How To Redeem American Airlines Miles

As the oldest frequent-flyer program in existence, American Airlines AAdvantage offers many ways to earn and redeem miles. Whether you’re traveling or at home, you can boost your mileage balance through everyday activities. And when it comes time to redeem your rewards, American’s numerous partners can help you fly anywhere in the world.

Here’s a guide to the many ways to earn, and the most valuable ways to redeem AAdvantage miles. We’ll also highlight award redemptions that tend to provide the best value when using your miles.

What are AAdvantage miles?

AAdvantage is the American Airlines loyalty rewards program. Introduced in 1981, AAdvantage was the first airline loyalty program and remains one of the most popular. The AAdvantage program offers the ability to redeem miles on more than 20 partner airlines, allowing frequent flyers to travel almost anywhere in the world.

How to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles

There’s an impressive list of ways to earn AAdvantage miles, from flights to credit cards, dining, hotel stays, online shopping and surveys. In a pinch, you also can buy miles for yourself or others. Here are the options.

Earn AAdvantage miles from credit cards

Both Barclays and Citi issue American Airlines co-branded credit cards. We’ll discuss these in detail below, but here’s a quick overview of their earning rates and how you can accrue miles on your daily spending.

• AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®
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  The information for the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : Earn 2 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases.
• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®
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  The information for the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : Earn 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services, 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 AAdvantage mile per $1 on all other purchases.
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
  *
  
  
  The information for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : Earn 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, restaurants and gas stations and 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
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  The information for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : Earn 10 AAdvantage miles per $1 on eligible car rentals booked through aa.com/cars and eligible hotels booked through aa.com/hotels, 4 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases. Then after spending $150,000 in purchases in a calendar year, cardmembers will earn a total of 5 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases for the remainder of that calendar year, 1 mile per $1 on other purchases. 
• CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®
  *
  
  
  The information for the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : Earn 2 miles for every $1 on cable and satellite providers, select telecommunications merchants, eligible American Airlines purchases, car rentals and gas stations and 1 mile per $1 on other purchases. Also earn 1 loyalty point for every mile earned.

Earn AAdvantage miles from flights

The number of miles you can earn on American Airlines flights depends on your AAdvantage elite status tier, the cost of your ticket and the class in which you’re traveling. For basic economy tickets issued from 2023 on, you’ll earn 2 base miles per $1 spent. For all other tickets, you’ll earn 5 base miles per $1 spent. Your earnings will multiply if you hold elite status — from a 40% bonus as an AAdvantage Gold member to a 120% bonus as a top-tier Executive Platinum member.

If you buy a ticket directly from a partner airline, meaning it doesn’t have an AA ticket number, you’ll earn based on the flight distance plus a potential cabin bonus based on the type of ticket. The exceptions: Flights on Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia use AA’s typical earning rates for AA flights.

Earn on other types of travel

You can also earn AAdvantage miles for hotel stays. Bookings with AAdvantage Hotels will earn up to 5 base miles per $1 spent on bookings with either elite status or an American Airlines credit card — or up to 10 base miles per $1 spent if you have both.

When you search for a hotel on Rocketmiles, the site will show the bonus miles you could earn from the stay. Available properties include boutique and chain hotels.

You also can earn miles by staying with American Airlines hotel partners and choosing to earn AA miles instead of points from that hotel’s own program. You can earn 500 miles per stay with Hyatt or 2 miles per $1 spent with IHG or Marriott hotels.

You also can earn AA miles when renting a car. Through partnerships with Avis and Budget, earn 500 bonus miles and 2 base miles per $1 spent. With AA Cruises, you’ll typically earn 1 mile per $1 spent, though promotions can offer thousands of bonus miles for booking certain cruise lines or itineraries.

If you want to book a vacation package, AA Vacations offers packages with discounts on the overall price and may offer tens of thousands of miles on your reservation.

There also are other ways to earn extra AAdvantage miles when traveling. PreFlight airport parking allows you to earn American Airlines miles at a rate of 1 mile per $1 spent at thousands of parking spots near dozens of airports. If you’d prefer to get a ride to the airport, SuperShuttle offers 50 miles for one-way or 100 miles for round trip bookings. ExecuCar provides private rides and has higher earning rates: 150 miles each way or 300 miles round trip.

