Though the American Airways AAdvantage program has skilled devaluations in recent times and moved to dynamic pricing, you’ll be able to nonetheless discover loads of candy spots. American presents an in depth community of home and worldwide routes. It is usually part of the Oneworld alliance and has greater than 20 airline companions, lots of which provide among the most coveted experiences within the skies. It is also the one Huge Three U.S. airline that hasn’t totally eradicated award charts — at the least not but.
Due to this, your AAdvantage miles are extraordinarily versatile. You’ll be able to even use them for aspirational luxurious on Qatar Airways, Japan Airways and different airways with stellar onerous merchandise, each in financial system and premium courses.
On this article, we’ll go over how one can redeem AAdvantage miles for each American and partner-operated flights. We’ll additionally assessment alternate methods to redeem your miles and whether or not or not they’re value utilizing.
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Redeem miles for American Airways flights
Some of the easy methods to redeem AAdvantage miles is on American-operated flights.
This system now makes use of dynamic pricing for its personal award seats, although it hasn’t but eliminated its accomplice award chart. (We’ll get to that later.) Because of this for American flights, the worth in miles can differ drastically relying on the route, day, demand and different components.
American launched Financial system Internet Specials in 2018, and it has shortly expanded to different areas and premium cabins. These awards begin at simply 5,000 miles for one-way short-haul home flights. Previously, we have even seen American provide financial system tickets to Mexico and the Caribbean for as few as 5,000 miles every approach and Flagship First Class seats from Los Angeles to London for simply 110,000 AAdvantage miles every approach.
Redeeming AAdvantage miles for American flights is easy: Head to the American Airways web site and seek for your flight, ensuring to verify the “Redeem miles” field. American is not identified for having plentiful award availability, however yow will discover good offers when looking for awards far upfront. When the search outcomes seem, click on “Calendar” to check costs throughout a whole month; the perfect offers might be highlighted in inexperienced.
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Redeem miles for accomplice flights
You will discover some variations when reserving American Airways companions, one among which is consistency in worth. For instance, you’ll be able to anticipate to pay 57,500 miles when flying to Europe in enterprise class — no superb offers, however no 200,000-mile pricing, both. That is as a result of AAdvantage nonetheless makes use of an award chart for accomplice redemptions. Head to this hyperlink to enter your origin and vacation spot areas and see how a lot your ticket will value.
Additionally, look ahead to carrier-imposed charges and surcharges. British Airways is notorious for routinely tacking on a whole lot of {dollars} in surcharges to Europe-bound flights. These are handed on to AAdvantage members along with the miles they will spend.
That is to not say there aren’t any good AAdvantage accomplice redemptions — it is really fairly the other. As mentioned earlier, American Airways companions with many world-renowned airways that provide stellar business- and first-class merchandise with cheap carrier-imposed charges.
This is an inventory of all of American’s present companions:
Oneworld airline companions:
- Alaska Airways
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airways
- Malaysia Airways
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian Airways
- SriLankan Airways
Nonalliance airline companions:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Cape Air
- China Southern Airways
- Etihad Airways
- Fiji Airways
- Gol Airways
- Hawaiian Airways
- IndiGo
- JetSmart
- Silver Airways
You’ll be able to guide most of those companions on-line by way of American’s web site, however some could require you to name. In that case, you’ll be able to seek for award seats on the airline’s personal web site after which name American to guide with AAdvantage miles. You should not encounter this drawback usually, as the primary gamers are bookable on-line.
If you name American, the telephone agent gives you a quote for each mileage and taxes and costs. These taxes and costs are normally the identical as quoted on the accomplice airline’s web site, however they could differ relying on the award.
Be sure you notice particular flight numbers once you find an accessible accomplice award seat. As a substitute of claiming, “I am hoping to make use of my miles to fly from New York to Abu Dhabi,” after which counting on the agent to search out the award area, say one thing like, “I’ve discovered award area on Etihad flight X, departing on date Y, however I am unable to guide it on-line. Are you able to please assist?”
Associated: One of the best web sites for looking out Oneworld award availability
Redeem miles for journey add-ons
You can too redeem your miles for varied add-ons, similar to seat upgrades and Admirals Membership lounge entry.
Upgrading your seat with miles is just accessible on flights operated by American and three of its companions: British Airways, Iberia and Qantas. Take a look at this web page to see what number of AAdvantage miles you may must improve your subsequent flight.
Sadly, you may must pay a hefty co-pay (beginning at $75) on most American fares. For upgrades on American’s companions, you will not have a co-pay, however the mileage charges are a lot increased.
If you guide a Most important Cabin Further seat with miles, the associated fee correlates to the money worth at a charge of roughly 1 cent per mile. On this case, you should utilize 3,500 miles for a Most important Cabin Further seat that might usually value $37. Equally, an Admirals Membership day cross will set you again $79 or 7,900 miles.
Each of those choices provide you with a worth of round 1 cent per mile, far beneath TPG’s November 2024 valuation of American miles (1.6 cents every). That is why we advise avoiding them, particularly in case your AAdvantage elite standing supplies Most important Cabin Further seating as a profit or if in case you have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Govt World Elite Mastercard® (see charges and costs), which entitles you to Admirals Membership entry.
You probably have Govt Platinum or Platinum Professional standing, you even have the choice to redeem 20,000 or 24,000 miles, respectively, for an entry cross to the unique Flagship First eating facility.
Associated: Is American Airways premium financial system value it between London and New York?
Redeem miles for rental vehicles, resorts or actions
The AAdvantage web site presents a number of extra avenues for redeeming your miles, together with:
The above record provides you loads of choices, particularly if in case you have an enormous stash of miles you can’t use anytime quickly. Nevertheless, these redemptions will virtually at all times present a poor worth.
For instance, we priced out a one-day midsize automotive rental by way of AAdvantage Automobiles and had been quoted 15,557 miles. The identical rental prices simply $87 when booked straight by way of Thrifty, providing you with a worth of 0.56 cents per mile; that is far lower than half of our November 2024 valuation of 1.6 cents apiece for AAdvantage miles. Some AAdvantage elite members and cobranded cardholders will get a small low cost on the worth in miles, however not sufficient to convey that worth up considerably.
In fact, worth is within the eye of the beholder, and solely you’ll be able to determine how finest to make use of your miles. However basically, redeeming AAdvantage miles for award flights gives you probably the most bang to your mile, particularly when yow will discover aspirational accomplice awards.
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Backside line
There’s greater than meets the attention in the case of redeeming AAdvantage miles.
Ensure that to do your analysis and discover the perfect routes to your redemption, and do not rely solely on American’s web site for award availability. In any case, the most suitable choice to your subsequent journey will not be on American however on one among its many alliance or nonalliance companions. Simply remember to be careful for pesky gasoline surcharges.
