American Airlines AAdvantage: What to Know – NerdWallet

Founded in 1930, American Airlines is one of America’s three “legacy” carriers and one of the most visible brands in aviation. The airline’s loyalty program is called AAdvantage.

American is the dominant carrier at its home airport, Dallas-Fort Worth, and also operates hubs in Charlotte, Chicago-O’Hare, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (LaGuardia and JFK), Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington-National. Today, the airline operates an average of 6,700 flights every day, serving 350 destinations across 50 countries.

In this handy guide, we’ll introduce all the different ways you could earn and redeem AAdvantage miles. We will also discuss elite status and AA’s Oneworld and independent airline partners.

American Airlines frequent flyer sign-up

Before you can start earning miles with American Airlines, you’ll need to sign up for an AAdvantage frequent flyer account. It’s free to join, and you can register here.

How much American Airlines miles are worth

To determine the value of reward miles, we compared cash prices and reward redemptions for economy round-trip routes across several destinations and dates. We divided the cost of the cash ticket by the cost of the reward ticket to determine a “cent per mile” value for each flight, then averaged this value across several flights and dates.

» Learn more: Credit cards that earn AAdvantage miles

The value of American miles has increased steadily over the last few years. This is due in part to rising airfare costs, which drive the relative value of miles up, but also due to improvements in the overall value of the miles themselves.

American Airlines vs. competitors

How to earn AAdvantage miles

The most obvious way to earn AAdvantage miles is by flying on American or with one of its partner airlines. But there are actually dozens of ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles, which include hotel stays, car rentals, vacations, cruises, dining, shopping portals, various promotions or simply by buying miles (though that last one is usually a bad idea).

Although they’re called “miles,” you earn them based on how much money you spend on tickets, not how far you fly.

In general, AAdvantage miles will expire if you go 18 months without earning or redeeming miles on American or one of its partner airlines. However, as of July 1, 2020, members under age 21 are exempt from mileage expiration. Also, if you have an American Airlines-branded credit card, your miles will remain valid as long as you continue to use the card.

Earning on American: The number of miles you earn for a flight depends on how much you spend on the ticket (in base fare and carrier-imposed fees). If you have AAdvantage elite status, you will earn additional bonus miles for your trip.

Note: You earn miles only on airfare and airline fees. Government-imposed taxes and fees do not earn miles.

Earning on other airlines: American’s partner airlines in the Oneworld alliance distribute frequent flyer miles based on which class your tickets are booked in. The cheapest economy tickets may earn only 25% to 50% of flown miles, while premium economy, business class and first class tickets can earn 100% base miles and a cabin bonus between 10% and 50%.

However, not all routes or flights may qualify. If you buy a flight on a booking code not listed as eligible for awards, you will not earn any award miles for your flight. Also, some routes or affiliate airlines may not earn miles. To better understand how many miles you could earn with American’s Oneworld partners, visit the American website.

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

You also get a great sign-up bonus to start: Earn 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after making $2,500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

The annual fee is $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 relatively early and find space for your carry-on.

• 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. See partner hotels and earning rules.

• 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.

• Auto rentals: Most major car rental agencies offer an option to earn AAdvantage miles. See the rules here.

• Fuel: Via a partnership with Shell’s Fuel Rewards program, AAdvantage members earn 2 miles for every gallon of gas bought at Shell stations. Members also get 100 miles on their first fill-up after linking their AAdvantage account to Fuel Rewards.

• Shopping: When you shop online through the AAdvantage eShopping mall, you earn miles for every dollar you spend at more than 950 retailers.

• Vacations: When booking a flight and hotel through AA Vacations, you could earn extra miles.

• Cruises: You could earn 3 miles per $1 (up to 30,000 AAdvantage miles) for booking a cruise through AA Cruises.

In most cases, we recommend you stay away from buying miles, as it’s an expensive way to accrue them.

Miles generally cost 2.95 cents each, although American regularly offers sales that work out to a better value. However, even with any discounts, purchasing miles should be a last resort (e.g., only do this to top up your account for an award redemption or to keep miles from expiring).

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 can redeem by booking through American’s website. Some airlines do not show up on AA.com, and in those cases you need to call American Airlines and ask to waive the phone booking fee.

American Airlines now has a fully dynamic award chart, with pricing varied based on demand. Even so, American has published an “award chart” showing what you can expect to pay by region and fare class, but there are no guarantees:

Using your AAdvantage miles to book a hotel with points yields a low value.

