American Airlines boasts the oldest airline loyalty program still in existence today. Originally launched in 1981, the AAdvantage rewards program is also the world's largest, with over 115 million members.
How American Airlines AAdvantage works
American partners with many international airlines through the Oneworld alliance and other business agreements, so AAdvantage members can earn and redeem their miles flying practically anywhere around the world.
The airline offers several co-branded credit cards that can help you rack up extra miles on everyday spending while enjoying elite-like perks such as priority boarding and free checked bags.
Elite membership tiers
American Airlines has four tiers of elite membership: AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum Pro, and AAdvantage Executive Platinum.
You can earn these tiers of elite status by earning a certain number of Loyalty Points every twelve calendar months, beginning on March 1 each year.
You can earn Loyalty Points from flying on American Airlines, using a co-branded American Airlines credit card, or traveling with American Airlines partners.
AAdvantage Gold (40,000 Loyalty Points)
AAdvantage Gold elite members enjoy the following benefits:
- Earn 40% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
- Priority check-in, security, and Group 4 boarding
- Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades
- 24-hour upgrade window
- 1 free checked bag
- Complimentary Preferred Seats at booking, and/or Main Cabin Extra seats at check-in
AAdvantage Platinum (75,000 Loyalty Points)
AAdvantage Platinum members enjoy the following benefits:
- Earn 60% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
- Priority check-in, security, and Group 3 boarding
- Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades
- 48-hour upgrade window
- 2 free checked bags
- Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking
AAdvantage Platinum Pro (125,000 Loyalty Points)
AAdvantage Platinum Pro members receive the following benefits:
- Earn 80% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
- Priority check-in, security, and Group 2 boarding
- Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades, 72-hour upgrade window
- 3 free checked bags
- Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking
AAdvantage Executive Platinum (200,000 Loyalty Points)
- Earn 120% more miles and Loyalty Points on eligible flights
- Priority check-in, security, and Group 1 boarding
- Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades, 100-hour upgrade window
- 3 free checked bags
- Complimentary Preferred Seats and Main Cabin Extra seats at booking
Earning AAdvantage miles
There are myriad ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles, from the obvious — such as flying American and its partners — to the more arcane, like making purchases through the AAdvantage online shopping portal.
Here are all the ways you can earn American miles fast and some strategies that can boost your earnings even more.
Earning miles with AAdvantage credit cards
The easiest and quickest way to rack up American Airlines miles is by using an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card. Our guide to the best credit cards for American Airlines explains each card's benefits in greater detail.
$595
N/A
20.24% – 29.24 Variable
Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles
Excellent
Pros
Cons
This is a terrific card for frequent American Airlines flyers who can take advantage of its included Admirals Club membership and other day-of-travel perks to offset the high annual fee. Authorized users also get Admirals Club access, so there's extra value to be had there, too. However, it's not the best card for earning AA miles on everyday spending, and the lack of travel protections isn't ideal for an airline credit card.
Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®$0
N/A
20.24% – 29.24% Variable
Earn 15,000 American Airlines miles
Excellent
Pros
Cons
Because the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® doesn't have a big bonus or benefits for frequent flyers, it's best for those who travel infrequently or are just getting started with earning American Airlines miles.
American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®$99
0% intro APR for 15 months on balance transfers made within 45 days of account opening
20.24%, 24.24% or 29.24% variable
Earn 60,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles
Good to Excellent
Pros
Cons
With a generous, easy-to-earn welcome bonus and elite-like travel perks, the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® is well worth it for frequent or occasional American Airlines flyers. The annual fee of $99 is manageable, and other benefits like travel insurance and discounts can save you money.
AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®Flying on American Airlines
Aside from using co-branded credit cards, one of the best ways to earn American Airlines miles is to actually fly with the airline or its partners.
Mileage earning boosts from elite status
On American Airlines flights, AAdvantage members earn a certain number of award miles per dollar spent on airfare, excluding taxes, based on their elite status. (Note: These are redeemable award miles, not elite-qualifying ones that are earned based on flight distance and ticket fare codes).
