Decades ago, American Airlines invented the modern frequent flier program. Today, their AAdvantage program continues to provide frequent fliers and holders of its AAdvantage credit card competitive ways to earn free travel. As is the case with most frequent flier programs, the value of America AAdvantage miles is determined by how a customer chooses to redeem them. Miles can be redeemed for air travel with American Airlines and its partners or for other types of awards, though the strongest value lay in flight redemption options.

When redeeming miles for flights operated by American Airlines, customers are subjected to a three tiered mileage chart. The MileSAAver off-peak awards are the least expensive and only apply to economy class travel on limited dates. The MileSAAver Peak awards follow traditional airline award pricing and are available year round in all classes of service. For example, a domestic round trip economy award is 25,000 miles, and first class is 50,000.

The greatest value is returned on premium class international awards. Finally, American offers its AAnytime awards that offer last minute seat availability for double the miles. Fortunately, AAnytime peak awards are more readily available than the equivalent award on most major carriers, greatly enhancing the value of customer’s miles.

Beyond traditional awards, holders of the American Airlines credit card are eligible to book reduced mileage awards to destinations in the continental United States. These offers are published quarterly can present excellent value.

American also offers upgrade awards that require both mileage and a co-pay. Upgrade awards can make sense when a highly discounted economy class ticket is available, but not a MileSAAver award. Since partner upgrade awards can only be redeemed for full fare tickets, these awards make little sense unless a discounted ticket is unavailable.

American also offers Dynamic Air awards for travelers with elite status. The mileage required is based on the cost of the ticket and generally costs between .9 and 1.5 cents per mile. This is a poor use of miles unless a traveler is redeeming excess miles for routes where MileSAAver awards are not available and should thus be avoided unless maximizing AAdvantage mile value is a non-issue.

American Airlines miles are also very valuable for awards with over 20 airline partners including OneWorld alliance partners. Unfortunately British Airways – its largest partner – charges unusually high fuel surcharges that can represent a significant percentage of the cost of an economy ticket. Otherwise, these All Airline awards are subject to a single tier similar to the MileSAAver Peak and Off-peak charts. Finally, there is also a OneWorld airlines award chart that is mileage based and only applies to travel on OneWorld partners.

One nice thing about all awards from American Airlines is that they are booked on a one way basis. This allows passengers to utilize awards at different mileage levels and for open-jaw itineraries. It is even possible to combine a one way award with another paid or award itinerary on other carriers. This little convenience opens up reward opportunities for consumers who don’t earn enough miles to qualify for full flights, making this program user friendly to not so frequent flyers.

Apart from the benefits the AAdvantage program provides to consumers who don’t necessarily fly often, the ability to utilize miles with a solid group of partners at very reasonable award rates makes this particular program more user friendly than that of other large legacy airlines.

For additional information about the AAdvantage credit card, please see the information table below or visit the rewards credit card section.

Similar Posts:

Share