First time Redeemer HELP!!!!!
 

Hey everyone,

I've been reading the board for 3 months and have managed to get the Citi AA 75,000 deal (currently have 80,000 or so miles) and the CO 50,000 deal. So, first off, I thank all of you for helping me out!!!!!!

This will be my first time booking as a "travel hacker". I fly from PHL and need to go to LAX (taking my girlfriend with me) in October. If I book now, I can take advantage of the AA 30th anniversary deal for lower mileage spent for booking. I am also planning on taking her to Spain for her 40th b-day some time in 2012. Should I save the miles for the trans-atlantic trip, or should I take advantage now, knowing that there will be mileage deals/CC sign-up miles in the future? If I use miles to book the trip, will I accrue FF miles with AA. Will she? If so, can she transfer her miles to my acct?

I'm new, and I don't want to screw this up. I have tried to read everything before asking these questions, but I have not seen anyone in my predicament.

Thanks for the help!!

Typically Reward Ticket value is much better international vs domestic. But with the promotion it might be too good to pass up. I don't see how you'd fly 2 people for 80k internationally but I also don't fly AA.
If you're flying on a reward ticket you don't earn miles. So no need to worry about getting her miles.

Thanks, as I said, I am new and open to suggestion.

I was just going to consider taking the plunge with the mileage deal (although we'd have to redeem 25k per person going to LAX due to our time restrictions) but I figure you can't beat flying cross country round-trip for 20 bucks in taxes for a first time hack.

I hope as time goes on, I can become more adept at taking advantage of all the tips and tricks.

[QUOTE=kingofalljanitors; Should I save the miles for the trans-atlantic trip, or should I take advantage now, knowing that there will be mileage deals/CC sign-up miles in the future? If I use miles to book the trip, will I accrue FF miles with AA. Will she? If so, can she transfer her miles to my acct?

Thanks for the help!![/QUOTE]

Be careful about too many credit card deals. There is no free lunch. You'll be paying annual fees and if you close the accounts down right after opening them your credit score will crash.

why doesn't she sign up for her own 75K AA card(s)? Then she could use her own miles. :-)

You should compare the cost of a ticket to LA with the one to Europe you are considering and see which is a better deal. If you paid for the LA tickets you would collect miles for that trip which would help bump up you balance. Also, make sure you are maximizing your earning. If you spend a lot online shopping, for example, make sure you are using their shopping portal. AA seems to have fairly high miles per dollar in their program. If you dine out a lot make sure you are also using their dining program.

Very good advise from armattheus and glenaa11. Just one thing to think about, you could get 2 coach tickets to Lax on CO and work on getting more on AA miles seeing that's your largest account.

If you can go before May 15th, or on/after October 15th, you can get 2 r/t to Europe for your 80k AA so I would recommend saving them and use CO for your LAX. Most transatlantic are pricing out over $1k last I looked, so that's a good deal. Of course, if you're willing to go way off peak, you will find more reasonable fares, but still likely north of $700.

No miles earned on FF tickets, and you can't transfer miles between accounts without paying (generally, not much cheaper than just buying the miles outright).

My suggestion would be to never put all your eggs into one basket. Try to accumulate miles for 2 alliances like Continental and AA. That way if you have no luck with AA, you have CO to go to.

I would also get your gf into this game. That way you guys both accumulate miles. Double the fun.

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

Here's something else for the OP to consider: AA permits free stopovers at the North American "gateway" on international awards. So for 20,000 miles per person, one could get LAX-JFK (stopover) - Europe, as long as the LAX-JFK leg were flown after October 14. This would even permit the JFK-Europe portion of the trip to be flown during peak season at no extra charge (assuming that MileSAAver seats could be found). Of course, this approach would require getting from and to JFK, but that might be worth it for the miles saved. (And with advance booking, Megabus/Bolt Bus can be pretty cheap between NYC and PHL.)

