When it comes to the loyalty programs of the “big three” carriers in the United States, I tend to think that American AAdvantage offers the most value when redeeming miles for international premium cabin travel, both in terms of partner airlines and redemption rates.
There are plenty of markets where American AAdvantage has the best pricing for award travel among oneworld programs, while I’d argue the same can’t be said for Delta SkyMiles for SkyTeam awards, and United MileagePlus for Star Alliance awards.
In this post I wanted to go over the basics of redeeming American Airlines AAdvantage miles. I’ll cover all the details of redemption logistics, and will also share my favorite sweet spot awards.
In this post:
How to earn American AAdvantage miles
If you’re looking to earn American AAdvantage miles, there are lots of ways to acquire these miles, beyond crediting flights to the program:
- There are several co-branded American Airlines credit cards with huge welcome bonuses, including the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® (review), the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review) and the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review)
- You can buy American AAdvantage miles directly, often at a discount
- You can earn American AAdvantage miles with all kinds of non-travel partners, including SimplyMiles, AAdvantage Dining, Bask Bank, and more
- Marriott Bonvoy® points can be converted into AAdvantage miles at a 3:1 ratio
- Through June 2024, Bilt Rewards points can be converted into AAdvantage miles, so that’s a great use of points earned with the Bilt Mastercard® (review)
Keep in mind that with American’s Loyalty Points system, you can even earn elite status with credit card spending. So whether it’s Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro, Platinum, or Gold, you can rack up any tier, as well as a lot of bonus miles, through non-flying means.
Basics of redeeming American AAdvantage miles
Before we talk about the best uses of American AAdvantage miles, let me cover the basic details when it comes to redeeming these miles, ranging from expiration policies, to change and cancelation fees.
American AAdvantage mileage expiration policy
When it comes to the mileage expiration policy, American AAdvantage miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Any mileage earning or redemption activity resets the expiration of your miles by a further 24 months.
Furthermore, AAdvantage members under the age of 21, as well as primary cardmembers on a co-branded American Airlines credit card from Barclays or Citi, won’t have their miles expire, regardless of account activity.
American AAdvantage award change & cancelation fees
American AAdvantage has no award change or cancelation fees. This means you can lock in an award ticket in advance, and can then redeposit your miles any time until departure without paying any fees. Your taxes and fees will also be refunded to your original form of payment.
American AAdvantage award booking window
Every frequent flyer program has a different policy when it comes to the timeline of opening award seats. American AAdvantage opens its schedule at most 331 days in advance. That’s not necessarily to say that there will always be award seats that far out, but that’s the earliest that you’ll find award space.
American AAdvantage award carrier imposed surcharges
Some frequent flyer programs are known for imposing hefty carrier imposed surcharges on award tickets. In the case of American AAdvantage, you’ll only pay those when redeeming on British Airways. Otherwise, you’ll just be on the hook for government taxes and fees.
American AAdvantage award stopover policy
American AAdvantage doesn’t allow stopovers on award tickets. If you do have a stopover, the ticket will just be priced based on the individual segments. For a long haul award, any stop of more than 24 hours would be considered a stopover. Meanwhile on domestic awards, the cutoff is typically six hours for something being considered a stopover.
American AAdvantage award hold policy
American AAdvantage has the industry’s most generous policy when it comes to holding award tickets. If you’re planning your travel 14 or more days in advance, you can hold your ticket for up to five days. Meanwhile within 14 days of departure, you can hold your ticket for up to one day.
American AAdvantage award airline partners
American AAdvantage allows you to redeem miles on all oneworld airlines. In addition to American, this includes Alaska, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Royal Air Maroc, and SriLankan.
In addition to oneworld airlines, you can redeem on Air Tahiti Nui, China Southern, Fiji Airways, GOL, Hawaiian Airlines (but not between the lower 48 and Hawaii), and Silver Airways (select flights to & from San Juan).
Best uses of American AAdvantage miles
Unlike Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus, American AAdvantage continues to publish an award chart for travel on partner airlines.
Below is what American AAdvantage’s award chart looks like for first and business class redemptions originating in the continental United States on partner airlines.
