American Airlines Award Hold Policy Change

Over the last week there has been a negative adjustment to one of the most generous policies in the award travel space. I know many have been pretty sad to see the recent American Airlines award hold policy change. On the bright side of things, American didn't remove award holds all together. Even with this change, they are still more generous than most. A devaluation is a devaluation none-the-less though.

American Airlines' Previous Award Hold Policy

Before April 30th, 2025 (when the award hold policy change happened) the following was possible with American Airlines:

• Award holds were allowed for up to 5 days, as long as you were at least 14 days out from travel at the time of booking.
• Award holds were allowed for up to 1 day, if the booking was within 14 days from travel.

It was actually a little more flexible than this, since it was held till the end of the day depending on the time zone of the booking. That would extend you some extra time in certain situations.

New Policy

The new American Airlines award hold policy is for 24 hours only, no matter how far out the booking is. That is a a noticeable change, but it is more in line with their policy on cash tickets. It is still better than all other domestic carriers in the US, but now worse than quite a few international carriers. They still do have a leg up on being able to hold awards online. Every other airline requires you to call in to do it – barf!

I am sure they noticed that they were more generous than their direct competition, and that people were taking advantage of the system. Because of that they decided to do something about it.

How To Hold An American Airlines Award Online

The cool thing is that American Airlines makes it super easy to perform award holds online. When you get to the final payment screen, where you are entering in your credit card detail, it is under the payment options. You can see it highlighted in the screenshot above. Once you do that, the hold is locked at that rate for one day.

That is useful if you need to transfer some miles from your AAdvantage business account. You can even transfer them to anyone else you want for free. Or, if you just needed some time to see if you can find the needed connection flights etc. for your travels.

When you are ready to complete the booking go back into your AAdvantage account, find the held flight and finish the payment to confirm the booking.

American Airlines Award Hold Policy Change: ToP Thoughts

While it is a bummer to see something lose 80% of its value, it stings less so when it is still the best option around. That is exactly what we have here with this American Airlines award hold policy change. We loved it at 5 days, but 1 day is better than nothing at all. One can hope that this leads to more award space showing (with less speculative bookings), and maybe even at a lower price! Okay, time to wake up from our day dreams over here.

Let me know what you think of the new American Airlines award hold set up over in the ToP Facebook Group.