American Airlines surprised many today when it announced several customer - friendly changes to its frequent - flier program.The new «One - Way Flex Awards» will allow customers to book one - way tickets for half the amount
of miles needed for a round - trip ticket, and will also let passengers book multi-city itineraries and combine award seats with non-award seats.Under the old paradigm, passengers could only book round - trips to and from the same city and were forced to fly in an award seat
of equal value for both
legs of the
journey.This often made booking award travel an exercise in futility — for example, an award seat might be available only on an
outbound journey, but not the return trip.But now passengers will be able to fly to New York in an award seat, and return in a premium - fare seat if a return award seat is not available.