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Last week, American Airlines reinstated the seasonal short-hop award. For flights with a one-way distance of 750 miles or less, the roundtrip economy saver award ticket costs 15,000 miles instead of 25,000. A first class ticket costs 30,000 instead of 50,000 miles. This is a limited-time offer, valid between September 1, 2006 and February 28, 2007.

This is particularly good news for short flights to smaller airports, which are often ludicrously expensive given the distance flown (and given the inability to upgrade, since it’s often on an RJ). A purely arbitrary example: A 224-mile flight from Chicago to Traverse City, Michigan costs $372.60 cash or 15,000 miles and $5 in taxes. That’s 2.45 cents per mile, which is pretty good. (Sure, it’s not 10 cpm on a first-class ticket to South Africa, but still…)

While American’s offer is for a limited time, United is making the short-hop award a permanent feature of Mileage Plus starting October 16. EDIT: They killed it. While making it appear permanent when they first announced the reduced-mileage award, United put a February 28, 2007 expiration on their awards as well, just like American. Boo!) But there’s a tradeoff: United’s mileage limit on these short flights is a frustratingly small 700 miles. (See my earlier comments on United’s revised rules here.) Those 50 miles can make a big difference.

tags: travel | AMR Corp. | frequent flyer miles | American Airlines