Tips for using a lifetime of FF miles as cheaply as possible?

dunroving · 13 December 2018 at 6:43PM

I have about 180k of FF miles with American.

They expire in 2 weeks. I live in Birmingham (West Midlands, not Alabama!)

I have various ideas for using them, but the #1 idea is to pay for a roundtrip flight for two dear friends who live in San Diego.

Because I have never used my FF miles before, I didn't realise that all taxes for the associated flight must be paid for.

My main question is: What factors mainly determine how much the taxes are? I'm finding no pattern. I thought it might be affected by one or more of (a) number of flight segments, (b) time of year, (c) flight involves an affiliate airline, or (d) countries passed through (I recall reading that UK airport taxes are very high, for example).

Having now run various routs from/to San Diego and Europe, and then other simpler routs (e.g., New York to London), I just don't understand. One example: taxes seem much higher for flights from San Diego to Italy (various airports) than for San Diego to Greece. Th difference is something in the order of £225 for the Greece trip (roundtrip to Athens) and £590 for Italy (roundtrip to Rome). A flight to Rome and back from Venice had taxes of £900. All of these routes involve changing flights in the UK. A direct roundtrip from Heathrow to New York had even higher taxes!

I'm bamboozled. I'm tempted to just pay $100 to add 2k miles to my account, just to keep the miles active and give me time to think this through further. FYI, I've been trying to arrange this for a while, I didn't just start today!

Caz3121 · 13 December 2018 at 6:51PM

taxes and fees can vary by airline as well as route. There are government taxes, airport taxes and carrier surcharges and fees that can add up to a significant amount - if you were looking at long haul economy flights...don't - poor use of miles and you will 'save' very little as the majority of the fare will be taxes and fees
Have a look at ITMatrix, when you search you can see a breakdown of the taxes payable for that airline/route

dunroving · 13 December 2018 at 7:23PM

Caz3121 wrote: »

taxes and fees can vary by airline as well as route. There are government taxes, airport taxes and carrier surcharges and fees that can add up to a significant amount - if you were looking at long haul economy flights...don't - poor use of miles and you will 'save' very little as the majority of the fare will be taxes and fees
Have a look at ITMatrix, when you search you can see a breakdown of the taxes payable for that airline/route

Thanks for the tip, I'll check out that site. Couple of things I also noticed:

When I looked at short-haul flights, the taxes when using FF miles were greater than total ticket price (different airlines) when I just searched Lastminute.com for regular flights (i.e., total flight cost less than the taxes with FF miles). In other words, if I just searched for a flight from A to B, it was cheaper than flying from A to B using FF miles!

When I searched American's site for flights, it seemed to give me different routes when I ticked the "use frequent flyer miles" box than when I didn't - which makes me wonder whether they reserve the routes with lower taxes for regular customers not using FF miles - because it gives a lower/more attractive total flight cost.

k3lvc · 13 December 2018 at 7:34PM

Head over to https://www.flyertalk.com - loads of knowledgeable folks on there that can help you. There may be a way of transferring them to another loyalty scheme and use them more efficiently in that way

londoninvestor · 13 December 2018 at 7:47PM

dunroving wrote: »

I'm bamboozled. I'm tempted to just pay $100 to add 2k miles to my account, just to keep the miles active and give me time to think this through further.

You could also consider donating a few miles to charity to keep the rest of your balance active?

blindman · 13 December 2018 at 8:02PM

k3lvc wrote: »

Head over to www.flyertalk.com - loads of knowledgeable folks on there that can help you. There may be a way of transferring them to another loyalty scheme and use them more efficiently in that way

No, there is not:cool:

dunroving wrote: »

I have about 180k of FF miles with American.

They expire in 2 weeks.
I'm bamboozled. I'm tempted to just pay $100 to add 2k miles to my account, just to keep the miles active and give me time to think this through further. FYI, I've been trying to arrange this for a while, I didn't just start today!

Not the cheapest way to extend their life:eek: but in your circumstances maybe worth while whislt you investigate your best options.

As you have found out spending FF miles can be a black art.

Best value is business class fights.

With some research and planning there are soe good routes out there with Aadvantage

I'm flying (one way) PPT-AKL-MEL for 30K miles + £41 "taxes" in March. Bargain!

You can spend them on other airlines, such as Qatar, Air Tahiti spring to mind as the more exotic.

This BLOG may be a good read for you.

stevie11 · 14 December 2018 at 2:55AM

If you carry out some dummy bookings on AA.com using miles then play around with routes. I have found code sharing flights with BA into London often adds to higher taxes. Or fly into a regional airport soley on AA metal to avoid higher fees, although that may not be convenient.

Another note, I have found the difference in fare and taxes often minimul if a sale fare is available, so why waste points. Another option is sign up for Award Wallet. This allows you to extend your points just by making a comment on recent travel deal. I use it keep all my family members Advantage points active without having to fly. It allows you to enter numerous FF schemes.

A good point made above would be to use your points for a business class ticket. I have a similar number of AA points as you but in no hurry to use them but for around that amount I have played around with bookings and can get Businees class to a choice of many destinations that AA or Oneworld with a few exceptions.

Good luck

genetic · 14 December 2018 at 9:28AM

Sign up to awardwallet.com and add your Aadvantage account. Write a comment on their blog and get 5 Aadvantage (American Airlines) miles to extend the validity of all of your miles for a year (or maybe a year and a half). Then you don't have to make the decision in the next 2 weeks and can actually get the best use of your points.

steve1500 · 14 December 2018 at 3:17PM

How about using them for BA flights within Europe not sure if you would get the RFS rate of £35

We used 30k of Avios to fly AA from Miami to Barbados next year & £15 in fees

dunroving · 14 December 2018 at 5:25PM

genetic wrote: »

Sign up to awardwallet.com and add your Aadvantage account. Write a comment on their blog and get 5 Aadvantage (American Airlines) miles to extend the validity of all of your miles for a year (or maybe a year and a half). Then you don't have to make the decision in the next 2 weeks and can actually get the best use of your points.

This sounded almost too good to be true but I just signed up and left a comment - I'll let you know what happens! If it works out as you've said (and as per their site), I'll be over the moon.

dunroving · 17 December 2018 at 10:15AM

genetic wrote: »

Sign up to awardwallet.com and add your Aadvantage account. Write a comment on their blog and get 5 Aadvantage (American Airlines) miles to extend the validity of all of your miles for a year (or maybe a year and a half). Then you don't have to make the decision in the next 2 weeks and can actually get the best use of your points.

This worked - thank you! +5 miles and +1.4 years! Phew!

Tips for using a lifetime of FF miles as cheaply as possible?

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