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 | 55,000 | 80,000 |
Caribbean | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Mexico | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Central America | 25,000 | 50,000 |
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 |
While you can include American segments on awards with partner airlines, awards exclusively on American tend to have dynamic pricing. Let me share my favorite uses of AAdvantage miles, though let me of course acknowledge that award availability can often be the challenge.
Business class to the Middle East & India (70,000 miles)
One area where American AAdvantage miles continue to be among the most valuable is for travel to the Middle East & India. Per American’s award chart, this region includes everything from India to the Maldives to Oman to Sri Lanka. There’s so much beauty in this area, and it’s somewhere that’s otherwise tough to get to on miles.
Best of all, American partners with both Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, and both of them have excellent business class products. Unfortunately at the moment, this award availability can be pretty tough to come by:
- Etihad restricts its premium cabin award space to members of its own Etihad Guest program when booking more than 30 days in advance, so it can be tough to redeem American AAdvantage miles
- Qatar Airways tends to release award availability in spurts, and at the moment doesn’t have much award availability
Business class to Africa (75,000 miles)
This is an extension of the above concept of going to the Middle East. Africa is one of the toughest continents to get to using miles, and with Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, you potentially have some great access.
While you could fly to Africa on British Airways or Iberia, that would mean you’d have to pay fuel surcharges, and/or wouldn’t get as much of a product. Instead I recommend flying Etihad and Qatar, which have great products and fly to lots of points in Africa.
Whether you’re flying to South Africa or Tanzania or Kenya or Rwanda, there are excellent options. Personally my favorite choice is Qatar Airways, and a couple of years ago I redeemed 75,000 miles to fly one-way from Cape Town to Dallas.
Royal Air Maroc is also a oneworld member, so you can use American miles to fly to Morocco and beyond on the national carrier. Fortunately American considers Morocco to be Europe for the purposes of award pricing, so you’d pay only 57,500 AAdvantage miles for a one-way business class award between the United States and Morocco (which is fair, given what a short flight it is).
Business class to Asia 1 & 2 (60,000-70,000 miles)
In Asia, American AAdvantage’s most useful partnerships are with Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific. For just 60,000 miles you can fly business class to Asia 1 (including Japan and South Korea), while for 70,000 miles you can fly business class to Asia 2 (including China, Singapore, Thailand, etc.).
Unfortunately neither airline is that great about making award space available nowadays:
- Cathay Pacific makes most award space available to members of its own Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program
- Japan Airlines is more inconsistent, but if booking far in advance or close to departure, it’s not impossible to find award space
Great partner award values between other regions
Above I’m focusing on redemption values to & from the United States. That’s because a majority of OMAAT readers live in the United States, so that’s going to be the most practical for many. However, I did want to highlight some other fantastic award values between other regions, as this is often where you’ll find the most value.
Honestly, AAdvantage’s redemption values are consistently the best for awards not touching the United States. Heck, even Delta SkyMiles has great award values outside the United States.
Just to give some examples of other great AAdvantage redemption values:
- You can fly between the Middle East and Asia 1 or Asia 2 for just 40,000 AAdvantage miles in business class; this could include a 10-hour flight in business class on Qatar Airways or Etihad
- You can fly between the Middle East and Europe for just 42,500 AAdvantage miles in business class or 62,500 AAdvantage miles in first class; this could also be used for a flight on Qatar Airways or Etihad
- You can fly between the South Pacific and Asia 1 or Asia 2 for just 40,000 AAdvantage miles in business class; you could use this for a 10-hour flight on Japan Airlines, Qantas, Fiji Airways, or Air Tahiti Nui
- You can fly between Asia 1 and Asia 2 for just 30,000 AAdvantage miles in business class; this could include quite a long flight between Japan and Southeast Asia
Those are just a few examples, but if anything, you’ll find the value with redeeming AAdvantage miles outside of North America is even better.
American first & business class flight awards
While AAdvantage continues to publish an award chart for travel on partner airlines, the program now has fully dynamic award pricing for travel on American. American doesn’t release much award availability that’s also bookable through partner programs (generally referred to as “saver” availability), though the airline does often have reasonably priced long haul first and business class flight awards through AAdvantage.
Frankly with how limited a lot of partner award availability is, I think many of the best redemption opportunities nowadays are for travel on American.
