Booking AA around Christmas - Fun!!!

MarkD

Level 2 Member
My daughter will be studying abroad next year in Copenhagen so I'm trying to book something now for the family of 4 over the Christmas school holiday for 2015-2016. I'm only worrying about the trip there so far since the AA has not released their inventory for after Christmas yet. I have a question after searching AA...

I am limited to the period of time from Dec. 19th (Sat.) to Jan. 3rd (Sun.) since my sons cannot miss school.

Most of the inventory flows through LHR, LGW, and LCY with HUGE fuel charges. I'm trying to avoid them (me and everyone else in the world). Business class is next to non-existent and we don't have enough miles to fly first class so that leaves economy.

I found inventory in ORD that doesn't go through Great Britain for the economy MileSAAver rate of 20K points per person in economy. We'd have to fly a positioning leg in order to get to ORD from SFO/SMF or I could book SFO-ORD at the AAnytime rate of 45K. If I book the 65K flight of one segment of 45K and the other at 20K, can I downgrade to a MileSAAver flight later from SFO to ORD if it opens up? Will they stitch together two 20K segments and price it that way?

I know that AA allows date changes as long as the origin and destination stay the same. In addition you can upgrade to business or first if you originally book economy with no change fee, but can you downgrade a segment if a lower priced award inventory opens up?

What's the best strategy for booking in this situation?
 

KennyBSAT

Moderator
Staff member
Do you have Southwest points or companion pass(es)? You could position nonstop from SMF to Chicago(Midway), Denver, Las Vegas, or Phoenix and continue from there on an AA award. That's what I would aim to do.

Some rules:

Once Aanytime, always Aanytime.
Once multiple awards, always multiple awards, even if they are all on one multi-city ticket.
Upgrades from Saver coach to Saver business are free in practice, but this is not published.

AA will begin charging booking fees for all awards a la US as part of the merger. I'd be very surprised if they don't also adopt US' award change fees.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
It's a real pain to go from Midway to ORD. There are airports that WN serves that go into the same airports AA flies out of and I'd pick one of those. Don't forget about Iberia. It can be booked with AA miles without the surcharges BA has. The other thing I would suggest is flying one of the smaller low cost airlines to Copenhagen from within Europe. I flew Transavia to Copenhagen and it was very inexpensive. Use skyscanner to look for smaller airline availability.
 

MarkD

Level 2 Member
Do you have Southwest points or companion pass(es)? You could position nonstop from SMF to Chicago(Midway), Denver, Las Vegas, or Phoenix and continue from there on an AA award. That's what I would aim to do.
Thanks Kenny for the feedback!
I have a CP so my wife would fly free but the price for me and my sons is outrageous in either cash or points on WN. There are a lot of options on other airlines here but I haven't yet explored all of them. This is probably the most likely option we have.

Once Aanytime, always Aanytime.
Once multiple awards, always multiple awards, even if they are all on one multi-city ticket.
Sorry, I'm not following. Maybe I can clarify.

In my case A -> B is 45K AAnytime (no SAAver) and B -> C is 20K SAAver where A and B are domestic and C is international. If SAAver opens up for A -> B after I book A -> B -> C for 65K, what options are there with AA? I think you are saying - none other than paying a change fee?

Ideally I could get "lucky" and get A -> B -> C for 20K if the AA award calendar showed availability for both segments, correct? (not likely during Christmas but I digress...)
 
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MarkD

Level 2 Member
It's a real pain to go from Midway to ORD. There are airports that WN serves that go into the same airports AA flies out of and I'd pick one of those. Don't forget about Iberia. It can be booked with AA miles without the surcharges BA has. The other thing I would suggest is flying one of the smaller low cost airlines to Copenhagen from within Europe. I flew Transavia to Copenhagen and it was very inexpensive. Use skyscanner to look for smaller airline availability.
I checked Iberia briefly but didn't see much to MAD. I'll have to revisit it. Great idea about Transavia! We're flying Transavia from AMS to FCO this summer for something like 49 euros one way. If we can just get to one of the big airport hubs in Europe then we will do this for our flight to Copenhagen.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I checked Iberia briefly but didn't see much to MAD. I'll have to revisit it. Great idea about Transavia! We're flying Transavia from AMS to FCO this summer for something like 49 euros one way. If we can just get to one of the big airport hubs in Europe then we will do this for our flight to Copenhagen.
I know they fly Eindhoven to Copenhagen, and Eindhoven is located about an hour and a half drive from AMS.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I checked Iberia briefly but didn't see much to MAD. I'll have to revisit it. Great idea about Transavia! We're flying Transavia from AMS to FCO this summer for something like 49 euros one way. If we can just get to one of the big airport hubs in Europe then we will do this for our flight to Copenhagen.
This will sound convoluted but here is how I got from Madrid to Copenhagen. I used Delta miles to fly KLM to AMS and then drove to Eindhoven and then flew Transavia to Copenhagen.
 

MarkD

Level 2 Member
Great idea about Transavia! We're flying Transavia from AMS to FCO this summer for something like 49 euros one way.
I know they fly Eindhoven to Copenhagen, and Eindhoven is located about an hour and a half drive from AMS.
Whoops! It's actually Easyjet from AMS to FCO. We were looking at AMS - NAP and that is where Transavia has a direct flight. We haven't actually booked our tickets yet so that's a good reminder to check the origination airport for some of the low cost carriers. Since we won't have a car, we'd need to use public transportation to the airport.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
Whoops! It's actually Easyjet from AMS to FCO. We were looking at AMS - NAP and that is where Transavia has a direct flight. We haven't actually booked our tickets yet so that's a good reminder to check the origination airport for some of the low cost carriers. Since we won't have a car, we'd need to use public transportation to the airport.
It's easy to forget how inexpensive the low cost carriers in Europe are. But many of them operate in the less convenient from the center airports of the larger cities. Also, don't forget that the fees add up, especially for several people. Some of these carriers charge for luggage by the weight and many also charge for carry on bags and really limit the size of those to a very light weight as well. We were doing a several week work stint in Eindhoven and went to Copenhagen for the weekend, packed together in one tiny suitcase and brought super small carry ons and weighed them before going to the airport. So we had to pay for one small suitcase extra. If you are traveling all the way from the U.S. and hit one of these carriers as your last leg, you could have some significant baggage fees on top of the low fare, so be aware of that.
 
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