Cathay Pacific's first-class cabin -- the reason I've been hoarding my AA miles for a trip on that partner.

Before I became obsessed with bargains, I was obsessed with frequent flyer miles. Inspired by “The Pudding Guy,” I used cereal-box coupons (along with the more obvious credit card deals) to amass thousands of American Airlines miles. I’d hit BigLots whenever I was in the neighborhood to buy 20 boxes of marked-down cereal, and subjected my poor husband to endless freezers full of Nutri-Grain Eggos because the big Costco boxes came with 500 miles on the back.

So, I’ve got a lot of AAdvantage miles for someone who doesn’t fly that much. To be exact, there are 137,500 on my account, and my husband has about the same. Believe me, I wish we’d burned those miles on one of our dream itineraries (Sydney via Hong Kong in first class on American partner Cathay Pacific was a major contender) before we’d had kids. Because between amassing those miles and waiting for our kids to be old enough to leave behind on a substantial trip, the nest egg of miles we’ve been sitting on has lost value with sinking airfares, an increase in the miles-per-ticket rate, and shrinking availability of free seats.

So I was happy to read that American Airlines is introducing a new, better online booking page for frequent flyer seats. It’s been a long time since an airline announced GOOD news for frequent flyer mile collectors, hasn’t it? According to the article, airline Web sites have in the past told people there were no free seats available when there actually were, which would explain some of my own frustrations when trying to book free seats online in the past. American is also now allowing customers to book one or multiple one-way segments with miles, allowing them to create more complex itineraries without calling customer service.

Apparently several other airlines (but not United) were already allowing customers to book one-way trips with miles online.

Reaction on FlyerTalk, the forum I used to hit every day in my miles-addiction days, is mixed. Some are excited at the new flexibility — for example, by booking two one-way flights, a traveler is now free to book coach in one direction and business class on the return, if that’s what is available.

However, other commenters point out that some types of flights might cost more miles now. Specifically, my FAVORITE secret bargain of frequent flyer trips might be over. With free segments now being counted as multiple one-way trips, free stopovers might be a thing of the past. Remember how I said my dream itinerary was Sydney VIA Hong Kong? In the past, you could book a round trip to Sydney with miles, then stay at your stopover point for as long as you wanted to before completing the itinerary. One commenter on FlyerTalk said he called American to book an open-jaw miles trip with a stopover and was told that the price in miles for such a trip would increase as of today.

My situation is a little more complicated; my dream itinerary would be on a partner airline, which would still require a call to customer service, and I’m not sure if any rule changes that come with the new booking site would affect that.

I did try booking a round-trip flight with an extended stopover on the new AA miles booking site. Sure enough, I can now book an extended stopover online, which I couldn’t do without calling customer service before, but it now costs more miles. While a round trip to Honolulu from Chicago, with a regular stopover in Los Angeles, would cost me 35,000 miles (17,500 each way), if I try to book the flight as a multi-city trip with a weeklong stopover, my cost goes up to 47,500 miles (17,500 + 12,500 for a one-way domestic flight + 17,500). I’m not sure what would happen if I tried to book the same itinerary by calling, but I have a sinking feeling that my favorite loophole has just been closed.

Photo by Richard Moross, used via Creative Commons license.