Over 75k Miles Back and 4 Upgrades with 1 Simple Strategy

My Favorite Award Booking Strategy

A few weeks ago, I shared a new move I’ve instituted to stay informed when faced with an involuntary downgrade.  While it ultimately may not result in better compensation, it provides me more peace of mind in such a predicament.  Meanwhile, I’ve followed another award booking strategy which more frequently works in my favor.  Last week, this not-exactly-groundbreaking method came through again.  Today, I’m reflecting on this recent success.  But first, I’ll set the stage with a bit of my booking philosophy.

How I Book Awards

My family and I start with broad travel plans which become more specific a few months in advance of travel.  We may know we want to travel in a general period, but we don’t necessarily want to select our final destination until closer in.  Hence, I don’t overly commit time to bookings in the early stages.  Primarily, I’ll make speculative hotel award reservations in that timeframe, something I can quickly accomplish.  Meanwhile, I generally don’t book air travel until we’ve narrowed down to a destination or two.  I’m more deliberate with airline award bookings.  While I may enjoy the process a bit more now, it’s still a time-suck I generally avoid when a specific trip likelihood is low.

But even when we’ve selected a destination, I don’t overly indulge in the booking process.  I’ll look at a selection of options with the award currencies I hold and select the most attractive one to accomplish the travel goal.  Is it the best deal ever?  Probably not.  Is it a square-enough deal to me?  Yes.

Checking Back

A few months or weeks before each trip, I’ll return to my hotel and airline reservations and compare them to what rates are at that time.  A variety of terms exist for this practice, although I’ve heard several refer to it as “gardening reservations.”  Of course, many rates have changed.  In a considerable portion of those circumstances, awards have gotten cheaper since I booked.  In others, award rates appear with certain entities that weren’t originally available.  My latest success here was more lucrative than any other in recent memory.

American Airlines Flights

In the not-too-distant future, my family and I have a planned trip involving several long flights.  A few months ago, I booked our first flight for 8k AAdvantage miles each, which I assessed as an attractive-enough rate for the approximately three-hour journey.  I booked American’s premium economy cabin at 48.5k AAdvantage miles each for the second longer flight.  I knew this segment could’ve been cheaper or more expensive.  Regardless, I was okay with this rate.

Last week, I looked back at current AAdvantage rates for the same flights.  The first flight was at 10.5k miles for economy and first class for 26.5k miles.  But Alaska offered the same flight availability for 7.5k and 15k, respectively.  Noice!  I took this opportunity to directly book all four of us into first with Alaska currency, then I cancelled the original reservation made with AAdvantage miles.

I then looked at our second flight.  AAdvantage was still charging 48.5k miles for premium economy on our flight.  But Alaska offered the same AA flight in premium economy for 22.5k miles.  For our family of four, that came to 104k less Alaska miles than AAdvantage currency on that second flight alone.

Interestingly, neither of these opportunities to book with Alaska miles were available a few months back when I originally booked.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any award fare improvements on our return trip home.  Nonetheless, I appreciate the solid win on the way out.  Instead of economy and premium economy for 226k AAdvantage miles, our family of four is in first class and premium economy for 150k Alaska miles.

My Favorite Award Booking Strategy – Conclusion

Of course, more can go into this equation, including how an individual values certain mileage currencies.  But I don’t get caught up in cents per point valuations.  Instead, goals are my priority.  Miles and points are worth what I redeem them for.  Since my redemptions are aligned to my goals, I will always obtain worthy value.

I also know many tools are available to assist with similar booking efforts.  Bravo to those of you save time, money, or both with them.  I prefer kicking it old school and doing everything myself, valuing my own data points more than what a tool can supposedly provide.  I also don’t have faith that any tool can truly capture all potential savings elsewhere.  But perhaps that says more about me than the tool.

So given my go-it-alone award booking strategy, I know I may miss a deal here or there.  But I don’t need every promo.  My reliable, unsexy process continues to deliver.

What’s your favorite award booking strategy to save reward currencies and/or improve your travel experience?