American Airlines miles are by far the strongest miles to East and Southeast Asia. First, American c

This is the seventh post in one comprehensive guide that tells you everything you need to know about American Airlines miles. Now is the time to write this guide because now is a special time to earn American Airlines miles.
American Airlines and US Airways have merged legally, but they maintain separate frequent flyer programs. travel and europe and discount and packages The two programs will combine some time between April and June 2015, and your balances in the two programs will be combined as American Airlines miles.
The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard®  will no longer be offered to new applicants as soon as the US Airways and American Airlines frequent flyer programs integrate. The card offers 50,000 bonus miles after first purchase.
travel and europe and discount and packages Getting the American Airlines personal card, American Airlines business card, and US Airways personal card now and meeting their spending requirements means you will have at least 156,000 American Airlines miles by mid-2015.
This guide will explain the rules, quirks, travel and europe and discount and packages tricks, and options for redeeming those 156,000 American Airlines miles all in one place. It might just put my Award Booking Service out of business when it comes to redeeming American Airlines miles.
If you find this guide to redeeming the most valuable miles in the world to be useful and want to apply for the credit cards that earn them, please use my links. The commission is what allows me to dedicate the time to writing travel and europe and discount and packages this series.
As I noted in the post on American Airlines award routing rules , awards to Asia 1 and Asia 2 must fly directly from North America to East Asia. They cannot transit Europe, the Middle East, India, or any other continent. That means I ll focus just on airlines travel and europe and discount and packages with direct flights to East Asia and within travel and europe and discount and packages East Asia.
The off peak awards to Korea and Japan are a steal. The premium cabin awards travel and europe and discount and packages year round are outrageously cheap. Consider that you can fly Cathay Pacific First Class to China or Southeast Asia for only 67,500 miles one way.
If you want to include even a single segment on Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, or SriLankan Airlines, you need to call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 to book. You will have to pay a $35 phone fee per passenger. I recommend searching award space on ba.com before calling and feeding the agent the date, cabin, and flight number of each flight with award space instead of relying on the agent s searching skill.
To Asia 1, the possible travel and europe and discount and packages routes are on Japan Airlines, American Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines. You cannot route from North America to Asia 2 to Asia 1 on a single award, so these routes are key to know. (For instance, Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Seoul would price as Los Angeles to Hong Kong plus Hong Kong to Seoul. Read the award routing rules post .)
The American Airlines flights to Asia 1 have OK economy award space, especially during the off peak window, and terrible Business and First Class space. The only consistent time I found Business and First Class Saver award space was in the last 1-3 days before departure in both directions.
The Japan Airlines flights show a lot more Business travel and europe and discount and packages Class than First Class award space. Th best route is probably travel and europe and discount and packages San Francisco to Tokyo-Haneda, which has award space four days in a row the first week of March. I found award space on every route I searched, though, so with flexibility, you can fly Japan Airlines Business Class with American Airlines miles.
To Asia 2, you can route via Asia 1. That means you can fly any of the transpacific flights travel and europe and discount and packages above and connect on intra-Asia flights to Southeast Asia. Or you can fly directly to Asia 2 on American, Hawaiian, and Cathay Pacific.
Cathay Pacific opens up 2 Business Class award seats on a ton of flights when the schedule opens 11 months in advance. I ran a search 10 months from now (not 11 because that s Christmas when all award availability suffers) on the following routes:
Over the seven day period travel and europe and discount and packages I searched all the routes had multiple flights with 2 Business Class award seats except Boston to Hong Kong, which had none. The others all had 3-4 days with at least one flight with 2 Business Class award seats.
Many days had multiple flights with award space. December 1 has three different Hong Kong-to-Los Angeles flights with 2 Business Class award seats and three different New York-to-Hong Kong flights with 2 Business Class award seats.
If you can wait until the last 48 hours, you and your companion are very likely to be able to snag two of the six seats in Cathay Pacific’s mind-boggling First Class. travel and europe and discount and packages Review of Cathay Pacific First Class.
American Airlines does not charge a change fee to upgrade an award reservation, so a great strategy is to book two Business Class seats on Cathay Pacific when the schedule opens and then change the award to First Class in the last two days. This would cost 55,000 miles each way per person when first booked and 12,500 more miles per person at the time of the change. And if the plan fails, your consolation prize is Cathay Pacific Business Class hardly a loss.
American Airlines miles are by far the strongest miles to East and Southeast Asia. First, American charges way fewer miles than its competitors as low as 25,000 miles one way to Japan and Korea and only 67,500 miles in First Class to Southeast Asia. Second, American partners with very nice products on Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines.
travel and europe and discount and packages To fly to Asia 1 (Japan, Korea, Mongolia) on a single award, you must fly directly there from North America without connecting in any other region. To fly to Asia 2 (China and Southeast Asia) on a single award, you must fly directly there or connect in Asia 1. You cannot connect in Europe travel and europe and discount and packages or the Middle East on a single American Airlines award to East or Southeast Asia from the United States.
Hi Scott, great post and impeccable timing. I m planning a trip to BKK just after xmas in Business Class on CX from LAX to BKK via HKG. Booking 331 days prior is this Friday/Saturday so I ve been planning and getting everything ready. I ve checked on BA and it shows me 5 business seats available, but you say that CX normally only releases 2 business seats. Does that mean that only 2 of those 5 are bookable, or are all 5 fair game? Thanks for the info.
thank you for great sharing. travel and europe and discount and packages I m looking for AA award ticket from Tampa, Florida to Saigon, Vietnam, but I never find any available seat on aa.com. It says no flight available and suggests me to call agent.
If trying to get a first class seat 3 days before or less, you would have to pay the $75 close-in booking fee, but if you had a business class seat reserved, and upgraded, you would just have to pay the additional 12,500 miles? Does this free upgrade also work with economy travel and europe and discount and packages seats, travel and europe and discount and packages if they are the only ones available? Thanks.
Yes, you avoid the fee as long as you move up at least one category: economy to business, economy to first or business to first. Also remember that with AA you can change dates and routing without paying any fees as long as your origin and destination remain the same. Hope this helps!
Solely got the Citi AA card and US airways card because you suggested in a few months back. Now these articles are helping an immense amount. Can t tell you how much I appreciate this series of posts. Thanks!
I heard BA site shows a lot of phantom award space for Cathay Pacific. Do you have any such experience? Also besides AA, can we use BA avios or US airways dividened miles for award travel on dragon air?
[ ] value in partner Business Class to Europe and Asia at these prices, which are still higher than American s prices to Asia and Europe, but are pretty good. Book your summer vacation to Europe now I already explained [ ]
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Scott Grimmer is a miles aficionado and avid traveler, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and probably currently on the road. He has earned and redeemed tens of millions of miles for himself and others. Traveling in first class for free, the 26-year-old has been to 40+ countries and had a beer on every inhabited continent.