AAdvantage Car and Hotel Awards

American Airlines AAdvantage Car and Hotel Awards offer some very high redemption values for hotels. Many hotels give more than 2 cents per mile in redemption value with $300 per night hotels costing fewer than 15,000 miles.

Perhaps even a better deal is the option for Cash & Miles. Many of these options reduce the hotel rate by over $100 per night for just 1,000 miles. That is 10 cents per mile redemption value.

There is even a special limited time offer discount miles rate for AAdvantage elites.

Here is a sample award value:

Park Hyatt Washington, D.C. - Wed, Feb 16, 2011
Published rate = $549; Total rate after tax = $628.61

AAdvantage Hotel Award = 24,100 miles (2.6 cents/mile)
AAdvantage Cash & Miles Hotel Award = 4,000 miles + $245.12 (9.6 cents/mile)
AAdvantage Cash & Miles Hotel Award = 1,000 miles + $281.71 (34.7 cents/mile)

I found similar values for high-end hotels in San Francisco.

Not high end, but I used AA miles for two rooms for three nights each in an Irish chain hotel in Dublin, Ireland, with breakfast, later this month, and thought it was an excellent value. I could have paid $423 on the hotel's own web site or give up 24,400 miles. It's a property I have stayed at before and they have great winter rates, even during the week.

I have used AAdvantage to book hotel rooms during New Year's Eve in Melbourne, Australia. It's totally worth it, given the price hike during this time.

Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it isn't. I checked a hotel in New York for two weekend nights. I could book it on their website for $220 per night, $440 for the stay. AA wanted to charge me 48,000 miles with the 20% discount for EXPs. If I reduced it to 1000 miles, the cash portion was $675. You have to check different ways to see what comes up least expensive.

That 20% EXP discount is one thing not to overlook (had forgot all about that). I originally searched without logging in, and once I did log in clearly saw the discount. I wonder if this is something just to start off there or whether the EXP discount will stay in place for months/years to come.

They are calling it an introductory discount, so I'm thinking it will only last a few months.

Any AA car deals better than just going to the rental agencies?

You wouldn't be able to redeem AA miles for car rentals if you go directly through the agencies in question, so I'm not sure what that would entail. That said, AA do offer Bonus Offers that may interest you, although those are for paid rentals not redemption awards. Hope this helps!

The main thing that has me hesitating is the award loss if neccessary to cancel. No redeposit feature.
I have searched for hotels in Budapest, Rome and Florence for an upcoming trip this spring and have some value deals llined up but will not book until closer to departure. If the mileage price goes up there are always plenty of "Last Minute" sites

With some European hotels (not necessarily super-luxury places) places charging upwards of USD 40 for breakfast, the inclusion of breakfast in many of the rates is not to be ignored when calculating total value-for-miles.

While it is more convenient to eat in the hotel, I would walk down the street for breakfast rather than pay $40.

I have checked a few for our April/May trip in Spain and France. They are just slightly cheaper than what I can find in either Expedia or Booking.com. However the no refund feature really makes me hesitate to book because our trip is still a work in progress - I have already had to make changes to the originally thought/planned itinerary thanks to the Holy Week in Spain and particularly in Andalucia. Basque country gave me a headache when I try to figure out the transportation logistics and then the rental car cost is outrageous at close to 100 euro per day! versus we can rent in France at 1/3 of the cost. So now we would fly from MAD to TLS and pick up our car there...

With such constantly changing / modifying of plan as we are finalizing the trip, I cannot use AA miles to book.

I would wait to book your hotel until you have your airfare booked. Hotels are usually much easier. If you are staying in a major city, Priceline's name-your-own-price can be attractive.

Does anybody know if we earn hotel FF points on hotels booked through this feature? I'm thinking probably not, but haven't done this yet so I don't have any experience to report.

I dont believe we would earn hotel points. Virtually all hotel chains require you to book directly with them to earn points because unlike airline tickets, the 3rd party sites almost always cheaper than book directly, this includes booking through Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and a myriad of other booking sites such as Easyclick, booking.com (a lot of options for foreign locations), Venere (good for Europe), etc etc and a doz or more specialized in Pacific region.

