As most of you know by now, a few months back American’s AAdvantage program became revenue based on the earnings side, meaning the number of miles you earn for a ticket is based on how much the ticket costs, rather than the distance you fly.
Continue reading: This Trick Could Greatly Increase The Number Of American Miles You Earn For Flying
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I've been using this trick exclusively since August 1, but only through the Citi travel portal. Do you or anyone else know if the same trick works on the Amex travel portal, given the new 5x points for Amex platinum for tickets booked through the Amex travel site? Or the Chase portal?
this is not always true...i have flown itinerary booked with TYP and have gotten the miles based on fare...my theory is if you can see full fare details on aa.com you will get the miles based on fare...there is FT thread which has been discussing this for months
"While American in theory awards miles based on distance flown for their own flights"
Don't you mean based on revenue?
The one disadvantage with booking through a portal like Citi is that it can be difficult to make changes. I booked a ticket through them last summer, and had a hard time getting things changed due to a schedule change. Citi says AA has to do it, AA says Citi has to do it... May not be a big deal 95% of the time, but could be a pain.
Any guesses about whether a flight/hotel package via Orbitz (or the like) would use the "special fare" chart. Finding blass tickets for a spring Europe trip are much cheaper when packaged with one night of hotel. Would be added bonus to earn more miles via this chart. Thanks!
Incredibly useful, Lucky. One question: If these special fares are "cases where American can’t easily calculate the revenue on a ticket", how do other airlines with partner-earning-EQDs (i.e. Delta) treat them?
Or, of course, just book air+car at aavacations.com and throw away the car... Real value in this for cheap long haul. And tickets are still upgradeable with eVIPs.
One other warning about making bookings through travel portals-- while you should be able to choose/change your seat assignment on AA.com, occasionally I've experienced glitches where the change seat option mysteriously disappears when managing the itinerary online... and if you call AA, they won't touch the seat assignment without a $25 fee for outside bookings.
If tpg publicized it then the value of the deal has already eroded.
Bloggers are like the wall street analysts of the dot Com Era : Putting lipstick on a pig and selling it to their clients while writing essays about ethical behavior to their MBA schools.
Awesome find, though I know the fares are sometimes inconsistent (costlier) on the Citi TYP Portal than what you would find on Google flights or AA.com
I've been using a similar ploy to earn more EQMs. If you book premium economy with any Oneworld partners you earn 1.5 EQMs based on the partner award charts. On an international flight that can really boost your EQMs. If you fly economy you significantly reduce the amount of EQM you could earn. You get the same EQMs as first or business but a much smaller cost to accrue the EQM.
Please don't turn into Gary with the stupid click-bait headlines. You're better than that 🙂
I've almost completely stopped visiting his blog ever since he went down that path...and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
'Use this one simple trick to get me to stop reading posts!'
@C Diddy: Does it count as a clickbait headline when the article delivers exactly what that headline promises?
AA keeps asking more and more miles for the trip I was able to make before with only 30,000 miles....
Will change FF ...
@Lucky. What is the best ff program to credit LATAM flights to. I'm travelling discount Y . Thanks.
Caution for this - if you re-issue your ticket, through say a SWU upgrade, it will go back to a revenue system and you're hosed 🙂
I just booked a UA flight using the TYP portal. After a few minutes, the reservation shows up when I log into my United account. It's showing miles based on revenue, not miles flown. So, it doesn't appear to work for UA. Did it work for anyone else?
This was not click bit, not even close.
A very clear title, and then detailed instructions on exactly how to maximize miles in an unconventional way.
I for one appreciate Lucky's wide range of articles, and this will definitely help a lot of people do EXACTLY what the title suggests.
Ok...I tried this for a trip in January. I don't have a Citi prestige card, just the regular Aadvantage MasterCard, but because I have a Citi Checking Account, I get the points there. I'll report back at the end of January.