A couple of weeks ago, we saw two incredible mileage sales on American Airlines. The first offered award flights between the U.S. and Australia and New Zealand for just 10,000 miles round-trip. On the next morning, AA sold nonstop flights to Hawaii for 20,000 miles round-trip.
We have been thrilled to hear from many TPG readers who shared with us that they booked these awards. However, readers have also expressed concerns about making further plans for these trips as it was unclear if these award reservations would be honored.
Since rolling out its dynamic award pricing "Economy Web Specials" over the past year, we've seen some pretty amazing deals, such as transcontinental flights for 5,000 miles each way. But, these sales seemed almost too good to be true.
For cash "mistake fares," the U.S. Department of Transportation has a "temporary" policy — since 2015 — that governs flyers' rights and airline responsibilities. If airlines choose to cancel a mistake fare, the airline must reimburse "reasonable, actual and verifiable out-of-pocket expenses that were made in reliance upon the ticket purchase."
Related: Your comprehensive guide to canceled mistake fares
However, it's unclear if or how this policy would be applied to very cheap mileage awards. Thankfully, we won't have to find out the answer to that — at least yet. An American Airlines spokesperson has confirmed the great news that the airline is honoring these awards.
Don't want to miss out on future sales? There are a number of ways to make sure that you don't miss out on the next great deal. The simplest way is to enable push notifications for our @TPG_Alerts Twitter feed. That way you'll be alerted within minutes of TPG posting about a deal. And it's a tool that I've personally used for years to find out about and book a number of great deals.
If you need to restock your AAdvantage miles for future Economy Web Special deals, check out the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, which is offering 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months after opening the card. Business owners can score 65,000 bonus miles through the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® by spending $4,000 on purchases in the first four months of card membership.
The information for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