If the JFK stopover strategy appeals to the OP, then perhaps it would be best to use the CO miles for a one-way award from PHL to LAX, and then use the AA miles for LAX-JFK-Europe-PHL. (CO will begin offering one-way awards later this month, I believe; until then, CO miles can be transferred to UA, and then redeemed for one-way awards.)

And if the OP's girlfriend decides to sign up for credit cards, remember that people have reported successfully obtaining both the Citi/AA Visa and Amex (for a total of 150,000 bonus miles) if both applications are submitted on the same day, one right after the other.

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

Here's something else for the OP to consider: AA permits free stopovers at the North American "gateway" on international awards. So for 20,000 miles per person, one could get LAX-JFK (stopover) - Europe, as long as the LAX-JFK leg were flown after October 14. This would even permit the JFK-Europe portion of the trip to be flown during peak season at no extra charge (assuming that MileSAAver seats could be found). Of course, this approach would require getting from and to JFK, but that might be worth it for the miles saved. (And with advance booking, Megabus/Bolt Bus can be pretty cheap between NYC and PHL.)

If the JFK stopover strategy appeals to the OP, then perhaps it would be best to use the CO miles for a one-way award from PHL to LAX, and then use the AA miles for LAX-JFK-Europe-PHL. (CO will begin offering one-way awards later this month, I believe; until then, CO miles can be transferred to UA, and then redeemed for one-way awards.)

And if the OP's girlfriend decides to sign up for credit cards, remember that people have reported successfully obtaining both the Citi/AA Visa and Amex (for a total of 150,000 bonus miles) if both applications are submitted on the same day, one right after the other.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I just booked it. Because our schedules are tight, and required leaving and coming back on specific days, I spent 67,500 total AA miles roundtrip for both of us. I figured that this is my first go at this, so I didn't want to be greedy (things like this have a habit of blowing up in my face). We'll be flying business class on the way there though (never done that before), so I figure it was not TOO bad for my first "free" trip.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!! Without you, the FT posters, none of this would have been possible. I look forward to learning more from you and getting to the point where I will be able to help others also.

Welcome to FT! Stick around, spend more time researching before booking, and next time you won't spend miles on a domestic flight that could get you 84% of the way to Europe ;-).

Well, if this suits you, so be it.

Unfortunately, you just blew a good chunk of miles for a ho-hum domestic trip...
Not to mention PHL to LAX often have fare sale sub $300 all-in...

Moot point now since you may have ticketed it. If you just put the award on hold, you have 5 days to think it over... then may get some suggestions here to help you reach a better decision.

Read the post from gv1176 to see how your 80K miles can do for you - you can take your girlfriend to Spain r/t during the off-peak season AND pack in 1/2 of a free Hawaii trip...

But it is water over the bridge now.

Next time, spend some time to read the STICKIES in the Airline forum before pulling the trigger...

Plus 1/2 trip to Hawaii / Alaska / Vancouver... :p

OP is too impatient too quick to pull his trigger before spending some more time to explore the options... Hope other rookies would learn from this.

You're quite welcome, and thank you for being so gracious. Please don't be discouraged by the "you could have done better," just take them as tips for next time. Please enjoy the free trip, and have your girlfriend get the AA miles for Spain. The tips on combining a stopover are great, haven't done it myself yet.

One word of warning....once you go business, it's hard to go to the back of the plane for long trips. You'll have to really up your game :p

Ok, so assuming how I can put this thing on hold. How would I go about fixing my screw up? I have no clue when I will be going to Europe next year. So how long would I have to book that flight. If I have to do it right now, then I wouldn't be able to. My girlfriend and I are both educators, so we have to schedule our travel at mostly peak times and around our school's schedules.

Did you already book it (pay the fees and get a confirmation)? If so, it's water under the bridge and you should just enjoy. On AA, you can opt to hold it at the end instead of book.

We'll hold off on the latter question until knowing if you're booked.

It's a done deal now. Booked, confirmed, the whole deal.

I learn from experience, so I see what you mean now.

Thanks anyway for the help. I will enjoy!!! Next time, I'll make sure that I get a better deal!

