When it comes to the loyalty programs of the “big three” carriers in the United States, I tend to think that American AAdvantage offers the most value when redeeming miles for international premium cabin travel, both in terms of partner airlines and redemption rates.
There are plenty of markets where American AAdvantage has the best pricing for award travel among oneworld programs, while I’d argue the same can’t be said for Delta SkyMiles for SkyTeam awards, and United MileagePlus for Star Alliance awards.
In this post, I’d like to go over the basics of redeeming American Airlines AAdvantage miles. I’ll cover all the details of redemption logistics, and will also share my favorite sweet spot awards.
In this post:
How to earn American AAdvantage miles
If you’re looking to earn American AAdvantage miles, there are lots of ways to acquire these miles, beyond crediting flights to the program:
- There are several co-branded American Airlines credit cards with huge welcome bonuses, including the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review) and Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review)
- The Citi ThankYou program now allows points transfers to American AAdvantage, so you can move over points from cards like the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) and Citi Strata Premier® Card (review).
- You can buy American AAdvantage miles directly, often at a discount
- You can earn American AAdvantage miles with all kinds of non-travel partners, including SimplyMiles, AAdvantage Dining, Bask Bank, and more
- Marriott allows you to convert Bonvoy points into AAdvantage miles at a 3:1 ratio
Keep in mind that with American’s Loyalty Points system, you can even earn elite status with credit card spending. So whether it’s Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro, Platinum, or Gold, you can rack up any tier, as well as a lot of bonus miles, through non-flying means.
Basics of redeeming American AAdvantage miles
Before we talk about the best uses of American AAdvantage miles, let me cover the basic details when it comes to redeeming these miles, ranging from expiration policies, to change and cancelation fees.
American AAdvantage mileage expiration policy
When it comes to the mileage expiration policy, American AAdvantage miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Any mileage earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your miles by a further 24 months.
Furthermore, AAdvantage members under the age of 21, as well as primary cardmembers on a co-branded American Airlines credit card from Barclays or Citi, won’t have their miles expire, regardless of account activity.
American AAdvantage award change & cancelation fees
American AAdvantage has no award change or cancelation fees. This means you can lock in an award ticket in advance, and can then redeposit your miles any time until departure without paying any fees. Your taxes and fees will also be refunded to your original form of payment.
American AAdvantage award booking window
Every frequent flyer program has a different policy when it comes to the timeline of opening award seats. American AAdvantage opens its schedule at most 331 days in advance. That’s not necessarily to say that there will always be award seats that far out, but that’s the earliest that you’ll find award space.
American AAdvantage award carrier imposed surcharges
Some frequent flyer programs are known for imposing hefty carrier imposed surcharges on award tickets. In the case of American AAdvantage, you’ll only pay those when redeeming on British Airways and Iberia — British Airways often has very high fees, while Iberia typically has low fees. Otherwise, you’ll just be on the hook for government taxes and fees.
American AAdvantage award stopover policy
American AAdvantage doesn’t allow stopovers on award tickets. If you do have a stopover, the ticket will just be priced based on the individual segments. For a long haul award, any stop of more than 24 hours would be considered a stopover. Meanwhile on domestic awards, the cutoff is typically six hours for something being considered a stopover.
American AAdvantage award hold policy
American AAdvantage allows award ticket holds, as you can hold an award ticket for up to 24 hours prior to ticketing. When you combine American’s hold policy and its lack of change and cancellation fees on award tickets, I’d argue the program has the industry’s most generous policy when it comes to award ticket flexibility.
American AAdvantage award airline partners
American AAdvantage allows you to redeem miles on all oneworld airlines. In addition to American, this includes Alaska, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Royal Air Maroc, and SriLankan.
In addition to oneworld airlines, you can redeem on Air Tahiti Nui, China Southern, GOL, and Hawaiian Airlines (but not between the lower 48 and Hawaii).
Best uses of American AAdvantage miles
Unlike Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage continues to publish an award chart for travel on partner airlines. Below is what American AAdvantage’s award chart looks like for first and business class redemptions originating in the continental United States on partner airlines.
Contiguous 48 U.S. To: | Business Class | First Class |
|---|---|---|
Contiguous 48 U.S. States | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Canada & Alaska | 30,000 | 55,000 |
Hawaii | 55,000 | 80,000 |
Caribbean | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Mexico | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Central America | 25,000 | 50,000 |
South America Zone 1 | 30,000 | 55,000 |
South America Zone 2 | 57,500 | 85,000 |
Europe | 57,500 | 85,000 |
Middle East / India | 70,000 | 115,000 |
Africa | 75,000 | 120,000 |
Asia Zone 1 | 60,000 | 80,000 |
Asia Zone 2 | 70,000 | 110,000 |
South Pacific | 80,000 | 110,000 |
While you can include American segments on awards with partner airlines, awards exclusively on American tend to have dynamic pricing. Let me share my favorite uses of AAdvantage miles, though before I do, let me say this — I tend to think that virtually any premium cabin partner award ticket option is a great value. That’s the beauty of AAdvantage, because if you can find award availability, you can’t really go wrong.
