Redeeming American Airlines Miles for International Travel

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If you want to use American AAdvantage miles for your next international trip, there are numerous options. Award availability and award rates vary significantly depending on where and when you want to travel, how far in advance you’re planning the trip, the number of travelers and preferred class of service. 

As of early 2025, AAdvantage miles can be extremely valuable in certain circumstances. Advantages (pun intended) of redeeming these miles include:

• The program has published award charts with fixed rates for flights on partner airlines. The generally reasonable (and sometimes excellent) award rates put the AAdvantage program near the top among United States-based airline programs for booking international flights on partner airlines.
• AAdvantage awards can be cancelled without any fees. For travelers who need flexibility to change plans, this policy is better than non-U.S. airline programs that often have change and cancellation fees.
• Dynamic award rates on American Airlines flights can result in low award rates on some flights, particularly for travelers who are flexible with travel dates, routes and specific flights on a given date.

Award Overview and Availability Trends

Let’s start with some basics before delving into details.

The AAdvantage program uses a different award approach for American Airlines flights and partner flights. Region-based award charts with fixed rates apply to partner flights, and award rates for American Airlines flights are dynamic. If a single award contains both American Airlines flights and partner flights, it’s considered a partner award. The dual approach means:

• For American Airlines flights, dynamic pricing results in award availability on most dates, but award rates sometimes are high.
• For partner flights, awards either are available or not available. The airline operating the flight decides whether and how many award seats are available to members of other programs. In recent years, it’s become more common for airlines to provide more award availability to some partners than others. American Airlines sometimes gets the short end of the stick in this scenario.

The AAdvantage program has four categories for awards:

• Main cabin: This is commonly referred to as economy class in the airline industry and is associated with the American Airlines fare class code T. Because planes typically are configured with many more seats in economy cabins, there usually is better award availability in economy.
• Premium economy: Premium economy award space is identified by fare class code X. Because of the variability in premium economy products and lack of availability on some flights and airlines, we’re focusing primarily on economy and business class awards in our analysis. Additional details are:
  • Some airlines or particular planes don’t have premium economy, and even when a plane has premium economy, it might not be available as an AAdvantage award.
  • There is considerable variability in the premium economy product. Compared to economy, premium economy may have the same seats, food and service with a little extra legroom, or premium economy may be a separate cabin with significant upgrades in seating, food and service.
  • The value proposition for premium economy is subjective. For individuals who view premium economy as being closer to economy than to business class, the award rates for premium economy may not seem like a good value. On the other hand, if business class isn’t available or affordable and/or the premium economy benefits are worthwhile to a traveler, it’s a viable option.
• Business / first: American uses this terminology for first class on domestic flights with two cabins and business class on international flights. The associated fare class code is U. For most domestic and short-haul international American Airlines routes, such as between the United States and the Caribbean or Mexico, business / first has recliner-style seats. Long-haul international flights generally have lie-flat seats in business class.
• First: First class applies to three-cabin planes on a few American Airlines domestic routes and the highest class of service on international flights with both a business-and first-class cabin. It’s identified by fare class code Z. Many airlines and planes don’t have a separate first-class cabin, and even when there is a first-class cabin, award availability often is sparse.

Throughout the airline industry, there are some trends about using points and miles for air travel:

• Award rates have increased due to inflation, high travel demand and the proliferation of points and miles. Travelers using AAdvantage miles have been partially sheltered from the full impact, since partner award rates haven’t changed since 2016.
• It’s become more difficult to book highly desirable awards featuring low award rates for travel on aspirational products. Operating airlines have limited the supply of award space. There’s more competition for desirable awards as a result of more travelers with large points and miles balances, high demand for travel and innovations facilitating award search and booking processes.

Partner Award Charts

Let’s look at AAdvantage partner award rates. One-way award rates between the continental United States and Canada and every AAdvantage program region are shown in the table below.

