Good morning, and welcome to today's community discussion thread! Today's posts will appear here throughout the day, but this thread is for going off-topic. Did you love/hate something about today's coverage? Are you tracking other news I missed? Or, do you just have a general question about rewards travel? This is the place for your wandering thoughts.
Today's posts on OMAAT:
- Air France La Premiere Routes: Which Flights Have The New 777 First Class?
- New Singapore KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes List: Save 30% On These Awards
- Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card Review: Best For Marriott Spending
- Is World Of Hyatt Explorist Status Worth It? Benefits & How To Earn It
- Two American Planes With Same Callsign End Up On Same Frequency, Heading Straight For One Another
- Furious IndiGo Passenger Abuses Staff & Throws Things… And Some People Defend Her?
- Chase Ink Business Cards Comparison: Which Chase Business Credit Card Is Best?
- Earn 50x AAdvantage Miles With Stand Up To Cancer Donations (Buy Miles For Two Cents Each)
- EC261: European Union Flight Delay & Cancelation Compensation Explained
Daily threads stay open for a week, so it's never too late to jump into a recent conversation.
I see AA is running it's SU2C donation scheme again where you get 50 miles/$ with an AA credit card or 25 miles/$ otherwise - so buying miles at 2cpm with an AA card. What I don't understand is why it says that donations of $75 or more are not tax deductible - which I feel like is new this year? Their T&Cs say they are valuing the miles at 3cpm. So theoretically nothing with an AA card should be deductible because you're receiving miles that AA says is worth more than what you paid/donated for them, right? But if you pay with a non-AA card and buying miles at 4cpm that are worth 3cpm, theoretically the spread should all be deductible irrespective of anything to do with a $75 limit? Of course you could value AA miles differently than AA...
I realize the tax rules changed and now you can take a non-itemized charitable deduction in 2026, and many may just rely on whatever AA sends them for that, AA can choose whether to send a donation receipt or not, and everyone may just be assuming that no one is getting audited over this at sub-$75 dollar amounts. But $75 just seems like an arbitrary amount determined by SU2C and AA without any bearing in fact - but I'm not a tax lawyer or professional and very curious if I'm missing something here.
Whatever, bottom line, you can buy AA bonus miles at 2cpm up to $10k/500k miles with miles posting by 12/1/26, which could be an OK deal for some I suppose depending on their intended use, plus of course the importance of the donation to SU2C whether tax deductible or not!