Maximizing American Airlines Off Peak MileSaaver Awards

I have booked enough awards for people using all types of miles but seem to find myself coming back to recommending American Airlines Off Peak Milesaaver awards over and over again. As a reminder, Off Peak Milesaaver awards are the lowest level awards from the American Airlines AAdvantage program and off peak only applies to economy class awards. Unfortunately, there are no off peak business/first class redemptions.

Economy off peak Milesaaver awards apply to destinations in Hawaii, Europe, South America, and Asia1 (Japan, Korea, Mongolia). And to maximize the benefits of these off peak awards (namely the lower mileage required), one should combine two trips with a stopover in their home airport. For example, I recently booked a flight for two adults from Boston to Maui (BOS-LAX-OGG). The outbound flight was 17,500 miles per passenger and a whopping $5 in taxes. After explaining the stopover benefit, we ended up building in a stopover at their home airport on the return and then had them continue to Madrid for only 2,500 more miles, plus the applicable taxes. So, for 20,000 miles each, this couple traveled from Maui to Boston (via LAX), stopped over for 6 months, and then continued to Madrid on Iberia Airlines. The taxes for this portion of the trip were higher given the taxes and surcharges involved with traveling to Europe on Iberia, but they were cheaper than what they would have been had they flown British Airways through London Heathrow. In the end, they had a roundtrip from Boston to Maui with an additional flight from Boston to Madrid for 37,500 miles plus taxes. If they hadn’t traveled during the off peak period, a simple roundtrip from Boston to Maui would have been 40,000 miles.

There are a couple of things to note here. A key to making this work is being lucky enough to live at or near a North American Gateway. This is the term utilized by American in defining where stopovers on awards can take place. That means, when leaving North America, the only place you can stopover is in the last city you touch before heading overseas. Given that American is partners with LAN, Iberia, British Airways, Air Berlin, Japan Airlines, etc. there are a variety of North American gateways throughout the country. Even if you don’t live at a North American gateway, given that this is such a great deal when combining two trips, it may be worthwhile to pay for a short flight from your home airport to a North American gateway city in order to maximize your miles.

Also, check the award chart for the off peak season dates for your final destination. In the above example, I would check the off peak dates for Europe, but would check the dates when the first leg of the flight occurs. So, if someone traveled from Maui to Boston in February and then Boston to Madrid in August, the date utilized by the computer pricing the award would be February, not August, and February is considered “off peak” to Europe. I have had issues in the past when booking over the phone (which is mandatory when booking Iberia flights as you can’t book them on aa.com) with agents stating that the award is not “off peak.” I have simply thanked them for their assistance, asked them to put the award on hold while I contemplated it, and then called back to ticket at a later date. This process resulted in booking the award at the off peak mileage rate.

Some of you may be wondering how they got home from Madrid. Given that they live in Boston and it’s only 12,500 British Avios to fly from Dublin to Boston in economy (25,000 in business), this was a no-brainer. They paid for a flight from Madrid to Dublin and then they redeemed Avios for their return to Boston. Utilizing Avios on short haul flights is a great way to supplement other mileage redemptions. In the end, they were able to book two fantastic vacations without excessively depleating their limited mileage balances!

One last thing I’d like to emphasize is that this only works for economy class with American Airlines miles. If business or first class is preferred (and for many it is given that overseas flights can be lengthy), I’d recommend utilizing a similar procedure with United Airlines miles. There are no restrictions on class of service by maximizing stopovers with United (and no North American gateways to deal with either).  But maximizing stopovers with United can be less lucrative (or more so depending on your objective) in terms of mileage saved. The process with United is a little more complicated but a topic I hope to address in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions, just ask!