Start here: your first family award trip, step by step

Count seats and rooms first

Who needs an account. Marriott Bonvoy membership is free and available to individuals who are at least 18 or have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence. [3] Hilton Honors may be joined only by individuals of majority age in their country, territory or state of residence. [4] KrisFlyer accepts individuals aged two or above, and applicants aged between two and 16 need parental or legal guardian consent. [2]

No joint accounts. KrisFlyer requires each member to hold only one account and does not allow several people to be enrolled in a single account, [2] while Marriott Bonvoy accounts are individual and may not be shared or jointly held. [3]

The nominee route. A KrisFlyer member may redeem miles for all or part of their own airfare or the airfare of any of their five redemption nominees, and a change of redemption nominee is one of the services that can be paid for with miles. [2] Where a KrisFlyer account is held by a minor, miles can be moved to the linked parent or guardian's account provided the account-linking requirements are met and the relevant service fees are paid. [2]

Rooms. Marriott treats charges for the member's own room plus up to two additional guest rooms with the same check-in and check-out dates as Qualifying Charges, as long as the member is the registered guest, quotes their membership number and pays. [3] Hilton awards Base Points on up to four rooms in a stay when all eligible spend is paid on one folio, but grants stay and night credit toward elite tier status for one room only. [4]

Seats. Seat selection is a separate step: American lets a member use miles to buy a seat on an existing trip by loading the seat map, switching the toggle from 'Cash' to 'Miles' and choosing seats. [1]

Find availability and line up a fallback

American sells award travel to more than 1,000 destinations through aa.com and its app, and partner airline flights appear in award search results and can be filtered by airline on the 'Choose flights' screen. [1]

When the miles will not stretch. American's cash-and-miles checkout lets a member pay part of an eligible fare in miles and the balance in cash, but only on aa.com or in the American app. [1] The member must have at least 500 AAdvantage miles and a valid U.S. home address saved in the profile, including Puerto Rico and U.S. territories, and the flight must be marketed and operated by American within the contiguous 48 states. [1] The member should not tick 'Redeem miles' unless the whole trip is being paid with miles. [1]

Flight fallbacks. American's Instant Upgrade can be requested with miles up to 24 hours before departure, compared with cash upgrades at any time before departure, on flights operated by American or American Eagle, booked directly with American and bought within the 50 U.S. states. [1] The option appears only where an upgrade-eligible seat exists, and if no offer is shown the upgrade is not available on that flight. [1]

Hotel fallbacks. Hilton frees every fifth night on a Standard Room Reward Stay of five or more all-points nights, up to four free nights per stay, on five consecutive nights at the same property and up to twenty nights when confirmed at booking. [4] The free night is forfeited if it is declined, the reservation is cancelled or the member checks out before the fifth night, and the benefit does not apply to paid stays or Points & Money Rewards stays. [4] KrisFlyer members can instead put miles toward hotel or car rental bookings on krisflyervrooms.com, where a minimum of 1,500 miles is required per transaction, the cash-to-miles rate differs by hotel or car rental, and the booking can only be made online. [2]

Book, then change or cancel

American charges no change fees on award tickets, although a difference may be payable. [1] Miles are reinstated to the original AAdvantage account and taken from that account even when the new award costs the same number of miles, any tax difference owed is refunded to the card used for the original booking, and reinstatement can take up to 72 hours. [1]

Cancelling before the first flight departs returns the miles and refunds eligible taxes and fees at no charge up to one year from the date the ticket was purchased. [1] Sale-imposed non-refundable taxes, taxes the airline must pay whether or not the member travels, and trips that have already started are excluded, and some countries apply their own refund rules. [1] Trips involving partner airlines, trips already under way and trips changed because of an uncontrollable event have to go through Reservations. [1] Cash-and-miles bookings cannot be changed or exchanged voluntarily at all; the route is to cancel and make a new reservation. [1]

KrisFlyer tickets redeemed fully or partly with miles are non-endorsable whatever the fare conditions, and miles cannot be used for corporate or group fares, tickets bought through travel agents or ticket offices, or any fare containing a segment not operated by Singapore Airlines, such as codeshares, interline and round-the-world itineraries. [2] Award and redemption tickets earn no KrisFlyer miles, and tickets paid with miles earn miles only in proportion to the cash paid. [2]

On the hotel side, Hilton counts reward stays toward the stays and nights used for elite tier status, tier gifting and milestone bonuses, [4] and Marriott Bonvoy keeps a redeemed award valid unless it is cancelled after the points expiration date without qualifying activity to extend that date. [3]

Exceptions and limits

• Child pricing, room occupancy and seat rules vary by carrier, property and market. [1] [2] [3] [4]
• KrisFlyer does not permit pooling of miles or status credits, and membership and miles are not transferable, except that miles in an account held by a minor may go to a linked parent or guardian account. [2]
• Marriott Bonvoy needs qualifying activity at least once every 24 months, and gifting, transferring or receiving points from another member does not count; after 24 consecutive inactive months all points, awards and other benefits are forfeited and cannot be reinstated. [3]
• Hilton Honors forfeits all accumulated points after 24 consecutive months without an eligible stay, point earn, point purchase or donation, but a reward redeemed before the forfeiture stays valid. [4]
• American's cash-and-miles option is closed to Basic Economy fares, flights to, from or within Alaska or Hawaii, international flights, multi-city bookings, trips that include another airline, reservations with travel in different cabins, AAdvantage Business and TripLink bookings, and Instant Upgrade is currently limited to tickets bought within the 50 U.S. states. [1]
• Missing-credit clocks differ: American takes missing-mile requests within 12 months of the flight date and asks for up to 10 days for its own flights and 30 days for partner flights, [1] Hilton wants requests within six months of the activity, [4] Marriott within one year, [3] and KrisFlyer within six months of the transaction date, after allowing two weeks for Singapore Airlines flights and four weeks for partner airline flights. [2]
• American will reactivate expired miles within 24 months of expiry, in one transaction, for a maximum of 500,000 miles; expired miles from the same expiry window that are not reactivated are forfeited, and reactivated miles do not count toward status qualification. [1]

Related pages

Step-by-step guides: your first award flight, your first hotel award stay, children on award tickets. Planning: family points sharing, hotel programmes for family stays. Terms: award availability, mixed-cabin award.

Sources

Sources accessed on 18 October 2026. The rules here cover American Airlines AAdvantage, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors only; other airlines, other hotel groups, credit card programmes and tour operators are not covered.

1. American Airlines, Using miles for travel – AAdvantage program, checked 18 October 2026
2. Singapore Airlines, KrisFlyer Terms and Conditions, checked 18 October 2026
3. Marriott Bonvoy Loyalty Program Terms & Conditions, checked 18 October 2026
4. Hilton Honors Member Rewards Terms and Conditions, checked 18 October 2026