JJeffrey

With AA's dynamic award pricing you can go pretty much anywhere ​​​​​​(in North America at least, one-way) with 13k miles. So it's really going to be a personal preference on what you want to do, hot weather or cold weather, city or beach or mountains, etc.

For example looking at a few random dates in Jan and Feb I see the following destinations available for 7k-13k miles one way from SMF: Miami, Tampa, New York, Boston, Denver, Vail, Chicago, Cancun, Grand Cayman, Toronto, Montreal, the list is almost endless.

That said, there's an easy way to keep your miles from expiring. Just book a one-way award to anywhere for under 13k miles, pay the $5.60 in taxes and let the award fully ticket and make sure the miles are deducted. Then pull up the reservation at aa.com and cancel it, the miles will be refunded almost instantly for no charge and the expiration date will be reset, and the taxes will be refunded in a few days.

HookEm

Sorry if this is a stupid question. If I buy an Admirals Club membership, and I am on an outgoing Alaska Air flight from Austin (that I bought on the Alaska Air website), can I access with a friend the Admirals Club in Austin showing my ID and Alaska Air ticket? The write up I saw on the AA website seems to say yes since I guess it is a partner airline, and I messaged AA, but they never responded.
Thanks!

JJeffrey

Yes, as an AC member it's no problem to access any of the AC's with a same day flight on AS.

Flying for Fun

You can also access the AS longe on arrival.

James

frostin

Their website seems lacking. No route map in general and errors on destinations to Asia like HKG. Then no outbound flights after mid-February (domestic or international from smf or sfo - do not even show as unavailable) but return flights available beyond March?

guv1976

Why are you searching for award flights to HKG if you only have 13K AAdvantage miles?

I can't speak for what you are seeing at aa.com, but the AA app is certainly offering one-way travel from SMF to the New York metropolitan area in the latter half of February:



In fact, if you can depart on February 21 and return on February 28, you can even get a roundtrip from SMF to HPN (White Plains, in Westchester County, just north of NYC) for just 12,000 AAdvantage miles plus $11.20:

JJeffrey

Yea I'm really not following at all what or how you're searching. I just did a simple one-way award search for SMF to NYC for June and see tons of options for 9k-11k miles.

gnggng

I just got notice of award flight changed bna-clt-lhr and now we have 8 hr layover in LHR and won�t arrive KRK until 6:45 pm so we lose most of day in KRK. .

Flight is not until July. No options available to get us there earlier. There is a flight leaving previous day without long layover.

Should I try getting through to airline to ask for change? With storm causing flight disruptions right now should I wait to call? How long do I have after flight change to ask for new flight?

Advice on this situation please and thank you.

wrp96

You have plenty of time to wait to deal with this. Wait until at least early next week after the current disruptions are over. In fact, that far out there will probably be even more schedule changes.

gnggng

Thank you wrp96. That was my initial thought but I wasn’t sure if there was a time frame in which I had to ask for the change.

With it being July and likely more changes should I just let it ride as is and hope for an improvement? What would you do in this situation?

wrp96

When do you really want to travel? Do you want to go the day prior? If so I'd go ahead and call in for the change next week. If you really want to fly on your original day, I think I'd wait awhile and see if the schedule changes produce better options. After you've made a change, you don't get the chance to change your mind.

dfwchamorro

My understanding is that any earning of miles extends the expiration of your miles so I think you should be able to go to the AA shopping portal and use it to buy something. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rossodio

A few questions - 1 technically a BA question, I suppose, but the rest AA...

1) Flying CLT->DFW->LHR->NAP; all flights AA aside from BA from LHR to NAP. Flying flagship first on 77W DFW to LHR (all of this is award travel). This will be in 5/2023. I have Global Entry and TSA precheck. Since my initial flight is not international but the overall itinerary is, I am wondering some things. Is there an international check in area for AA at CLT? Would I need to check in there since the itinerary is international (though not the first leg)? While I am sure there is a priority (first class/AA status holder) line that might be quicker, in international check in will there be a Flagship check in line that would be separate and possibly quicker? All in all, how early should I arrive to CLT prior to my first flight in this case? I am concerned because from what I understand there will be construction and perhaps a back up for international check in.

2) Coming back flying NAP->LHR->MIA->CLT (BA NAP-> LHR, AA for the others, again Flagship First) a week or so later. NAP is a smaller airport from what I hear; how early should I arrive in NAP prior to my first flight? I've never been to Italy and am not familiar with how the flow works in airports there generally.

Rossodio

I would be careful with this - the shopping portal tends to take longer to register and process points the more expensive the item you buy and even with some cheaper items has taken weeks for me in the past. They also want to make sure you don't buy items to get points/miles and then return them to get a refund later and will sometimes wait until you are outside of that window to drop the points in your account. I have had it take up to 4 weeks for points to show up this way which would push you past January 7. Mind you, that was for a 2000 dollar laptop, but I saw delays for much cheaper items as I said as well.

Aadvantage dining and loyalty points/miles gained that way tends to be much faster to register. I would find the closest Aadvantage dining spot, go there and grab something cheap to eat or drink, and then look for the e-mail either confirming you got the points or asking you to do a review to get points. Typically no more than 10 days for this to show up in your LP/miles balance.

If you were being as proactive as possible you could just do both. Order something cheap through shopping and cheap through dining and be done with it. If you haven't done Aadvantage dining, it is very easy to register; just associate with credit card of your choice and then use that card to pay for eating at any of those establishments. Some of the restaurants to get points it requires you to order online or requires you to leave a review (which would make getting the points in your account take longer), so be careful in reading how you get points from whatever restaurant you choose.

I am practically married to AAdvantage shopping and dining both and have had plenty of experience with this.

dfwchamorro

Wondering about how to get around the exorbitant fees charged for travelling to London. Booked RT DFW>HTR from Aug 27-Sept 6 in business for me and my wife for 120k AA miles/person which I though wasn't a bad redemption but taxes/fees were over $1,000 each! Prob have to have at least the in- or outbound flight be HTR but flexible to have a leg in Paris/Brussels or somewhere close. Wondering if others have had success trying to avoid this fee. Thanks!