Destination (from the contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada)	Main (off peak*)	Main	Premium economy	Business / first	First
Contiguous 48 U.S. states and Canada	N/A	12,500	22,500	25,000	50,000
Alaska	N/A	15,000	25,000	30,000	55,000
Hawaii	N/A	22,500	50,000	55,000	80,000
Caribbean	N/A	17,500	N/A	27,500	52,500
Mexico	N/A	17,500	N/A	27,500	52,500
Central America	N/A	17,500	N/A	27,500	52,500
South America 1	N/A	20,000	N/A	30,000	55,000
South America 2	N/A	30,000	40,000	57,500	85,000
Europe	22,500	30,000	40,000	57,500	85,000
Middle East	N/A	40,000	62,500	70,000	115,000
Indian Subcontinent	N/A	40,000	62,500	70,000	115,000
Africa	N/A	40,000	65,000	75,000	120,000
Asia Region 1	N/A	35,000	50,000	60,000	80,000
Asia Region 2	N/A	37,500	50,000	70,000	110,000
South Pacific	N/A	40,000	65,000	80,000	110,000

Notes:

* Main cabin off-peak dates apply Jan. 10 to March 14 and Nov. 1 to Dec. 14 and aren’t available for many regions as indicated by “N/A” in the table.

For travel between other regions, such as Europe and Africa, you can find partner award rates by entering the regions you want to travel from and to here. Areas included in each region also are provided on this page.

Analysis Approach

We examined award availability and rates in different regions. We’re combining some American Airlines regions noted above where partner airlines, award rates and/or award availability are similar.

We’re not addressing flights solely within the U.S. and Canada in this analysis because:

• Alaska Airlines is the only partner operating flights in this region that can be booked with AAdvantage miles, and AAdvantage award rates on Alaska Airlines flights often are higher than booking the same routes on American Airlines flights.
• We’ve covered American Airlines dynamic award rates for domestic flights in other articles focused on booking cheap Oneworld domestic awards and using Citi ThankYou Rewards to book American Airlines flights.

The analysis includes:

• Identifying airlines that operate flights between the U.S. and each region and providing additional details that might be helpful for finding awards: Airlines may include American Airlines, partners in the Oneworld alliance and non-alliance partners. Some partnerships are more limited and don’t allow members to redeem AAdvantage miles to book partner flights, so our focus is on partners allowing redemptions.
• Selecting a sample route and looking at award availability for the entire booking calendar: The range used is from our search date in late March 2025 through the last available date American Airlines allows booking—331 days from the search date—in late February 2026. Searches were for one passenger and for business / first and main cabin. First-class awards often aren’t available, but we’ll note situations where we saw first-class award availability.
• Summarizing award availability and award rates for premium cabins and main cabin for sample routes: Summaries generally include two components: the number and percentage of dates with “reasonable” award rates, and the range of award rates for American Airlines flights. Quantifying reasonable award rates is subjective and depends on partner award rates, competitors’ award rates and other factors. We’ll note the rate threshold used in each example. 

The primary tool used is American Airlines award search functionality, which enables users to look at a month of award availability and rates for a specific origin and destination in a calendar view. In our deeper dive into redeeming American Airlines miles to Europe, we demonstrated how to use the award calendar and its filtering capabilities.

Other resources to identify routes and supplement American Airlines award searches include:

• Tools to identify which airlines operate specific routes: Airline websites often have this information, but some airlines don’t distinguish airports to which they operate their own flights and airports they serve only via partner airlines flights as codeshares. Other tools for identifying service to particular airports include airport Wikipedia pages and airport websites. A good starting point covering worldwide airports with a map interface is FlightConnections.
• Third-party search tools: Broader searches may increase the chance of finding award availability or low award rates, and third-party award search tools may be useful. We discussed multiple tools in our guide for searching Oneworld availability and demonstrated using PointsYeah’s discovery functionality in the deep dive into redeeming AAdvantage miles for Europe flights. Another tool that may be useful for finding close-in award availability is Seats.Aero.

