American Airline has also partnered with other airlines (outside of the oneworld alliance) such as J

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You can book 1-way awards which gives you terrific flexibility (albeit at the cost of a stopover except at the North American gateway city on international itineraries).  For example, you can fly to Europe using American Airlines miles and fly back using United miles.  And you can redeem American Airlines miles, but fly on American Airline partner airlines.
norwegian cruise lines miami More importantly, you can redeem your American Airline miles for travel not only on American Airlines (this is very important!), but ALSO on Oneworld partner airlines and other (non-Oneworld) partner airlines which have partnered with American Airlines.
The oneworld alliance is a group of 12 airlines (American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian S7) which together fly to over 750 destinations.  Air Berlin, Kingfisher, and Malaysia Airlines are scheduled to become oneworld airlines soon.
American Airline has also partnered with other airlines (outside of the oneworld norwegian cruise lines miami alliance) such as Jet Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.  You can also redeem your American Airline miles for travel on these other partner airlines!
This is a BIG deal (no, it is a huge deal!), because between Oneworld and other partner airlines you can use your American Airline norwegian cruise lines miami miles to fly to places where American Airlines doesn t fly themselves.
Unfortunately, you have to call American norwegian cruise lines miami Airlines ( NOT the partner airline) and pay a $25 telephone booking fee to book most partner airlines, but it is well worth it.  I ll cover how to find award availability on partner airlines in future posts so that you don t have to rely on the phone agent to find the seats you want.
American Airlines doesn t fly its own planes (sometimes referred to as AA metal ) from the US to Thailand, but you CAN redeem American norwegian cruise lines miami Airline miles to fly on Cathay Pacific (a Oneworld partner) from the US to Hong Kong and then connect to another Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok.
You won t be able to search for Cathay Pacific award seats online at AA.com , because you can only search norwegian cruise lines miami for flights on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines online at AA.com .  However, there are plans to make more award bookings via partner airlines available online.
But don t worry!  I ll show you how to find availability on many of American Airlines partners before you call and we ll walk through how to call American Airlines and get the agent to book your $15,000 First Class seat using miles and  only a few hundred dollars in taxes fees.
2.   Anchorage, Alaska.    American Airlines norwegian cruise lines miami has limited service on its own flights to Alaska.  But since Alaska Airlines is an American Airlines partner airline, norwegian cruise lines miami you can use your American Airlines miles to fly on Alaska Airlines routes to Alaska.
For example, American Airlines doesn t fly from Seattle to Anchorage directly. norwegian cruise lines miami You would normally have to fly from Seattle to Dallas and then  from Dallas to Anchorage during the months when American Airlines flies from Dallas to Anchorage.
Do you find it hard to find decent routing out of MCI with AA? I went forward with the AA credit card bonuses and have yet to use them, instead favoring United and Delta to the Caribbean, Central America and Hawaii. norwegian cruise lines miami Only Hawaii had a flight schedule that wasn t an overnight due to the lack of hub usage out of MCI but it s not at a low-level award very often. norwegian cruise lines miami MCI only has ORD and DFW as hubs, so if the destination is served by LAX or MIA, we can t get to the appropriate hub early enough in the morning to catch the flight for that day to our destination and would need to stay the night in an airport hotel, norwegian cruise lines miami taking a day off our trip. Even when we can get the flight through DFW south, those flights are never, and I mean never at the low-level award rate in my experience.
HI, I wonder if it s possible for you to put a print button on your posts so we can keep some of your how to do it blogs for future reference. I m an older guy and tend to lose those things when I try to save them on my computer.
It just makes my day brighter since I have been waiting norwegian cruise lines miami for this series norwegian cruise lines miami Thanks Daraius. norwegian cruise lines miami I am looking forward to I'll show you how to find availability on many of American Airlines' partners before you call
Thank you so much for this post! I m so excited for the next installment! I was able to get 150k miles during norwegian cruise lines miami the last citi aa cards promo using your 2 browser trick! My husband norwegian cruise lines miami and I are planning to go to Europe for our delayed honeymoon this year and this will be very helpful!
