I’m a loyal Delta flyer, avoiding American Airlines as much as possible. Yet I’m always looking for new ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Yes, you read that correctly.
Between its middling on-time record and increasingly cramped planes without seatback screens, flying with AA isn’t every traveler’s first choice. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about American AAdvantage miles – far from it.
Compared to the likes of Delta and United, American and its AAdvantage frequent flyer program have some serious upside that make these miles far too valuable to ignore. That’s especially true because they’re not just good for booking flights on American Airlines, but global partners like Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines, too.
With some of the best airline partners in the world, bookable at rates lower than you’ll find with virtually any other carrier, AAdvantage miles are arguably some of the most valuable of all. Here’s why you should be earning AAdvantage miles, too.
Premium Airline Partners
Don’t want to fly American? No problem.
One of the best parts about AAdvantage miles – and all airline miles, really – is that they’re good for more than just booking flights on American Airlines itself. Airline alliances and partnerships open up the world of using your miles, making them far more valuable and versatile. And if you ask us, American has some of the best partners out there.
Whether you want to fly Cathay Pacific to Asia, Qantas to Australia, Finnair to Scandinavia, or even Etihad to the Middle East, AAdvantage miles can take you there. But a few of AA’s partners stand out more than the others…
From spacious seats in economy in the far back of the plane to incomparable service in first class at the front, Japan Airlines is one of the best ways to fly from the U.S. to Asia. You can book these flights from 35,000 AAdvantage miles each way in economy, 60,000 in business class, and 80,000 for first class. Depending on the route you’re flying, you might even get lucky and wind up in an extra-large suite like this.
And if you want to fly the best airline in the world, your best bet is … you guessed it, AAdvantage miles. Booking flights on Qatar Airways is one of our favorite ways to use AA miles – especially if you’re booking Qatar’s Qsuites business class.
The problem? As Qsuites have gotten more popular and easier to book, finding availability from U.S. cities is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. But if you do, American’s prices are tough to beat.
On paper, you can book Qsuites between the U.S. and the Middle East for just 70,000 miles each way. Want to connect on to bucket list destinations like the Maldives (MLE) or even all the way down to South Africa It’s just 5,000 miles more: 75,000 AAdvantage miles to get to Cape Town (CPT), Johannesburg (JNB), or practically anywhere in Africa.
But just because it’s gotten harder (or nearly impossible) to book Qatar’s business class to and from the U.S. doesn’t mean you can’t still fly Qsuites with AAdvantage miles. If you’re making your way around the world, 40,000 miles are all you’ll need for a business class flight from Qatar’s hub in Doha (DOH) all the way to Hong Kong, Thailand, or anywhere else in Southeast Asia.
Building a flight like this into a bigger trip is a great way to check out one of the world’s best business class seats on the cheap.
Read our full Qatar Qsuites review from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Doha (DOH)!
Great Award Chart
Great partner airlines don’t mean much if they cost an arm and a leg to book. Luckily, that’s not the case with American.
Even as American-operated flights have moved to a dynamic pricing model, where more expensive flights generally cost more AAdvantage miles, you’ll still find a standard award chart for booking partners. Think of this award chart as a cheat sheet for how many miles it costs to get from point A to point B. Rates depend on where your origin and destination fall on the map – not on the cash price of a flight or how many miles you’re flying … and that opens the door to a goldmine of deals flying those five-star partner airlines.
Overall, American’s award rates are on par or better than what you’ll find using other airline mileage programs. Here’s what that award chart looks like for one-way flights on one of American’s partner airlines departing from the U.S.
Follow the award chart, and you’ll see that an economy flight on Oneworld partner airlines from the U.S. to the South Pacific costs 40,000 each way. Meanwhile, a business class flight from the U.S. to Europe will run you 57,500 AAdvantage miles on British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, and other partner airlines.
Here are some of our favorite sweet spots in AA’s partner award chart:
- Flying from the U.S. to Japan (Asia Region 1) in business class for just 60,000 AAdvantage miles is a steal.
- The cost to fly from the U.S. to Africa in Qatar Airways economy is 40,000 miles each way – the exact same amount as the nonstop flight to the Middle East.
- Or do it in business class for 75,000 miles – just another 5,000 miles over the nonstop rate to the Middle East.
- If you’re making your way around the world, 40,000 miles are all you’ll need for a business class flight from the the Middle East to China, Hong Kong, or Southeast Asia.
- Or do it in first class with Etihad’s Apartments for just 50,000 miles!
And keep in mind that this award chart doesn’t just apply to nonstop flights.
Free Connecting Flights (Maybe)
While you might be accustomed to forking over big bucks for a flight that starts from smaller airports, that’s not the case with AAdvantage miles. All that matters is that your origin is part of the same region. Even with several connections, it won’t change the price in miles.
This means that in the eyes of American, flying business class from tiny Peoria (PIA) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to Hong Kong (HKG) is the same as the nonstop flight to Southeast Asia – both cost 70,000 AAdvantage miles. Even with a longer flight – say, starting from Duluth (DLH), Minnesota to Chicago, or even San Francisco (SFO) to Chicago – it will price out the same.
The same principle holds true for your final destination. So long as the regions remain the same, the price doesn’t change. So you could fly from Chicago to Hong Kong and onward to Hanoi (HAN) for the same 70,000-mile rate because your award is still from the U.S. to Asia Region 2 – even with a connection.