If you want extra protection while traveling, Emergency Assistance Plus (EA+), which provides emergency medical and transportation assistance, offers 1,200 AA bonus miles with a membership.

Earn AA miles on non-travel activities

When shopping online, you can click through the AAdvantage shopping portal before making purchases to earn either a fixed number of miles on a purchase or a “per $1 spent” rate that varies by merchant. 

For in-person shopping, SimplyMiles allows you to link your AAdvantage number to your account and add an American Airlines co-branded credit card to your profile. Then you activate offers in your account to earn extra miles on purchases at eligible stores.

Enjoying entertainment and hobbies can pad your miles account as well. For example, earn miles on Ticketmaster purchases through AAdvantage Events or sign up for the Vinesse Wine Club to earn 2,000 bonus miles. 

Even supporting a charity can earn AA miles. For example, a donation to Stand Up To Cancer can earn 10 AAdvantage miles per $1 donated.

Dining out also offers an opportunity to earn. The AAdvantage Dining program offers up to 5 miles per $1 spent on top of the points or miles earned by using the credit card. Just create an account, add any credit card to your profile, and use the card at a participating restaurant. 

Putting gas in your tank offers another chance to fill up your AA miles account at the same time. You can earn 250 AAdvantage miles when you join Fuel Rewards and complete your first fill-up at Shell, then earn 3 miles per gallon of fuel pumped.

And you don’t even need to leave home to earn miles. Those who live in an eligible state can switch their energy or gas provider to NRG, Reliant or Xoom to earn miles for signing up plus more miles on your monthly bill. You can also earn 2,000 miles for every $10,000 of the price of a home you buy or sell through Miles From Home.

There are two more ways to earn miles without traveling that merit a mention. With a Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account, you can choose to earn AA miles instead of cash interest on your account. At present, you’ll earn 2.5 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles for every $1 saved annually. We value AA miles at 1.49 cents apiece, meaning this you earn an effective $3.73 return on each dollar, annually.

Finally, you can earn miles by taking surveys through Miles for Opinions and e-Rewards.

Convert points to AAdvantage miles from other programs

If you have points in other programs, you can convert these into AAdvantage miles. However, the transfer rates tend to offer less-than-optimal value.

• Bilt Rewards: 1,000 points to 1,000 AAdvantage miles.
• Marriott Bonvoy: 30,000 points to 10,000 AAdvantage miles.
• Marriott Vacation Club: 500 points to 8,000 AAdvantage miles (plus a bonus of 4,000 AA miles for every 250 Club Points converted).
• World of Hyatt: 5,000 points to 2,000 AAdvantage miles.
• IHG One Rewards: 10,000 points to 2,000 AAdvantage miles.

Buy AAdvantage miles

If you need more AA miles for an upcoming redemption, you can buy miles. This is generally advisable only in a pinch due to the cost of AA miles.

If you are considering this route, know that AA has been running a 35% discount on purchasing miles for months, with no stated end date in the terms. You can purchase or receive up to 150,000 miles in a year, and the final price for buying the maximum comes in at just under 2.45 cents per mile.

You also can gift miles to others for the same price or transfer miles from another AAdvantage member into your account. You can receive no more than 200,000 miles annually, and the fee is typically 1.5 cents per mile. Transferring miles from others is only worth it if you’ve exhausted other options and need a few more miles for your next flight redemption.

Before you go that route, remember that other AAdvantage members can redeem their miles for a ticket in your name, which could be a much more economical option.

How to redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles

To book flights with your AAdvantage miles, head to AA.com. To redeem your miles, head to AA.com and check the box for “Redeem miles.” Then, fill out your flight search with the number of passengers, dates, and route.

Let’s look at a one-way flight from Miami to New York City. Notice that the results page has prices on a one-week view across the top, which can be helpful if there are lower prices on other dates. Note that the cheapest flight may not be displayed at the top.

Filters at the top allow you to choose itineraries with a preferred number of stops and to filter out nearby airports if you don’t want to see those included.

After choosing your preferred flight, you’ll see a trip summary including the cost in miles, any taxes and fees and information about your flight.

From here, complete your booking by providing the passenger information and paying the cash portion of the ticket with your credit or debit card.

What are American Airlines AAdvantage miles worth?

