American AAdvantage has just launched a new way for members to redeem miles. While I suppose more redemption options are always a good thing, this is absolutely not how I’d recommend redeeming AAdvantage miles, unless you’d otherwise just let them expire.
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Basics of American AAdvantage Exchange marketplace
American has launched AAdvantage Exchange marketplace, which allows members the ability to redeem miles for a bunch of retail items.
Currently, AAdvantage Exchange offers roughly 4,800 popular products across more than 100 brands, like Dyson, Tumi, and more. Featured product categories include travel, home & living, jewelry & watches, style & beauty, and more.
Note that AAdvantage elite members who log into their accounts can get better redemption values, so the price you pay does depend on your status.
How bad are these redemption values?
It’s not uncommon to see airlines offer opportunities to redeem miles for retail products. As you’d expect, the redemption value typically isn’t great, since airlines have to pay out of pocket for those products, which is different than filling a (potentially empty) seat on a flight, as that’s just an internal accounting exercise.
Personally, I value AAdvantage miles at somewhere around 1.5 cents each. So how much value can you get using the AAdvantage Exchange marketplace? Let me pick four items at random with pricing for non-AAdvantage elite members. When comparing prices to retail costs, I’ll compare them to the standard costs, and not any discounted prices I see (for all four products, I see significant discounts beyond the prices listed, for what it’s worth).
The “American Tourister 4 KIX 2.0 20″ Carry On – Classic Blue” retails for $89.99, or you can redeem 33,700 AAdvantage miles, giving you a value of 0.27 cents per mile.
The “Cuisinart 2-Slice Digital Motorized Toaster” retails for $99.99, or you can redeem 26,400 AAdvantage miles, giving you a value of 0.38 cents per mile.
The “Dyson 360 Vis Nav™ Robot Vacuum Cleaner” retails for $699.99, or you can redeem 152,000 AAdvantage miles, giving you a value of 0.46 cents per mile.
The “Armani Exchange Automatic Gunmetal Stainless Steel Watch” retails for $315, or you can redeem 50,000 AAdvantage miles, giving you a value of 0.63 cents per mile.
As you can see, the redemption values are all over the place, so this isn’t just a situation where each mile gets you a fixed amount toward the retail cost of an item.
One thing is consistent, though — none of these redemptions are a good value. Like I said, more redemption options isn’t a bad thing, but I just don’t recommend redeeming your miles this way, unless you literally decide you have no other use for them.
Bottom line
American has launched AAdvantage Exchange marketplace, giving members the opportunity to redeem miles for thousands of retail products from roughly 100 brands. While I appreciate when programs offer members more ways to redeem miles, the redemption values here aren’t at all appealing, so this isn’t how I’d recommend using AAdvantage miles.
What do you make of AAdvantage Exchange?
I could see this being more useful for those with <10,000 miles they want to use on something and are infrequent fliers. But not at these prices
I have 80k miles and $850 trip credits that very well may expire. I’d have to look when I have the time to see if there’s any luxury items that I’d be able to resell.
American needs to allow transfer of miles to citi thank you. I know it won’t be 1:1 but they should offer it.
You can prevent your miles from expiring by having *any* sort of account activity. I'd suggest simply buying something via the regular AAdvantage shopping portal that you'd normally buy anyway.
I think this offers great value for someone who flies AA, realizes the errors of their ways, and then wants to cash out those miles without flying.
That’s a toaster, not a toaster oven.
If you don't have enough miles for a flight, then magazines are an option. These items are priced higher than a flight.
Far be it from me to criticize American for partnering with the good people at Vonality Loyalty Solutions, but this is one level above the gas station asking if I'd like to pay for my tank of gas using credit card points. That said, I'm sure there will be some people that will use this, and from AA's perspective, why not? It's not like they're trying to have a premium brand or anything.
Still beats that DL window shop from the holidays... admittedly a low bar though.