The challenge is actually finding partner award availability, especially with airlines increasingly limiting award space to members of their own frequent flyer program.
Business or first class to the Middle East & India (70,000 to 115,000 miles)
One area where American AAdvantage miles continue to be among the most valuable is for travel to the Middle East & India. Per American’s award chart, this region includes everything from India to the Maldives to Oman to Sri Lanka. There’s so much beauty in this area, and it’s somewhere that’s otherwise tough to get to on miles.
Best of all, American partners with both Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, and both of them have excellent business class products. Unfortunately at the moment, this award availability can be pretty tough to come by:
- Etihad restricts much of its premium cabin award space to members of its own Etihad Guest program, and you’ll often only find Etihad award availability last minute through American AAdvantage
- Qatar Airways tends to release award availability in spurts, and at the moment doesn’t have much award availability through partner programs; there’s a lot more space if you have Avios, like through the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program
If you ask me, the single most exciting AAdvantage award option originating in North America at the moment is flying Etihad’s A380 first class from Toronto to Abu Dhabi, as that’s pretty readily available at the last minute for 115,000 AAdvantage miles.
Business class to Africa (75,000 miles)
This is an extension of the above concept of going to the Middle East. Africa is one of the toughest continents to get to using miles, and with Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, you potentially have some great access.
While you could fly to Africa on British Airways or Iberia, that would mean you’d have to pay fuel surcharges, and/or wouldn’t get as good of a product. Instead I recommend flying Etihad and Qatar, which have great products and fly to lots of points in Africa (assuming you can find availability — that’s the major catch).
Whether you’re flying to South Africa or Tanzania or Kenya or Rwanda, there are excellent options.
Royal Air Maroc is also a oneworld member, so you can use American miles to fly to Morocco and beyond on the national carrier. Fortunately American considers Morocco to be Europe for the purposes of award pricing, so you’d pay only 57,500 AAdvantage miles for a one-way business class award between the United States and Morocco (which is fair, given what a short flight it is).
Business class to Asia 1 & 2 (60,000-70,000 miles)
In Asia, American AAdvantage’s most useful partnerships are with Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific. For just 60,000 miles you can fly business class to Asia 1 (including Japan and South Korea), while for 70,000 miles you can fly business class to Asia 2 (including China, Singapore, Thailand, etc.).
Unfortunately neither airline is that great about making award space available nowadays:
- Cathay Pacific makes most award space available to members of its own Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program
- Japan Airlines is more inconsistent, but if booking far in advance or close to departure, it’s not impossible to find award space
Great partner award values between other regions
Above I’m focusing on redemption values to & from North America. That’s because a majority of OMAAT readers live in the United States, so that’s going to be the most practical for many. However, I did want to highlight some other fantastic award values between other regions, as this is often where you’ll find the most value, in terms of both pricing and award availability.
Honestly, AAdvantage’s redemption values are consistently the best for awards not touching the United States. Just to give some examples of other great AAdvantage redemption values:
- You can fly between the Middle East and Asia 1 or Asia 2 for just 40,000 AAdvantage miles in business class or 50,000 AAdvantage miles in first class; this could include a 10-hour flight on Qatar Airways or Etihad
- You can fly between the Middle East and Europe for just 42,500 AAdvantage miles in business class or 62,500 AAdvantage miles in first class; this could also be used for a flight on Qatar Airways or Etihad
- You can fly between the South Pacific and Asia 1 or Asia 2 for just 40,000 AAdvantage miles in business class; you could use this for a 10-hour flight on Japan Airlines, Qantas, Fiji Airways, or Air Tahiti Nui
- You can fly between Asia 1 and Asia 2 for just 30,000 AAdvantage miles in business class; this could include quite a long flight between Japan and Southeast Asia
Those are just a few examples, but if anything, you’ll find the value with redeeming AAdvantage miles outside of North America is even better. I’d argue that it’s hard not to get good value with AAdvantage miles between other regions. Best of all, I find award availability on the Gulf carriers to be significantly better for itineraries not touching North America.