We used a more analytical approach—rather than just finding a date with award availability and not providing context about whether award space was widely available or an exception—but the scope of the analysis is too limited to apply findings broadly to award availability. Your award searches won’t mirror our findings because every search is unique. Some caveats and limitations to consider include:

• One route isn’t representative of availability across these broad geographic regions. Differences are expected based on routes and operating airlines.
• Award availability patterns and dynamic award rates can change over time. Given high travel demand, we’ve seen less award availability and higher dynamic award rates recently. If economic conditions or demand for travel to specific destinations change, there could be significant changes in award availability and rates.
• Looking at a full year of award availability at one point in time isn’t representative of doing the same analysis at a different point in time. For example, searching just before a major holiday, the close-in availability might be lower than usual. Additionally, if the end of the booking window is a more (or less) desirable time to visit a particular destination, award availability and/or rates might be worse (or better).

Awards Between the U.S. and Africa

American Airlines doesn’t operate any flights to Africa, and there aren’t any partner airlines with nonstop flights to Africa, based on American Airlines’ region definitions. Royal Air Maroc operates nonstop flights from New York, Washington and Miami to its hub in Casablanca, Morocco. Although geographically Morocco is located in North Africa, American Airlines includes Morocco in the Europe region.

American Airlines partners providing connecting service between the U.S. and Africa include British Airways via London; Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Qatar Airways via Doha, Qatar; Royal Air Maroc flights via Casablanca; and Royal Jordanian via Amman, Jordan.

The lack of American Airlines flights to Africa means that award rates in miles usually will be at partner award chart rates, but taxes and fees vary based on the route and airline. In particular, British Airways flights can have much higher fees, especially in business class.

We looked at award availability from Los Angeles to Cape Town, South Africa. We chose Los Angeles because it’s served by multiple American Airlines partners.

The following example shows award rates on a date that has economy, premium economy and business award availability. These flights are on Qatar Airways, and taxes and fees are low.

An exception to award rates following the partner award chart is shown below. This route includes one of American Airlines premium transcontinental flights that has three cabins, and the segment from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK) is in first class.

Africa is a huge continent, and fixed-rate awards to more distant countries like South Africa can provide good value if awards are available. The Qatar business-class award from Los Angeles to Cape Town discussed above is a great redemption for 75,000 AAdvantage miles.

The lower award rates applicable to flights between the U.S. and Casablanca might be useful if you’re interested in visiting Morocco or can find inexpensive cash flights between Casablanca and other destinations in Africa.

Premium Cabins

We found extremely limited business-class availability between Los Angeles (LAX) and Cape Town (CPT). There were only four dates (about 1%) with award availability during the booking window from late March 2025 until late February 2026. All dates with award availability were for travel within eight days of the search.

Main Cabin

Economy award availability was much better, with 143 dates (approximately 43%) showing availability in the 331-day booking window. While award availability wasn’t evenly distributed, most months had at least 10 dates with award availability.

Awards Between the U.S. and Asia

American Airlines operates nonstop flights between select U.S. airports and Seoul, South Korea; Shanghai; and Tokyo. From Dallas, American Airlines has flights to Seoul (ICN), Shanghai (PVG) and both Tokyo airports. Additionally, American Airlines has flights between Los Angeles (LAX) or New York (JFK) and Tokyo (HND).

American Airlines partners that operate nonstop flights between the U.S. and Asia include Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines.

American Airlines partners that don’t fly to the U.S. but fly within Asia include China Southern and Malaysia Airlines.

American Airlines routing rules for award travel don’t allow travel between the U.S. and Asia via Europe, the Middle East or South Pacific as a single award.

There are two regions within Asia with different award pricing. Asia 1 awards apply only to Japan and Korea and are slightly less expensive.

