Velocity Frequent Flyer is again offering a 15 % bonus on transfers from credit cards, and a 15 % discount
on award redemption seats.
Not exact matches
Usually, the best
redemption options for AAdvantage miles are
award flights and
seat upgrades
on American and its OneWorld partners.
Is there another way to check
award seats availability
on One World partner airlines for
redemption through AA?
If the airline thinks it can sell those
seats for cash, it's much less likely to release the
seats for cheap mileage
redemptions — making
award space extremely limited
on the most popular travel dates.
Etihad also presents a wealth of opportunities, including Etihad's own first class
redemptions,
redemptions on American at the old, pre-devaluation levels, as well as the cheapest transatlantic business class
award seat redemption in the world.
With status comes a free carry -
on bag
on every flight, free upgrades to stretch
seating at check - in, priority boarding, complimentary
seat assignments, waived
award redemption fees, discounted checked bags and free booking by phone.
It's important to remember that not all
award seats that are shown
on the Etihad Guest website are available to be booked using AAdvantage Miles — Etihad needs to have «Guest Business»
awards available for there to be availability for AAdvantage miles
redemptions.
As stated,
award availability for (saver) business class to New Zealand
on United is not great and you'll need to book far in advance if you want to even have a chance to snag
redemptions with business class
seats between the US and Australia / New Zealand.
In frequent flyer forums, I keep seeing the same question: If my flight is cancelled because of weather, do I have to wait for an
award seat at the same
redemption rate to open up
on another flight?
Economy cabin
awards on this route are often easier than premium
seat redemptions.
Since Amtrak offers last -
seat award availability, any
seats or sleeper accommodations which are available
on amtrak.com are available for
award redemption, subject to the blackout dates below.
Please check our previous report, Best American Airlines First and Business Class
Redemptions,
on how to search the
award space and the type of the premium class
seat.
Using ExpertFlyer.com I can see that, in the first week the A380 begins service to London, there are 3 First Class
seats available for
award redemption on almost every day — and in both directions!
That's in their membership guide for frequent fliers, along with a list of dates for which
award seats will not be available for
redemption travel
on any flights.
Wan na Get Away Fare
Redemptions: Although I often talk of the value of transferable points thanks to the flexibility they give you to top up accounts and book premium international tickets
on a whim, Rapid Rewards represents the flip side of
award tickets where you know you are getting a great (semi) fixed value
on award tickets of about 1.8 - 2 cents each
on Wan na Get Away (leisure) fares and you can redeem them for any open
seat on a flight, just as if you were buying it.
While airlines are raising the price of their first class
award redemptions (United announced a recent hike from 160,000 to a whopping 280,000 miles for first class from the US to the Middle East
on its partners, and Delta will not even allow fliers to cash in miles for international first class
seats), there are still some good deals out there.
If you need to go to Japan or elsewhere in Asia that JAL flies, you can get great deals using the JAL
award chart, which offers round - trip
award seats at
redemptions more akin to one - way
awards on many airlines.