American Airlines

American Airlines’ AAdvantage Loyalty Program offers five different types of mile redemption award rates, but we suggest taking advantage of the most low-priced of these awards, the off-peak MileSAAver.

The off-peak MileSAAver awards allow you to travel for less than the regular MileSAAver number of miles because you book flights for “off” or low season.

AA tickets to Hawaii, for example, would be cheapest (selling at 25,000 miles) roughly during the off-peak period of mid-January to mid-March or late August to mid-December. The MileSAAver equivalent for a round-trip ticket to Hawaii during the summer months, when travel is heaviest, would require a lot more miles (45,000)!

A few things to keep in mind about the Off-Peak MileSAAver: they are valid only on coach; you can use them on any partner airline; they cannot be used to fly within the continental U.S. or Canada. Still, if you are flexible (i.e. willing to book a one-way flight or stay overnight in an airport hub), you can still find terrific awards with the regular MileSAAver, which you can also use on flights on any partner airline. Keep in mind, though, that the MileSAAver awards are capacity-controlled, so it might be difficult to score awards during peak times when seats are packed. Finding seats on a flight is loads easier if you travel off-season, of course.

You can now easily search for award tickets using American’s newest award availability tool, Award Map.

If you must fly in season and want more flexibility with finding seats, try the AAnytime Award rate. You can book any available seat on the flight, but you can use these awards only on American Airlines. Also, these awards usually cost twice the amount of miles as the regular MileSAAver award. So before you pull out the credit card to pay the AAnytime rate for a coach or business class award, we strongly suggest checking the MileSAAver availability for the next highest class of service (business or first class). You might be able to save a few thousand miles this way! Also, if you own a Citi AAdvantage credit card, you can benefit from the Citi AA Reduced Mileage Awards program and fly to select destinations for up to 7,500 fewer AAdvantage miles.

Keep reading for some of the best American Airlines Award Travel opportunities.

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