wad2k20

Last Nov I won 2 AA round trip Award tickets that say they are valid US48Caribbean, Bermuda,etc... ,. I tried using them earlier in the year for trips we took: Buffalo to California and Buffalo to Portland, but when I called the number, we were told couldnt use them for those specific flights we wanted. we kept trying different flights but were shot down each time. We were unable to change the days we were flying so we gave up and just booked flights with southwest.
Now these AA award Certificates are expiring at end of month and they say "travel must be completed by 30-Nov-2019". Under "policy" it says they can't be extended.

Is there any way to get around this policy and somehow extend them until spring when my wife and I have more vacation time? Maybe booking something now before expiration and then canceling/ rescheduling?
If so, is there someway I can look up online and see what flights these would actually be valid on because it was impossible to find out over the phone which cities/flights we could use these for.

Otherwise these just get wasted because we have no time to go anywhere this month and we have no family or friends planning to travel this month either. apparently they cant be sold.

It sure would nice to escape this crappy Buffalo weather and go somewhere/anywhere warm after the first of the year with these tickets! LOL

Any suggestions????

fotoflyer88

Who are they issued by? AA directly? Some timeshare type thing?

wad2k20

I guess it would be by American Airlines through a contest that was run by Miami Date Airport. It does say Ticket Designator:PRONAM and says to request Booking Code :T

FlyingEgghead

I don't know about extending the expiration, but FYI, booking code T refers to coach MileSAAver award seats, which you can search for using the AA.com award booking engine.

wad2k20

Thanks for the info, Ill see what's available. I wish I had the time to make use of these.

Im wondering if I can book something book flights before end of month and cancel and change them to a later date.

JJeffrey

If you truly cannot use these by the end of the month and they will go to waste, then I would follow these steps to try and extend the travel date:

1) Sign up for an AAdvantage account at aa.com if you haven't already done so
2) Search economy milesAAver space at aa.com for a destination you want to go next Spring before the end of the month. Again you need economy milesAAver, not web special, not AAnytime, etc. If you want to go to Miami next spring, then find any space you can for 2 people from your home airport to Miami and back before Nov. 30.
3) Put whatever flights you find on hold at aa.com (free), then call AA to book the tickets using your vouchers.
4) Let the flights fully ticket, you will receive an email confirmation.
5) Now search dates to Miami (or wherever) next Spring when you actually want to travel. Note the exact flights, again looking for the same economy milesAAver space.
6) Call AA, say you have an award ticket and need to change the dates. Give the AA phone rep the new flights you just found and ask to change to those.
7) When you call, do not mention anything about how these tickets were a promo or anything like that. Just tell them you need to change the dates of an award ticket.

Without reading the T&C's there's no way to know 100% if the above will work, however it will give you the best chance as AA award tickets are valid for 1 year from the date of ticket issue and allow free date/time changes.

wad2k20

Thanks JJeffery, good info and I suppose it's worth a shot. I'll give it a try. Only thing I may run the risk at is possibly losing any fees, assuming there some, when I make original booking.
Hopefully this works because South Florida will probably be a tad warmer than Buffalo in February. Lol... Might even look into a cheapo cruise out of Miami to Bahamas... Thanks!
I post back with results incase others run into similar situation.

FlyingEgghead

What were the results?