Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky,
I’m hoping you can advise on the best way to purchase AA Miles using the current 60k bonus miles promotion. I need to buy a total of 240k miles using two accounts (my own and my fiances) so we can get two return EY F tickets from SYD-AUH. Do you know if I can purchase 160k on one account and 80k on the other, then transfer between them to get 120k in each account to make the booking? It looks like this would cost ~$150 less than buying 120k in each account separately (because of the lower cents per mile at 160k purchase).
Hope this makes sense, thanks!

@ Rosso — You [I]can [/I]but keep in mind you’ll pay a fee to transfer as well, and it sometimes takes a few days for the transfer to go through.

As Tiffany said, you technically can, but the transfer fee is really high and will negate any savings you may have by doing this. Generally, it’s not recommended to transfer miles between accounts because of the fee.

As Tiffany and Luis said above, while you can do that, you won’t end up coming out ahead, unfortunately. Sorry!

Lucky or Tiffany – is this offer by AA a good deal ? buy 100k miles get 60k bonus ?

[USER=120]@Andrew F[/USER] — It [I]can[/I] be, if you have a specific use in mind. This equates to a rate of about 2¢ per mile, which is a decent price, but not a rate at which I’d personally make speculative purchases: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/03/31/up-to-60-bonus-on-purchased-american-aadvantage-miles/[/URL]

Agree with Tiffany. With a specific use in mind it could make sense. For example, Abu Dhabi to Sydney in Etihad’s First Apartment costs 60,000 miles one-way, so at a rate of two cents per mile that’s like paying $1,200, which is a great deal. That being said, that’s only true if you have a near term use in mind and don’t already have an existing points balance.

Lucky or Tiffany- thanks for responding ! I was looking to get to Sydney from Dallas or Houston. any suggestions on how best to use these 160K miles per person. If this is worth it, i would think about buying it for my wife as well

Andrew, while American partners with Qantas, unfortunately Qantas is extremely stingy with premium cabin award space to/from the US. So if you’re very flexible there’s a chance you’ll find a couple of first or business class seats, which is your best bet if the goal is to get some reasonably direct flights at a good cost.

Otherwise you could redeem two sets of awards to route either via the Middle East or Asia. This will be significantly more expensive, since you’ll be paying for the costs of those individual awards. In other words, you’d pay the cost of an award from Australia to the Middle East, and then separately the cost of an award from the Middle East to the US.

If your goal is to buy miles to use between the US and Australia, your best bet is to wait until Alaska has their next promotion for the purchase of miles. With them you can redeem for travel on Cathay Pacific between the US and Australia on a single award, so it would be a much better value.

Let us know if you have any other questions!