Thrifty Tip: With more complicated itineraries like these, search for each segment of your trip individually at AA.com to confirm each flight is bookable with miles. Once you’ve done that, search for the entire itinerary, with your initial starting point in “From” and final destination in “To.”
That’s true whether you’re using AA miles to fly American itself, one of its partner airlines, or a mix of the two. They’re AAdvantage miles, so American sets the rules for how many you need.
So, while the nonstop flight in Japan Airlines business class from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) will cost you 60,000 miles each way…
… you can often start your search from your home airport and fly through Dallas en route to Tokyo, and it still costs just 60,000 AAdvantage miles total.
That ability to book from airports big and small nationwide is a serious differentiator for redeeming American miles. It’s rarely, if ever, possible when booking through Delta or United.
Thrifty Tip: If you’re booking a mixed-carrier ticket (with one segment on American and another on a partner airline), you may need to put your reservation on hold and then call in to get it ticketed.
A Powerful Website
Some airlines make it difficult to find the flights to use your miles, with clunky search engines that only show one day at a time – but that’s not the case with American.
Whether you’re looking to use American Airlines miles or trying to book one of its partner carriers through another airline program, American has one of the best sites for finding award availability, period. By allowing you to filter for nonstops and specific cabins and get a monthlong view of award availability, it’s fairly easy to zero in on the flights you can actually book with your miles.
Read more: How to Find & Book the Best American AAdvantage Miles Deals
Deals on Domestic (and Some International) Flights
American has an easy way to score cheap domestic flights using your miles. Over the last few years, we’ve seen American slash award pricing for its own flights.
Unfortunately, AA doesn’t publish a list of which routes are eligible for this lower pricing – much like Delta SkyMiles flash sales, they’re unpredictable. Lucky for you, these discounted fares are becoming more and more widespread.
But it’s not just domestic flights. Over the last year or two, we’ve seen these discounted awards spread to international flights with dirt-cheap pricing to Europe, Australia, South America, and beyond. One of the best award alerts we’ve sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members was one of these deals: Roundtrip flights to New Zealand for just 10,000 AAdvantage miles!
There are even some cheaper fares for first and business class cabins on American, like these 64,000-mile one-way fares to London-Heathrow (LHR) in American Airlines first class.
Put Your Award on Hold
Not sure you can get the time off work but worried about award space disappearing while you ask? Need to check things over with a spouse or travel pal before forking over a small mountain of miles? American has you covered.
American is one of the few airlines in the world that allows you to put award tickets on hold for up to five days. It’s actually a bit longer: In our experience, your hold will end five calendar days later at 11:59 p.m. local time.
Better yet, you can easily do so online with any award ticket, whether it’s an AA flight or flying with a partner airline. And best of all, it’s completely free.
Just log into your account, search for the flights you want, click through to checkout, and select the option to place the reservation on hold. You’ll get an email confirming your flights have been put on hold with the deadline to book or lose your ticket.
Here’s the crazy part: You don’t even need all the miles in your account to put a reservation on hold.
Whether you need to cancel an existing reservation to get the miles you need, wait for a big bonus to finally hit your account, or simply decide to buy a bunch of AAdvantage miles, this hold option is invaluable.
Free Award Cancellation
For years, American had one of the best policies for award tickets, giving you unlimited date, time, and routing changes for free. That meant you could push up (or push back) your flights. Or lock in flights with one airline, then swap to another when award space opened up. You could even change which cities you connect through, so long as your origin and destination remained the same.
While those days are long gone, American has replaced it with something even better: Every ticket booked with American AAdvantage miles can now be canceled for free.
In November 2020, American ditched its usual $150 fee to cancel an award ticket and get your miles back. Prior to the pandemic, that perk was reserved only for American’s top-tier elites. Now, anyone can cancel an award ticket and get a refund for free. Canceling online is simple, whether you’ve booked a flight with American or on a partner carrier.
Cheap Mexico and Caribbean Getaways
If you want to escape to Mexico or the Caribbean, AAdvantage miles can be invaluable.
No U.S. airline has a better network throughout Central America and the Caribbean islands than American. With more than 170 daily flights to 37 destinations in the Caribbean alone, we’re not just talking about the usual hotspots like Cancún (CUN) or the Bahamas (NAS). American even has flights to smaller cities in Mexico like Oaxaca (OAX) or Huatulco (HUX), and smaller Caribbean destinations like St. Martin (SXM), St. Lucia (UVF), and Antigua and Barbuda (ANU), too.
And if you time it right, you can get there for as low as 8,000 AAdvantage miles each way. That’s yet another upside of American’s transition to dynamic award pricing, with rates even lower than the previous norm of 12,500 miles each way.
We’ve seen AAdvantage award sales to Mexico as low as 16,000 miles roundtrip … from airports nationwide!
Get deals like this in your inbox with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
No matter how you approach it, AA miles can be one of the cheapest ways to get to the Caribbean, Mexico, or elsewhere in Central America.
Bottom Line
American Airlines AAdvantage miles have some serious advantages, pun intended.
Between amazing partner award sweet spots, extra flexibility with free cancellations, free award holds, and more, collecting AAdvantage miles is well worth your time – even if you don’t consider yourself an AA flyer.