Note that you’ll almost always find the best value for connecting itineraries. American usually prices significantly higher if traveling nonstop, while a connection could drastically lower the award cost. Furthermore, note that most of these cheap awards can’t be booked in conjunction with an award on a partner airline.
Just to pull up some examples, you could fly between the United States and Europe in American first class for 72,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 62,000 AAdvantage miles.
You could fly between the United States and South America in American business class for 55,000 AAdvantage miles.
You could fly between the United States and India in American first class for 75,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 65,000 AAdvantage miles.
You could fly between the United States and Australia in American first class for 75,000 AAdvantage miles, or in American business class for 65,000 AAdvantage miles.
The great values aren’t just for long haul premium cabin awards. In many cases you’ll find attractively priced economy awards in short haul markets, similar to the pricing you’ll find with programs like Alaska Mileage Plan and British Airways Executive Club.
Bottom line
Of the “big three” carriers in the United States, I tend to think the American AAdvantage program has the most valuable award redemption opportunities, especially for someone with a diversified mileage portfolio. There are all kinds of awards where American has the best redemption values, especially for travel to the Middle East, Africa, India, etc.
On top of that, American has no change or cancelation fees for awards, which gives members lots of flexibility when locking in awards. Hopefully the above is some inspiration for the next time that you’re planning an adventure.
What are your favorite ways to redeem American AAdvantage miles?
can i use AA POINTS FOR car rental
I’m a huge AA flyer — The mileage examples noted in this article for business and first are way off for American Airlines. They are even less than mileage needed for coach so not sure what to make of this article.
I have been booking mia to Doha in business class one way for 70k on American but now American only offers one way in their nonstop from Philadelphia to Doha fro 300k one way. Yet I was able to get it on British airways for the 70k. So I don’t think it is Qatar, I think it is American that is causing this, no?
Of course with British they want to charge ridiculous taxes and...
I have been booking mia to Doha in business class one way for 70k on American but now American only offers one way in their nonstop from Philadelphia to Doha fro 300k one way. Yet I was able to get it on British airways for the 70k. So I don’t think it is Qatar, I think it is American that is causing this, no?
Of course with British they want to charge ridiculous taxes and fees while American is very reasonable here. I have been trying to get rid of my miles with them and even on their terrible business or first class they want to charge $700 round trip for taxes and fees. And they send me notifications to buy more of their miles. Do they think their customers are that stupid??????
Also cathay used to have a lot of fc seats if you booked way in advance and it used to rival Singapore in service but now they don’t offer anything but economy seats on any route. Once I transferred miles to them and they cancelled my first class round trip ticket during the pandemic and told me I had to use the mikes within 60 days or my miles would expire. I finally was able to get a round trip fc on Japan airlines thru them even though I don’t particularly like Japan airlines. It could be that Cathay is soon going under, but I just think they are playing games.
As for delta and United they are totally useless as they wanted to charge 600k round trip to Sao Paolo from Atlanta on their terrible business class! United is similar!
I too find AA the most generous when it comes to award redemption. Biggest bang for the points, I find, is off season or at least on the shoulder. With no cost cancellation you can continue to shop for the best award use even if you are already booked.
OneWorld is NOT One world. All these alliances are playing one member airline program off another with different inventory, and, as someone suggested, probably occulting availability. With outrageous amount of AA miles needed for AA metal to the ME and beyond, American will offer an obscene one way 400K BC ticket on their own metal and, meanwhile, there is availability on Qatar flights evident on Qatar, BA, iberia websites. And yes the workaround (spend a...
OneWorld is NOT One world. All these alliances are playing one member airline program off another with different inventory, and, as someone suggested, probably occulting availability. With outrageous amount of AA miles needed for AA metal to the ME and beyond, American will offer an obscene one way 400K BC ticket on their own metal and, meanwhile, there is availability on Qatar flights evident on Qatar, BA, iberia websites. And yes the workaround (spend a little more) is to grab those Qatar flights with AVIOS from Qatar's program where I was able to get KOC-DOH-JFK for 85K AVIOS because it just doesn't come up for the 70K it should on AA. UGH is right!!!
