Obviously this isn’t the time to buy miles speculatively. However, there are also lots of people planning last minute trips to get home, or planning travel way in advance, so if that applies to you, buying miles at a discount could be worth considering.…
I'm not sure how exactly he got this info, but @xJonNYC shares some very interesting statistics about upgrades on American Airlines. According to him, when it comes to American Airlines upgrades: -- 75% of upgrades are 500 mile upgrades (this includes…
American Executive Platinum members receive four systemwide upgrades every year when they qualify for status. These systemwide upgrades are issued when you earn the status, and expire at the end of January of the year where your status expires. Personally…
It's no secret that I'm less than thrilled with American Airlines overall, though I've made the decision to requalify for Executive Platinum status. That's true even though I'm currently only a bit over halfway there, and we have only several weeks left…
American Airlines has been doing a good job lately with adding partner airline award options to aa.com. This makes it easier for the average member to redeem American miles, since they can see all the options available to them with a single search. If…
It’s approaching the end of the year, which means it’s a good time to start looking at your elite mileage balances, deciding which status levels you want to go for, and how you want to earn them. It's pretty normal for airlines to offer buy-up promotions…
Historically the "big three" US airlines haven't let you redeem miles for premium economy on partner airlines. Presumably that's at least partly because in the past they haven't offered their own premium economy cabins, so they also didn't allow those…
While American isn't great about making saver level award seats available on their own flights, there are still some fantastic partner airline award opportunities available. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at that for those based in the US.…
American Airlines has this week launched SimplyMiles, which is a new opportunity to earn bonus miles with retailers using your American Airlines credit cards. Don't get too excited, at least initially (and frankly probably don't even get too excited…
American Airlines AAdvantage has just significantly increased mileage earning rates for travel on Qantas, and that shouldn't come as any surprise. As of October 1, 2019, AAdvantage members will in many cases earn significantly more miles for travel on…
American Airlines is continuing their trend of adding partner airline award bookings to their website, aa.com. American Airlines AAdvantage members can now redeem miles for travel on Seaborne Airlines directly on aa.com. American says that this is the…
I can't believe we're just over a week away from the last quarter of the year. Where the heck did the summer go? As we enter the final quarter of the year I tend to think it makes sense to start considering your overall elite status qualification plans.…
There are lots of things that contribute towards a great frequent flyer program. Obviously award redemption rates and award availability are both important, but there’s also something to be said for the ease with which you can search and book award seats.…
American Airlines has just announced a potentially interesting partnership with an entertainment company. American AAdvantage members can now earn three or more miles per dollar spent with Vivid Seats, thanks to a new partnership between the two companies.…
For years American has offered a status challenge for Gold and Platinum status, which provided a fast track opportunity to earn status. You’d have to pay a certain amount and then earn a certain number of elite qualifying miles within a 90 day period…
Over the past few years American's saver level award availability for their own flights has gotten terrible. While there are lots of great award redemption opportunities on partner airlines, American saver level award availability is quite hard to come…
On the surface this probably sounds like a good thing, though it might not actually be... Delta SkyMiles has been offering revenue based award pricing for years. This means that the price of an award ticket is largely correlated to how much a ticket…
There are lots of things that contribute towards a great frequent flyer program. Obviously award redemption rates and award availability are both important, but there’s also something to be said for the ease with which you can search and book award seats.…
We're now over halfway into 2019 (I'd say "where has time gone?" but I feel like I'm always wondering that), so I wanted to provide an update on how 2019 is looking for me status-wise at the halfway point. At the very beginning of 2019 I wrote a post…
I'll save my American flying experience today for a separate post (OMG), but in this post wanted to write about an interesting situation I found myself in today when it comes to American's companion upgrade policy. I'd like to think I'm fairly well versed…
In 2017 American Airlines invested about $200 million in China Southern, which is China’s largest airline. It became clear that this was part of a larger strategic alliance between the two airlines. Since then, China Southern has left SkyTeam, and American…
