American Airlines has a large fleet of mid-size jets (B737, A319, and A320) operating domestic flights and serving extensive routes to Caribbean destinations. These jets have 12-18 seat First Class cabin, making American Airlines AAdvantage Program perfect for Award Travel in First Class on Domestic and to Caribbean routes.

American Airlines is the largest airline in the United States and, by many measures, the world. It’s the dominant carrier at its home airport of Dallas-Fort Worth and operates hubs at Charlotte, Chicago (O’Hare), Los Angeles, Miami, New York (LaGuardia and JFK), Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington (Reagan National).

If your home airport is an American Airlines stronghold, you fly domestic First Class more than international and want to travel First Class, Caribbean or South America is on your itinerary, or if you just choose to fly the carrier regularly, you’ll want to check out the airline’s frequent-flyer program, AAdvantage.

If you are new to earning Frequent Flyer Miles, do not get overwhelmed by number of details and ways to earn miles. It’s not that hard. Start with signing up for free American Airlines AAdvantage Account​ and then use this article to slowly get comfortable with earning miles. Remember, I am doing this for almost 20 years and I learn something new all the time. Hope you found this article helpful and if you did spread the word about > !!!!! PointsTravels.com !!!!!

 

In this article I will go over

● How to earn AAdvantage miles

● How to redeem AAdvantage miles

● AAdvantage program status levels

● American Airlines transfer partners

● Credit cards that earn AAdvantage miles

How to earn AAdvantage miles

American Airlines’ frequent flyer program uses a currency called AAdvantage miles, which industry values at an average of 1 cent apiece. You earn these miles when you fly on American or one of its partner airlines, and you redeem them for award flights. Although they’re called “miles,” you earn them based on how much money you spend on tickets, not how far you fly.

You can earn additional miles by spending money with American’s partners or using an American-branded credit card.
In general, AAdvantage miles will expire if you go 18 months without earning or redeeming miles on American or a partner. However, miles earned on an American Airlines-branded credit card will remain valid as long as you continue to use the card.

EARNING AADVANTAGE MILES WHEN YOU FLY

Earning on American:​ The number of miles you earn for a particular flight depends on how much you spent on the ticket and your status level within the AAdvantage program. All statuses above basic membership earn mile bonuses. For example, the basic rewards rate is 5 miles per dollar. But at Gold level, you earn a 40% bonus, which turns your rate into 7 miles per dollar.

NOTE:​ You earn miles only on airfare and airline fees. Government-imposed taxes and fees do not earn miles. The maximum you can earn on any ticket is 75,000 miles. Earning on other airlines:​ In most cases, American’s partner airlines in the OneWorld alliance give out frequent flyer miles based on a calculation involving the price and class of the ticket and the distance of the flight.

If the partner says a given ticket is worth 1,500 miles, for example, then a basic AAdvantage member would earn 1,500 miles. For statuses above basic, the same mile bonuses apply. So a Gold member would earn 2,100 miles (1,500 + a 40% bonus), a Platinum member would earn 2,400 miles (1,500 + 60%) and so on.

EARNING AADVANTAGE MILES WITH A CREDIT CARD

This is the fastest way to earn miles if you are not a frequent flier.

American Airlines offers co-branded credit cards through both Citi and Barclaycard.

My favorite credit card for the AAdvantage program is the ​Citi​®​ / AAdvantage​®​ Platinum Select​®​World Elite​™​ Mastercard​®​.

It gives you:

● 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent at gas stations

● 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent at restaurants

● 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases

You also get a great sign-up bonus to start: For a limited time, earn 60,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after making $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening* The annual fee is $0 for the first year, then $99 — but the checked bag benefit on this card can make up for it rather quickly. The first checked bag is free for you and up to four others traveling on your reservation. You also get preferred boarding, so you can get on the plane early and find space for your carry-on.
These offers tend to change, so check with Citibank for the latest offer.

Barclays Bank used to provide co-branded credit cards for US Airways till American Airlines acquired it in 2015. It started offering co-branded credit cards for American Airlines in early 2017, and their offers are becoming more competitive. So do your own diligence before choosing one.
I have both Citi and Barclays to maximize sign up bonus.

EARNING AADVANTAGE MILES THROUGH PARTNERS

● Hotels:​ You can earn AAdvantage miles at most major hotel chains. In some cases, you earn 1 or 2 miles per dollar spent; in others, you earn a flat number of miles per stay. If you are a member of hotel rewards program, you are better off earning points from hotel stays towards you hotel rewards program. But if you are not, definitely take advantage of earning extra miles.

