How to Fly Domestically for Under 8000 American Miles Each Way

American Airlines has released its new reduced mileage awards through November. This is a list of cities in the US and Canada to which holders of a few specific  American Airlines Citibank credit card holders can book trips at a reduced cost. The list of cities and the cardholders that are eligible can be found on this page: Citi/AAdvantage Reduced Mileage Awards. 

Cardholders of the listed cards receive a 7,500 mile discount on round-trip economy and business class awards, but one-way awards can be booked at half the price. Here’s how it works:

• Only SAAver award space (normally costing 12,500 each way in economy or 25,000 each way in business) can be booked.
• Only American Airlines operated flights are eligible (codeshares don’t count).
• The one-way price for an economy ticket is 8,750 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles.
• The one-way price for a business class ticket is 21,250 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles.
• Certain cardholders receive a 10% rebate up to 10,000 a year when using the miles. This means an economy ticket will cost 7,875 miles each way and a business class ticket will cost 19,125 miles each way.

So if you have a trip you want to plan, here are a few ways you can book the Reduced Mileage Awards on American Airlines.

Fly to a Destination City That is on the List

The list of reduced awards gives you the options for the destinations. So if you want to book a trip to one of the cities on the list, simply find the award space and book. As an example, Salt Lake City is on the list for November. If I book a trip there in November, I can fly economy for 17,500 miles round-trip.

I explain below how to book.

Fly from an Originating City That Is on the List

Giddy for Points has confirmed that the awards will price at the reduced rate if your originating city is on the list. In her example, her home city Houston is always on the list so she can go pretty much anywhere at the reduced miles cost provided she can find award space. Conversely, my city New York is almost never on the list (except for Newark for one month) so I am not quite as luck. Which brings me to my next trick…

Use Hidden City Ticketing to Fly to a City Not On The List

Another way to get to your destination is to fly to a city on the list, but book a route through a city you actually want to fly to. Let’s take an example. Say I want to fly from New York to Los Angeles, neither of which is on the list. I can instead schedule a flight from New York to Salt Lake City, Utah with a connection in Los Angeles. Once I get to Los Angeles, I can just get off the plane there and go and not take the flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.

When doing things this way, you want to book your itinerary as individual one-ways rather than a round-trip. In my example, if I wanted to return from Los Angeles, I would need to book my return flight from Los Angeles separately. Otherwise, once I miss the segment from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, the rest of my trip would be automatically canceled. That is, I can only miss the very last segment of any itinerary.

Of course, this only works if I don’t check any luggage. Otherwise, my luggage would fly to Salt Lake City without me. Another risk is the possibility of irregular operations. That is, if your flight to Los Angeles gets canceled, you may end up being rebooked to your final destination (Salt Lake City) without your much needed Los Angeles connection. Hidden city ticketing may be a good way to save money or miles, but always be aware of the risks and what can go wrong!

How to Book

To book, you must first find award space at the SAAver level. These are the days that appear in Light Green for Economy

Light Blue for Business

Once you’ve found your space, you will need to call Customer Service at 1-800-882-8880 and give the proper award code. It does mention you will need to pay a $35 phone booking fee, but I’d suggest asking the agent nicely and he may waive it considering you could not book these online.

Anyone using reduced mileage awards for fall travel?