@JR I find it pretty easy to get award seats from Kansas norwegian cruise lines miami City to Chicago, but I have to look for only 2 seats at a time. AA has 7 flights to Chicago and 8 flights daily to Dallas , so I m almost always able to get seats to those hubs. But you re right it is much harder if the AA flight leaves from Los Angeles or Miami. AA miles are great (in my experience) for flights to South America, to Europe either on AA or BA (fuel surcharges on BA), to Asia via Cathay or Japan Airlines. You may need to overnight, but AA miles can be used from Kansas City. I agree that Delta and United do have much better options from Kansas City to the destinations you suggested!
@allen Sorry about that. I love to print out articles too! This isn t intuitive, but if you click the orange share button at the start of each post, you ll see a printer icon which will print the post. I don t know how to make a printer icon appear, but am hoping that readers can help!
You can also find a ton of detailed information on using aadvantage miles in this article norwegian cruise lines miami by Ben of OneMileataTime on travelsort. You can find links to more excellent articles on the Booking Tips page of frequentflyerpost.
I m not very familiar with AA miles but like many picked up a bunch with the credit cards. I currently have 215K miles. Usually I prefer trips to central Europe (Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, etc.). I got an email recently where I can buy AA miles and get bonus miles. Normally I wouldn t buy any but if for a few hundred dollars I can bump myself up from business to first class it would be worth it. So am I reading the award chart correctly and that 125K miles would get first class R/T ticket per person?
norwegian cruise lines miami Since we re technically on the topic of AA, I have a quick question. I just did the two browser AA trick and got two AA cards. They come with club passes if I make a purchase norwegian cruise lines miami from AA. Are the club passes just for me or could I give one to a friend. Also, what s the cheapest thing I can buy from them to get the passes? norwegian cruise lines miami Thanks norwegian cruise lines miami so much. Love this site.
@John I just got my lounge norwegian cruise lines miami passes with the business card and they don t have my name or AA number printed on them so anyone could use them. I don t believe that you have to buy anything norwegian cruise lines miami to get the lounge passes, but do have to make a small American Airlines purchase to get the $150 statement credit.
norwegian cruise lines miami I do believe you can build in one stopover on a one-way AA award ticket. I ve done it flying from Hong Kong back to the East Coast with a stopover in Vancouver. Although the agent specified that the stopover had to be in a North American gateway city.
Although I do have one question for you, if you book in the (I) or international business class can you be assigned first class on the domestic leg without an increase in overall miles cost? For example, a 55,000 mile cost for a one way from Asia back to a US city in business class.
@Charles You re right about the stopover at the North American gateway city. I ve updated the post to be clearer about that.. If you redeem for an international business class itinerary, you can sit in First Class on the domestic legs.
What a great article thanks for posting. I have 180k AA miles and just purchased 4 coach tickets on Jet Airways to India (very low price and went with purchase instead of redeeming miles). Now after purchasing the tickets, I am wondering if it would be possible to use those AA miles to upgrade the tickets to Business or First. norwegian cruise lines miami Would it even be worth it or just save the miles for something else? Also, do you know if I could use the free AA lounge passes in EWR or BOM during my trip? I had forgotten about the $150 statement credit what s a good way to buy some small item from American Airlines? I look forward to the next article.
norwegian cruise lines miami Actually norwegian cruise lines miami I was asking if it made sense to purchase AA miles to increase my balance from 216K to 250K in order to get two 1st class tickets vs. only being able to get two business class tickets (since I only have 216K miles).
norwegian cruise lines miami AA sent me an email where I can buy 40K miles and get an extra 12.5K miles. Not a great deal but for ~$400 I would be able to get two first class tickets vs. two business tickets. norwegian cruise lines miami That is probably worth the $400.
@Ned Unfortunately, you can t use AA miles to upgrade flights on Jet Airways. You can use your free lounge passes wherever there is an Admiral s Club lounge. norwegian cruise lines miami There is a lounge in Newark, but not in Mumbai. I bought a gift card from AA online, but still haven t received my statement norwegian cruise lines miami credit.
@rich (arizona) Buying miles to top off for an award makes sense, but not otherwise (unless you regularly buy business or first class tickets). Also note that you will have to pay high fees if you redeem AA miles for travel to Europe via British Airways. I usually check to see that there is award availability before buying miles, but $400 to get First Class seats over business class seats may be worth it!
Thanks Daraius for another great post. I am new to this. I was able to earn 150K AA in 2011 (thx to you!) now I am trying to figure out how to spend them. I live in Honolulu (HNL) and I want to travel to Asia (exampe: japan, HKG) and Europe (2 separate trips) how can I book it so I