American first & business class flight awards
While AAdvantage continues to publish an award chart for travel on partner airlines, the program now has fully dynamic award pricing for travel on American. American doesn’t release much award availability that’s also bookable through partner programs (generally referred to as “saver” availability), though the airline does often have reasonably priced long haul first and business class flight awards through AAdvantage.
Frankly with how limited a lot of partner award availability is, I think many of the best redemption opportunities nowadays are for travel on American. If you want to maximize your miles, here are a couple of things to note:
- You’ll almost always find the best value for connecting itineraries, as American usually prices significantly higher if traveling nonstop, while a connection could drastically lower the award cost, in line with typical married segment logic
- If there is saver level award availability on American, you’ll often get better pricing if you also include an additional segment on another airline; for example, if you want to fly American business class from Chicago to London, pricing will often be lower by adding on a segment to Munich, because pricing will then be based on the partner award chart
Just to pull up some examples, you could fly between the United States and Europe in American first class for 80,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 70,000 AAdvantage miles.
You could fly between the United States and South America in American first class for 85,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 75,000 AAdvantage miles.
You could fly between the United States and Australia in American first class for 95,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 85,000 AAdvantage miles.
The great values aren’t just for long haul premium cabin awards. In many cases you’ll find attractively priced economy awards in short haul markets, similar to the pricing you’ll find with programs like Alaska Mileage Plan and British Airways Club.
Bottom line
Of the “big three” carriers in the United States, I tend to think the American AAdvantage program has the most valuable award redemption opportunities, especially for someone with a diversified mileage portfolio. There are all kinds of awards where American has the best redemption values, especially for travel to the Middle East, Africa, India, etc.
On top of that, American has no change or cancelation fees for awards, which gives members lots of flexibility when locking in awards. Hopefully the above is some inspiration for the next time that you’re planning an adventure.
What are your favorite ways to redeem American AAdvantage miles?
When searching for award seats to europe from PHX AA will ignore every airline except BA.
What are u smoking?
I have been searching AA for EU biz tickets.
350,000 points.
After 2 months of searching practically everyday for award space for the Maldives for next April - I gave up.
"...if you want to fly American business class from Chicago to London, pricing will often be lower by adding on a segment to Munich, because pricing will then be based on the partner award chart"
Not very practical that advice is, is it?
Depends whether you want to go to London or Munich.
Hey Lucky,
The screenshots you put up as examples of "great" AAdvantage mileage pricing for Europe-US Business or First Class flights is not accurate.
Note the red text that says "The class of service you searched may not be available on one or more flights". That almost always means at least one of the flights are in coach.
I've come across this over and over lately when searching for AAdvantage Business flight redemptions.
I appreciate the post! Planning travel for late 25/early 26 and have 115K orphan AA miles that I want to utilize.
I was able to book Ethiad business class CLT-AUH including their inaugural flight in May 2026 a few weeks ago using my AA miles.
Another great option is intra Africa for 35,000 in business class, and you can transit through Middle East on the way. So I just flew Seychelles to Tunisia through Doha for 35K in J.
AA program redemptions are the very last thing keeping me faithful to the airline (I've been explat for over a decade now.) If they were to mess with this value, I'd leave the program immediately. Its really all AA has to hang its hat on, given how behind its competitors it is in all other metrics.
Leaving SE Asia, AA brings me all the way home to YYZ. 110k for JL F BKK-TYO-ORD is excellent value and UA, DL, AC simply don't offer anything comparable at any time, on any carrier. but when I can add on my "positioning" flight ORD-YYZ in J for no added points, the value is fantastic. In theory, I should be hub captive to AC. But thanks to Ben's blog in 2011, I went all-in (back...
Leaving SE Asia, AA brings me all the way home to YYZ. 110k for JL F BKK-TYO-ORD is excellent value and UA, DL, AC simply don't offer anything comparable at any time, on any carrier. but when I can add on my "positioning" flight ORD-YYZ in J for no added points, the value is fantastic. In theory, I should be hub captive to AC. But thanks to Ben's blog in 2011, I went all-in (back when I had to choose one program to get started) on AAdvantage. Because my hometown is YYZ, unlike Ben I value AAdvantage points almost double the value of Aeroplan points, because Aeroplan is purpose-built to extract maximum points from someone in a major Canadian city, travelling in a premium cabin longhaul. No thanks, I'll book last minute, hop over to O'Hare or Kennedy, fly Japan Airlines in First.
American sucks don’t even bother. Cant wait to take my last flight with them and then shut down my Aadvantage account. Good riddance and to new beginnings.
If AAdvantage is #1 would Alaska be 1A? Seems like they are closely correlated.
