I too am a million miler on AA, and I have also experienced the pain of trying use miles of late.
First, I must say that I have finally accepted that using miles is just a nicety not a benefit from the airline. It is like going to a casino – the house always wins in long run.
Every now then you win, but that is not the norm.
If one looks at the etymology of the word travel - today’s use of AA miles comes to life.
"labor, toil," mid-13c., from Old French travail "work, labor, toil, suffering or painful effort, trouble; arduous journey" (12c.), from travailler "to toil, labor," originally "to trouble, torture, torment," from Vulgar Latin tripaliare "to torture," from tripalium (in Late Latin trepalium) "instrument of torture,"
Traveling today and using frequent flier miles definitely can allow one to experience the full breadth of the word travel.
Realizations and what I found works for me with miles. Normally it ends up the cheapest when all is totaled up.
- Realize that you will probably not be able to get your most desirable route and cost from the get-go. You are using miles probably to save money, not save time. If time is limited – buy the ticket. If you do get everything you want you win! However, it probably means you are travelling to Amsterdam in January.
- Try to stay on AA, because partners like BA charge a fortune in Taxes and Fees
- Get to Europe on your miles - Does not matter where. Travelling inside Europe is much more reasonable. Yes, this may add a day to the trip, but here again time is not the major factor if you are using miles.
- In recent trips, I have found going out of smaller airports like Richmond allows my miles to go further and opens more options. (not sure why) On the downside one has to add another stop along the way in JFK, Miami, Charlotte, and yes even Washington Dulles sometimes. Lucky enough most have a Vino Volvo to past the time. On the upside parking is $15 a day cheaper than in DC.
- As many have noted, treat each leg of the journey as a one way. Don’t lock yourself in to coming and going on the same airport. One trip, I flew DC to CDG to Pisa and came home direct from Milan to DC.
Having said all of this… We are going to Italy in April. After following my own instructions for a week or two I threw up my hands in regards to using miles and bought the damn tickets.
The pain and suffering had gone on too long. So our flights for this trip - Dulles to Zurich to Rome on Swiss Air and nonstop from Rome back to Dulles on United. Assigned Economy plus seating both flights. (my wife and I are short ) Ticket cost came in at $981 per ticket. But the weirdest thing was I found the deal on Lufthansa Airlines web page. Not a great deal, but Italy in April is not the cheap season.