- Non-elite member: 5 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Gold: 7 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Platinum: 8 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 9 miles per dollar
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 11 miles per dollar
So the higher your elite tier, the more miles you can rake in.
Flying on partner airlines
You can also earn American Airlines miles on many airline partners. Partner carriers include the following Oneworld members as well as other one-off relationships:
American Airlines Oneworld partners:
- Alaska Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Fiji Airways
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian Airlines
- SriLankan Airlines
American Airlines non-Oneworld partners
- Aer Lingus
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Cape Air
- China Southern Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- GOL Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- IndiGo
- JetSMART
Earning rates vary from carrier to carrier, and are usually based on the distance of flights and the fare code of the tickets you purchase.
Before reserving flights on partner airlines, be sure to check the rates at which you earn miles, and choose the carriers on whom you can earn the most — when it makes sense, of course.
Buy or transfer American Airlines miles
Buying or transferring airline miles is rarely a good use of your money, even factoring in discounts or bonuses. But if you're in a pinch and need a few thousand extra points for a specific upcoming redemption, purchasing points is a good option to consider.
Purchasing AAdvantage miles costs $35 per 1,000 points with a 2,000-mile minimum, and you can buy up to 150,000 per calendar year — so you're looking at a cost of 3.5 cents per mile.
Transfers start at 1,000 miles and cost $10 per 1,000. You can transfer up to 200,000 miles from an account per calendar year. That's just 1 cent per mile, but if you're transferring a lot of them, you might as well save the fees, and just use miles from your own account to book an award for the person to whom you intended to transfer the miles.
Shopping and dining programs
You can earn American Airlines miles in a number of other ways including everyday activities like online shopping and dining, as well as with other travel partners.
AAdvantage members can register their frequent flyer account and a credit card with AAdvantage Dining to earn between 3 and 5 miles per dollar at thousands of participating restaurants nationwide. New enrollees can even earn 1,000 bonus miles by spending $25 in their first 30 days.
By making purchases through American Airlines' online shopping portal, AAdvantage members can rake in multiple bonus points per dollar at participating retailers like Macy's and Nike, too. While most of these deals tend to be around 1x to 3x bonus miles per dollar spent, in some cases, they can go up to 30x per dollar.
The airline fields a number of rental car partnerships, too, so AAdvantage members enjoy discounts on bookings and can earn bonus miles per day or per reservation. Some partner hotel nights and cruise fares also accrue bonus miles.
Convert hotel points into American Airlines miles
Thanks to American Airlines' hotel agreements, AAdvantage members can convert certain types of hotel points, including World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG Rewards points, into AAdvantage miles, too. However, this is usually not a great deal thanks to dismal conversion ratios that typically require five or six hotel points to one airline mile.
The one exception is Marriott Bonvoy points. They convert at a ratio of 3:1 and when you transfer 60,000 to an airline partner, you end up with a 5,000-mile bonus. Put simply, if you transferred 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to American Airlines, you'd end up with 25,000 miles — 20,000 from the 3:1 conversion plus 5,000 bonus miles on top.
Sign up for American Airlines AAdvantage promotions
You probably already get more emails — subscriptions, newsletters, advertisements, spam — than you know what to do with. However, signing up for American Airlines' promotional emails could help you stay on top of any bonuses or other deals with which to earn bonus miles.
For instance, AAdvantage recently emailed all members a holiday "gift." Some of these were lounge passes or upgrades to Main Cabin Extra seating. But other members got bonus miles. Plus, everyone who "unwrapped" their gift was also entered to earn one of six 500,000-mile prizes, so it never hurts to sign up and see what's offered.
Leverage your World of Hyatt status
Back in 2019, World of Hyatt and American Airlines began a partnership to allow their elite loyalty members both to enjoy reciprocal benefits and earn bonus airline miles and hotel points on flights and stays. By linking your accounts, you can earn 1 bonus AAdvantage mile for every eligible dollar spent on qualifying Hyatt stays and experiences (on top of the Hyatt points you earn), and AAdvantage members with Platinum elite status and higher can accelerate their progress toward World of Hyatt status as well.