Due to a combination of Asia’s popularity and less airline capacity post-pandemic, it’s challenging to find award availability to Asia at reasonable award rates, especially in premium cabins. Cathay Pacific is operating a limited number of their pre-pandemic flights between the U.S. and Hong Kong. Overall capacity to mainland China is low.

Japan Airlines is the best partner option for redeeming AAdvantage miles for premium cabin travel to Asia, but availability is limited. Last summer, we examined award availability using AAdvantage miles for Japan Airlines nonstop flights between Los Angeles and both airports in Tokyo and saw no award availability in business class over the entire calendar.

Let’s look at the same route for late March 2025 to late February 2026 travel and add more flexibility by considering nonstop or connecting flights on American Airlines or partner airlines.

Premium Cabins

For business-class awards, there were only three dates in the entire booking window with award rates under 100,000 miles one way. One date in our search window had a flight at 70,000 miles. The other two dates were in February 2026 and had flights for 60,000 miles, as shown below.

All options were for American Airlines flights and involved connections. The next lowest award rate on this route was 113,000 miles. The highest award rate observed was 450,000 miles.

Japan Airlines often makes additional award space, including business and first class, available to partners within 14 days of travel. If you’re searching shortly before your travel dates and are flexible about U.S. departure airports, third-party search tools are useful.

The example below uses Seats.Aero’s free search capabilities, and the criteria selected limit results to flights that can be booked with AAdvantage miles. We selected U.S. airports with Japan Airlines or American Airlines nonstop flights to Tokyo. The search covers availability from the search date and 14 days after.

The awards shown in the business class column with award rates of 60,000 miles are connecting flights. Blue shading indicates flights with connections, while green shading indicates direct flights.

Some direct flights are available in economy on either American Airlines or Japan Airlines. Hovering over the rate shows details.

Main Cabin

For award rates up to 40,000 miles one way in economy, we found 226 dates—about 68% of dates in the booking window—with Los Angeles to Tokyo availability at this rate or fewer miles. The range of observed rates was 35,000 to 105,000 miles.

Awards Between the U.S. and the Caribbean and Mexico

American Airlines has an extensive Caribbean route network and service to multiple destinations in Mexico. Primary U.S. airports for nonstop flights are Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT); Dallas (DFW); and Miami (MIA). Other American Airlines hubs and focus cities also provide nonstop service to the Caribbean and Mexico.

The only partner airline with flights between the 48 U.S. states and the Caribbean or Mexico is Alaska Airlines. The Seattle-based carrier has few Caribbean routes, and its service to Mexico primarily covers routes between western U.S. airports and western Mexico.

British Airways and Cape Air are American Airlines partners that offer limited flights within the Caribbean but don’t fly between the 48 U.S. states and the Caribbean.

Award availability and rates to the Caribbean and Mexico are more similar to U.S. domestic travel than other international regions because:

• American Airlines is the dominant carrier and has a much more extensive network compared to Alaska Airlines or other partners.
• American Airlines’ dynamic award rates on its own flights often are lower than its fixed partner award rates on Alaska Airlines flights, especially in economy.
• On both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, premium cabins usually are like domestic first-class with recliner-style seats.

Let’s look at award availability from Los Angeles to Cancun, Mexico, which is a nonstop route for both airlines.

Aug. 4 is an example of a date with the lowest observed rates in business and economy on American Airlines nonstop flights.

Premium Cabins

Our cutoff for reasonable award rates is the partner award rate of 27,500 miles one way. Award space on American Airlines flights was available at or below this rate on 180 dates, which is about 54% of dates from late March 2025 to late February 2026. The award rate range was 20,000 miles to 95,000 miles.

Main Cabin

Using the one-way partner award rate of 17,500 miles as the threshold, there were 294 dates—about 89% of the calendar—with American Airlines flights available for 17,500 or fewer miles. The award rate range was 8,000 miles to 68,000 miles.

Awards Between the U.S. and Central and South America

Similar to Asia, American Airlines has separate partner award charts for Central America, northern South America (South America 1) and southern South America (South America 2).

