As Delta and United continue to move further down the path of dynamic pricing and devaluation, AA is still the only one that has at least kept its own and its partners’ basic award charts. You can still find some relatively good redemptions. Today, let’s revisit AA’s miles and loyalty program.

About American Airlines (AA)

AA is a major U.S. airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. By scheduled passengers carried, revenue passenger miles, and daily departures, it is the largest airline in the world. It has 10 hubs, so if you live in one of these hub cities, flying AA is very convenient. Award seats are also easier to find, especially nonstop awards.

  • Charlotte (CLT) :
  • Chicago–O'Hare (ORD) :
  • Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) :
  • Los Angeles (LAX) :
  • Miami (MIA) :
  • New York–Kennedy (JFK)
  • New York–LaGuardia (LGA)
  • Philadelphia (PHL)
  • Phoenix–Sky Harbor (PHX)
  • Washington–National (DCA)

AA has partnerships with 24 airlines, including 13 oneworld members and 11 other partners. AA miles can be used for AA flights as well as tickets on most partner airlines.

Here are the oneworld airlines you can book with AA miles:

  • American Airlines
  • Alaska Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Finnair
  • Iberia
  • Japan Airlines
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • Qantas
  • Qatar Airways
  • Royal Air Maroc
  • Royal Jordanian
  • SriLankan Airlines

Here are AA’s other partner airlines that can be booked with AA miles:

  • Air Tahiti Nui
  • Cape Air
  • China Southern Airlines (must call AA to book)
  • Etihad Airways
  • Fiji Airways
  • GOL
  • Hawaiian Airlines

How to Earn Miles

Flying

There are many ways to earn AA miles. Whether you fly AA or one of its partner airlines, you can earn miles. But AA now earns miles based on the price of the ticket, regardless of the actual distance or time flown. It’s all about the money! In addition, if you have elite status with AA, you can earn bonus miles. Different cabin classes, such as business class, also earn bonuses. And award tickets do not earn AA miles.

For beginners or people who don’t fly much, it’s best to just credit all oneworld miles to AA; splitting them up is actually a waste.

Credit Cards

Besides flying, co-branded credit cards are also a major source of miles. AA credit cards are issued by Citi and Barclays, respectively. The two entry-level cards are both worth applying for and both come with good welcome bonuses. I strongly recommend applying for these two first before considering others.

Apply now

Full review

Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red American Airlines Credit Card

$0 intro annual fee for the first year

  • Welcome bonus: 50,000 AA miles (one purchase within 90 days)
  • Rewards: 2x on AA website and phone bookings; 1x on all other purchases
  • Redemption: Best value for redeeming flights between the U.S. and China or the U.S. and Europe; business class redemptions can offer solid value.
  • Annual fee: $99
  • Apply now>>

Apply now

Full review

Citi AA Platinum American Airlines Credit Card

No annual fee for the first year!

  • Welcome bonus: 80,000 AA miles (spend $3,500 in the first 4 months)
  • Rewards: 2X on AA website ticket purchases; 2x at restaurants and gas stations; 1x on all other purchases
  • Redemption: Best value when redeeming for flights between China and the U.S. or between the U.S. and Europe; business-class redemptions can also offer solid value.
  • Annual fee: $99（No annual fee for the first year）
  • Apply now>>

Other AA cards are also worth considering:

Transfer Points to Miles

In addition to earning directly, AA miles can also be transferred from other points currencies. The most common option is Marriott, which can transfer at a 3:1 ratio, and there are occasional transfer bonus promotions. Note that Marriott transfers to AA are not instant, so either transfer in advance or first hold the AA award ticket and then transfer points right away. Citi ThankYou Points used to transfer at 1:1, and Bilt transfers were also available, but both have been suspended.

Other Ways

There are also other ways to earn AA miles, such as car rentals, the AA shopping portal, and dining rewards. These methods can also earn you AA miles, but the amounts are not as large as the three methods above. If you are especially detail-oriented about maximizing value, it’s worth taking a closer look.

Using AA Miles

Award Chart

AA miles are also dynamically priced (the number of miles required can fluctuate based on the ticket price), but AA still has a minimum award price (saver award), which you can use as a baseline for booking. The miles needed for award tickets depend on the region and the cabin class. The table below shows the minimum number of miles needed for each AA region. Note that this figure does not include the dynamic pricing component, so you may see the minimum amount at some times, while at other times it may be two or three times higher, which means there is no saver-level availability.

AA also has a separate award chart for its partners, also calculated by region. Note that this chart also shows the minimum number of miles required, and the mileage requirement increases as the ticket price rises. If you find the minimum-mileage award, go ahead and book it.

