How Much Are American Airlines Miles Worth?

The value of American Airlines AAdvantage miles varies significantly based on how you choose to redeem them. The best way is to use your miles for flight tickets with American Airlines or its partner airlines, including those participating in the oneworld Alliance. When redeemed for flight tickets, you can typically receive a value of around 1.5 cents to 1.7 cents per mile.

Members of the program may also redeem their miles for upgrades, rental cars, hotel stays, Admirals Club membership and more.

You can earn AA miles in different ways. These include booking American Airlines tickets and flying with its partner airlines, spending through its partner merchants and using co-branded American Airlines AAdvantage credit cards. Depending on your membership level, you can earn up to 120% bonus miles. Members may benefit from other tier-based perks too.

• How Much Are American Airlines Miles Worth?
• How to Earn & Maximize Miles From American Airlines
• How to Redeem American Airlines Miles
• How to Get the American Airlines Elite Status
• Other Questions You May Have About American Airlines Miles

An AA mile's value typically varies from 1.5 cents to 1.7 cents when redeemed for a flight. You usually get the best value for your AA miles if you use them for business-class seats, and you may even get upward of 10 cents per mile in some cases. If your redemption value is below 1.3 cents per mile, you may want to consider other options.

The American Airlines miles chart gives you an indication of how many miles you'll need for a flight ticket based on different award types, regions and seats. While MileSAAver Off Peak award flights require the fewest number of miles, this option comes with limited date and region availability. AAnytime awards, on the other hand, offer more alternatives.

You can use the American Airlines flight booking tool to check how many miles you need for a flight ticket across any route with different airline partners on and around the date you select. You can then use the ticket's actual fare and the miles you need for redemption to arrive at the value of each mile. You can use the same method to determine how much American Airlines miles are worth across different redemption methods.

The American Airlines miles program offers reasonably good value when compared to frequent flyer programs run by most other popular domestic and international airlines.

You earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles when you fly with American Airlines, American Eagle network carriers, oneworld Alliance members and the program’s partner airlines. Using a co-branded American AAdvantage card enables you to earn miles faster. Booking rental cars, hotel stays and vacation packages through the program’s travel partners also allows you to earn AA miles.

Citi offers four American Airlines AAdvantage credit cards: three for individuals and one for businesses. While each card has distinct benefits, all offer 2X miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases. Depending on the card you select, you might also earn 2X miles per dollar through additional bonus categories.

The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard Credit Card charges a $99 annual fee that is waived for the first year. Additionally, you can earn 50,000 miles when you spend $2,500 on purchases in the first three months. Eligible purchases with American Airlines earn 2X miles per dollar, along with purchases made at gas stations and restaurants. You get 1X miles per dollar on all other purchases. If you spend at least $20,000 on purchases in a year, you qualify for a $125 American Airlines flight discount.

Other benefits include a 25% discount on American Airlines in-flight food and beverage purchases, the first bag checked for free on domestic American Airlines flights (for you and up to four flyers on the same booking), preferred boarding and no foreign transaction fees.

The American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp Mastercard Credit Card comes with no annual fee. You may earn a welcome bonus of 10,000 miles and a $50 statement credit if you spend $500 on purchases in the first three months. Grocery store purchases (including grocery delivery services) and eligible American Airlines purchases earn 2X miles per dollar. You earn 1X miles per dollar on all other purchases.

Using this card for American Airlines in-flight food and beverage purchases comes with a 25% discount. If you use it outside of the U.S., there will be a 3% foreign transaction fee.

The Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard Credit Card comes with a $450 annual fee. New cardholders can earn 50,000 bonus miles if they spend $5,000 on purchases in the first three months. Spending on eligible American Airlines purchases earns 2X miles per dollar. There are no other bonus categories, and you earn 1X miles per dollar on all other purchases. If you spend $40,000 on purchases in a qualifying status year, you get a bonus of 10,000 Loyalty Points towards elite status.

Cardholders who are billed a $450 annual fee and have qualifying Citigold accounts get a $145 statement credit every year.

