So... just made a back-up booking for a family member's travel in April next year.
She is booked to fly Australia-Europe with Malaysian Airlines, on an Enrich booking -- at 50k Enrich points for a booking, it was too good to pass up. This was pre-MH17. Since MH17 she has taken out insurance, in case Malaysian folds or cuts her route(s).
So she needed a back-up flight with reasonable cancellation policy, and J award availability Australia-Europe for April next year. AAdvantage to the rescue! (I hope).
I have placed her flights on hold (mixture of QF domestic and
Etihad international) tonight, and bought the required miles to complete the flight.
I was kind of hoping for immediate fulfillment of my points order, but that hasn't happened. Now I'm getting a little concerned. For anyone else out there who has bought miles, should I be worried if the miles didn't post immediately? I did receive a credit card receipt emailed from AAdvantage stating the number of miles ordered, and the amount billed, and I haven't had a call from my credit card's fraud detection scheme...
THanks for any warning / help / reassurance you can offer.