Navigating American Airlines AAdvantage Rewards: A Comprehensive Guide

14.05.2024 00:57

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AAdvantage miles can be earned and redeemed for travel on American Airlines or many other airline partners through the Oneworld alliance, such as Japan Air, Cathay Pacific, and Alaska Airlines.

Daisuke Kishi/Getty Images

It's easy to earn and redeem miles through AAdvantage, American Airlines's frequent flyer program.
Earn miles by flying American or with airline partners such as Alaska, Cathay, and Japan Airlines.
You can earn AAdvantage miles without flying by using co-branded credit cards and shopping portals.
Read Business Insider's guide to the best airline credit cards.

Introduction to American Airlines AAdvantage Rewards

American Airlines boasts the oldest airline loyalty program still in existence today. Originally launched in 1981, the AAdvantage rewards program is also the world's largest, with over 115 million members.

How American Airlines AAdvantage works

American partners with more than 30 airlines through the oneworld alliance and other business agreements, so AAdvantage members can earn and redeem their miles flying practically anywhere around the world.

The airline also partners with two major credit card issuers, Citi and Barclays, to offer several co-branded credit cards that can help you rack up extra miles on everyday spending while enjoying elite-like perks such as priority boarding and free checked bags.

With so much potential for travel and other rewards, there's no reason not to take advantage of AAdvantage. Here's everything you need to know about earning, redeeming, and maximizing American Airlines miles.

Elite membership tiers

American Airlines has four tiers of elite membership: AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum Pro, and AAdvantage Executive Platinum. You can earn these tiers of elite status by earning a certain number of Loyalty Points every twelve calendar months, beginning on March 1 each year. You can earn Loyalty Points from flying on American Airlines, using a co-branded American Airlines credit card, or traveling with American Airlines partners.

AAdvantage Gold (40,000 Loyalty Points)

AAdvantage Gold elite members enjoy the following benefits:

Earn 40% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
Priority check-in, security, and Group 4 boarding
Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades
24-hour upgrade window
1 free checked bag
Complimentary Preferred Seats at booking, and/or Main Cabin Extra seats at check-in

AAdvantage Platinum (75,000 Loyalty Points)

AAdvantage Platinum members enjoy the following benefits:

Earn 60% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
Priority check-in, security, and Group 3 boarding
Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades
48-hour upgrade window
2 free checked bags
Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking

AAdvantage Platinum Pro (125,000 Loyalty Points)

AAdvantage Platinum Pro members receive the following benefits:

Earn 80% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
Priority check-in, security, and Group 2 boarding
Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades, 72-hour upgrade window
3 free checked bags
Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking

AAdvantage Executive Platinum (200,000 Loyalty Points)

Earn 120% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
Priority check-in, security, and Group 1 boarding
Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades, 100-hour upgrade window
3 free checked bags
Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking

Earning AAdvantage miles

There are myriad ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles, from the obvious — such as flying American and its partners — to the more arcane, like making purchases through the AAdvantage online shopping portal.

Here are all the ways you can earn American miles fast and some strategies that can boost your earnings even more.

Earn miles with Barclays and Citi AAdvantage credit cards

The easiest and quickest way to rack up American Airlines miles is by using an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card. The airline is unique in that it partners with not one, but two credit card issuers: Citi and Barclays. That means even more chances to earn bonus miles through sign-up offers and your day-to-day spending.

Here are the best credit cards for American Airlines flyers.

Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard

This mid-range mainstay is not only arguably the best credit card for earning American Airlines miles, but also one of the best all-round airline credit cards in general. The Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® currently offers 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after making $2,500 in purchases within the first three months of account opening, and it has an annual fee of $99, waived for first 12 months.

It earns 2x miles on eligible American Airlines purchases like airfare and vacation packages, and at restaurants and gas stations. As for day-of-travel perks, cardholders can enjoy preferred boarding (Group 5), a free checked bag for themselves and up to four companions on American Airlines domestic itineraries, and 25% back on inflight food and beverage purchases.

Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard

A premium card option, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® has a $595 annual fee, but comes with American Airlines Admirals Club airport lounge membership so you can spend your time in the lounge rather than busy airport concourses when you fly.

What's more, cardholders can bring immediate family or up to two guests with same-day American Airlines or partner boarding passes into the lounge for free, and even authorized users get this benefit. The card will also provide statement credits of up to $100 once every five years for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee.

