American has made some changes to its online award booking process, making it possible for frequent flyers who don’t have quite enough miles for a flight to check award availability and put a hold on seats until they can top off their accounts.

Previously, members had to log in to see award availability and could only view award flights for which they had enough miles to redeem. Now, anyone can go to the “Redeem Miles” page and see what award flights are available.

Members can also now “hold” a reservation to secure seats without paying. Select “HOLD” rather than “PURCHASE” after you’ve found your desired flights, and your desired seats will be held for up to 14 days, after which your reservation automatically expires. When you are ready to complete the purchase, go to “My Reservations” on American’s homepage ( http://www.aa.com ), log in with your AAdvantage number, and select the reservation on hold.