Guide a cruise by an airline? Sounds bananas, proper? At the least, it did to me — till I did it.
For a latest crusing, I booked a cabin by American Airways Cruises, a reserving channel that earned me AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Factors for my cruise.
In case you’re an American Airways loyalist, here is how you need to use your cruise buy to earn factors and miles towards free journey and elite standing.
Why I booked by American Airways Cruises
I reside within the Charlotte space, an American Airways hub, which suggests most of my flights are by American. As such, I focus my factors and miles technique on what I can earn as a member of American Airways’ AAdvantage loyalty program.
I am additionally an AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard holder. I take advantage of it to pay for many of my American Airways flights, offering me with extra methods to attain standing with American Airways. It was my first journey bank card, and it has been in my pockets for over 25 years.
(Nevertheless, starting in 2026, Citi will develop into the unique issuer of American Airways’ AAdvantage cobranded bank card portfolio. You will not find a way to enroll in the Aviator Mastercard anymore, however you may choose the Citi® / AAdvantage® Govt World Elite Mastercard® (see charges and costs) or the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Choose® World Elite Mastercard®.)
The data for the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Choose World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.
With my AAdvantage Aviator card, I take pleasure in advantages like a free checked bag for me and as much as 4 individuals touring on my reservation, most popular boarding on American-operated flights and a yearly $25 credit score for inflight Wi-Fi purchases. I am additionally a fan of the modest $99 annual payment.
I often ebook my cruises instantly by the cruise line’s web site, however I puzzled if I had a greater possibility for incomes factors and miles on my cruise buy. That is once I found American Airways Cruises, the airline’s branded cruise reserving portal.
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It options cruise gives from 30-plus cruise traces, together with Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Celeb Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Viking and Oceania Cruises, amongst others. Anybody can join and ebook by the platform, incomes each AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Factors on their cruise reserving.
After I booked my cruise, American Airways Cruises was providing a particular promotion for AAdvantage bank card holders (extra particulars under). This was the final push I wanted to ebook my cruise by American Airways’ cruise reserving platform.
Easy methods to earn miles by American Airways Cruises
I used to be already an AAdvantage member, so I did not want to enroll in the loyalty program. (In case you’re originally of the mileage-accrual journey, it is easy to enroll by American’s web site.)
AAdvantage members will earn 1 mile per greenback spent on cruises booked by American Airways Cruises, plus 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent. (What is the distinction? You employ AAdvantage miles to pay for award flights, however you want Loyalty Factors to attain elite standing within the American Airways AAdvantage loyalty program.)
AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard holders will earn an extra 1 mile per greenback spent on cruises, plus 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent (from Mastercard, not AA Cruises). Be aware that these with the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Choose card of their pockets may even earn 1 mile per greenback spent and 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent.
American Airways was operating a promotion for AAdvantage bank card holders once I booked my cruise, incomes me 2 miles per greenback spent on the acquisition of my cruise. It was a “limited-time provide” once I booked my cruise in January. Nevertheless, on the time of writing, the provide was nonetheless exhibiting on a banner on the prime of the American Airways Cruises homepage. (Simply click on on the promotional banner to get began.)
Your award miles will publish to your AAdvantage account six to eight weeks after your cruise concludes.
AAdvantage members can solely earn miles from their American Airways Cruises bookings; they cannot use award miles to buy a cruise.
Associated: Easy methods to ebook a cruise utilizing factors and miles
Easy methods to ebook a cruise by American Airways Cruises
As soon as you’ve got created an American Airways account and logged in on American’s web site, click on the “Plan journey” tab, which can drop down an inventory of journey choices, together with “Cruises.” This may open a brand new window for American’s cruise reserving web site. Alternatively, you may go on to the AA Cruises web site.
When you’re on the primary web page of the AA Cruises web site, use the “Cruise Search” field to filter outcomes on your desired journey (vacation spot, cruise size, departure date, cruise line, ship and departure port). Moreover, a scrolling carousel by the Cruise Search field highlights cruise line-specific gross sales and promotions.
When your search outcomes seem, you may click on on the photograph to take a look at the ship, the itinerary, cabins, deck plans, evaluations and onboard experiences. As soon as you’ve got chosen your cruise, click on “Choose” to start out the reserving course of.
