Burning AAdvantage Miles on All-Inclusive Resorts.

Posted by Noob Master on Jul 30, 2012 in AAdvantage, American Airlines, Award Booking, Uncategorized | 0 comments

I’ve often mentioned on the blog that my wife and I love burning our AAdvantage miles on trips to 4-5 star all inclusive resorts. It this crazy? Is this a poor use of our hard earned AAdvantage miles? I don’t think so. Here’s why:

• MilesAAver Premium cabin availability has become increasingly harder to find on AA.com (on AA flights and their One World partners). For instance, we are going to Europe in a little over a month during “non peak” season, and when I was looking to book a couple one way MilesAAver business tickets, there was no availability. I even called in and spoke with a rep, and the One World partners had nothing. The agent was only able to find a couple coach options! WTH. Plus, they were on British Airways, which packs a nice fuel surcharge. No gracias.
• We go on a lot of trips where we’re running around from place to place, so it’s always good to go to the beach and do nothing. Well, nothing besides eat, workout, beach time, drink, eat, beach time, drink, and eat. Very nice. Anyway, it’s what we do. And using our AAdvantage miles for beach vacas allows us to save a lot of coin.
• If done properly, you can find some incredible all inclusive deals at some really nice resorts.

Jordan and her Momma in Cancun.

When writing about Jordan’s last app party,  I explained that she was signing up for the Citi AA Business card to replenish our AAdvantage account after burning some on an all inclusive trip. This led to a few emails about how to search for and book these trips.

So if you’re ready for some pina coladas beach side, listen up.

Step 1: Sign In and Click on “Redeem Miles”.

Redeem Miles

Step 2: Click on “Car and Hotel Awards”.

Car and Hotel Awards

Step 3: Log in Again! Mucho Importonta.

This is really really important. After clicking car and hotel awards, another window will open up, and you must log in again with your AAdvantage login and password. If you don’t log in again- you will see higher prices. I don’t know why this is the case, but if you log in first, and then search, the prices are about 25% lower.

Log in Again and then Search

Step 4: Start Searching

For example, I’ve plugged in Cancun, Mexico August 13-17 for this trip. Also, to weed out the hotels and resorts, I click on the the star image which is the “all inclusive” resorts identifier and I move the slider over to only show 4-5 star resorts. Treat yourself.

4-5 Stars only and All Inclusive.

Step 5: Pick Your Resort and Pay

Now you’re ready to look at your options. There are often sales and I have been able to book suites for the price of standard rooms. These rates change daily, so I always do at least a week of obsessive checking. Then I pull the trigger. There are also Trip Advisor reviews connecting to each resort, so you can read what everyone has to say about the resort before taking the plunge.

TIP: You can even use Cash and AAdvantage miles for your stay! I love this feature.

I am usually able to find a killer resort for a little over 15,000 AAdvantage miles a night! That’s great for me, because this includes food and drinks for both me and Jordan. I’ll take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

For our upcoming trip, I was able to snag an all inclusive resort for 4 nights for just over 60,000 AAdvantage miles. Boom.

Epic Dinner with Fam at the Gran Melia, Cancun.

Bottom Line

If you like going to all inclusive resorts, then this can save you some $$$. It also gives you another option for using your AAdvantage miles. I love options and I love beaches.

TIP: Try using British Airways Avios first for you flights to Mexico. I’m able to save some serious AAdvantage miles by using British Airways Avios for American Airline flights. If you don’t have any British Airways Avios miles, you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points from your  Chase Sapphire Preferred^SM Card into Avios at a 1:1 ratio. Everyone has a Sapphire Preferred, right?

Using AAdvantage miles for all inclusive resorts suits our travel needs (or wants) and it’s a trip we look forward to every year. It makes even more sense now that it seems harder to book international tickets with AAdvantage miles. Plus, it’s easy to get AAdvantage miles. Check out deal #4 on the sick deals page.

— Noob Master