Using American Airlines Gift Cards for a Last Minute Trip to Attend a Memorial Service

For most of us, most of the time, we have the luxury of thinking through our travel plans maybe months or even a year in advance. Especially if we’re using miles and points to book air and hotel reservations, booking way ahead is a good idea.

But what happens when we have an emergency trip that needs to be booked NOW?

That’s the situation I found myself in just last month. As I mentioned here, there was a death in my family and I wanted to get to Florida for the memorial service.

Here were my parameters:

My flight was from San Diego to Florida on specific dates, both on the outbound and inbound.
I had to fly into Fort Lauderdale (FLL).
I had to land at FLL in the evening so my cousin could pick me up after work.
I had to leave late in the day after the Miami Dolphins game. Don’t ask, my cousins are nuts for those Dolphins and luckily they won their game so everyone was in good spirits.

Continue reading …

By Shelli