American AAdvantage constantly has promotions on purchased miles, and the program has just launched its latest promotion.
American AAdvantage promo on purchased miles
Through Monday, March 15, 2021, American AAdvantage is offering the following tiered discount on purchased miles:
- Buy 15,000-49,000 miles, get a 15% discount
- Buy 50,000-99,000 miles, get a 25% discount
- Buy 100,000-149,000 miles, get a 35% discount
- Buy 150,000 miles, get a 45% discount
If you max out this promotion you can purchase 150,000 AAdvantage miles for $3,104.07, which is a rate of 2.07 cents per AAdvantage mile.
As usual, AAdvantage accounts less than 30 days old aren’t eligible to purchase miles.
As far as American’s bonuses and discounts on purchased miles go, the program usually charges ~1.7-2.3 cents per mile during a promotion. So this isn’t the worst price we’ve seen on purchased miles, but it’s also far from the best price we’ve seen.
Is buying American AAdvantage miles a good deal?
Personally I value American AAdvantage miles at 1.5 cents each. While American significantly devalued its award chart a few years back, there are still some excellent uses of AAdvantage miles, especially for travel in business class on partner airlines.
As a reminder, here’s the cost of first and business class awards originating in the US under the current program:
| 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 | 40,000 | 65,000 |
| Caribbean | 27,500 | 52,500 |
| Mexico | 27,500 | 52,500 |
| Central America | 27,500 | 52,500 |
| 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 |
Qatar Airways business class continues to be a great use of American miles
I find the cost of business class redemptions to still be reasonable in most cases. There are instances where it could make sense to pick up miles during a promotion with a short term use in mind.
For example, I’ve redeemed 75,000 AAdvantage miles for a one-way Qatar Airways business class ticket from Cape Town to the US, which I consider to be a spectacular value.
Which credit card should you buy miles with?
American 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 the following bonuses for airfare:
| Card | Points earned on airfare spend |
|---|---|
| The Platinum Card® from American Express | 5x Membership Rewards points per dollar spent |
| Citi Prestige Card | 5x ThankYou points per dollar spent |
| American Express® Gold Card | 3x Membership Rewards points per dollar spent |
| Chase Sapphire Reserve® | 3x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent |
| Citi Premier® Card | 3x ThankYou points per dollar spent |
| Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | 2x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® | 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases |
| CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® | 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® | 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases |
| American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp℠ Card | 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases |
Redeem American miles for JAL business class
For example, I value Membership Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so I view that as an 8.5% return on this spending if you use The Platinum Card® from American Express (review).
Other great ways to earn American miles
There are lots of great ways to earn American miles aside from outright buying them. At the moment there are excellent welcome bonuses on co-branded American Airlines AAdvantage Cards, as follows:
On top of that, you can earn AAdvantage miles with a Bask Savings Account.
Bottom line
American AAdvantage has just launched its latest promotion on purchased miles. Unfortunately the cost per purchased mile isn’t particularly attractive here, and I wouldn’t recommend buying miles unless you have an immediate use for them in mind.
Do you plan on buying American miles with this promotion?
Will be using 150k miles from US to Cape Town in December in Qsuites!
@Lucky…1) Seems like the Marriott current promotion to by their points and then transfer To AA is a little better cost wise for the example you gave for Qatar to Cape Town in business class. Advantage with going Marriott route is you retain flexibility in transferring points to airline program. Advantage with this promotion is you get more miles in one transaction and one would need multiple Marriott promotions or multiple Marriott accounts to get same amount of miles.
2) Does Qatar offer stopovers on a flight to CPT?
I love these points sale posts. I know you need a constant stream of new posts to keep the readers engaged, but every time there is a post about an AA sale it goes:
1) AA has a special points sale promotion.
2) This is a bad deal and you probably shouldn’t do it.
Bottom line: AA has a special points sale promotion. This is a bad deal and you probably shouldn’t do it.
AAdvantage Aviator Silver earns 3 AA miles per $1 spent on American Airlines eligible purchases
Will be using 150k miles from US to Cape Town in December in Qsuites!