80k for first class to Asia 1 is also an amazing deal if you can find availability on JL (which is harder these days but not impossible). Most other programs charge at least 100k for such an award; I believe the only cheaper option for F is booking ANA through VS...
I've had remarkably good luck with AA awards. I always start looking before the window opens at the 331st day. Sometimes I can only grab one seat in business or first but I'm usually able to pick up a second seat closer in. The best thing to do is have piles of points in a number of different places so you can pivot to the airline that has the best deal at the time. Booking...
I've had remarkably good luck with AA awards. I always start looking before the window opens at the 331st day. Sometimes I can only grab one seat in business or first but I'm usually able to pick up a second seat closer in. The best thing to do is have piles of points in a number of different places so you can pivot to the airline that has the best deal at the time. Booking to Doha on Qatar I chose not to take a chance to wait for availability on American and instead transferred points into avios and book directly on Qatar because their window opens much further out. Got Qsuites!
Agreed on all fronts but one must be added: a true unicorn award. Cairo-Doha (Q Suites First)- Al Safwa Lounge- QR A380 First Doha-BKK- First Class Lounge BKK- JAL 777-300 First Class BKK-HND all for 50K points. Everything has to align but my oh my if you can score this, buy a lottery ticket.
I'm certainly not seeing those awards that you are showing. We've had some nice business-class trips with American partners in the past to SE Asia, Africa, and Nepal including Q suites, and I spent a lot of time, often because I needed specific dates. Since I recently added two American credit card bonuses, I decided to look for destinations showing reasonable bc award space. There were none. The number of miles needed for long-haul flights...
I'm certainly not seeing those awards that you are showing. We've had some nice business-class trips with American partners in the past to SE Asia, Africa, and Nepal including Q suites, and I spent a lot of time, often because I needed specific dates. Since I recently added two American credit card bonuses, I decided to look for destinations showing reasonable bc award space. There were none. The number of miles needed for long-haul flights is in the hundreds of thousands. It would take about a million miles for two people to take a trip. Have all of the airlines joined together to make business class awards unavailable? Would it help to use a service? Or is it time to give up?
I have found AA really useful for last minute economy and even first class domestic redemptions in the US. I often find flights at 9k or so miles each way on AA vs 35k or more on Delta and similar on United.
Don’t know what you are talking about
Trying to book 2 round tickets from SAN to MIA next December and they want 400000 miles in First
Absolutely insane
Used to be able to fly one way from SAN to LHR for 52,500 in Business now over 200000
Try as I may, and I try very hard, I can never, ever find these redemption values. It would be helpful to know how close-in these screenshots are.
Hi! I have a question and wonder if anybody has any idea. I recently redeemed AA points to book an all-AA-metal business class award (62k) from US to Europe. It consists of two legs with a connection at ORD. It is a very long (15 hr) connection at ORD. AA actually offers multiple flights of the first (domestic) leg of this itinerary, but none of the other domestic flight options were available for award booking...
Hi! I have a question and wonder if anybody has any idea. I recently redeemed AA points to book an all-AA-metal business class award (62k) from US to Europe. It consists of two legs with a connection at ORD. It is a very long (15 hr) connection at ORD. AA actually offers multiple flights of the first (domestic) leg of this itinerary, but none of the other domestic flight options were available for award booking at the time.
There is still a few weeks before the trip, so how can I change the first (domestic) leg and get a shorter layover at ORD? Thanks.
I’ve been traveling well using AA miles!
Last Week
CHC – SYD - QF 1st Lounge - QR First – DOH -Al Safwa – jacuzzi – 6 hour nap – board from lounge – AUH 100.000 AA Miles
AUH – EY B787-9 Seat 2K - IAD 115,000 AA Miles
January Beach Trip
IAD -EY seat 2A – AUH 115,000 AA Miles
AUH – A380 Seat 4K -LHR – FRA 62,500 AA Miles Cool adding FRA on BA since ticketed by AA :-)
Last year GRU – MIA – DCA 91,000 AA Miles dynamic 3x Cancel and Rebook
Key word here is Opportunity with capital O. Social media had demystified ways to earn miles and redeem award tickets, everyone is competing with limited award tix on any given flights. Together with programs like seat aero, point me, etc., really democratized searching for award tickets. What this means is that people who were good at searching for award seats five years ago, are in the same level playing field as someone who started with...