Cardholders enjoy a free checked bag for themselves and up to eight companions on domestic American Airlines itineraries, priority boarding (Group 4), and a 25% discount on inflight purchases. Those who spend $40,000 or more on purchases with the card in a calendar year earn 10,000 elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) toward status with American.

This card's current introductory offer is 50,000 American Airlines miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. It earns 2x miles on American Airlines purchases, and 1x on everything else.

American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®

While not as lucrative as some of the other available American Airlines credit cards, at least the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® doesn't charge an annual fee. It is currently offering 15,000 American Airlines miles after spending $500 in purchases in the first three months of account opening.

The card earns 2x on American Airlines purchases and at grocery stores, and 1x on everything else. It also confers 25% savings on in-flight food and beverage purchases.

CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard

Don't forget about this excellent business credit card, which is offering the best bonus of the bunch. New CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® cardholders can earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after you or your employees spend $4,000 in purchases within the first four months of account opening, with an annual fee of $99, waived for first 12 months.

The card earns 2x miles on American Airlines purchases, at gas stations, on car rentals, and on cable and satellite providers, as well as on select telecommunications merchants. Cardholders and up to four travel companions get a first checked bag for free on domestic American Airlines itineraries and preferred (Group 5) boarding.

The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® offers 25% savings on American Airlines inflight Wi-Fi purchases as well as on food and beverage. If you spend $30,000 or more on purchases in a cardmember year, you can also earn an American Airlines companion certificate good for one round-trip domestic economy itinerary.

AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard

Don't forget about Barclays' slate of AAdvantage cards, including this excellent entrant.

It earns 2x miles on American Airlines purchases and 1x on everything else. Cardholders get up to $25 back in statement credits on inflight Wi-Fi, and 25% savings as statement credits on inflight food and beverages when using their card to pay. Each anniversary year you spend $20,000 on purchases, you receive a companion certificate good for one guest at $99 plus taxes and fees for a domestic economy trip. Cardholders also get preferred boarding and a first checked bag free for themselves and up to four companions on American Airlines domestic itineraries.

AAdvantage Aviator Silver Mastercard

Though the AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver Mastercard® is not available to new applicants, you can upgrade to it from the Red version. If you're gunning for elite status, upgrading may be worthwhile since this card earns 5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) after spending $20,000 on purchases within a calendar year, and an additional 5,000 EQMs for hitting $40,000. You can also earn $3,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (another requirement for elite status) after spending $50,000 on purchases each calendar year. The card accrues 3x miles per dollar on American Airlines purchases, 2x on hotels and car rentals, and 1x on everything else.

The Aviator Silver also confers up to $50 back as statement credits on inflight Wi-Fi purchases every anniversary year on American Airlines-operated flights, and up to $25 back per day as statement credits on American Airlines inflight food and beverage purchases. Each anniversary year you make $20,000 or more in purchases with the card, you can earn a companion certificate good for two guests at $99 each (plus taxes and fees) for domestic economy travel.

Cardholders can also count on a free checked bag for themselves and up to eight companions on domestic American Airlines itineraries, preferred boarding, and up to $100 back for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee once every five years. The annual fee is $199.

Flying on American Airlines

Aside from using co-branded credit cards, one of the best ways to earn American Airlines miles is to actually fly the airline and its partners.

Mileage earning boosts from elite status

On American Airlines flights, AAdvantage members earn a certain number of award miles per dollar spent on airfare (excluding taxes) based on their elite status. (Note: we're only talking about redeemable award miles here, not elite-qualifying ones that are earned based on flight distance and ticket fare codes).

Non-elite member: 5x miles per dollar
AAdvantage Gold: 7x miles per dollar
AAdvantage Platinum: 8x miles per dollar
AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 9x miles per dollar
AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 11x miles per dollar

So the higher your elite tier, the more miles you can rake in.

Flying on partner airlines

You can also earn American Airlines miles on over a dozen airline partners. Partner carriers include the following oneworld members as well as other one-off relationships:

Earning rates vary from carrier to carrier, and are usually based on the distance of flights and the fare code of the tickets you purchase. For example, flights on British Airways earn between 25% and 150% of the mileage flown, ranging from discounted economy up to full-fare first-class bookings. Those on Etihad earn between 25% and 400% depending on the ticket you purchase.

Before reserving flights on partner airlines, be sure to check the rates at which you earn miles, and choose the carriers on whom you can earn the most — when it makes sense, of course.

Buy or transfer American Airlines miles

Buying or transferring airline miles is rarely a good use of your money, even factoring in discounts or bonuses. But if you're in a pinch and need a few thousand extra points for a specific upcoming redemption, purchasing points is a good option to consider.