• Central America award charts have the same rates as Mexico.
• Northern South America rates are only slightly higher than Central America.
• Southern South America rates align with Europe rates, but there aren’t off-peak economy rates for South America.

Rate alignments among regions make sense given flight distances and aircraft seats.

Routes between the U.S. and Central or South America operated by American Airlines and partner airlines are complementary, without direct competition. American Airlines is the dominant carrier with flights to multiple destinations in Central America and both South America regions. Alaska Airlines operates some routes between the U.S. and Central America, and GOL Airlines operates a few routes between Miami and Orlando, Florida, and several airports in Brazil.

We examined AAdvantage award rates for nonstop and connecting flights to Lima, Peru, in northern South America as part of a deeper dive into using Membership Reward points for American Airlines flights. Results showed significant variation in the lowest available award rates by day for travel in May 2025. On the American Airlines nonstop route from Miami (MIA) to Lima (LIM), business class has recliner-style seats. Overall, the seats and service on this route are comparable to longer domestic flights and/or flights to the Caribbean, Mexico or Central America.

Let’s look at an example of a longer route to southern South America with lie-flat business class seats, such as Dallas to Santiago, Chile. Although American Airlines has a seasonal nonstop flight on this route, we didn’t restrict our search to the nonstop flight because it doesn’t operate all year. Considering connecting flights also simulates the situation that many travelers face when starting at a U.S. airport that only has connecting service to Santiago (SCL) and allows us to see how award rates vary between nonstop and connecting flights.

Premium Cabins

There were nine dates—almost 3% of dates during the late March 2025 to late February 2026 booking window—with business-class awards up to a maximum rate of 100,000 miles. The observed award rate range was 50,000 miles to 350,000 miles. The least expensive business-class award on the schedule was available on June 9.

Awards under 100,000 miles all involved connecting flights, and the least expensive nonstop award required 210,000 miles.

Main Cabin

Economy awards at rates up to 35,000 miles were available on 190 dates, which is about 57% of dates in the booking window. The observed range was 20,000 miles to 117,000 miles.

Awards Between the U.S. and Europe

We recently examined using AAdvantage miles for flights between the U.S. and Europe, so instead of repeating details, we’re summarizing findings here.

American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Iberia operate flights between the U.S. and Europe that can be booked with AAdvantage miles.

Premium Cabins

The percentage of dates with award rates up to 100,000 miles for five routes we analyzed—one nonstop route operated by each airline and a connecting route with American Airlines flights—ranged from 2% to 27%.

The 27% availability rate is an outlier. It’s for a British Airways nonstop flight that has taxes and fees over $700 per direction. It seems apparent—given that the route with the next highest business class award availability rate was 12% and the others were 3% and 5%—that some travelers are avoiding British Airways because of high taxes and fees.

Main Cabin

For the same five routes, award availability (up to a maximum rate of 35,000 miles) ranged from 20% of dates for the British Airways nonstop route to 91% for the American Airlines connecting route. The percentage of dates with partner availability on nonstop flights was 35% on Iberia and 42% on Finnair. For the American Airlines nonstop flight, 64% of dates had awards at or below 35,000 miles.

Considering all routes examined, the British Airways nonstop flight with economy awards available on 20% of dates was the only route where more dates had business-class award availability than economy award availability.

The highest percentage of dates with award availability is on the American Airlines connecting itinerary. It’s not unusual for connecting routes to have better award availability and/or lower redemption rates.

Awards Between the U.S. and the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East

American Airlines operates two nonstop routes to these regions. One route is between New York and New Delhi, and the other route is between Philadelphia and Doha.

American Airlines has partners with nonstop service between the U.S. and the Middle East, and these airlines have connecting service from their home airports to other Middle East and Indian subcontinent destinations. 