Other benefits include complimentary Admirals Club membership, the first bag checked for free on domestic American Airlines flights (for you and up to eight flyers on the same booking), priority check-in, availability-based priority airport screening and priority boarding (for you and up to eight flyers on the same booking), a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck fee credit every five years, a 25% discount on American Airlines in-flight food and beverage purchases and no foreign transaction fees.

The CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard Credit Card comes with a $99 annual fee, which you don't need to pay for the first year. New cardholders receive 65,000 bonus miles by spending $4,000 on purchases in the first four months. Eligible American Airlines purchases earn 2X miles per dollar. You also earn 2X miles per dollar at gas stations and on business purchases related to telecommunications, cable and satellite services and car rentals. All other purchases earn 1X miles per dollar.

If you spend more than $30,000 on purchases in a year, you will receive a domestic main cabin American Airlines companion certificate. Additional benefits include your first bag on domestic flights checked for free, preferred boarding, 25% savings on American Airlines in-flight food, beverage and Wi-Fi purchases and no foreign transaction fees.

The American Airlines AAdvantage program gives you the opportunity to earn and redeem miles in different ways. As you move up the membership ladder, you can earn miles faster and gain access to a variety of perks, such as complimentary upgrades on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines flights, complimentary preferred seats and up to three bags checked for free.

Signing up for the program is fairly simple, and you may do so online. Once you enrol, you earn miles each time you book an eligible ticket with American Airlines, the program's partner airlines or with oneworld Alliance members.

You can also earn miles through American Airlines Vacations, AAdvantage Dining, the AA shopping portal and various AAdvantage travel partners, such as Hyatt, Marriott, IHG, Hertz, Avis and Budget.

Base-level members earn 5X miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines plane tickets. Members who reach the top tier, AAdvantage Executive Platinum, earn 11X miles per dollar. Gold members earn 7X miles per dollar, AAdvantage Platinum members earn 8X miles per dollar, and AAdvantage Platinum Pro members earn 9X miles per dollar. All members may earn up to 75,000 miles per ticket.

The number of miles you earn when flying with most of the program's partner airlines depends on the fare class and flight distance. In some cases, as with JetBlue, you earn miles the same way you do with American Airlines.

You can earn miles through various American Airlines partner merchants across categories such as travel and shopping.

• Hotels: Earn miles through the program's hotel partners, such as American Airlines Hotels, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts (IHG) and Rocketmiles. Depending on the partner you select, you may earn miles on the amount you spend per night or stay. It is also possible to transfer points from some hotel loyalty programs to your AAdvantage account. American Airlines transfer partners that let you convert your points to miles include World of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and Marriott Vacation Club.
• Car rentals: The program's car rental partners include Avis, Budget, Payless, Alamo, National, Dollar, Hertz and Thrifty. You may earn miles per rental day or based on the total amount you spend.
• Vacations: Booking select resorts through American Airlines Vacations lets you earn up to 25,000 bonus miles.
• Cruises: Using the American Airlines Cruises platform to book cruises lets you earn one mile per dollar.
• Shopping: Using AAdvantage eShopping, the American Airlines shopping portal, allows you to earn miles through more than 950 websites of popular stores. You may also earn miles through the SimplyMiles platform.
• Gas: Fuel Rewards program members earn two AA miles per gallon at Shell.
• Home: Enrolling with NRG and completing two months of active service lets you earn a bonus of 12,500 miles for each electric account and 2,500 AAdvantage miles for every natural gas account. You also earn 2X miles per dollar on your monthly electric and natural gas bills' supply portion.
  
  Eligible customers who have electric accounts with XOOM Energy in CT, ME, NH or RI can earn up to 10,000 miles upon enrollment and 2X miles per dollar on their bills' supply portion. Eligible customers with natural gas accounts with the company in CA, GA, IN, KY, MI or VA get up to 5,000 miles upon enrollment and 2X miles per dollar on their bills' supply portion.
• Donations: If you donate $25 or more to Stand Up To Cancer, you earn 10 miles per dollar donated.