In one search for a hotel in Miami, the value of using the miles for a hotel room was around 0.8 cent per mile, which is below our 1.7 cents valuation, only a little more than half the value of using the miles for domestic travel. A better bet would be to use hotel points or rewards earned from a cash-back credit card for hotel bookings.

For example, a two-night stay at the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa is $963.

If you were to book this using AA miles, it would cost 125,400 AA miles.

This redemption would result in a valuation of only 0.8 cent per mile.

American Airlines change and cancellation policies

American has loosened its change and cancellation policies, making it easier for flyers to revise their flights. The airline no longer charges change fees for most fares (except basic economy) on domestic flights, short-haul international flights and many long-haul international flights. However, you may still be on the hook for any fare differences if your new flight is more expensive. For flights booked with miles, you’ll also be able to change or cancel your reservation without any fees.

If you bought basic economy, you will not be able to make changes to your itinerary.

American offers actual refunds — no matter what type of fare you bought — on many flights delayed by more than four hours. If your American Airlines flight is delayed, you can get your money back if you choose not to go through with the flight. If you wait it out, you might be able to get compensation for a hotel room if the new flight is the following day.

If your American Airlines flight is canceled outright, American typically automatically books you on what it assumes is the next best available flight (though that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best for you). Check the American Airlines app or call American Airlines reservations to make adjustments to the flight you actually want. And as is the case for delayed flights, you are entitled to a full refund for flights that are canceled if you opt not to take another on American Airlines.

American Airlines partners

American Airlines has dozens of partnerships with other airlines all around the world, opening opportunities to earn and redeem AAdvantage miles on non-American Airlines flights. Plus, if you hold American Airlines elite status, you can sometimes get similar elite status benefits on those partner airlines, too. 

American Airlines is a founding member of the Oneworld Alliance. Oneworld partner airlines are:

• Royal Jordanian Airlines.

On airline partners outside the Oneworld alliance, your ability to earn 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:

Although you can redeem miles for most of these partners on AA.com, you will have to call the airline to book some awards. Awards not bookable online include:

AAdvantage program elite status

Anyone can sign up for the AAdvantage program, but basic membership only comes with a frequent flyer number and an account where your points accumulate. The real goodies come when you earn AAdvantage elite status. And the best of the best earn American Airlines Executive Platinum elite status.

For many, the best perk of AAdvantage elite status is the opportunity to get an American Airlines upgrade. Sure, you can pay in cash or miles to upgrade your flight to business or first class. But, once you earn elite status with American, you’re eligible to receive unlimited upgrades for domestic, Caribbean and Central American flights. With Executive Platinum status, you can even get upgraded on award tickets.

Oneworld partners may also offer some benefits to American elite status members.

Say goodbye to elite qualifying dollars, elite qualifying miles and elite qualifying segments. American AAdvantage members now earn status by flying, using an AAdvantage credit card or spending with an American Airlines partner. There is now only one status metric — Loyalty Points — and the earning system is really simple.

Each eligible mile earned equals 1 Loyalty Point. There are three ways to earn Loyalty Points:

• Traveling on American Airlines, Oneworld or any other partner airline.

• Making purchases on American Airlines AAdvantage credit cards.

• Shopping, dining and spending money with American’s partners, including AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, SimplyMiles and more.

Since there are so many more ways to earn status (without even stepping foot on a plane), the number of points needed to reach the top status levels are high.

Which American Airlines fare class should I choose?

The American Airlines fare classes are (in order from swankiest to stingiest) are:

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. Cards that earn AAdvantage miles include:

• 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 intro for the first year, then $99.

• 2 miles on every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases.

• 2 miles on every $1 spent on telecommunications services, car rental merchants and gas stations.

• 1 mile per $1 spent on everything else.

• Annual fee: $0 intro for the first year, then $99.

• 4 miles on every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases. After spending $150,000 in a calendar year, you’ll earn 5 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases for the remainder of the calendar year.

• 10 miles on every $1 spent on eligible car rentals booked through aa.com/cars and eligible hotels booked through aa.com/hotels.

• 1 mile per $1 spent on everything else.

• Annual fee: $595 — not waived in the first year.

• 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases.

• 2 miles for every $1 spent at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services.

• 1 mile per $1 spent on everything else.

• 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases.

• 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.

• 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.

The information related to CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.