Select the variety of company
At this stage, if you’re a member of the loyalty program with the cruise line you’ve got chosen, you may even have the choice to plug in your member quantity. This may unlock further reductions, so it is a good suggestion to hitch the cruise line loyalty program for those who aren’t already a member.
You will additionally verify the variety of individuals in your reserving. If anybody in your group qualifies for a senior citizen or army low cost, you may point out that right here.
Choose the cabin sort
After you enter the variety of company, you may select the kind of cabin you’d choose (inside, ocean-view, balcony or suite). The web page may even present the bottom value for the least costly cabin in every class.
You will subsequent see pricing for the totally different cabin sorts inside that umbrella class. In case you ebook a cruise for 2 passengers, a assure cabin will seem as an possibility. While you select a assure cabin, you let the cruise line decide its location and, in return, pay a cheaper price. So, for those who do need to decide your cabin location, you may seemingly must pay greater than the bottom fare listed for that common cabin class.
After you select the particular promotion/cruise fare pricing you favor, you may transfer to the “choose room” stage of the method. (You’ll not be given this feature for those who select a assure cabin.) Right here, you may peruse the deck plans of the ship to determine the place you desire to your room to be positioned.
Associated: The final word information to selecting a cruise ship cabin
Present visitor data
After you’ve got chosen the variety of company and cabin sort, enter every cruise passenger’s particulars, akin to title, date of delivery and nation of residence. You will even be given the choice to decide on your most popular eating time (early, late or versatile, relying on the cruise line).
Full your reserving
The final step offers a abstract of the cruise you might be reserving and your ultimate value, which incorporates the cruise fare and port fees, plus taxes and costs damaged down individually. (I used to be not given the choice to prepay gratuities.)
As with many on-line reserving websites, you may even be given the choice to buy journey safety on your cruise. I at all times suggest buying a third-party journey insurance coverage plan.
Was reserving by American Airways Cruises price it?
The American Airways Cruises platform was simple to navigate, however was it the most suitable choice for getting value and incomes factors and miles for my trip reserving? Finally, sure.
I might have paid the identical cruise fare if I had booked instantly on Royal Caribbean’s web site, as American Airways Cruises gives the identical promotions because the cruise traces. Moreover, a fast name to my native journey agent confirmed that reserving by him would yield the identical outcomes from a value perspective (although journey brokers do present private assist you won’t obtain from customer support with an internet reserving platform).
Nevertheless, reserving by American Airways Cruises actually paid off, because it earned me factors and miles towards standing with American’s AAdvantage loyalty program.
I earned 1,237 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors on my American Airways Cruises reserving. In the meantime, I used my AAdvantage Aviator bank card, which, because of a promotion on the time of reserving, earned me 2 miles per greenback spent on my cruise buy. This netted me an extra 2,474 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors. All advised, I snagged 3,711 miles and a pair of,474 Loyalty Factors by my cruise buy.
Moreover, I booked my flights by American Airways utilizing my AAdvantage Aviator bank card, which earned me 474 miles and 190 Loyalty Factors (for the flights), plus 1,136 miles and 284 Loyalty Factors (for utilizing my American Airways cobranded bank card).
For the flights and the cruise, I earned a complete of 5,321 AAdvantage miles and a pair of,948 Loyalty Factors. Had I booked instantly by Royal Caribbean’s web site (and paid with my AAdvantage Aviator bank card), I might have missed out on an additional 1,237 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors.
Backside line
General, I used to be happy with the result of reserving by American Airways Cruises, and I undoubtedly plan so as to add airline cruise reserving platforms to my useful resource checklist when researching future cruises.
Reserving my cruise by American Airways Cruises was a straightforward method to earn factors and miles on a cruise I might have booked anyway. Additionally, buying my cruise and flights with my AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard and incomes further factors and miles supplied much more worth.
The following time you are planning a cruise, do not depend out your most popular airline. If it gives a cruise or trip reserving platform — you may discover related ones for Delta Air Strains, United Airways and Southwest Airways, amongst different carriers — you may be capable of rack up a number of additional factors and miles towards standing.
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