Purchasing AAdvantage miles costs $35 per 1,000 points with a 2,000-mile minimum, and you can buy up to 150,000 per calendar year — so you're looking at a cost of 3.5 cents per mile.

Transfers start at 1,000 miles and cost $10 per 1,000. You can transfer up to 200,000 miles from an account per calendar year. That's just 1 cent per mile, but if you're transferring a lot of them, you might as well save the fees, and just use miles from your own account to book an award for the person to whom you intended to transfer the miles.

Shopping and dining programs

You can earn American Airlines miles in a number of other ways including everyday activities like online shopping and dining, as well as with other travel partners.

AAdvantage members can register their frequent flyer account and a credit card with AAdvantage Dining to earn between 3 and 5 miles per dollar at thousands of participating restaurants nationwide. New enrollees can even earn 1,000 bonus miles by spending $25 in their first 30 days.

By making purchases through American Airlines' online shopping portal, AAdvantage members can rake in multiple bonus points per dollar at participating retailers like Macy's and Nike, too. While most of these deals tend to be around 1x to 3x bonus miles per dollar spent, in some cases, they can go up to 30x per dollar.

The airline fields a number of rental car partnerships, too, so AAdvantage members enjoy discounts on bookings and can earn bonus miles per day or per reservation. Some partner hotel nights and cruise fares also accrue bonus miles.

Convert hotel points into American Airlines miles

Thanks to American Airlines' hotel agreements, AAdvantage members can convert certain types of hotel points, including World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG Rewards points, into AAdvantage miles, too. However, this is usually not a great deal thanks to dismal conversion ratios that typically require five or six hotel points to one airline mile.

The one exception is Marriott Bonvoy points. They convert at a ratio of 3:1 and when you transfer 60,000 to an airline partner, you end up with a 5,000-mile bonus. Put simply, if you transferred 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to American Airlines, you'd end up with 25,000 miles — 20,000 from the 3:1 conversion plus 5,000 bonus miles on top.

Sign up for American Airlines AAdvantage promotions

You probably already get more emails — subscriptions, newsletters, advertisements, spam — than you know what to do with. However, signing up for American Airlines' promotional emails could help you stay on top of any bonuses or other deals with which to earn bonus miles.

For instance, AAdvantage recently emailed all members a holiday "gift." Some of these were lounge passes or upgrades to Main Cabin Extra seating. But other members got bonus miles. Plus, everyone who "unwrapped" their gift was also entered to earn one of six 500,000-mile prizes, so it never hurts to sign up and see what's offered.

Leverage your World of Hyatt status

Back in 2019, World of Hyatt and American Airlines began a partnership to allow their elite loyalty members both to enjoy reciprocal benefits and earn bonus airline miles and hotel points on flights and stays. By linking your accounts, you can earn 1 bonus AAdvantage mile for every eligible dollar spent on qualifying Hyatt stays and experiences (on top of the Hyatt points you earn), and AAdvantage members with Platinum elite status and higher can accelerate their progress toward World of Hyatt status as well.

Redeeming AAdvantage miles

As with earning American Airlines miles, there are plenty of ways to use AAdvantage miles when the time comes. You can cash them in for award flights on American and its partners, redeem them for gift cards, convert them into hotel points, and more. The value of your miles will depend on exactly how you use them, and can vary a lot.

Booking American Airlines award flights

American Airlines' award chart used to have a variety of reward levels, including AAnytime and MileSAAVer options (the latter being the cheapest. However, the carrier recently eliminated these different levels and now only offers Flight Awards, with mileage requirements that can fluctuate from route to route and day to day.

The current award chart simply shows you the minimum mileage you'll need for a flight, depending on the destination. Here are some examples for one-way flights:

Flights within the contiguous 48 states and to Canada: Main cabin awards from 7,500 miles; business/first starting at 15,000 miles
Contiguous U.S. to Hawaii or Alaska: Main cabin starting at 20,000 miles; premium economy from 40,000; business/first at 60,000
Contiguous U.S. to Europe: Main cabin starting at 25,o00 miles; premium economy at 50,000; business/first at 75,000

Redeem AAdvantage miles for partner flights

Of course, it can be fun to redeem your American Airlines miles for flights on excellent partners like Finnair and Japan Airlines, too. American's partner award chart mileage values are more fixed in these cases since the airline only has access to saver-level award seats on other carriers. The number of miles you'll need will be based on the specific regions of travel (e.g. North America, Europe, Asia, etc.).

