How We’re Using Our American Airline Miles

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For those of you not living under a rock in the travel blogosphere, American Airlines has recently completed a massive devaluation of their airline miles. It occurred on March 22nd and some of the hits were pretty substantial.

Pre 22nd

AA Award chart pre-March 22nd, 2016

Post 22nd

AA Award chart post-March 22nd, 2016

Note, Asia 2 in F from 67,500 to 110,000 AA miles. Note, South Pacific in F from 72,500 to 110,000 AA miles. Note, Middle East / Indian Subcontinent in F from 90,000 to 115,000 AA miles. Note, within the U.S. in F from 32,500 to 50,000 miles. And so on.

As of January 1st of 2016 Susan and I had a pretty good stash to AA miles. We were at a tad over 750,000 miles combined. Nobody enjoys owning a declining asset, and so we made a plan to use as many AA miles as possible during the next year. Our plan included the following:

1. Thailand Trip and Cathay Pacific in First. We had to cancel a fabulous Maldives trip in March. So in place of that trip we did this trip instead. San Francisco to Hong Kong to Phuket / Phuket to Hong Kong to Chicago to San Francisco (SFO-HKG-HKT-HKG-ORD-SFO). The SFO-HKG / HKG-ORD segments were in Cathy Pacific international first. HKG-HKT-HKG segments were in Dragan Air business and ORD-SFO was American Airlines domestic first. Cost $35 taxes, and 67,500 AA miles (also $150 close in booking fee for both combined awards).

2. Vietnam Trip and JAL in First. This fall we have the following itinerary booked. Sacramento to Los Angles to Tokyo Narita to Saigon, then Hanoi to Tokyo Narita to Los Angles to Sacramento (SMF-LAX-NRT-SGN / HAN-NRT-LAX-SMF). The LAX-NRT / NRT-LAX portions are American international first legs, with the intention to change these to JAL international first if and when they become available. The legs out of NRT-SGN / HAN-NRT are JAL business on the 787.  I’m looking forward to experiencing this plane as I have not before. The SMF-LAX-SMF legs are American regionals in first. I’ve also never flown an American regional first class flight and am looking forward to comparing that with the Delta regionals I’m accustomed to. The outbound legs were 67,500 AA miles and $19 in taxes and fees. The return legs were also 67,500 AA miles and $58 in taxes and fees.

3. Maldives and Etihad in First. To round out our shopping spree we again planed a trip back to the Maldives early in 2017. Our return flights will be on Emirates with Alaska Airline miles, but the outbound leg was booked with Etihad again using AA miles. The flights look like Sacramento to Los Angles to Abu Dhabi finally onto Male in the Maldives (SMF-LAX-AUH-MLE). SMF-LAX is the American Airlines regional first. AUH-MLE is Etihad business which is the highest cabin available on that route. The LAX-AUH leg is Etihad International First on the Boeing 777. This route is the forth longest commercial flight in the world right now and I can’t wait to experience it with Etihad.

The Phuket Thailand trip used 270,000 AA miles and let us experience Cathay Pacific international first. Expect that trip report shortly. The Vietnam trip was also 270,000 AA miles and the outbound leg of the Maldives trip came to 180,000 AA miles for a grand total of 720,000 of our 750,000 AA miles. Mission accomplished.

In Summary

I’m excited about being able use the majority of our AA miles balance on 3 trips that Susan and I can enjoy. Being able to experience Cathay Pacific was an absolute kick, and the 2 following trips will allow us to visit some new locations and give me some additional experiences to write about. Who says devaluations have to be all bad.


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