No need to go out of country or take J/F for the best value. AA's best value is in 6k US domestic award, and decently priced last minute sub-10k domestic award. Another great value is 35k Y to Asia and 45k premium economy to Asia.
AA miles have been the most valuable in the last few years among big 3.
Second this. The 6k one way awards in Main Cabin are phenomenal. It's even a very solid value when comparing the redemption cost to basic economy cash fares on American -- especially considering Delta's lowest mileage fares are usually in basic economy and more expensive.
Among the big US 3, the selection of American as the best is reasonable. United is also a contender because of good partner airlines, such as ANA, EVA Air, Singapore, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, etc. AA is a bit weak in the Far East. It could beef it up with Starlux and if Starlux grows. Delta Skymiles is obviously the worse.
As far as value, if you are going to buy business class anyway, then...
Among the big US 3, the selection of American as the best is reasonable. United is also a contender because of good partner airlines, such as ANA, EVA Air, Singapore, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, etc. AA is a bit weak in the Far East. It could beef it up with Starlux and if Starlux grows. Delta Skymiles is obviously the worse.
As far as value, if you are going to buy business class anyway, then there is value in business class. However, if you want to fly from the U.S. to Europe 10 times, economy class will get you there while you will need more than a million miles for business class. I have done all three, First, business, and economy class to Europe. Never Concorde Class, though.
While I love the unbeatable value and flexibility of AAdvantage awards, I also have a feeling that it disencourages the customers from booking with cash.
Even if I have the money to book with cash, sometimes I book awards just for the maximum flexiblity.
I can get credit when canceling a non-award flights, but no credit is better than "full refund to original form of payment."
I'm willing to pay an extra...
While I love the unbeatable value and flexibility of AAdvantage awards, I also have a feeling that it disencourages the customers from booking with cash.
Even if I have the money to book with cash, sometimes I book awards just for the maximum flexiblity.
I can get credit when canceling a non-award flights, but no credit is better than "full refund to original form of payment."
I'm willing to pay an extra for refundable fare, but AA's refundable fare price is ridiculously high especially for international flights.
Alaska, on the other hand, has very reasonable pricing for refundable fares even in long-haul international routes. Sometimes it's only $40-50 more than non-refundable fares. If AA's pricing were like Alaska's, I would be booking more non-awards.
Airlines claim they earn more from their loyalty programs rather than actual flights, but the loyalty programs may be making some missed opportunities.
Interesting - I assume you're talking about AA-only awards (not involving a partner)? So their dynamic award pricing is sort of shooting them in the foot: presumably with a flat awards table, the high miles cost for some low-demand (and low dollar cost) flights would discourage people from using miles just to get a flexible ticket. But when dollar and miles costs are correlated, you are incentivized to pick the version with the least restrictions....
Interesting - I assume you're talking about AA-only awards (not involving a partner)? So their dynamic award pricing is sort of shooting them in the foot: presumably with a flat awards table, the high miles cost for some low-demand (and low dollar cost) flights would discourage people from using miles just to get a flexible ticket. But when dollar and miles costs are correlated, you are incentivized to pick the version with the least restrictions. They'd have to tighten the restrictions on award tickets (charge fees to cancel, etc) to solve this (assuming it's really eating into their revenue).
Thanks for the pointers on trying to find business or first class saver space on American. Unfortunately, trying is the operative term. I just checked a number of cities back from Europe to the eastern USA for early next June and came up with zero availability for my wife and I unless we want to pay $700+ in YQ plus the miles to fly on BA.
The problem with AAdvantage is that it zeroes out any kind of high-value availability at long range during peak season. You either have to (1) fly off-season or shoulder season, or (2) be willing to take a chance last minute. Example: DFW-FRA has several J options with multiple seats at 78.5k or less for the next week, then wide-open availability October through March (if you're willing to go mid-October, you can even get F via...
The problem with AAdvantage is that it zeroes out any kind of high-value availability at long range during peak season. You either have to (1) fly off-season or shoulder season, or (2) be willing to take a chance last minute. Example: DFW-FRA has several J options with multiple seats at 78.5k or less for the next week, then wide-open availability October through March (if you're willing to go mid-October, you can even get F via LHR for 85k + $55). But then the pricing gets not great for April and May, and once you get past the first week of June? SkyPesos pricing at 450k each way. I'm trying to do the same thing as you and get to Europe next June. What I may end up doing is booking refundable coach or PE if I can find a decent price, then hope something decent opens up last second.
Reason 1000 why I love Ben’s travel blog.
I was able to book Ethiad business class with AA miles on their inaugural May 4th flight out of CLT a few weeks ago. For some reason, they released a good bit of business class availability with AA pretty far out. It’s vanished now though.