Sheri, I've done the same thing as Suzanne on American. They let you hold the outbound for two weeks. If there are still outbound seats available when you call back in two weeks they will extend it for another two weeks--as long as there are open award seats. If the award seats are all used, then they will let you set the return at a earlier date than you want. At 331 days from your desired return date, they let you change it to the date you want (assuming a seat is available). They don't charge for this change if you are in Business or First or if you are Platinum or Exec Platinum. I haven't heard anything about them changing to just a 3 day hold period, but I suppose that's possible in this anti-customer service world of the airlines these days. I've found over and over, that if you are a "superelite" member (ie millions of miles) then the rules are easily bent.