Key word here is Opportunity with capital O. Social media had demystified ways to earn miles and redeem award tickets, everyone is competing with limited award tix on any given flights. Together with programs like seat aero, point me, etc., really democratized searching for award tickets. What this means is that people who were good at searching for award seats five years ago, are in the same level playing field as someone who started with this hobby few months ago. Unless you are flying to places that are off the beaten paths, you will have harder time finding reasonable/ cheap award tickets going forward. Flexibility is the key to score f/j tix. But most people have 9/5 jobs so unless you are retired or make your living off social media, you are not likely to score that JL F from Tokyo to NYC.
I have been fortunate enough to utilize my AA miles for travel in BC on JAL, Cathay and Qatar to Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East for years, frequently grabbing my tickets the 331 days ahead. Recently I see virtually no availability on AA's site for these routes. What gives? So what gives....Are BA, Qatar, JAL and Cathay not sharing their FF inventory with AA or is AA suppressing them> Maybe AA doesn't...
I have been fortunate enough to utilize my AA miles for travel in BC on JAL, Cathay and Qatar to Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East for years, frequently grabbing my tickets the 331 days ahead. Recently I see virtually no availability on AA's site for these routes. What gives? So what gives....Are BA, Qatar, JAL and Cathay not sharing their FF inventory with AA or is AA suppressing them> Maybe AA doesn't want you getting BC on one of their 3 daily JFK Qatar flights for 70 or 75K one way and want you to blow hundreds of AA miles on AA to Doha and beyond via Philadelphia? And why is no one blogging about this? Or maybe there are too many bloggers, journalists and others publicizing these sweet spots, bringing them to the attention of the airlines who then devalue and reign in their programs: Turkish Miles&Smiles for example? So many miles and so much more limitation of getting great mileage out of them. I feel like the golden era is over. UGH!!!
I recently redeemed 21k miles for a round trip in economy from Washington, DC to/from Vancouver with connections at DFW. I needed to travel for business and dates were inflexible, so I considered this a good value as cash prices were at least $500, sometimes much more.
Flying MIA-JFK-LHR-IST on 4.02 in business AA/AA/BA for 57.5k miles +$54 fees! If I flew BA MIA-LHR, fees >$500...
Practically speaking what’s valuable is programs with award space. Theoretical values for award travel are just that. BA routinely cancels flights and downgrades. I did book an American F award LHR -DFW only to find I had been downgraded at the airport. Never got the difference in miles back despite spending hours on the phone with various AA agents. My guess is points are worth about half of what Lucky values them at for most...
Practically speaking what’s valuable is programs with award space. Theoretical values for award travel are just that. BA routinely cancels flights and downgrades. I did book an American F award LHR -DFW only to find I had been downgraded at the airport. Never got the difference in miles back despite spending hours on the phone with various AA agents. My guess is points are worth about half of what Lucky values them at for most of us who might travel half a dozen times a year but with limited flexibility.
What I would love for example is an alert (should be a Point.me feature!) any time on any day if an F award on NH is available on a specific route (SFO-NRT/HND) something I do around half a dozen times a year with lots of flex on dates. Maybe some day…
Sounds great on paper until you realize availability is pretty much non-existent when it comes to business class on AA partner airlines.
They had website special fares before the pandemic for like 51k in flagship first between LAX and TYO.
Q Suites for 75k is the greatest deal for sure between US and Middle East/ Indopak etc.
These 450k one way fares in J to Asia are getting on my nerves.
Very helpful. The saddest part of the American redemption picture is for me the ridiculous “carrier imposed, surcharges” on British Airways. Because BA is so often critical to making an itinerary. Work, this, in my opinion dramatically reduces the real value of AAdvantage miles.
Agreed, see my post...
Good summary of AAdvantage redemption opportunities. I did take aadvantage (pun intended LOL) of an intra-Asia Japan Airlines biz award last year Osaka-Tokyo-HCMC Vietnam for 30K AA miles. That said, I rarely see availability for long haul premium cabin awards on AA metal that you pulled screenshots for. How closed in are these screenshots to departure date?
Agreed. This post is very sadly useless without travel dates as examples.