I have found that booking directly with hotel chains only are worthwhile when they are running stay 2 earn 1 free night that type of promo. Otherwise it is almost universally cheaper to book with 3rd party even you dont earn points. Some chains would still honor elite benefits when booked with 3rd party. HHonor comes to mind. Priority Club would honor late check-out and occasional upgrades. Not sure about Starwood and Marriott.

I am about to burn some orphan Skymiles to book at the Sofitel London Heathrow (I'll pay the cash difference) - I'll present my Accor A-Club card to see whether the stay receives any points.

I think that SPG only gives points on incidental spend (no points for the room, no stay credit towards elite status, and no elite benefits (room upgrades, free internet, etc). Hyatt, although they also do not give room points or stay credit, do honor elite benefits, including the waived charge for internet and the arrival amenity and breakfast for top-tier Diamond members.

I would urge you to check the sniqueaway/jetsetter/voyageprivy sites for great deals instead of relying on the old standbye(s).

Ric... Thanks for the tip!

Now for the execution... family vacation in Mexico. In one of the many date combinations I've entered, I came accross some hotels (Azuls) that we have been considering. When I browse the destination and then click the link to view the hotels in the area, they are not listed....??

I would prefer to start with a specific hotel and then check date/flight pricing, can this be done without calling AA?

I've found some use in this aspect of redeeming miles, especially as the value is better for EXPs (and maybe PLTs?) than it is for other AA customers (i.e., GLDs and regular members at least). However, given some problems with same-day bookings, I also have ended up finding that some properties that seemed to present great redemption value on the face (before the same-day online booking lock-outs hit me) were available at great prices (using regular money) via other channels (including some that would provide me with hotel points/stay credit/etc).

"Best rate guarantee" kind of stays do quite regularly qualify for hotel points/stay credit/etc, and I've found more than a few instances where when there is a seemingly great deal using miles for the hotel, then there is also a great BRG type opportunity as well.

Hyatt and Marriott honor elite benefits on these bookings as they do with "opaque" PCLN and Hotwire bookings as well) and are the best of the large global brands in granting elite benefits on all stays. With other brands booked via this channel or a variety of other booking channels, getting the benefits is more of a gamble. Getting point/stay credit is a gamble across all of the brands, but with some brands incidentals will post if pursuing the matter diligently.

Follow-up: The Sofitel did indeed grant points and stay credit for my stay. When I booked the hotel on the Delta Marketplace site, there was a box for "special comment", so I put my A-Club number in there. When I checked in, the desk clerk noted that the A-Club number was already in the system.

It will be interesting to see whether other chains follow suit,

I've just looked into this yesterday. AA works with a company called ezRez for their non-air redemption options. They are the same guys UA and DL are also using, although the value-per-mile rate on AA seems to be best. As for earning hotel points, I assume that most hotels would look at bookings through this channel as "indirect" and thus not give points.

Accor may be an exception as I had a number of experiences with them in the past where they even gave me points for stuff booked through Agoda, Asiarooms etc.

Has anyone tried getting HHionors or SPG points for a cash + miles redemption hotel?

I stayed at a Sheraton in the greater Baltimore area over the long weekend using AA miles, and was told I would get credit for the stay but points only for incremental spend as my stay was "pre-paid". This is in line with other times I've had pre-paid stays at Starwood properties, although I don't think I've ever received credit for the stay before. FWIW, I also did a points + cash redemption at an Aloft a couple of weeks ago and did not get any points for that stay either--as expected.

That's almost the exact verbiage that the Sofitel desk clerk used with me; looking at her screen, she said "I see that your stay is pre-paid by your travel agency, so I only need to record your credit card number for incidental spending".

I booked a Crowne Plaza in Berlin next week that is 6,950 AA miles per night with breakfast (compare this to 99 euros- around $138- on the hotel's web site). It's listed as a special deal. The same hotel was 13,500 miles per night with UA miles. I have a separate paid stay after the Crowne Plaza at a Holiday Inn Express on a 2 for 1 rate.

That's surely one reason to mix and match paid stays with AA miles stays. I'm finding, though, that a lot of my hotel stays are prepaid, nonrefundable (like these Holiday Inn 2 for 1 rates I've used a couple times this winter), so you're going to take a hit somewhere if you don't go.