once you book an award ticket online or on phone, you have 3 days to hold the ticket and not actually have to purchase it? No risk if you decide not to book and ?

Yup. There have been a few times where I was scared to pull the trigger and I let it sit there for 48 hours before finally booking. But, remember to confirm by the date and time they tell you, or you will lose the booking.

It depends on carrier. On AA it's 5 days. Then, if other tix are still available, they will extend the hold. If not, then it can be cancelled and immediately reheld, but with no guaranty that the tickets will be immediately available once released.

I think it is 1 year (365 days) from the date ticketed, not the flight date.

As a 1K, I can re-deposit for free. But seeing that it's our bi-annual use of our owned timeshare on Maui, my confidence is pretty high. I've cancelled/re-deposited 1 award flight in my life, of 30+ award flights booked.

And yes, you have to pay a fee if you change your mind. Whether you book 330, 180, 90, or 5 days in advance. But you won't find award flights to Hawaii 90 or 5 days in advance, ime.

I don't know about others, but I don't think UA has a way to hold award tix anymore. I found gleff's work around, but even that doesn't appear to work anymore.

so if my flight is in mid jan 2013, I try calling to extend 21 days before the flight date?

what you mean "AS A 1K"?

One of the nice perks of being AA EXP is that they waive any reinstatement fees. This allows you to book trips at 330 day window and change your mind later if need be. Of course it also requires a plentiful supply of redeemable miles as they are zapped immediately from your account.

We typically book 300 days out for international trips

About 10 to 11 months out.

This is a great perk which we have taken advantage of many times. We sometimes book 330 days for high season or very hard to get and then keep trying to perfect as we get closer to the date. We do a lot of awards that are more than one flight so it is also good if one piece isn't available at time of booking it can be added or subtracted at a later point in time. We are going to Africa next month and after months of looking for jnb to Victoria falls availability it opened up last week and we had the awards rebooked. Since it was an end point there were no extra miles and a very nominal tax.

What's AA EXP?

It is their status for flying over 100k miles in a year.

I like the ability to change date for free as long as the departure city and arrival city are the same (and there are stopovers) I do this a lot. I will leave on a Monday but if availability for Saturday opens up I call and change it.

For domestic, I usually book 1-2 months ahead when on award. There's usually some availability if you're somewhat flexible with dates/carrier/cabin class.

For international trips, I did one last year when I booked 3 months before (in economy) and another one (I think 6 months, again in economy) ahead of time (as you gathered, there are usually seats if you don't care as much that it's in coach for a long haul...) I have also booked a one-way segment in F on another carrier on an international segment when my original travel plans fell through, due to a strike. That was pieced together literally two days prior to the flight, but of course, I got dinged with the close-in award fees (which evens out the baggage fee I would have to pay otherwise, anyway)

I have an upcoming trip in J, and this is the only one I've ever booked roughly 300 days out (only because it's for a party of 5). And even then, not everything was where I wanted it due to availability when I booked it. It required monitoring and tweaking once award availability opens up. The worst part - to me - about booking so far is advance is that it's quite a wait until the actual trip. ;)

I just booked lax-cdg 8 weeks ahead but was travelling on weds & monday, which helped. This was with oneworld (aa, ba and ib).

The AA 5 day hold is nice & easy too, you just select "hold" instead of purchase on the final screen.