5 Trip Ideas Using AA Miles at a Great Value

In case you missed my post from last week. the Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard (affiliate link) has an increased sign-up bonus of 75,000American Airlines miles after spending $3500 in the first four months. See my post for all the details. If two adults in a household both get the card, you’ll have over 150,000 AA miles to work with.

I LOVE what I’ve been able to do with my AA miles these past few years. Nowadays, there is no fixed award chart for using miles, and prices in miles are variable. But in my experience, the trick to getting flights for a reasonable amount of miles is to book early. I’ve had great luck booking award seats in Economy on AA. Here are some trip ideas for using those AA miles out of DFW (my search criteria was for 4 award seats). Note: This isn’t about the best possible award redemptions, but the best actual availability I’m seeing right now for families.

Thanksgiving Trip to NYC

New York City is iconic during the holiday season! I’m seeing great Web Special Awards during Thanksgiving week. Flights from DFW to NYC start at 8500 miles each (with one stopover). If you’re flexible with your schedule and you can fly home on Monday, you can snag 8500-mile nonstop flights back to DFW.

Spring Break Trip to Florida

AA is just starting to open its schedule for March 2024. This far out, I’m seeing great award rates to Florida! Historically, flights to Florida over spring break run high. Spending 10,500 miles for a one-way flight to Florida is a great use of those AA miles.

My family has used AA miles to fly to Florida countless times. Disney World, Universal, beaches, cruising…Florida has so much to offer!

Spring Break in Paris, France

AA has good availability in Economy seats to Europe year-round. You can head to Paris, France for 25,000 miles one-way from Dallas during Spring Break!

Winter Break Trip to Tokyo

You can use 35k AA miles to fly on Japan Airlines (AA partner) to Tokyo! I see good availability for 4 people around the Christmas holiday.

Spring Break Down Under

For 35k miles, you can fly in Economy to Sydney, Australia! From there, you can fly to other places in Australia or venture to New Zealand. My family had a blast exploring this region in 2019 using miles.

Tips for Booking AA Award Flights on Miles

• Book early! The earlier you book, the more choices/availability you will have (usually).
• There are limited award seats at these lower prices. The early bird catches the worm.
• Be flexible with your dates! Consider pulling the kids out of school to fly back on a Monday instead of the Saturday/Sunday of spring break.
• If you don’t have enough miles for the entire family for round-trip tickets, think about booking some family members with miles and others with cash.
• If you don’t see award availability from your city, consider driving to a nearby airport or taking a cheap flight to a nearby city to position yourself for a good award flight.