Buying miles & points strategically can be a good value, especially for first and business class travel.
Going back several years, American AAdvantage used to consistently have different promotions on purchased miles each month. However, in 2022, American increased the cost to purchase miles, and seemingly gave up on selling miles, as the program has pretty consistently had the same 35% off promotion on buying miles since then, with limited exceptions.
So far this year we’ve seen a single limited time promotion on buying miles (for 50% off), beyond the standard 35% off deal. Now we’ve just seen American AAdvantage introduce its second improved offer on buying miles for 2024.
While I wouldn’t speculatively buy miles at this cost, there’s potentially value to be had. Note that buying AAdvantage miles doesn’t count toward your Loyalty Points total.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased American AAdvantage miles
Through Monday, December 2, 2024, American AAdvantage is offering up to a 50% discount on purchased miles. The offer is tiered, and you get a bigger percentage discount the more miles you buy, as follows:
- Buy 6,000-24,000 miles, receive a 10% discount
- Buy 25,000-79,000 miles, receive a 20% discount
- Buy 80,000-149,000 miles, receive a 30% discount
- Buy 150,000-299,000 miles, receive a 40% discount
- Buy 300,000-449,000 miles, receive a 45% discount
- Buy 450,000 miles, receive a 50% discount
As you can see, you need to buy a lot of miles to get the best price!
How much does it cost to purchase American AAdvantage miles?
Ordinarily American sells AAdvantage miles for 3.5 cents each (pre-tax) before factoring in any discounts or bonuses. If you maxed out this promotion and purchased 450,000 AAdvantage miles, you’d receive a total of 450,000 miles at a cost of $8,465.63, which is a rate of 1.88 cents per AAdvantage mile.
As mentioned above, this is the best promotion we’ve seen from the program so far all year. However, you do need to buy a lot of miles to unlock the best price.
How many American AAdvantage miles can you purchase?
The American AAdvantage program ordinarily allows members to purchase at most 150,000 miles per account per calendar year, before factoring in any bonuses. However, during this promotion, that cap has been increased to 450,000 miles. Note that AAdvantage accounts less than 30 days old aren’t eligible to purchase miles.
Which credit card should you buy American AAdvantage miles with?
American AAdvantage processes mileage purchases directly, which means the purchase of miles does qualify as airfare spending. Therefore you’ll want to consider using one of the following cards for your purchase, since you’d earn bonus points for airfare purchases:
The Platinum Card® from American Express
American Express® Gold Card
For example, I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so by my math The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) offers an 8.5% return on this spending, given the 5x points category.
Is buying American AAdvantage miles worth it?
Unlike Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage continues to publish award charts for travel on partner airlines, and redemption rates are largely quite good, especially for travel in premium cabins on partner airlines. Among the “big three” carriers in the US, I tend to think AAdvantage has the best redemption opportunities.
I find the cost of business class redemptions to be excellent in many cases. There are instances where it could make sense to pick up miles during a promotion with a short term use in mind. Just to give a few examples of some of my favorite uses of AAdvantage miles (all redemption rates are one-way):
- For 57,500 miles you can fly from the United States to Morocco in Royal Air Maroc business class
- For 60,000 miles you could fly from the United States to Japan in Japan Airlines business class
- For 70,000 miles you could fly from the United States to most of Asia in Cathay Pacific business class
- For 70,000 miles you can fly from the United States to India in Etihad business class
- For 75,000 miles you can fly from the United States to South Africa in Qatar Airways business class
Now, unfortunately the catch is that partner award availability is in many instances quite limited. For airlines like Cathay Pacific, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, the airlines now largely restrict premium awards to members of their own frequent flyer programs. So definitely do your research before buying any miles.
On what airlines can you redeem American AAdvantage miles?
American Airlines belongs to the oneworld alliance, so you can redeem AAdvantage miles on all oneworld airlines.
On top of that, you can redeem miles on some of American’s other partner airlines, including Air Tahiti Nui, China Southern, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airways, and GOL Airlines.
How much are American AAdvantage miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value American AAdvantage miles at ~1.5 cents each. However, I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get way more value from AAdvantage miles than that.
Do American AAdvantage miles expire?
American AAdvantage miles don’t expire as long as you have at least some account activity once every 24 months. Eligible activity includes earning or redeeming AAdvantage miles in any quantity.
What other ways can you earn American AAdvantage miles?
There are lots of great ways to earn American miles aside from outright buying them:
- There are excellent welcome bonuses on co-branded American AAdvantage credit cards
- You can earn AAdvantage miles with a Bask Savings Account
- You can earn AAdvantage miles for everyday purchases with programs like AAdvantage Dining and SimplyMiles
Bottom line
American AAdvantage has just launched its best promotion on purchased miles in quite some time. The program is offering up to a 50% discount on purchased miles, which is an opportunity to buy miles for 1.88 cents each. While I wouldn’t speculatively buy miles at this cost, with a specific use in mind, there could be value with this offer.
Do you plan on buying American miles with this promotion?
For some awards the redemption's are higher than using revenue or the same
American has overpriced their product so much I bout KLM miles at the 1.68
and the Hawaiian @ 1.27
KLM occasionally has a good partner or an opportunity for 50k business class awards or premium economy to europe for 30k
To be forced to buy 450k in miles to get the 1.88 rate is just American being greedy and pathetic
Hard Pass!
Still too expensive. Can think of plenty of better deals to deploy $8500. I used to buy a lot of points back in the day, when they had the best deal out and you could hold a reservation for 5 days for free. However everyone could see that business model of printing air miles currency basically wasn’t going to end well. I wonder the same thing about Aeroplan these days.
AAdvantage miles have become very difficult to find sweet spot redemptions. As noted, QR or CX never seem show premium cabin awards. Trying to book Europe or Australia on AA holds very few opportunities unless it is a few weeks before departure; planning 330 days out have rates so high it causes nosebleeds!
We just completed a South Africa trip on QR with tickets booked a year ago; nothing has been on offer since. How...
AAdvantage miles have become very difficult to find sweet spot redemptions. As noted, QR or CX never seem show premium cabin awards. Trying to book Europe or Australia on AA holds very few opportunities unless it is a few weeks before departure; planning 330 days out have rates so high it causes nosebleeds!
We just completed a South Africa trip on QR with tickets booked a year ago; nothing has been on offer since. How we'll use 900K miles (most from flying and CC use and sign-up bonuses) is becoming a challenge. So buying AA miles ain't worth it anymore.
I miss the old times when you buy 120k, and they give 100% of that purchase back. That was the best deal.
Normally, a one way business ticket to Australia is 450K miles (900K RT). Costs about $8500 to buy the 450K miles. Cost of ticket is about $9K one way, $13K RT. Unless you get a cheap partner flight - not worth the discounted price.