Travel Advice

24-Hour Cancellation

Booking directly through a major airline, including American Airlines, Delta, and Continental, allows you 24 hours to either cancel your trip at no charge or hold the reservation. In the case of a hold, American claims they reserve the right to change the fare till the ticket has been purchased, but in my experience, they abide by the fare reserved. Once, I totally did a brain fart and booked a trip when the other person would have already been on a business trip. I noticed two hours before the deadline to change and lucked out.

Earning Frequent Flyer Miles

Earn miles for every flight you take. First see if the airline you’re booking with partners with airlines you already have accounts with. I missed out on 10,000 miles once for not noticing that I could have applied my Alitalia trip’s miles to my Delta account. That’s a whole lot of stupid. Next, if the airline is not, apply for a frequent flyer account and enter it when you check in. It may someday merge with another airline and you’ll have combined redemption power.

By the way, you do not earn miles on trips you take using miles. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

With American, you can hold an itinerary for reward miles for five days which is super convenient. They also just recently added a feature where you can book international travel online and clearly see what days carry what mileage requirements, and which flights within those days are eligible.

Note that there is a maximum % or number of passengers on any particular flight that are traveling using their miles. This is why I ended up buying a ticket for my upcoming trip instead of redeeming my precious miles.