American Airlines Reducing Award Ticket Holds To 1 Day
- Konrad Tillman
- Apr 30
- 2 min read
Intro
An interesting development has just come across the table, as noted by VFTW, as American Airlines is reducing the amount of time customers can place a hold on an award ticket.
The Details
Previously, American Airlines had one of the kindest award holds for customers who debated whether or not they wanted to book. If you were thinking about flying, but wasn't 100% sure, you could place a hold for up to 5 days on an award ticket.
As it would turn out, American Airlines has decided to cut back on this 5 day hold, and had now decreased it to 24 hours.
In all honesty, this makes a lot of sense, since the aim is not directly at frequent flyers, but more directed towards mileage brokers who would tend to pick up seats as soon as schedules open, and hold them.
What This Means
For most of us that love bookings flights on points, this shouldn't really represent an issue at all. American Airlines doesn't have many transfer partners, so if you want to book the ticket, book it, since you can cancel at anytime and have your miles re-deposited free of charge!
There are obviously more reasons behind this than just mileage brokers ruining it for everyone, but I am pro this change for American Airlines.
Certain passengers will put an award on hold, and end up not canceling or ticketing it
Holding a saver space for 5 days, 15 days out, is just bad for business for American Airlines if it doesn't end up ticketed after that 5 days
So yeah, good on American Airlines...
Final Thoughts
American Airlines has just announced that as of today, April 30th, award tickets can only be held for up to 24 hours, regardless of how far out the itinerary is. Considering the old hold time was 5 days, this represents a large downgrade for those who were using this, but be aware that AA doesn't charge cancellation fees on award tickets (unlike Aeroplan), so there is no harm in booking it and then canceling.
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