Too often overlooked (or forgotten) are the reduced milage awards if one has a Citi AA credit card…….17,500 or 20,000 RT depending on the card type.

For those interested in HHonors points, not only is the 50K Citi HHonors card churnable but – like the 75K Citi AA cards) you can get two at a time.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1219687-50-000-citi-hilton-hhonors-visa-13.html

While many people denigrate HHonors points, I have found them reasonably useful and if you apply for two cards at once they merge the credit pulls.  So for four credit pulls a year you can score 400K+ HHonors points.

John E. (DCA)

Ike,

I had been wondering if the Citi HHonors cards were churnable like that. Thank you for posting the link to FT.
 

The ability to book Cars & Hotels with AA miles – while most find this to be a bad redemption choice, with status the rates are competitive, and last year, with the surplus of 75K and 100K offers for AA credit cards, this was ver useful for my family.

Admirals Club 30-day passes for $99 are a good deal that are often overlooked. These can be valuable if you are doing a lot of travel in a 30-day period and you don’t have lounge access through credit cards or airline status (like me!). And, they have all the same benefits of the annual membership. 

http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/airportAmenities/AdmiralsPasses.jsp#30-day-pass 

Ryan H. (LIT)

There’s now a Boston-Tokyo non stop flight on a 787 (oooo) with Japan Airlines.  Not only that, but you get double miles with AA on the route!

Jeffrey D (BOS)

For those who do not have a specific destination in mind, using the AAdvantage Hot Spots which require fewer miles is a great way to go.  Combine with the fact that AA allows one way awards and you can end up seeing a couple of different places.  For example, 12.5K to Seattle, take the Amtrak to Vancouver, 12.5 from Vancouver back to home.

BA’s avios points have some good redemption values when flying on AA. I am currently looking at a trip to Hawaii from LAX next winter. We will fly there using BA points (12.5k pp) and then fly to Europe in the Spring using the stop over feature of AA (40k pp rt). So for less than the trip of a regular trip to Europe I am getting a trip to Hawaii for free!

Dustin G 
LAX

Redeeming mileage awards to South America is a great deal in the spring as there are often MileSAAver Off-Peak awards available Mar 1 – May 31. Availability is often quite good as well even within weeks or months of the trip.

For returning flights from Europe to US on AA, ensure that the flight does not originate in London. We were originally planning to fly London to SFO, but instead originated in Rome, with a connection in London. Saves some money on the luxury tax.
Carol K, SJC

Redeeming miles for hotel reservations as an Elite member reduces the number of miles needed by almost half! Even better is the miles + cash option.
PS (EYW)

Sergey L,

Bonus miles for new AA route MIA-BCN (depending on fare, 5K-20K):

http://www.aa.com/viewPromotionDetails.do?fN=MIABCN.xml&locale=en_US&fromRSS=true

Having trouble
finding availability this summer for an American Airlines domestic award at the
Economy MileSAAver level?  Try booking at
the Business/First MileSAAver level instead, which may have better availability,
and use British Airways Avios to save miles/points.

This takes advantage
of the relatively low points required for Avios distance based awards (and no
fuel surcharges for US domestic awards).   Consider using points transferred from
American Express Membership Rewards to Avios currently with a 50% bonus (until
May 31). 

Sample roundtrip in
August:  Chicago to San Diego.  

Booked with American
Airlines: Economy 25K miles (not available); 
Business/First  50K miles (available).

Booked with British
Airways:  Business/First  40K Avios points (or just 27K MR points transferred to Avios).  Note: You may need to call in to British
Airways to book this award since their website often does not show partner
availability correctly (if it is available on the AA website it should be
available using Avios).
 

Love the off-peak awards to Hawaii for 37,500 each.  Hard to beat that deal. 

AA’s Oneworld Awards can take some time to book, but your efforts are rewarded with stopovers and distance based cost.  They can provide huge value.

Elite members can redeem AA miles for hotels at really great rates, and these can also be booked for other people. I just booked 2 rooms for my parents and sisters for an overnight layover in NYC this summer!

LA – ORD bonuses!

Love the off peak to Europe for 20k

If your NCAA basketball team just recently made the Final Four you can find yourself scrambling to get there. Flights are going for as much as $1700 out of Louisville and Lexington to get to MSY for the games. I would much rather use 25,000 AA miles than pay $1,700 for a coach ticket. I was able to find availability going down and coming back by leaving a day early and coming back a couple extra days later. 

Only 40,000 miles roundtrip for a MileSAAver Off-peak coach ticket to Brazil. Amazing food, scenery, and people for a really low redemption price. Enjoy!