I am curious if it this is just happening for me, or if others that are trying to use AA FF miles to get to Bonaire now see the minimum mile redemption at 60K miles?

It seems that after about September of this year, that all the 30Kmiles FF tickets are gone, replaced by 60Kmiles. Anyone else experiencing the same situation when trying to redeem miles on AA.com?

Thanks,
Barton

Welcome to another AA "change". I think the new mileage levels can be found at the link below:

http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/urls/awardChanges.jsp

Unless you're doing business class, though, I can't see how it's coming out to 60K miles. Should be 25,000, 35,000, or 70,000 depending on availability/season. You may want to contact AA directly and see what the discrepancy is.

Jake

I had the same thing happen when I was working on a trip for this fall a couple of months ago. In my case, the day would go to 60K when the 30K seats were gone - at least that is what it looked like. Again in my case, there were a few 30K days left and the rest were 60K. I had checked the week before and all those days were 30K (except for the weekends).

So - that is a guess, but . . .

Bea

AA is horrible

Jake, thanks for the pointer to the AA awards chart - I should have known to look there first...

Good to know that "in theory" the change for economy was only from 30K to 35K miles. What I was seeing last night was that no economy seats were available from about October until Feb but you could use 60K business to get to Bonaire. I wonder if the reality will be that they will just never have any economy seats available... I know, I'm being cynical.

4 of us just booked Sept 23 for 25K each. It all depends on the time of year and how much they have sold.

Barton,

Keep in mind that they also had to get 7 flights a week's worth of folks onto 3 flights a week (with some drop-outs or changes to alternate routings, of course), so a lot of otherwise potentially empty seats are not empty any more.

Jake

Hi Jake,

Understood. Did a quick look this morning and three days at 35K showed up in early December - guess one just needs to keep trying...

Just keep checking, it changes daily sometimes. It takes some work but for the last 4 years I have been able to get 4 or 5 tickets with our miles for the month of FEB, including this FEB. I think it also helps if you can book early, the 30 K seats go fast. Once they are out of the 30K seats they bump it up to 60K

Good Luck

If you can find a seat NOW it is at old redemption rates, after a certain date(go to aa.com to see new chart)it will go to a 3 tier rate off peak, peak, and aanytime. Of course the bulk of us go during what they say is peak which will be 45K miles now. so sad

Ron,
You might want to check the AA chart again...45K miles are required to go to Hawaii...35K to go to Bonaire

thanks steve you're right! I stand corrected.

Greetings folks.
I've been out of the loop a little lately, not paying attention to the postings.

Has AA changed their schedule into BON? The last few times I've gone, I've gone DFW/SJU/BON. I just tried to look at flights for the end of Sept and the website kept coming up with no flights available into BON from SJU.

I've almost given up using AA miles because of the new restrictions. It seems that they only offer multiple stopover flights for the 30,000. To get any kind of reasonable flight takes 90,000 to 120,000 now.
My retaliation is to use my AMEX card and then use their "pay with points" option. AMEX will purchase the ticket for you, and deduct the miles accordingly. My last trip was $661.00 so I used AMEX points 66,100.
I guess with the airlines being in financial trouble, they have realized the frequent flier programs present a huge liability for untapped free flights. Maybe I'll just use up all of my points on a ticket from Dallas to Austin, then quit flying completely. Or, find a way to get to Bonaire one-way....and just stay. :-)

Jan:
Effective 9/3/08, AA/AE to BON on Tues, Thurs & Sat...with return flights on Wed, Fri, Sun.
Until 10/08, the FF needed would be 30K, after that date the FF miles need would be 35K.

Hope this info helps

Chris

Chris,
Thanks. No wonder I couldn't find anything. I'll try adjusting my schedule.
Jan