Airlines and hubs include Etihad Airways / Abu Dhabi (AUH), Qatar Airways / Doha (DOH) and Royal Jordanian / Amman (AMM). U.S. cities with nonstop service on each airline are:

• Etihad Airways: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington
• Qatar Airways: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington
• Royal Jordanian: Chicago, Detroit, New York and Washington

SriLankan Airlines is another partner that operates flights within these regions and to Europe and Asia.

Travelers seeking luxury experiences may want to travel in Etihad or Qatar premium cabins to aspirational destinations like the Maldives, but we looked at flights from Chicago to Cairo because Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian have service from Chicago to their hubs with connecting flights to Cairo.

Since American Airlines routing rules allow travel between the U.S. and the Middle East or Indian subcontinent via Europe, search results also include awards with transatlantic flights on European partners.

If you’re interested in flying transatlantic on a particular airline, you can begin by searching for nonstop flights from a U.S. gateway to the airline’s hub as a first step (like we did below for Etihad). Once you find a transatlantic flight, you can expand the search to include the specific origin and destinations to align with the transatlantic flight.

A partner award from Chicago (ORD) to Cairo (CAI) with an American Airlines flight as the transatlantic segment was available on April 1, and rates are consistent with the partner award chart.

Premium Cabins

The calendar search for late March 2025 to late February 2026 showed 115 dates (35% of dates) with business-class award availability at the partner award rate of 70,000 miles each way. Further examination of selected dates revealed that many available awards involved transatlantic flights on European partners.

Etihad reportedly restricts partner airlines’ access to business- or first-class awards except within 30 days of travel. We checked for nonstop awards from the U.S. to Abu Dhabi within this window and found elusive first-class award availability five days before travel.

Main Cabin

Partner award availability for economy flights at the rate of 40,000 miles was available on 252 dates, which is 76% of dates during the booking window.

Awards Between the U.S. and the South Pacific

This region includes Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific islands. Australia and New Zealand historically have been among the most challenging destinations for finding premium-cabin award availability. American AAdvantage routing rules further limit options because travelers can’t fly between the U.S. and the South Pacific through another region, such as Asia, on a single award.

American Airlines operates nonstop flights between:

• Dallas or Los Angeles and Auckland, New Zealand
• Dallas and Brisbane, Australia
• Los Angeles and Sydney

American Airlines partners operating flights between the U.S. and the South Pacific include Air Tahiti Nui, Fiji Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qantas. Fiji Airways became a full Oneworld member and joined the AAdvantage program on April 1, 2025. Each airline operates nonstop routes between the U.S. and its main destinations.

• Air Tahiti Nui: The French Polynesian carrier flies between Tahiti, French Polynesia, and Los Angeles or Seattle.
• Fiji Airways: The airline flies between its hub in Nadi, Fiji, and Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Honolulu. Additional routes include Honolulu and Kiritimati, Kiribati, or Apia, Samoa, and Nadi and multiple airports in Australia, New Zealand and other South Pacific islands.
• Hawaiian Airlines: The airline flies between Honolulu (HNL) and Tahiti (PPT), Auckland (AKL) or Sydney (SYD) with less frequent service to other South Pacific islands.
• Qantas: The airline operates flights between multiple South Pacific and U.S. airports and within the region. Key routes serving the U.S. include:
  • Auckland (AKL) and New York (JFK)
  • Auckland (AKL) and Brisbane (BNE), Melbourne (MEL) or Sydney (SYD)
  • Brisbane (BNE) and Los Angeles (LAX)
  • Melbourne (MEL) and Dallas (DFW) or Los Angeles (LAX)
  • Sydney (SYD) and Dallas (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO)

Since there are a variety of nonstop and connecting options on different airlines, let’s look at flights from Dallas to Sydney. June 16 results show the lowest available award rates for business and first cabins and low award rates for economy.