The value of AA miles depends on how you use them. As a baseline, aim for redemptions where you can get at least 1.49 cents per mile. Here’s an example that shows how to determine the value of an AA miles redemption. 

Consider this American Airlines flight from Dallas–Fort Worth to São Paulo, Brazil. For this nonstop flight, you’ll pay 30,000 miles in economy, 104,500 miles in premium economy, and 140,000 miles in lie-flat business class. You’ll also pay $5.60 in mandatory taxes, regardless of which option you choose.

Now, let’s look at the cash prices for those tickets. You’ll pay $661 to book this same flight in economy, $1,071 in premium economy or $1,802 in business class.

Since you have to pay $5.60 in taxes, we’ll subtract that from the cash price of the ticket, then divide the cash price by the number of miles required to see the value of the miles for each redemption. For the main cabin redemption in this example, that comes out to 2.18 cents per mile while premium economy is 1.02 cents per mile and business class is 1.28 cents per mile. Thus, the most valuable use of miles on this flight is the economy option.

Best ways to use American Airlines AAdvantage miles

Domestic flights for as little as 6,000 miles

American Airlines’ award chart says domestic flights start at 7,500 miles in economy. However, flights are routinely available for 6,000 miles. Sometimes, the best way to find these bargains is clicking the option to “include nearby airports” and flying out of a smaller airport instead of a major hub.

Consider this search from Miami (MIA) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) that returned flights at 6,000 miles in economy and as low as 16,000 miles in domestic first class, though the cheapest options include departing from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) or West Palm Beach (PBI) and sometimes flying into Milwaukee International Airport (MKE) instead of Chicago O’Hare. With cash prices on these same tickets above $200 in economy, this presents excellent value if you have flexibility to depart from or arrive at a nearby airport.

American Airlines flights to the Caribbean or Central America

Depending on which island you’re heading to, flights to the Caribbean can become expensive when there are few airlines competing on that route. Flights to Central America tend to have more competition and therefore see lower prices, but not always.

The good news, however, is that AA charges as little as 10,000 miles in economy and 20,000 miles in domestic first class on these routes, such as this example from Newark (EWR) to St. Lucia’s Hewanorra International Airport (UVF). For tickets that can cost hundreds of dollars each way, this is an excellent way to redeem AAdvantage miles.

AA flights from the West Coast to Europe

Many airline programs use distance-based pricing, meaning you pay more miles the further you fly. AAdvantage uses a zone system, where flying from one zone to another has a set price, no matter where you fly from or to within the zones. For example, flying from the West Coast to Europe will cost the same in AAdvantage miles as departing from the East Coast and taking a shorter flight.

Economy flights on this route cost 30,000 miles whether you fly with American Airlines or British Airways. However, AA’s dynamic pricing on its own flights means business-class awards can be extremely pricey.

British Airways flights business-class flights can be found for the standard 57,500 miles quite regularly, but they come with high fuel surcharges, often hundreds of dollars, that make them much less attractive than at first glance.

Business class to the Middle East or Africa

While you can book awards from the U.S. to the Middle East or Africa on numerous carriers with your AAdvantage miles, the award-winning Qatar Airways Qsuite is probably your best way to fly between these regions. At 70,000 miles per passenger, you can fly this amazing product between any of Qatar Airways hubs in North America to Doha.

And for just 5,000 miles more, you could extend your trip all the way down to Johannesburg. If you do, take a look at connecting through Doha. American Airlines permits stopovers of less than 24 hours, allowing you to explore Doha — plus take a break before you board another flight.

Partner flights to Europe in business class

Another valuable use of AAdvantage miles is flying business class from the U.S. or Canada to Europe, such as this option on Finnair from New York-JFK to Helsinki. It costs 57,500 miles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees.

Be careful which partner you choose on flights to Europe, however. You’ll pay extremely high fees if you fly through London with British Airways.

First class to Japan

If you can find an available seat, paying 80,000 miles per person for true first class to Japan on Japan Airlines (JAL) is sure to be a memorable redemption, such as this option from San Francisco to Tokyo-Haneda.

Fly to or through Morocco

When Royal Air Maroc joined the Oneworld alliance, American Airlines began classifying Morocco as part of Europe on its award charts. That can create some interesting options for using your AAdvantage miles for 30,000 miles per person in economy and 57,500 in business class.