This would have been my advice as well; maybe spring break would work with your school schedules. In fact, even if you've already made the booking, it may be worth paying the fee to reinstate the miles so you can do this. As pointed out by others, that was almost enough miles to get you 2 off-peak tickets to Europe (with a possibility of throwing in a free one-way to Hawaii at a later date). It would cost you $175 (I believe) to get those miles reinstated but I would seriously consider it as it may be worth it.

The X'mas and Spring Break time is within off peak - Oct 15 to May 15 is off peak to Europe. Off peak coach seats are aplenty you can book quite close to departure date.

Next time, read up a little on program rules and award charts before you jump in.

I feel like an idiot now. But one more question and I'll stop posting on the thread.

How would I reinstate (buy back) the miles? What's the process?

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

You might not have to. Just because AA has taken your payment information does not necessarily mean that your award ticket has been issued. If it has not been, AA might let you cancel and reinstate your miles without charge. If you have not already received an Email with a ticket number, I would call AA immediately and ask if it's possible to cancel the award and have the miles reinstated without charge.

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

(Duplicate post.)

Don't worry, I felt like an idiot for a long time around here and still do from time to time! :) Also, definitely no need to stop posting as the continued exchange of information is what makes FT great.

Regardless of whether those of us that posted agree with the use of miles, you've still gotten a couple of free tickets and that's a good thing! We just want you to get more of them. ;)

Dont feel too bad on this. Everyone has a learning curve. You were a bit too excited for what you could do with the miles. I was surprised you started a thread for suggestions but within hours you already booked your trip.

There are still options you could consider.

My guess is your award reservation has been ticketed as you purchased it this morning.

You should have received the e-tickets in your inbox by now. However sometimes AA email function died and no email ever comes. If you dont see your e-ticket email, then go to AA website to make sure.

Check My Reservation and pull up the reservation details - if it is TRULY ticketed, you would see the status "Ticketed June 7th, 2011". Also there is a button Print Itinerary and Receipt on the far right top corner where you can click to get the receipt and the e-ticket numbers.

If the status by any remote chance is still "Purchase" - Call AA immediately to cancel the booking.

If it is already ticketed, here is your Plan B:

Option 1)

Keep a close eye on your itinerary for any schedule change. If the schedule change is substantial, like over 2 hours difference for example, call AA and tell them you cannot accept the change. The tickets then can be canceled for free and miles go back to your account, taxes refunded to your credit card.

If no schedule change happen, enjoy your free trip.

Or, change the dates to much later in the year and hope schedule change may happen in the Fall.

Date change is free on award tickets. Travel must be completed within 1 year from the date of ticketing. So you literally have up to 6/6/2012 to finish your travel.

Option 2)

Cancel the award and pay $150+$25 re-instatement fee to have the miles re-deposit back to your account. This can be done anytime between now and the ticket expiration. (1 year from today).

I were you I would take Option 1) and change the travel dates. Then wait and see if I get a chance for free cancellation, but be prepared I either still need to travel on this itinerary or act on Option 2).

Now that you have used your AA miles, I would concentrate on quickly acquiring Continental miles before it merges into United. Both Continental and United are Star Alliance carriers. That alliance has lots of really nice flights to Europe. My preferences are Lufthansa and Swiss Air.

Take a look at what I have to say about Continental credit cards on my website below in the Credit Cards > Annual Fee Cards section. There are at least 65,000 miles (and maybe 125,000 miles) available for each of you from the Chase Sapphire and the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold cards. Then more will be available after you cancel your Continental card before the merger (so it won't automatically be converted to a United card by Chase) and then apply for a United card after the merger for whatever bonus they offer then.

Then take a look at my Finance section. There are very good brokerage offers for Continental and United (and others). Also, you could start to replace your AA miles via BankDirect.

From personal experience: It is essential that you get your girlfriend interested in and aggressive at acquiring her own free miles, so she can use them to fly with you. Years ago it took me a year to convince mine, and she has been behind me in total miles ever since.

