Editor’s word: We’ve up to date this put up with new data. TPG founder Brian Kelly is a Bilt advisor and investor.
Despite being shorter than some home routes, flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America may be costly. In addition to the additional taxes and costs, many airways cost increased award charges for these routes.
But you possibly can typically ebook low cost flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America with American Airlines. Following the steps beneath, you would possibly discover awards to those areas for comparatively few American Airlines miles.
Why it’s particular
American Airlines AAdvantage will quickly supply absolutely dynamic mileage awards and introduce a simplified award chart for journey on its flights. But, for now, you possibly can nonetheless ebook MileSAAver off-peak awards to pick out areas. These awards allow you to save on financial system awards between sure areas throughout choose journey durations.
MileSAAver awards to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America sometimes price 15,000 AAdvantage miles every manner in financial system however can be found for simply 12,500 miles on off-peak dates.
The low cost is utilized mechanically, so you possibly can ebook these awards even in case you don’t have sufficient miles at the usual charges.
There are some terrific locations you possibly can ebook at these discounted charges, together with San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO), Panama City (PTY), Aruba (AUA), Barbados (BGI), Bermuda (BDA), Mexico City (MEX) and Cancun (CUN).
How to ebook this award
Booking an off-peak MileSAAver award isn’t any completely different than every other AAdvantage redemption. However, you could familiarize your self with the off-peak dates to know when to ebook.
The present off-peak dates for the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America are April 21 to May 20 and Sept. 9 to Nov. 18. Keep in thoughts that the autumn dates are throughout peak hurricane season for a few of the locations, so that you’ll wish to pay the taxes and costs with a bank card that comes with journey protections.
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Once you’ve picked your dates, search as you usually would on the American Airlines web site. Enter your route, choose your dates and test off the “Redeem miles” field.
If there’s MileSAAver availability, you’ll mechanically see the decrease charges — no promo code wanted. Just keep in mind that the low cost is just out there for financial system class, not enterprise or first.
If there’s no MileSAAver availability, I like to recommend you utilize the calendar search instrument to test alternate dates. Unfortunately, MileSAAver off-peak awards do require you to fly American Airlines. So, you gained’t have the ability to get these charges in case you join by means of a companion airline like Alaska.
As American Airlines costs awards dynamically, we discovered some dates priced even decrease than the anticipated off-peak MilesSAAver price. If you’re versatile, you might be able to ebook these awards for less than 10,000 miles (plus taxes and costs) every manner.
The draw back of dynamic pricing is that for peak durations, American fees excess of these costs. For instance, we discovered some one-way financial system awards to Costa Rica pricing as excessive as 65,000 miles plus $28.28 in taxes and costs.
After you’ve chosen a flight, you’ll have to log in to your AAdvantage account to finish the reserving. Some of the very best playing cards for paying taxes and costs on award tickets embrace The Platinum Card® from American Express and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Not solely do they earn bonus factors on airfare, however they arrive with journey delay reimbursement — which is very necessary in case you’re touring throughout hurricane season.
Related: Maximizing redemptions with American Airlines AAdvantage
How to earn miles for this award
You would possibly surprise learn how to earn sufficient miles for this award in case you’re not a frequent American Airlines flyer. At first, this may appear difficult since American isn’t a switch companion of American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi ThankYou. However, there are many different methods to earn AAdvantage miles.
Earning American miles with playing cards
Two main transferable currencies companion with American Airlines: Bilt Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy. Bilt Rewards switch to Marriott at a 1:1 ratio, whilst you can switch Marriott factors to American Airlines AAdvantage at a 3:1 switch ratio. To earn Marriott factors, contemplate including the Bilt Mastercard® (see charges and costs) or a Marriott Bonvoy bank card to your pockets.
A probably easier manner of racking up AAdvantage miles can be by selecting up and spending on an American cobranded bank card. In addition to giving your AAdvantage account a pleasant increase, some American Airlines cobranded playing cards present priceless “elite-lite” perks starting from free checked luggage on home itineraries to lounge entry.
Other strategies for incomes American miles
You don’t essentially should get a brand new bank card to earn the miles you want. While sometimes at suboptimal charges, you could possibly additionally switch World of Hyatt factors, IHG One Rewards factors and Choice Privileges factors to American AAdvantage.
Alternatively, you could possibly store on-line by means of the AAdvantage eShopping portal or dine by means of AAdvantage Dining. You may additionally purchase American Airlines miles, however this might typically be extra pricey than shopping for the flight outright.
For extra choices, learn our full information on incomes American Airlines miles.
Related: What is American Airlines elite standing value?
Bottom line
American Airlines AAdvantage will quickly eradicate its MileSAAver and AAnytime awards, going all-in on dynamically priced flight redemptions. But as of publishing, you possibly can nonetheless ebook off-peak MileSAAver awards. And as we famous on this story, you will discover even cheaper pricing on some dates because of dynamic pricing.
For charges and costs of the Bilt Mastercard, click on right here.
For rewards and advantages of the Bilt Mastercard, click on right here.
Additional reporting by Ben Smithson.