Here's the range of prices for a one-way award in each cabin class.

Economy: 12,500 to 40,000 miles
Premium economy: 22,500 to 65,000 miles
Business class: 25,000 to 80,000 miles
First class: 50,000 to 120,000 miles

With partner awards in general, you'll get the most value from two specific strategies. Redeem miles for short-haul flights that would otherwise be very expensive — such as quick hops within Australia on Qantas or within Asia on Cathay Pacific — or look to long-haul international flights in business or first class.

Business class on Qatar Airways to the Middle East or Africa for just 70,000 or 75,000 miles each way, respectively, or Cathay Pacific business class from the U.S. to Hong Kong at 70,000 miles are both steals. Avoid British Airways since taxes and fees on its flights, including award tickets, are exorbitant.

Booking upgrades or for more legroom

It's also possible to redeem American Airlines miles for upgrades on American Airlines and American Eagle flights, although the value of doing so usually isn't great and requires both miles and a cash co-pay in most cases.

If you're flying from North America to Hong Kong, Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, or New Zealand, for instance, expect to pay 25,000 miles plus $350 each way to upgrade from discount economy or premium economy to business class, which is pretty steep. Partner upgrades may also be available from certain fare classes on British Airways and Iberia flights.

Finally, you might also be able to upgrade from a regular Main Cabin economy seat to a Main Cabin Extra seat with a few inches more legroom using miles. The cost of doing so will vary based on your specific ticket, fare, and flight.

Other ways to redeem American Airlines miles

There's an assortment of other options for cashing in those hard-earned American Airlines miles if you so choose. But before you do, be warned that none of them will yield a great value for your miles, so reconsider before clicking redeem.

Admirals Club membership

Rather than paying cash to join the Admirals Club (or getting the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®), you can redeem miles for it. Depending on your elite level and whether you're just joining or renewing for a subsequent year, a membership costs between $500 and $650. Instead, you could cash in 50,000 to 65,000 miles — a value of 1 cent apiece, which isn't that great.

Hotel stays and car rentals or vacation packages

Thanks to American Airlines' travel partnerships, AAdvantage members can also use miles directly for some car rentals and hotel bookings as well as vacation packages. You tend to get less than 1 cent per mile in value via any of these avenues, too.

Newspapers and charitable donations

Among the various other redemption options that don't include travel are newspaper subscriptions and charitable donations. As with the other non-flight redemptions on this list, these choices are usually best avoided since you don't tend to get a lot of bang for your miles, and you generally need to redeem in increments of 1,000 miles.

Tips for maximizing miles

Thanks to American Airlines' various banking, airline, and other partnerships, it's relatively easy to earn AAdvantage miles both traveling and on everyday purchases. Likewise, the airline makes it simple to redeem your miles for everything from nearly-free award flights to gift cards and magazine subscriptions.

As with any rewards-related calculation, though, do your math and make sure you get enough value from the miles you cash in to justify doing so. Otherwise, it might be better to hang onto them a little while longer in the hopes of scoring something better, like an award ticket in first or business class once you start traveling again.

In the meantime, you could consider signing up for an American Airlines co-branded credit card to rack up even more miles for when you're ready to use them.

AAdvantage Rewards frequently asked questions

How can I earn AAdvantage miles?

American Airlines customers earn AAdvantage miles by flying with American Airlines or partner airlines, using AAdvantage co-branded credit cards, and participating in shopping and dining programs.

What can I redeem my AAdvantage miles for?

AAdvantage miles are best used for travel on American Airlines or other partner airlines with direct relationships with American Airlines, or within the Oneworld alliance. But miles can also be used for hotel stays, gift card redemptions, and various other options.

What are the AAdvantage elite membership tiers and their benefits?

AAdvantage elite status tiers range from Gold to Platinum, Platinum Pro, and top-tier Executive Platinum. Each tier offers progressively enticing benefits such as bonus miles on flights, priority boarding, free checked bags, and complimentary access to better seats and upgrades.

How can I maximize my AAdvantage miles?

Make the most of your AAdvantage miles by booking American flights on co-branded American Airlines credit cards, and find the best redemptions by learning how to leverage alliance partners and other strategies to book first- and business-class flights on American Airlines and partner airlines.

Are there any strategies for reaching elite status faster?

The best way to quickly earn status involves flying exclusively with American Airlines and partners to accumulate qualifying miles. You can also take advantage of elite status challenges or promotions and put all of your spending on AAdvantage credit cards that earn elite qualifying miles on purchases.

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