No fee when booking Reduced Mileage Awards with American
American Airlines no longer charges Citi® / AAdvantage® cardmembers a booking fee when they book reduced mileage awards via reservations. These award flights cannot be ticketed online and are only able to be booked by calling American’s reservation team.
Additionally, any partner award that cannot be booked via AA.com can be booked by calling reservations, the ticketing fee will be waived.
However, American is now waiving the booking fee of $25 when you book through reservations. Reduced mileage awards booked through an airport agent ($35) or ticket office ($20) are not waived.
Keep in mind that reduced mileage awards still qualify for the 10% mileage rebate benefit (up to 10,000 miles a year) for those Citi credit cards that offer this benefit. So a mileage trip that is usually 25,000 miles (domestic sAAver roundtrip) can be booked for as little as 17,500 with the reduced mileage award benefit and if you subtract the 10% rebate your total comes out to 15,750 miles for a roundtrip flight!
Executive Platinum members never get charged a booking fee but this is a great new perk for those frequent flyers who either have no status or who are Gold or Platinum AA elites.
Find out more about Reduced Mileage Awards
Do the close in time fees still apply for itineraries booked with 21 days of travel?
I believe it does. The Terms and Conditions say that regular award fees would apply, so the 21 day fee may be applicable. Worth a shot though, some reps may get confused and waive it!