulting firm and restrict the purchase of American Airlines tickets. That can't be accomplished with miles to the best of my knowledge, unless you bride someone with all your miles.

JonNYC

There was a time....
OW100F Award..Only $37.95 in Taxes for 10 Segments...Can This Be Right??

C17PSGR

Well if I was looking to squeeze value from AA and get more guacamole, I'd think about booking some Latam biz flights from LAX to Santiago. Latam isn't Qatar but its international biz is fine. Plus Chile is the worlds top producer of avocados, and every place has guacamole.

Not sure what a Latam biz ticket is from LAX but if you have 975,000 miles and don't want to fly on American, seems like you could use the miles and get cheap guacamole too! Then maybe the Qantas flight to NZ or Australia .....

eponymous_coward

Don't worry, most people would use a million miles to enjoy themselves rather than engage in petty and stupid revenge (as if this was anything other than a mosquito trying to have childish tantrum by picking a fight with an elephant).

VXforever

I dont understand your argument.

As long as I get quality guac, i shall consider it a good redemption.


Is there a way to earn miles on an award ticket?

eponymous_coward

It's not an argument; it's a statement of opinion regarding what you propose doing- anything you could do with a million miles would be ineffective at damaging your target in any meaningful respect (thousands of dollars of expenses are a rounding error in terms of profit and loss), which is clearly your intent (" I hate the direction theyve been going and really want to squeeze the value out of them - to the point of even scamming them").

Obviously you do not agree as you proposed it in the first place. I don't see why you're letting a large corporation live rent free in your head to the extent of this thread, but you do you. I suggest you spend the miles on something you find of use to you (whether that's flights, hotels or magazines, regardless of what might have "the biggest impact on their bottom line") and be done with it.

CFM3RD

epony, nice post and how are those Braniff miles working out you? ha.

VXForever - this has been an interesting read. Thanks for posting.

Go for the good-deed ideas. Empirical evidence shows that's the best choice.
Cheers!

CoMooter

VegasGambler

I've actually learned a lot from this thread.

The idea of using MLE as a final destination for an EY F redemption had not occurred to me (I was only thinking about India) -- I'm going to try to make that work. After some time on the beach, it's a short hop to CMB, and from there, I have some options!

kingstontoon

Things used to be even better back in the days of US Airways Dividend Miles when, for example, I was able to score Palau to Fiji round trip in business class for just 30k miles plus tax. Both Palau and Fiji were in the "South Pacific" zone but the former only had flights via "North Asia" so it was impossible to do without flying through at least one significantly higher priced zone on a convoluted routing. But I found if you made a convincing case they'd usually ticket it. 18,000 miles of J flying for 30k...

Alas it's not as easy to squeeze good value out of Avios as awards are generally calculated per sector but there are some sweet spots to be had. I think there's a thread on the BA forum with some useful advice.

SFO777

As long as we're being nostalgic, the best mileage deal I enjoyed was in Avianca's LifeMiles infancy when YYZ-DEN and DEN-BOS were both available via FRA in Lufthansa First for the 35,000 miles and $5.60, the normal domestic three class First price.

nk15

I miss the days when JL F TPAC was 62k, QF F 72k, and the Apartments ME to Oz were 60k aa miles...Good times...

eponymous_coward

Personally, the fact that MLE luxury hotels on various atolls essentially mean you are a captive audience paying captive audience prices for F&B, even if you get the room for free (and there's the last mile getting to the hotel that's usually a seaplane ride of some hundreds of dollars) tends to make me more interested in Sri Lanka or India in that part of the world (someplace like Goa, Mirissa or Unawatuna). Though I admit being intrigued by some of the homestay/less expensive options accessible by public ferry that don't leave you a captive audience/let you roam around a bit.

(I'm closer to a flashpacker than wanting five-stars all the time when I travel. Points and miles allow me to punch above my weight class when it comes to budget.)

Here's another tip, though: UL will allow a CMB stopover for free on a paid ticket (Y or J).

VegasGambler

I want to go to Goa too but it's a different vacation. A $500 seaplane transfer is not going to deter me.

I was actually looking at UL fares through CMB to MLE a while ago....

allset2travel

Sad to see this thread going downhill so fast!
OP, you get your value when you spend the miles and enjoy whatever trip(s) you are to take!
Safe travel.