AAdvantage Rewards Program
The options for rewards programs are endless it seems. Cash back, frequent flyer miles, hotel points… pick your reward.
Some rewards programs are better than others, as I found out on a recent trip to Europe. I am a member of American Airlines AAdvantage program, which I earn a mile for every dollar I spend on my AAdvantage Citi card. I also earn up to 10 miles per dollar depending on where I eat under the dinning program.
Sounds pretty nice, right? Who would turn down a free ticket on your next vacation?
That’s the catch with the AAdvantage program. Chances are, program seats aren’t available on the flight you want to take, or on the day you want to take your trip. In addition, you might end up with a long layover (overnight) at an intermediate location somewhere between your home and destination.
In preparing for our trip to Greece, I inquired about using miles to get from the States to Europe. We needed to leave on a Wednesday due to vacation days off from work and the time constraints of a wedding we were attending. Unfortunately, the rewards program could only get one of us there, and we’d have to stop overnight in London. Then, we’d have to buy another ticket on the same flights, which would cost more than a ticket straight through to Athens… In addition, if we did buy the individual ticket, there is no guarantee of sitting next to each other.
When I joined the program, you earned miles as a reward for air travel on American Airlines. As the reward, you could redeem your miles for ANY seat on American Airlines per their redemption schedule. There were no blackout dates.
Then they added the dining program, the shopping program (i.e. earn 10 miles per dollar spent on flowers ordered from 1-800-Flowers.com) and all kinds of other ways to earn miles, but forget trying to travel over a holiday or on high demand flights…
On top of it all, the interest rate for the card is astronomical. While it’s not a problem because I pay off the card every month, it’s really no incentive to keep the card if I can’t use the miles when I want to.
Rewards programs have changed over the recent years, turning from rewarding frequent fliers to dishing out miles for just about anything you can use your credit card for. This is no doubt more profitable for the airlines, but does nothing to keep customer loyalty.
I plan on calling the AAdvantage program and redeeming ALL my miles for a trip to Hawaii for my wife and I, and after I cash out the miles, I’ll be looking for a better rewards program.
I’ve heard the Capital One program is good, but I’m open to suggestions.
What rewards program is in your wallet?
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Grant, I've got the Capitol One no hassles card. They don't have any blackout dates, but it does take a lot of miles to go anywhere. I guess that's the price you pay. Interest rates are fairly reasonable too, and there's no annual fee, provided you get the right card. Bryan
Grant- I just booked two trips to Europe, using miles for both trips. On the trip to Germany I used United, had to use 80k per ticket as opposed to 60k per ticket and got the flexibility I needed to fly non-stop into Munich. In booking a trip to Austria with American, I was able to use 60k per ticket, and, because I was flexible on dates and locations, got a good deal. I fly into Heathrow, take a BA flight to Munich, which is a 1.5 hour train ride from Salzberg. Then I fly back from Vienna through Heathrow. The two main points to make are: 1.be as flexible as possible on dates and you can use miles and 2. be flexible as to the cities you fly into and out of. The distances in Europe are short, and European trains are great. Maybe you fly into Istanbul for Greece for example. High interest rates are no problem because if you don't pay off every month, you can switch to low or no interest cards for a number of months. David
Great idea, David. Part of our problem with our trip to Greece was that we weren't too flexible with our schedule. We wanted to maximize the amount of time we had in Greece and Italy, which means we had to limit our layovers.
The train system is definitely the way to go, and the sleeper cars allow a great opportunity to travel and sleep!
Have fun on your trip!
-Grant
I agree – I am an AA member (the largest balance of all the rewards programs I use is with AA). It would be nice if they had a premium ticket that you could redeem for to purchase ANY available ticket on a flight if you didn't have the flexability to grab an available reward ticket. However, I will say I think AA is one of the BETTER airline reward program as far as redemption – I have booked reward tickets several times and can often find a seat (granted all flights were domestic). I hear international are tougher to find. I have tried to redeem on United and Delta multiple times and have never been able to come close to finding a reward ticket I could use.
I like the Capital One card too, but I take the cash back. I really don’t travel much, so it’s nice to get that money back to use on whatever I want.
My neighbors travel quite frequently and they are members of both AAdvantage and Capital One. They use whatever program can get them to their destination the fastest. Nice blog!
Joe
More bad news for all you AAdvantage people. Just found out that the sages at American Airlines are charging $300 each way to give you the opportunity to spend 50,000 miles to upgrade to business class on all fights to Europe. Time to find another airline and another frequent flier program