While domestic travel traffic is coming back, a lot of people are staying close to home and preferring short-haul flights.
This is good for travelers in American Airlines markets as the airline is currently running Web specials for 24,000 miles round-trip in First Class.
You do have to do some homework for these because many short-haul First Class flights aren’t very expensive to begin with. For example, I noticed one recently on a flight from Philadelphia to Portland, Maine, on a published fare of about $750 round-trip, while the miles award ticket priced at 24,000 for the hour-and-a-half flight.
I asked myself, should I pay with cash or miles? Well, the American miles I currently have were obtained by purchasing them for 1.8 cents each. This option here allowed me to redeem them for 3 cents per mile. So using miles was the best play. While I generally don’t look for little wins like this, I take them when they hit me between the eyes.
Here are more sample routes where you can fly domestic First Class for just 24,000 miles round-trip:
If you live in an American Airlines hub city (Charlotte, Chicago–O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York–JFK and LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Phoenix–Sky Harbor, Washington–National), you can find short-haul nonstop flights such as Charlotte to Orlando, Tallahassee, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia; Dallas to Memphis,Tulsa, Little Rock, Wichita, Corpus Christi; Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, San Jose; Miami to Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee, Savana, Charlotte, Charleston, SC; New York to Washington, DC and Boston; Philadelphia to Portland, Maine, Boston, Phoenix, Cleveland, Syracuse; Phoenix to Las Vegas, Albuquerque, San Diego, El Paso; Raleigh to Philadelphia and Charlotte for 24,000-25,000 miles round-trip.
If you live in a small city the reverse is true. For example, if you live in Portland, Maine, you can fly to Philadelphia for just 12,000 miles one-way in First Class.