Sad: American AAdvantage Reduces Award Ticket Holds To 24 Hours

American AAdvantage is changing one of its generous policies. I’m sad to see this change, though even with this being implemented, American still has among the most generous policies in the industry, so I guess it’s hard to get too upset. Let’s first recap the old policy, and then we’ll discuss the new one.

AAdvantage has allowed award holds for five days

American AAdvantage is one of the few frequent flyer programs that lets you place award tickets on hold prior to ticketing. Historically, how long you could hold a ticket depended on how far in advance you were booking. Prior to April 30, 2025:

• If you held a ticket 14 or more days before departure, you could hold an award for up to five days
• If you held a ticket within 14 days of departure, you can hold an award for up to one day

In reality, the hold times weren’t exactly 24 or 120 hours. Instead, awards were held through the end of the day in the timezone where the itinerary was originating. That means you could potentially have a hold of just under six days.

This was quite literally the most generous policy in the industry. Award holds are possible directly on aa.com. When you get to the booking page for an award, you should see the “AAdvantage Hold” option listed in the section with payment options. This is also available by phone, regardless of whether you’re flying with American or a partner airline.

Not only does AAdvantage allow award holds, but you can change and cancel awards with AAdvantage at no cost, so there’s a much lower risk to speculatively ticketing awards than in the past.

I really can’t overstate how nice this policy was, as no other major US frequent flyer program lets you place award tickets on hold at all, let alone for five days. Unfortunately all good things come to an end… or at least be scaled back.

AAdvantage award holds now limited to 24 hours

As of today, American will introduce a new 24-hour limit on AAdvantage award ticket holds, so the period of time for which you can hold an award ticket is being reduced by 80%. American highlight how this matches the carrier’s policy on revenue tickets.

Again, other US frequent flyer programs don’t allow holds at all, so American is still more generous than the competition, even if this is a negative change that I don’t like to see.

I imagine that part of the motivation for this change is that there were too many people speculatively holding awards, to the point that it displaced some revenue passengers and caused the airline to lose money.

For example, say that a New York to Athens flight had one seat left for sale in business class, and someone held it 14 days before departure for a period of five days. That person might not have ticketed the reservation, and then American might have had a harder time maximizing revenue selling that seat.

Bottom line

American AAdvantage has rolled out a new policy when holding award tickets, and members will now be limited to holding award tickets for a period of up to 24 hours. That’s quite a change compared to the previous policy of five days.

Of course I’m not happy to see this change, but given how much more generous American was than the competition, it’s also not surprising. Even with this change, American is still more generous than other airlines. On the bright side, maybe this will be good for award availability, in terms of people not speculatively holding award space.

What do you make of American changing its award hold policy?