Airline miles

[Illini_Fan]

I've used my AA miles for both simple awards and for fairly complex international awards with multiple stop-overs. The One-world awards are probably the best overall use of AA miles IMO.

Couple of things to keep in mind with any award:
- book them as far out as possible (330 days). You can redeposit your miles if the trip doesn't happen. I think the cost is about $125 or so.
- be creative on your routing (usually means calling the reservation desk). If you want to get from the US to Australia (especially in business or first class) look at routing through South America on LAN or via Hong Kong on Cathay

Specifically with regards to OneWorld Awards
- you must fly on two non-AA flights. So that would mean Qantas and Cathay if going to Australia for example.
- Partner airlines are not available for OneWorld awards. The "metal" that you fly on must belong to one of the OneWorld members. This does include their affiliates, so American Eagle is available for example

Finally, remember that any activity on your AA account will move the expiration date by another 18 months. That includes all of the potential non-flying stuff. Just look on the AA website. An inexpensive plant from FTD.com will earn you miles and move the expiration date.

[DevilDiver]

Originally Posted by DollFin

OK, so I have a ton of Advantage miles I've saved over the years and a lot of them expire next year so I really want to start looking into how I want to use them. I want to get the most out of them and go somewhere really cool, that not only has great diving but lots of other cool things to see and do. Does anyone have any experience using Advantage Miles this way and what would you recommend?

Airline miles are great and usually pretty easy with a little planning. I believe the questions you need to answer are where do you want to go and what will it take to get there......

If you are looking for unique ideas for destinations you need to pick a general location (Caribbean, Red Sea, Indonesia) and then narrow it down by what would be available to book through AA or use the miles to take care of the air fair and pick-up the rest if you want something not offered.
The AA website would be a good place to start for ideas and you could post questions about the towns, resorts and dive operations to help with the final decision.

[Illini_Fan]

One other thing I forgot. The OW website has a pretty good interactive map that shows the available cities that OW airlines fly in to.

Click on the Flight Info tab and the link to the map should be on the right hand side.

oneworld - Home

[mike_s]

Originally Posted by DollFin

OK, so I have a ton of Advantage miles I've saved over the years and a lot of them expire next year so I really want to start looking into how I want to use them. I want to get the most out of them and go somewhere really cool, that not only has great diving but lots of other cool things to see and do. Does anyone have any experience using Advantage Miles this way and what would you recommend?

You can use your miles to book any trip on about any airline with American Airlines Vacations. It's farily easy to do. only problem is that it costs a lot more in miles than you would think it would

We went to Jamacia on AA miles a few years back. Got airfare (2 first class), all inclusive stay in a beach-side suite (with stocked bar in room), diving included, etc..., for 7 nights/8 days. I think I spend 408,000 or 413,000 AA FF miles. so took lots of miles. cash value was like $7500 or something. I would have never spent that much for it out of pocket, but I had more miles than I knew what to do with, so was no problem.

Originally Posted by Dee

My only experience with any kind of miles programs is the dates I need are never available. One program who's huge selling point was no more blackout dates, etc, just put you on standby instead of telling you it wasn't available. Needless to say I have a very low opinion of free miles....hope you get yours, even part value would be great!

yeah... miles are getting harder and harder to use. you can typically still get a ticket on any flight, but you have to spend "double miles". It's ok if you've got tons of miles, but many don't, so it creates a problem.

Originally Posted by Illini_Fan

Finally, remember that any activity on your AA account will move the expiration date by another 18 months. That includes all of the potential non-flying stuff. Just look on the AA website. An inexpensive plant from FTD.com will earn you miles and move the expiration date.

If your miles are about to expire, you can buy them in small blocks also that will move that date. Or get one of the free credit cards that offers miles as an award. Then setup your cellphone bill or something for auto payment and you have activity every month, keeping them from expiring...

[DollFin]

Originally Posted by mike_s

You can use your miles to book any trip on about any airline with American Airlines Vacations. It's farily easy to do. only problem is that it costs a lot more in miles than you would think it would

We went to Jamacia on AA miles a few years back. Got airfare (2 first class), all inclusive stay in a beach-side suite (with stocked bar in room), diving included, etc..., for 7 nights/8 days. I think I spend 408,000 or 413,000 AA FF miles. so took lots of miles. cash value was like $7500 or something. I would have never spent that much for it out of pocket, but I had more miles than I knew what to do with, so was no problem.

yeah... miles are getting harder and harder to use. you can typically still get a ticket on any flight, but you have to spend "double miles". It's ok if you've got tons of miles, but many don't, so it creates a problem.

If your miles are about to expire, you can buy them in small blocks also that will move that date. Or get one of the free credit cards that offers miles as an award. Then setup your cellphone bill or something for auto payment and you have activity every month, keeping them from expiring...

Oh I'm not new to using my miles, I've done it before, I was just looking for suggestions on where I might get the most "bang for my buck". Also, I refuse to open another credit card account. I don't care what "perks" they offer, the interest you pay is not worth it. I have one card that I will use ONLY in a genuine emergency, otherwise if I can't afford to pay cash, I don't need it that badly.

[Illini_Fan]

To me, the most bang for the buck, is a OW award in business class. If you calculate the cost as (miles spent / ticket cost), I think international trips, especially those with multiple stopovers are the best use of miles. One suggestion with AA, try Cairns, AU and dive the GBR.

[mike_s]

I don't pay interest on any card. You only pay interest if you don't pay your bill in full.

I personally think the FF programs has gotten "top heavy". For example, there was a news article a few years back when Delta was hanging on by a thread that if it wasn't for American Express paying it's fees for purchasing award points that Delta might have gone under.

Now so many people have "hundreds of thousands of miles" that the airlines can't get away with just "giving away a few seats" anymore. It's become such a hassle to use miles, that it's just not worth it. This being said by a person who used to accumulate 200k to 400k in FF miles a year from all the travel I did.

As for credit cards, I've found now that I get a better return on the "cash back" cards that AMEX and others have. I've found that on average I can buy two airline tickets (advance purchase) for the same amount of card purchases that it took to get a basic/limited FF ticket. Or 4 tickets for what a "no limits" FF ticket took to achieve. That and I don't have to spend it on airline tickets. Last year I used it to pay for a liveaboard trip. (then used FF points to fly down to it. )

The cash back option also "protects you" in case the airline goes out of business and your points become worthless overnight. Seeing how I think 3 carriers announced they were haulting flight operations last week, this makes sense now more than ever in some views. (Aloha, ATA and one other airline announed it would quit flying last week).

My best recent use of those "useless FF miles" was that I got a subscription to about 4 magazines, including Sports Illustrated, for about 2500 miles. heh

[Asiadiver]

For the most bang for your miles I would recommend cashing in the AA miles for a trip to the Philippines. I am writing this from the AA lounge in Tokyo right now on my way to Manila. 115K miles gets you to Manila in business class, if you bought it that would cost you over $5K. Once in Manila go straight to Puerto Gallera. Check out the Asian dive sites for full reports. World Class.

[Diver Kat]

Could never save up hundreds of thousands of miles, but did manage to use my Continental One Pass miles to get to Key West this summer. Just took 25,000 miles & $10 per ticket. Worked out great as Key West tickets are pretty pricey, so I think we seriously got our money's worth.