It’s possible to buy American Airlines miles, and members may purchase a maximum of 150,000 miles per calendar year. The cost per mile depends on the number of miles you wish to purchase and the presence of an ongoing promotional offer. You also need to account for additional fees — you’ll need to pay $0.0295 cents per mile, a 7.5% federal excise tax and a transaction processing charge of $20 to $40.

Buying American Airlines miles might be worth your while if you plan to use them for a high-value redemption. You may also consider buying some miles if your existing miles balance is approaching its expiration date since a new 24-month period begins every time there’s any qualifying account activity.

If you're wondering how to use American Airlines miles, know that you have several options beyond redeeming them for flight tickets. Redeeming your miles is relatively simple. You need to log in to your AAdvantage account and select the desired redemption method. If you wish to book a flight ticket, start by looking for suitable options, choose a date and class fare, and then pay for it with miles. If you wish to make an online purchase, you may use the AAdvantage eShopping or SimplyMiles platforms and pay with miles.

Much like you can earn AAdvantage miles through different airlines, you also can redeem them through American Airlines, oneworld Alliance members and AAdvantage airline partners. Carriers that let you redeem your AAdvantage miles for flight tickets through aa.com include:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cape Air
• Cathay Pacific
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• GOL Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• JetBlue
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas Airways
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• Silver Airways
• SriLankan Airlines

For booking flight tickets with partner airlines not included in this list, you need to contact American Airlines over the phone.

American Airlines uses a consistent award chart based on award types for its own award flights, so you might need roughly the same number of miles to fly across different routes all year round. For example, a MileSAAver award ticket needs 7,500 miles for flights that cover less than 500 miles within the contiguous United States and Canada. An AAnytime Level 2 award on the same flight would require 30,000 miles. Bear in mind that these awards are subject to availability.

MileSAAver awards come with no blackout dates, but they have limited availability, so don't expect to get them easily during peak periods. While MileSAAver awards start at as little as 7,500 miles (plus taxes and fees), you may find MileSAAver Off Peak awards on some routes that lead to even further savings. AAnytime awards are easier to find than MileSAAver awards and start at 20,000 miles.

The American Airlines redemption chart for oneworld Alliance members and AAdvantage partner airlines gives you an idea of how many miles you need depending on the route you wish to fly and the cabin type.

The American Airlines AAdvantage program no longer consists of Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs), Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) and Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS). Instead, members now need to earn Loyalty Points to move from one membership level to the next. Tier-specific benefits include complimentary seat upgrades on American and Alaska airlines, preferred seats and Loyalty Choice Rewards.

• AAdvantage Gold / oneworld Ruby: Achieve this status by earning 30,000 Loyalty Points in a 12-month period that starts on March 1st each year. Benefits include complimentary seat upgrades on American Airlines, complimentary Main Cabin Extra seats and preferred seats, a 24-hour upgrade window, 40% bonus miles and one bag checked for free.
• AAdvantage Platinum / oneworld Sapphire: Earn 75,000 Loyalty Points in a 12-month period to get to this level. Benefits other than the ones that overlap with the previous level include a 48-hour upgrade window, 60% bonus miles and two bags checked for free.
• AAdvantage Platinum Pro / oneworld Emerald: You need to earn 125,000 Loyalty Points in a 12-month period to reach this level. It offers one Loyalty Choice Reward, complimentary seat upgrades on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, a 72-hour upgrade window, 80% bonus miles and three bags checked for free.
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum / oneworld Emerald: You get to this level if you earn 200,000 Loyalty Points in a 12-month period. Benefits specific to this tier include multiple Loyalty Choice Rewards, a 100-hour upgrade window and 120% bonus miles.

MoneyGeek experts have taken a close look at how the value of American Airlines miles changes based on different redemption methods. They have also carried out in-depth market research to determine the worth of your miles.

Taking a look at how to redeem American Airlines miles and how their value changes based on different redemption methods would place you in a better position when it comes to using the miles you earn.