AA also offers a mileage search tool, which is quite convenient. Select your city, and it will list the miles required for the destinations you’re interested in. You can also click directly on a destination in the map to start searching for flights.

Searching for Award Space

For search, AA lets you buy many AA or partner award tickets directly on its website. Just search using the AA website link below. The results page clearly shows how many miles are required for each date. AA miles can be used for one-way tickets, so I recommend searching your outbound trip as one way first. If you need a return flight, search separately. You can also book the two directions as separate one-way bookings, which is more flexible.

Be sure to check redeem miles

As you can see from the results, even though the origin and destination are the same, the mileage required can still be different. That’s dynamic pricing at work.

If your dates are flexible, you can click calendar to see what awards are available in the near term. Although the lowest price for the month is 37,500

However, actually in July there were lower rates, only 35,000, and that lowest tier is 35,000. But I’d suggest finding something roughly close to the lowest tier is good enough.

AA Miles Value

So what is the approximate value of AA miles? Let’s roughly compare ticket prices and mileage prices. Note that this is comparing two different flights. In fact, the mileage and cash prices on these two flights are pretty similar, but for easier business class comparison, these two were chosen. You can see that 37,000 miles redeemed for $750 in value, so AA miles are worth around 2c/p. But this is the case when choosing the lower mileage option, and redeeming for U.S. domestic flights will be a bit lower. So we generally think AA miles are worth about 1.5c/p when redeemed. Looking at the business class case, the redemption value is actually even higher than economy, almost 2.5c/p, so if you have a need to redeem for business class, using miles is pretty good.

Best AA Miles Redemptions

Although mileage is tied to ticket prices, there is still some pattern to it. If you can make sure you always ticket at the lower band, AA miles are arguably among the most valuable (compared with UA and Delta). In general, redemption value ranks like this:

  • AA partner airline international business/first > AA own business/first > partner airline international economy > AA own international economy > AA U.S. domestic redemptions

Here are some of the better redemptions for reference:

  • Between the Middle East and Asia: 40,000 for business class and 50,000 for first class: Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines, among others, operate quite a few flights between these two regions. AA’s Middle East region countries in the award chart include: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
  • U.S. to the Middle East/India (70,000 business class): 70,000 miles is enough to fly Qsuite business class between the U.S. and Doha, Qatar. You can also connect onward from Doha to other Middle Eastern cities for the same mileage.
  • U.S. to Africa (75,000 business class): Flying business class to the Middle East only costs 70,000, then use an extra 5,000 miles to continue on to anywhere in Africa. Starting from places like Los Angeles and connecting through Doha to Cape Town only costs 75,000.
  • Europe to the Middle East/Indian subcontinent (42,500 business class): A one-way award for 42,500 miles can get you from London to the Maldives in business class. And because this route does not go through the U.S., award space is usually plentiful. Also, Qatar Airways is not the only option. You can also fly Etihad Airways.
  • U.S. to Asia zone 1 (80,000 first class): You can fly Japan Airlines, which offers excellent hard and soft products and operates routes with very high award value. One-way flights between the U.S. and "Asia zone 1" (including Japan and Korea) cost only 35,000 in economy and 60,000 in business. First class at 80,000 is also very good.
  • Australia domestic flights (10,000 economy / 20,000 business): Another redemption that does not involve the U.S. is Qantas domestic flights within Australia. No matter where you fly in Australia, economy only costs 10,000 miles and business only 20,000. That’s pretty good for short flights between Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Longer routes and more expensive tickets to smaller cities are an even better use.
  • Europe to the Middle East/Indian subcontinent (62,500 first class): Etihad Airways is an American Airlines non-alliance partner and operates between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and London Heathrow (LHR) or New York City (JFK). Flights to London (LHR) can be redeemed in Etihad first class for 62,500 miles. On the route to JFK, each passenger needs 115,000 miles.

AA Elite Status

In 2022, AA made some major changes to its elite program, and all status is based on AA’s loyalty points (LP). Flying, credit card spending, and some other AA-related activity spending can all earn LP. The relationship between LP and status tiers is shown in the table below.

AA flights also earn LP based on spending, regardless of the actual miles flown.

Conclusion

After so many years of changes, AA, UA, and Delta have all been moving in the same direction: everything is about money. The more you spend on tickets, the easier it is to earn elite status. And award tickets all use dynamic pricing, cutting down as much as possible on the various sweet spots. Relatively speaking, though, AA still retains an award chart and a partner airline award chart, so its value is somewhat higher than UA and Delta. However, AA miles are also a bit harder to earn: there are no bank points you can transfer into them, only point transfers, and Marriott’s 3:1 ratio still isn’t all that attractive.

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