● Dining: ​Register a credit card with ​AAdvantage Dining​, and every time you use that card at a participating restaurant, club or bar, you’ll earn 1 to 5 miles per dollar spent. There are more than 11,000 participating locations.
This is easy and fast way to multiply your miles.  To join> CLICK HERE.

● Auto rentals: ​Most major rental agencies have an option to earn AAdvantage miles.

● Shopping:​ When you shop online through the ​AAdvantage eShopping​ mall, you earn miles for every dollar you spend at more than 950 retailers.  To join> CLICK HERE.

This is fastest way besides credit cards to earn extra miles.

BUYING ADDITIONAL AADVANTAGE MILES

You can purchase additional miles through the AAdvantage website, but this is not a good idea. You’ll pay about 2.95 cents a mile. Industry values AAdvantage miles at an average of 1 cent apiece — so you’d be paying about three times what they’re worth.
Exception: once or twice a year, American Airlines will offer special sale, where you get 100% bonus on miles purchased. This is a good way to buy miles if you are short of that dream trip.

How to redeem AAdvantage miles

AAdvantage miles are redeemable for flights through American Airlines and its partners in the OneWorld alliance. In most cases, you redeem by booking through American’s website. Choose a flight, and you’ll see what the price is in cash as well as in miles. If you are new to redeeming the miles, or are looking for international flights not listed on a website, calling customer support might be easier.

TWO TYPES OF AWARD SEATS

American Airlines offers two kinds of award redemptions: MileSAAver and AAnytime.

 

● MileSAAver award seats​ can be had for as little as 7,500 miles (for certain one-way trips in North America). However, MileSAAver seats are available only on certain routes, which change from time to time, and there may be only a limited number of them available on a given flight. You may find that the flight you want has no MileSAAver seats, or that they’ve all been taken.

 

● AAnytime award seats​ are available for almost any flight, but they’re considerably more expensive. A flight that costs 7,500 miles for a MileSAAver seat can cost as much as 40,000 miles for an AAnytime seat.

American’s ​flight award chart​ tells you how many miles you’ll need for a given flight.

 

SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR CREDIT CARD HOLDERS

If you have an American Airlines credit card, you can get a discount of 1,000 to 7,500 miles on MileSAAver award seats, depending on the card and your destination. So, for example, if the flight costs 20,000 miles and you qualify for a 5,000-mile discount with your credit card, you’d need only 15,000 miles to book the flight. These discounts are available only if you book by phone and do not apply to international partner travel. See American’s page on ​reduced mileage award seats​.

GOOD REDEMPTION OPTIONS

Since industry values AAdvantage miles at an average of 1 cent apiece, any redemption that gives you at least that much value is a good option. I found that you’ll get the best value out of your miles if you redeem them for domestic first class or international business-class flights, where you can often get greater than 1 cent worth of value.

Warning: Do pay attention to extra fees and taxes on flights operated by British Airways. They can be as high as $500.00 per one way ticket regardless of the seat class. This might or might not make an award travel desirable.

BAD REDEMPTION OPTIONS

As a general rule, redemptions at a value lower than 1 cent per mile values aren’t good. When you use AAdvantage miles for economy domestic flights, I estimate the average value of 0.7 cents. So you may want to save your miles for First Class or international flights, if you fly overseas. That said, if you aren’t too concerned about squeezing maximum value out of your miles or you don’t travel internationally, go ahead and book a domestic economy flight with your AAdvantage miles.

Other redemption options include Admirals Club membership fees, hotels, car rentals and gift cards. These options tend to offer a lower than 1 cent per mile value, so I recommend skipping them.

 

AAdvantage program status levels

Anyone can sign up for the AAdvantage program. It’s free to join. With basic membership, though, pretty much all you get is a frequent flyer number and an account where your points accumulate. The real goodies come when you earn elite status. First, we’ll look at what you get at AAdvantage’s four elite levels. Then we’ll look at what it takes to get there.

AADVANTAGE ELITE LEVELS AND BENEFITS

 

HOW TO EARN ELITE STATUS IN AADVANTAGE

To earn elite status, you’ll need to understand the terms EQD, EQM and EQS. Buckle up.

● EQDs are elite qualifying dollars.​ You earn these based on how much you spend on tickets with American and its OneWorld partners (excluding government taxes and fees).