Premium Cabins

The results from this search illustrate good and bad aspects of dynamic award pricing. We found 31 dates (about 9% of dates) between late March 2025 and late February 2026 with business-class award rates up to 120,000 miles. All of these dates were during April 2025 or June 2025, and most or all of the reasonable award rates were on American Airlines flights. The range of award rates was 60,000 to 450,000 miles.

AA 73 from Los Angeles to Sydney has business- and first-class cabins, and awards in first class follow a similar pattern to business class with many dates in April and June having low award rates (starting at 70,000 miles).

Main Cabin

For economy, we found 250 dates (almost 76% of dates) with award availability at rates up to 50,000 miles. The range of award rates was 30,000 to 150,000 miles, with partner awards at 40,000 miles. The lowest dynamic award rates of 30,000 miles were within one week of the search, and other dates required at least 35,000 miles.

When restricting the search to nonstop flights, the availability dropped dramatically, with only 38 dates (about 12%) having award availability. The example below is an economy nonstop award on Qantas.

Final Thoughts

Although it’s not appropriate to extrapolate results from our limited analysis to other searches, some trends observed in these searches and others include:

• Partner award availability in premium cabins: Overall, there’s limited award availability on partner airline flights in business- and first-class cabins, especially for highly coveted airlines. Finding premium-cabin awards requires a combination of planning, persistence, flexibility and luck.
• American Airlines award rates in premium cabins: Award rates on American Airlines flights are highly variable. On most long-haul international routes, the range for business-class awards starts below the partner award rate for that region and increases to many times that rate. The highest rate observed in recent searches is 450,000 miles per direction.
• Award availability in economy: In most cases, economy award availability on American Airlines flights at reasonable rates and on partner flights is much better compared to business class. Although there’s variation by route and date, it’s usually possible to find economy awards on partner airlines or reasonable economy award rates on American Airlines flights.
• Connecting vs. nonstop flights: There often is better award availability and/or lower rates for connecting flights compared to nonstop flights, especially for flights operated by American Airlines.

There are some actions you can take to increase the chance of securing scarce awards, but we understand that some approaches won’t work for certain travelers. For example, starting an award search when schedules open may provide better award availability, but planning almost a year in advance doesn’t work for everyone. Similarly, many travelers can’t wait to book flights within a few days of travel. Flexibility with travel dates and locations isn’t always realistic either.

If you don’t find awards that meet your criteria when you first start searching, some recommended actions are:

• Consider using other points and miles if applicable: For some trips, booking through another program might provide more options and/or better award availability or rates. Many non-U.S. based airline programs open their calendars about a month before American Airlines, and airline loyalty programs often make more award space available to their own program members.
• Check award availability regularly to see if the situation changes: How frequently to check depends on personal factors and timing relative to travel. Between 300 and 331 days before travel, daily checks might be appropriate, since award release patterns vary. Between one month and nine months before travel, less frequent checks should be adequate. Within 30 days of travel, you might want to check daily and increase the frequency to more than once per day within 14 days of travel.
• Check for award availability to or from multiple airports in the U.S. and/or the destination region: If you’re willing to drive to a further airport or book separate positioning flights, considering alternate airports may be helpful in two different situations.
  • With American Airlines flights, you might find better availability or award rates on a connecting route, even if your objective is to travel between two airports with nonstop service. 
  • For partner flights, searching for their nonstop routes might help you find international award availability that’s available on the partner airline’s nonstop flight but unavailable when trying to include connecting American Airlines flights if the required award fare class (usually T or U) isn’t available on American Airlines flights.
• Monitor social media and points and miles resources that reveal when significant amounts of award space are released. This may happen at random times or when new flights are added.
• Set award alerts with a third-party tool, so you can get notifications about updates to award availability on a specific flight or route on your desired travel date.
• Consider booking award flights or paid flights that aren’t exactly what you want as a contingency plan while you keep looking for a better award option. If doing this, consider cancellation and change policies and fees.
• Consider searching for fewer seats than you need for your travel party if you’re open to travelling separately to see if that improves award options.