Just got back from the airport tonight after sending my daughter to Europe on an award ticket. I was happy to burn some miles so that she could pursue her dreams.

It got me thinking about how a lot of my miles are spent in helping others. While I do use them for myself when necessary, I have generally used my accumulations to assist others to have opportunities that they could not otherwise afford. Most of my SWUs, for example go to friends or family, because I am usually happy to play the upgrade lottery, rather than using one. I will often "pay" for a ticket with miles for someone to accompany me on my travels, where I have already purchased my ticket with cash, just to give them the experience.

So, any positive, upbeat stories about using your miles for others? I am sure that there are some FTers who do the same.

Not really sure if this qualifies as using miles for others since I used them for myself on this trip, but here's my input. Also not sure how it is specific to AA, but I'll leave that up to the mods to decide.

I booked a last minute surprise trip to Dublin in March for me and my (then) girlfriend. She always wanted to visit Ireland but has never had the finances or opportunity to do so. Since I was unable to sneak her passport without her knowing, I told her the morning of our departure that we were going to Toronto and to bring her passport. I know, Toronto in March doesn't sound like the ideal getaway but I had to get her to pack for cold weather and she was excited nonetheless. I had to come up with things we were going to see and do while there on the way to the airport. When we arrived at the ticket counter to check in the TA asked "Any bags to Dublin today?" The look of utter shock and surprise was priceless (and I was beaming too). The real purpose of the trip was to propose, which I did at the Howth hills east of Dublin (she said yes). That area is absolutely beautiful and Connolly's pub is a fantastic place to grab a pint of Guinness and some lunch after walking the trails up the hill.

To add to the surprise, I snagged 2 seats in BA F (on the 77W!) for the LHR-ORD return leg. This is the best way I've been able to put my miles to use for others so far. Hopefully one day I'll have enough to spend on friends/family that want to go somewhere.

Great idea for a thread!

As this topic is by no way restricted to AA (I'm sure there are people from all walks of life and airline programmes who give away their awards and miles), I'll go ahead and move this discussion over to the MilesBuzz forum for discussion by a wider audience.

~Microwave
AAdvantage Forum Co-moderator

Awesome story, and congratulations!

I too use miles mostly for others, though I am saving up for a trip to Aus/NZ with my wife.

Most recently we used miles to send her parents to Alaska (and back), and to help lessen the blow of flights to California for a girls trip she's going on.

The latter is something we've done a couple times. Basically her group splits the cost of all airfare since they're coming from all different places, and we'll offer to use miles for the most expensive ticket to lower the cash cost for everyone.

I've used miles to upgrade segments when flying with friends too...actually I'll do that every time if we're in the right fare class and there's inventory. Same with using hotel points to put us into a nicer suite or something if it's possible.

I actually can't think of a time I've used miles on myself other than a couple PWM upgrades on DL where it was like 12k miles to get lay flats on a cross country flight. ^

Miles are definitely there to be spent, IMO. It's not like they'll gain value ever...

One christmas I bought my bf roundtrip flights to Costa Rica on miles - their cash value would be hundreds of dollars, but on miles it was nothing more than a credit card application + fees.

I thought this was going to be a sad post, and then it turned happy!

Continuing the story of my wife's girls trip. They just started shopping for hotels and were surprised that 4 nights was going to cost them close to $2k for the cheapest rooms.

~100k of my points later and they're down to $200 cash (some of the bookings were cash+points), plus a better room on a couple of the nights. I was also able to get them into an otherwise-too-expensive hotel closer to the city center/mass transit a night early, allowing them to return the rental car a day earlier and save on that.

I think this topic will generate more discussion in the Travel Buzz forum, so I've moved it once again, hopefully to its final home.

Have fun!

~Moderator, Information Desk

I know the overseas trips are the attractive stories and that's great.

I recently helped two elderly women go say what resulted in a "goodbye" to their sister although initially when I started planning their travel arrangements, it was a domestic visit about three weeks out. One of the women is my disabled sister's landlord who recently "took her in" when she had multiple teeth pulled and I had to go out of town for my son's upcoming surgery. I could not adequately pay back that kindness.

However, when the word came that the sister was in grave condition, I set about changing the itinerary to accommodate the new challenge of traveling sooner.

My DH is overseas and I had done some MS to bring up his MP account balance. He will be home in June for a visit and didn't need the miles buildup. Took his miles and booked 40K to cover their air, paying the fees out of pocket, but with the Barclays Arrival.

Also, prepaid the car rental by booking Advantage with the Arrival card. Advantage doesn't require the renter to present the same credit card used to prepay.

Sure, I redeemed 10K points to cover the ticketing fee with the Arrival. And, once I accumulate a bit of spending on the Arrival, will redeem points to cover the car rental (except for the prepaid gas she accepted, oy vey! ).

The sister passed, the sisters heartbroken, but they know in their hearts they got to say "goodbye" and let her know they loved her.

The Bible says to visit widows and orphans. I was glad to assist by using miles/points to facilitate that.