I applied a month ago for the Sapphire. Denied. Applied again today...I was given the "we have to investigate" screen.

I called a few hours later and they said that I was denied because I was just approved for a month ago for the CO. I told them that I was trying to convert all of my CC accounts to Chase because I was tired of all the other banks that my old CCs were affiliated with, the CSR placed me on hold and then came back and told me that I WAS APPROVED!!!!

Now, I'd love to get rid of the CO before the merger, but will they take my miles away? I have my 50,000 from the initial offer and wouldn't want to jeopardize that. And what would that do for my credit?

Sapphire can transfer to several programs so I'd keep them in the account for the flexibility. What do you mean by getting rid of CO?

OOps. I meant getting rid of the Chase Continental Card. I just got it like a month and a half ago (with the bonus 50,000 miles for the first purchase). The miles have posted to my OnePass account, but I am worried that if I cancel the credit card, they will pull the miles away. I have read somewhere on this board that happened to a few people.

Ideally, I'd like to cash in/not make a mistake with my miles in the CO/UA merger.

Once the miles post to your Continental account, they will not take them back. However, if you cancel your card this soon, Chase might not like you very much. I would wait until closer to the merger. Telling them that you want to cancel then might even get you a good bonus offer to keep the card.

first of all don't listen to all the idiots telling you you screwed up; some people here are too addicted to getting every last cent out of their miles that they forget the point is to enjoy them. be thrilled you're taking a free vacation with your gf, one way in business, it should be really nice.

next, there's no reason to cancel your chase co card, hold onto it for a few months until you see a different chase card you want to sign up for. at that point, after your apply for the new card, assuming they don't approve you immediately, you'll call in to reconsider and tell them you'd be happy to close out your co card in order to get the new one opened. that's the way to do it.

there are lots of big cc offers out there these days, and in 6 months you could pick up a few hundred thousand miles no problem if you know how to play it. even if you're new to the game, which you seemingly are, you could easily pick up another 100 to 200k. then you'll book yourselves tickets to spain in business. if you're really interested in that you should go to ingys blog frugaltravelguy.com and check out an old post of his on credit card churning. it's a 3 part post and it's a great place to start the game. i believe he has a link for it on the side of his page s/where but you could always shoot him an email asking about it and i'm sure he'll be happy to point you there. once you learn how to apply for cards, then go looking at what's out there before you jump the gun on anything. check out the "special cc offers" thread in milesbuzz, as well as garys site freefrequentflyermiles.com they're both good places to look (though for all the big current offers the thread on ft will be a much more concise place to look).
once you have your miles then you'll have to find the availability when you want to travel, which might not be easy, but i'm sure if you post around here looking for assistance you'll find a person or 3 happy to help out. enjoy la

I would disagree with this one - my situation was quite opposite - I always liked the idea of flying business class but then I had quite a few chance to actually fly business and first class and didn't feel that much of a difference as compared to additional significant costs (either in term of miles or $s). So now I will fly business only in two scenarios: (1) it costs me nothing (either in terms of extra $ or miles) - i.e. my company pays for my ticket, I get a free upgrade or something similar (2) I have a critical activity soon after I arrive and being somewhat tired vs. a bit tired makes a world of difference (which is most cases coincides with #1)

So YMMV - I think it mostly depends of what travel is for you - if it's moving from point A to point B, coach can very well accommodate your needs, if you're all about getting a luxury treatment, boarding first and feeling "elite" compared to those seating behind you, first is the way to go.

Ah, but once I acquired enough miles to feel like I will never run out of them given how much I will ever travel, I do spend them on business class seats for any overnight flights. (And I still take that sleeping pill.) Getting that many miles is easy enough these days.

Thanks everyone!!!

It is a pretty cool thing that everyone is cool enough to help out around here (defending my decision and/or helping me get the most out of the miles that I have). It's not my intention to start arguments though :D. All of your advice means a lot and has helped me a bunch considering that I am currently between jobs but still want to be able to travel a bit. All of your help has made that possible.

Thanks again!