American AAdvantage Selling Miles For 45% Off

Buying miles & points strategically can be a good value, especially for first & business class travel. In the past, American AAdvantage used to consistently have different promotions on purchased miles each month. However, in early 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.

There was a brief period in late 2022 where we saw a 50% off promotion, and now we’ve just seen a 45% off promotion launched. So if you want to buy AAdvantage miles, this is likely as good as it will get for the time being.

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.

Promotion on purchased American AAdvantage miles

Through Friday, March 3, 2023, American AAdvantage is offering up to a 45% discount on purchased miles. The offer is tiered, and you get a bigger percentage discount the more miles you buy, as follows:

• Buy 2,000-5,000 miles, receive a 5% discount
• Buy 6,000-54,000 miles, receive a 30% discount
• Buy 55,000-149,000 miles, receive a 35% discount
• Buy 150,000 miles, receive a 45% discount

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 150,000 AAdvantage miles, you’d receive a total of 150,000 miles at a cost of $3,104.07, which is a rate of 2.07 cents per AAdvantage mile.

As mentioned above, this is the best promotion we’ve seen from the program so far in 2023, though we did see a slightly better offer once in 2022.

How many American AAdvantage miles can you purchase?

The American AAdvantage program allows members to purchase at most 150,000 miles per account per calendar year, before factoring in any bonuses. 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:

5x Membership Rewards points per dollar spent directly with airlines or through Amex Travel, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and then 1x

The Platinum Card® from American Express

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3x Membership Rewards points per dollar spent directly with airlines

American Express® Gold Card

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3x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

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3x ThankYou points per dollar spent on airfare

Citi Premier® Card

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2x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

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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

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, GOL Airlines, and JetBlue Airways.

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 first “real” promotion on purchased miles of 2023. The program is offering up to a 45% discount on purchased miles, which is an opportunity to buy miles for just over two cents each. While this isn’t as good as some promotions we saw in the past, it is the best offer we’ve seen so far this year.

Do you plan on buying American miles with this promotion?