American Airlines Earning and Using Miles

Earning Miles on American Airlines

Unlike Continental, American is maintaining (for now) its 500 mile minimum on short flights. This is especially beneficial if you fly them frequently around the Northeast or Texas.

American also has a huge range of partnerships including all the major hotel chains, rental car companies and dozens of retailers. Partner airlines include Oneworld carriers British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Malev Hungarian, Royal Jordanian and Qantas.

Other air partners include Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Air, Brussels Airlines, El Al, Gulf Air, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Airways, and Mexicana.

Using Miles on American Airlines

Like most airlines in an alliance, you can fly to most cities using miles through one of American’s partners.

For most destinations American offers off-peak, peak and Anytime awards (which have no capacity controls). Anytime awards can get extremely expensive (130,000 miles for a first-class domestic ticket), but bargains are available in the off-peak awards. AA will fly you to many cities in South America for just 30,000 miles round trip, and they require only 40,000 miles round trip for a flight to Europe – a steal for some of the far-flung destinations in Eastern Europe.

Unfortunately, in October 2008 they eliminated some of the last great business class deals (including 90,000 miles for a business class ticket to China). They also raised the price for upgrade awards to require a co-payment when upgrading from the least expensive coach seats.

American charges a $5 fee to book an award ticket, a $20 fee to reserve an award ticket over the phone, up to $100 if you book within 21 days of departure, plus $150 if you want to change your flight. While the $5 isn’t going to make anyone go broke, if you book a reward ticket for 5 days from now, then need to change it, your “free” ticket could end up costing more than $250. That’s hardly free.

Learn More About American Airlines AAdvantage

American Airlines AAdvantage Overview
American Airlines Hubs and Routes
American Airlines Earning and Using Miles
American Airlines AAdvantage Elite Status
American Airlines AAdvantage Elite Status Matching