● EQMs are elite qualifying miles. ​Unlike AAdvantage miles, EQMs can actually be considered miles … or at least distance-based. They’re calculated by taking the mileage of the flight and multiplying it by the fare class: ○ Full-fare first or business class: EQM = miles flown x 3 ○ Discount first or business: EQM = miles flown x 2 ○ Full-fare economy class: EQM = miles flown x 1.5 ○ Discount economy: EQM = miles flown x 1
○ Basic economy: EQM = miles flown x 0.5

● EQSs are elite qualifying segments.​ You earn them based on how many takeoff-to-landing flight segments you take. A nonstop flight from L.A. to New York, for example, would be 1 EQS. If you had a layover in Chicago, it’d be 2 EQSs.
To earn elite status, you need a minimum number of EQDs ​plus ​a certain number of EQMs ​or​ EQSs.

Your status level is updated every Feb. 1, based on your activity in the preceding calendar year.

FOR FULL TUTORIAL>CLICK HERE.

 

American Airlines transfer partners

As of January 2018, the American Airlines website identifies these as its partner airlines.

American Airlines websites offers rewards flights mostly on British Airways, Finnair and Iberia, so for a full list of availability you might want to call customer service and book your international travel via phone.

ONEWORLD ALLIANCE MEMBERS

(You can see why United Airlines Star Alliance is far superior)

In general, you can earn AAdvantage miles on flights with OneWorld partners and redeem your miles for flights on OneWorld airlines.

● British Airways ● Cathay Pacific ● Finnair ● Iberia ● Japan Airlines ● LATAM Airlines Brasil (formerly TAM) ● LATAM Airlines Chile (formerly LAN) ● Malaysia Airlines ● Qantas
● Qatar Airways ● Royal Jordanian Airlines ● S7 Airlines ● SriLankan Airlines

OTHER PARTNER AIRLINES

On airlines outside the OneWorld alliance, your ability to earn and/or redeem miles is more limited. You may be able to earn miles but not redeem them, for example, or you may be able to redeem only for certain flights. Other partner airlines include:

● Air Tahiti Nui ● Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air ● Cape Air ● Etihad Airways ● Fiji Airways ● Gulf Air (partnership ending April 30, 2018) ● Hawaiian Airlines ● Interjet ● Seaborne Airlines ● WestJet (partnership ending July 31, 2018)

The ​flight award chart for partner airlines​ tells you how you can earn free flights on carriers besides American.

 

Credit cards that earn AAdvantage miles

American Airlines is unusual among U.S. airlines in that it has credit card agreements with two different issuers, a legacy of its merger with U.S. Airways, which wrapped up in 2015.

This is a great thing for you, as they tend to compete with sign up bonus offers to get your business. Cards that earn AAdvantage miles include:

FROM CITI

Citi​®​ / AAdvantage​®​ Platinum Select​®​ World Elite​™​ Mastercard​® ● 2 miles for every $1 spent at gas stations ● 2 miles for every $1 spent at restaurants ● 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
● Annual fee: $0 for the first year, then $99

CitiBusiness​®​ / AAdvantage​®​ Platinum Select​®​ World Mastercard​® ● 2 miles on every dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases ● 2 miles on every dollar spent on telecommunications services, car rental merchants and gas stations ● 1 mile per dollar spent on everything else ● Annual fee: $0 for the first year, then $95

Citi​®​ / AAdvantage​®​ Executive World Elite​™​ Mastercard​®

● 2 miles on every dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases ● 1 mile per dollar spent on everything else ● Annual fee: $450 — comes with complimentary Admirals Club lounge membership
Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® ● 1 mile per dollar spent on all purchases

FROM BARCLAYCARD

AAdvantage​® ​Aviator​®​ Red World Elite Mastercard​® ● 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases ● 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases ● 10% of redeemed miles returned to you (up to 10,000 miles per year) ● Annual fee: $95

AAdvantage® Aviator® Business Mastercard®
● 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases ● 2 miles per dollar spent at eligible office supply, telecom and car rental merchants ● 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases ● Annual bonus of 5% of your earned miles
● Annual fee: $95

 

If you are new to earning Frequent Flyer Miles, do not get overwhelmed by number of details and ways to earn miles. It’s not that hard. Start with signing up for free American Airlines AAdvantage Account  and then use this article to slowly get comfortable with earning miles. Remember, I am doing this for almost 20 years and I learn something new all the time. Hope you found this article helpful, and if you did spread the word about > !!!!! PointsTravels.com !!!!!