Reservation Holds

I wish I would have known about reservation holds prior to booking one of my flights.  I had been searching for award availability to fly from Tampa to Barcelona.  I was trying to use American Airlines miles to purchase the flight.  American Airlines offers multiple tiers of reward availability that can vary significantly in points required for the same class of service.  The MileSAAver tier requires significantly less miles to be spent than the AAnytime awards.  However, MileSAAver award availability is usually very limited.  I saw an available flight from Tampa to Barcelona, but I did not book it at the time because I needed to confirm the date I was able to arrive in Barcelona, as I would be traveling on a visa I was in the process of obtaining.  By the time I was able to confirm the date, the availability was gone.  If I had put a hold on the available ticket, I would have had a week to decide if I wanted to purchase it.  However, because I did not put a hold on that ticket, I had to use some creativity and route my flight through Dallas to be able to use the MileSAAver awards.  It would have been much more convenient to go from Tampa to Miami to Barcelona as opposed to the Tampa to Dallas to Miami to Barcelona route I was left with.  The silver lining is I was able to see my cousins for a short time in Dallas, and now I know better for the next time I am researching a flight.

Key points-

• Many airlines will "hold" a ticket for approximately one week
• Exact hold lengths vary by airline
• Terms vary by airline
• Holds can give you more time to research a flight without losing out on a potentially good ticket