And since Morocco is part of AA’s Europe zone, you could continue from Morocco to Europe on the same ticket without paying extra miles, or stop in Morocco for a few days, then continue to Europe without paying the extra miles other programs will charge for flights to Africa or flights between Africa and Europe.

AA flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America

Another economical option for your AAdvantage miles: flights to the Caribbean, Mexico or Central America. Starting at just 10,000 miles per person in economy, using miles on flights that can be expensive around holidays or peak travel seasons will provide excellent value. Here’s an example from Dallas-Fort Worth to San José, Costa Rica.

Upgrade a cash ticket with miles

American Airlines allows you to use AAdvantage miles to upgrade your paid ticket, but this is available only when flying on American or American Eagle-operated flights if you are not flying basic economy.

This chart shows what you’ll pay to upgrade. For example, if you’re flying within the continental U.S. and have a full-fare economy ticket, you could upgrade for 5,000 miles per person. And since American Airlines doesn’t consider premium economy a different cabin, the next class of service becomes business class. 

You’ll get the best value by upgrading longer flights, such as from economy to business class on routes to South America, Asia, Oceania or Europe for just 15,000 miles per person. And it’s worth reviewing the fare class and rules of your ticket against the chart here to determine if it’s worth using AA miles to upgrade on your next flight.

Best credit cards for American Airlines AAdvantage miles

You can check out our guide to the best American Airlines credit cards for the full details, perks and earning rates of each AA credit card. But here’s an overview of the cards that can earn you more AAdvantage miles.

• AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®
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  The information for the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : $99 annual fee and earns 2 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases. Offers a welcome bonus of 50,000 miles after making a first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days of account opening.
• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®
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  The information for the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : $0 annual fee and earns 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services, 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases and 1 AAdvantage mile per $1 on all other purchases. Offers a welcome bonus of 10,000 miles and receive a $50 statement credit after making $500 in purchases within the first three months of account opening.
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
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  The information for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : $99, waived for the first 12 months and earns 2 AAdvantage miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, restaurants and gas stations and 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases. Offers a welcome bonus of 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles after spending $2,500 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
  *
  
  
  The information for the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : $595 and earns 10 AAdvantage miles per $1 on eligible car rentals booked through aa.com/cars and eligible hotels booked through aa.com/hotels, 4 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases. Then after spending $150,000 in purchases in a calendar year, cardmembers will earn a total of 5 miles per $1 on eligible American Airlines purchases for the remainder of that calendar year, 1 mile per $1 on other purchases. Offers a welcome bonus of 70,000 miles after spending $7,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
• CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®
  *
  
  
  The information for the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® has been collected independently by Blueprint. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
  
  : $99, waived for the first 12 months and earns 2 miles for every $1 on cable and satellite providers, select telecommunications merchants, eligible American Airlines purchases, car rentals and gas stations and 1 mile per $1 on other purchases. Also earn 1 loyalty point for every mile earned. Offers a welcome bonus of 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first four months of account opening.

American Airlines transfer partners

You can move points from several other rewards programs to AAdvantage. Unfortunately, this list doesn’t include any of the major flexible rewards programs from banks, such as American Express Membership Rewards® or Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

But you can transfer Bilt Rewards to AAdvantage at a 1-to-1 rate, meaning 1,000 Bilt points become 1,000 AA miles in increments of 1,000.

It’s also possible to move points from several hotel programs to AAdvantage. Other than Marriott, the value is quite poor here:

• Marriott Bonvoy: 3-to-1 ratio.
• World of Hyatt: 5-to-2 ratio.
• IHG One Rewards: 5-to-1 ratio.
• Marriott Vacation Club: 1-to-16 ratio.

With Marriott Vacation Club, you’ll also receive 4,000 bonus AA miles for every 250 Vacation Club points converted in a single transaction.

Final verdict

With numerous options for earning and redeeming your American Airlines miles, the AAdvantage program can help you fly to nearly any point in the world. However, the use of dynamic pricing on many flights can lead to frustration, as the “starting at” price isn’t always available. Additionally, some flights will have a much higher cash copay than others, so flexibility can help you find the best deal.

You can earn miles through credit cards, hotels and rental cars, online shopping — and flights, of course. And you can redeem your miles for flights not just on American Airlines but also on its nearly two dozen partners.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)