By way of background, this topic came up last week on the AA forum in two different threads. The consensus on the threads were wildly different from each other. I think it is an interesting-enough discussion to elevate to this forum.

The basic question:

Is it ethical to book and ticket two separate award reservations with the knowledge that you will only be using one of them?

Details:

I am planning award travel for late September/early October of this year. While I have enough vacation time to take a two week trip, work politics may make that not feasible. However, a week long trip would not be problematic. Since I have enough miles in my AAdvantage account, I have booked two separate award tickets: one to Istanbul for a week and one to Singapore and Beijing for two weeks. My preference is to do the two week trip, but I won't know for certain if that will be possible until close to departure time (under a month in advance). AA allows you to cancel an award booking and redeposit your miles for $100, a small price to pay, in my opinion, for the assurance of having a contingency plan. While I am aware that this is potentially keeping someone else from using their miles, I am not convinced I owe this hypothetical person any ethical duties.

What do you think?

Ok, I'll bite.

You are denying someone else the chance to spend their miles so it is slightly unethical, IMHO, but if the airline is prepared to let you do it then I don't see why you shouldn't do it. I would also say only slightly unethical because I think most people in your shoes would do the same thing if they'd only thought of it.

When the award is cancelled are the seats likely go back into award inventory? In that case some traveler might be pleasantly surprised to find availabilty for (e.g.,) Istanbul closer the the travel date than they'd otherwise be able. You will have done that traveler a favor.

I've done exactly this for hotel reservaitons (with HHonors it is/was possible to book an award without immediately deducting points, making this a bit easier to pull off).

I think, personally, its fine to do what you've done. You need the flexibility and since you can afford the miles, it's not a problem.

I see no problem with what you're doing, and I suspect that it happens often. People want flexibility, and if they have the miles to redeem the awards, this is one way of obtaining that latitude.

Good point about hotels. They make it very easy to do this with both points and paid nights (as long as not prepaid). I do this alot two if they're two hotels in a city I am visiting and I don't know which I'd prefer or be able to afford.

My answer is that it is unethical. Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. I suggest you either pick one now and change it later, or wait until later when you're more sure of your plans.

Something else to consider is what happens if AA detects the duplicate reservations? (e.g., if your departure dates are the same) They will not be happy about that, and they do have programs in place that search for duplicate reservations (e.g., people who book two refundable tickets because they're not sure which one they really want). Airlines, as well as your fellow potential passengers, don't like it when people soak up inventory unnecessarily.

Funny you should mention that, JS. That is what got the whole discussion rolling on the AA forum. I initially set-up the awards over the same period (no overlapping flights), and was scheudle to fly from the N. America to LHR on two different flights (and carriers) on the same day. I was told by AA that that wouldn't work and one would be canceled. As such, I moved up one of the trips to avoid having them overlap.

Don't you think AA has a reason for prohibiting duplicate bookings? Does that not bother you that you are changing your travel plans just to get around it?

Why can't just you just book one trip and be done with it?

I would love to just book one trip and be done with it. Unfortunately, I will not be able to kno with certainty whether I can go on my preferred trip until very close to the departure day (within a month, most likely within a week), at which point award space is likely to be gone. This is a way for me to mitigate this risk.

It does not bother me that I am changing my travel plans to get around AA's prohibition on duplicate bookings. AA makes it clear that it will do what is best for AA and I will do what is best for PresRDC. It's an airline, not a person.

To the extent I have any concerns about this, they are about the effect it has on other passengers, not AA.

There's a big difference in doing this to get around rules and holding alternate plans due to uncertainties. I usually try to take the high road and my standard answer is "if you have to ask, it probably isn't", but what I see here is just smart planning for genuinely unknown outcomes, which I have no problem with.

If it was "I want to go X, but I might change my mind so I'll hold on to Y also" - that's a no go. But this sounds like just prudent planning.

I don't think it's unethical at all. The dates aren't the same, and let's face it, we take award reservations whenever we can get them. The OP mentioned his willingness to pay the redeposit fee for the unused reservation. In my opinion, he's paying $100 for the ability to remain flexible.

I can't even remotely see what would be unethical about this!!!

They are your miles, you are outlaying them in order to accomplish this, and in addition, you will pay a $100 fee to cancel and redeposit. So what's the problem here?

I can't see why they wouldn't let you book both on the same days either. That doesn't make sense. I thought you could make duplicate res's only when it was on the same exact flights.

Im sorry, this whole thing makes me laugh!! That you even had to ask if this was unethical!

And to put everything on the table, I don't even have enough miles to do something like this, so I would be one who would be a/effected by what you do, and I could care less.

When you stop to think about it, such a small percentage of the population would ever even think of this.

-A

How would this be considered unethical? Not only aren't you breaking any rules, you're not even bending them. Since you are also willing to pay the $100 re-deposit fee, I suspect the airline will have no problem with what you are doing either.

As a side note, when I was booking my honeymoon, I had a couple of different agents working to put the trip together, so that I could compare prices. Unbeknownst to me, they actually put a hold on a room when preparing a quote - so at one point I had four rooms at the Four Seasons Hualalai being held in my name. Needless to say, the FS was not happy, and they let me hear about it.

Nothing evenly slightly unethical here. You're playing by the rules and there's a very good chance the res. you cancel will go to someone else. AA will get $100 bucks to boot (not bad for them, since the cost of redepositing those miles can't be anywhere close to $100).