TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Flight to SXM only 8k Miles

We just booked our flight to SXM from MIA in late October and we got two seats for only 8k miles each. Lowest mileage cost we have ever paid.

Wow! That's pretty darn good!! I presume 8k each way?

Yes, it was 8k each ticket and the return on 11/9 was 12.5K each.

I looked at it, even though I know there's no way we could go then. It's a web special and the tickets are NOT changeable. Regular frequent flyer tickets are changeable without a fee, so long as you are changing only the DATE and not the routing. Or they HAVE been in the past anyway. This is also the fare where you do NOT have an assigned seat, which I personally won't book, for a longer flight like that. I would bet you get stuck in two middle seats. 12.5 K miles each way has been a fall special on AA for several years. We were able to book last year for October for only 25K r/t, with assigned seats.

AA's "web specials" are available now on many dates (although sometimes they price out at higher than "standard saver" raters). And you CAN get seat assignments. You can not make changes to the ticket, but you can cancel and pay a redeposit fee of $150 ($25 for a 2nd ticket booked in same itin/account). This likely is a sign of things to come - - "dynamic" pricing on all award seats.

OK, I was pretty sure the details on that sale said that it was Main Cabin, which I thought that was the ones that don't have seat assignments. What I meant with regard to changes was that I have changed DATES on AA for free for years, no re-deposit fees, etc. Other airlines have charged change fees/redeposit fees/etc for several years, which has been one very good thing about AA frequent flyer tickets.

Yes, we did get seat assignments on both flights.

I have done the same

Where do you find those “web specials”?

The web specials are on the AA web site.

AA has slashed redemption rates and opened up seats across the board in response to the coronavirus thing. Whereas availability might of have often been close to zero for long stretches, you now have your choice of flights/prices.

We found a very reduced flight which showed up as we checked the normal FF ticketing site. It just was there as one of several options available for the dates we wanted. It was clearly marked as a web special and all the rules and restrictions were right there, too. We picked our dates and then booked roomy seats at an extra fee but it was very worth doing. Unless we need to cancel for some reason, that is, but I knew all the rules so it’s in me should that happen.

Yep, we booked round trip for two for a total of 32,000 miles! I wish there was surge pricing on first class. It is higher than ever with points. Around 50K per person one way.