Redeeming AAdvantage miles
As with earning, there are plenty of ways to use AAdvantage miles when the time comes. You can cash them in for award flights on American and its partners, redeem them for gift cards, convert them into hotel points, and more.
The value of your miles varies depending on how you use them.
How much are American Airlines miles worth?
The American Airlines AAdvantage miles are worth an average of 1.4 cents per mile, according to Business Insider's rewards valuations. Depending on how you redeem them, you can get huge value for your rewards.
Booking American Airlines award flights
American Airlines' award chart used to have a variety of reward levels, including AAnytime and MileSAAVer options (the latter being the cheapest. However, the carrier recently eliminated these different levels and now only offers Flight Awards, with mileage requirements that can fluctuate from route to route and day to day.
The current award chart simply shows you the minimum mileage you'll need for a flight, depending on the destination. Here are some examples for one-way flights:
- Flights within the contiguous 48 states and to Canada: Main cabin awards from 7,500 miles; business/first starting at 15,000 miles
- Contiguous U.S. to Hawaii or Alaska: Main cabin starting at 20,000 miles; premium economy from 40,000; business/first at 60,000
- Contiguous U.S. to Europe: Main cabin starting at 25,o00 miles; premium economy at 50,000; business/first at 75,000
Redeem AAdvantage miles for partner flights
Of course, it can be fun to redeem your American Airlines miles for flights on excellent partners like Finnair and Japan Airlines, too. American's partner award chart mileage values are more fixed in these cases since the airline only has access to saver-level award seats on other carriers. The number of miles you'll need will be based on the specific regions of travel (e.g. North America, Europe, Asia, etc.).
Here's the range of prices for a one-way award in each cabin class.
- Economy: 12,500 to 40,000 miles
- Premium economy: 22,500 to 65,000 miles
- Business class: 25,000 to 80,000 miles
- First class: 50,000 to 120,000 miles
With partner awards in general, you'll get the most value from two specific strategies. Redeem miles for short-haul flights that would otherwise be very expensive — such as quick hops within Australia on Qantas or within Asia on Cathay Pacific — or look to long-haul international flights in business or first class.
Business class on Qatar Airways to the Middle East or Africa for just 70,000 or 75,000 miles each way, respectively, or Cathay Pacific business class from the U.S. to Hong Kong at 70,000 miles are both steals. Avoid British Airways since taxes and fees on its flights, including award tickets, are exorbitant.
Booking upgrades or for more legroom
It's also possible to redeem American Airlines miles for upgrades on American Airlines and American Eagle flights, although the value of doing so usually isn't great and requires both miles and a cash co-pay in most cases.
If you're flying from North America to Hong Kong, Japan, China, Australia, South Korea, or New Zealand, for instance, expect to pay 25,000 miles plus $350 each way to upgrade from discount economy or premium economy to business class, which is pretty steep. Partner upgrades may also be available from certain fare classes on British Airways and Iberia flights.
Finally, you might also be able to upgrade from a regular Main Cabin economy seat to a Main Cabin Extra seat with a few inches more legroom using miles. The cost of doing so will vary based on your specific ticket, fare, and flight.
Other ways to redeem American Airlines miles
There's an assortment of other options for cashing in those hard-earned American Airlines miles if you so choose. But before you do, be warned that none of them will yield a great value for your miles, so reconsider before clicking redeem.
Admirals Club membership
Rather than paying cash to join the Admirals Club (or getting the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® ), you can redeem miles for it. Depending on your elite level and whether you're just joining or renewing for a subsequent year, a membership costs between $500 and $650. Instead, you could cash in 50,000 to 65,000 miles — a value of 1 cent apiece, which isn't that great.
Hotel stays and car rentals or vacation packages
Thanks to American Airlines' travel partnerships, AAdvantage members can also use miles directly for some car rentals and hotel bookings as well as vacation packages. You tend to get less than 1 cent per mile in value via any of these avenues, too.
Newspapers and charitable donations
Among the various other redemption options that don't include travel are newspaper subscriptions and charitable donations. As with the other non-flight redemptions on this list, these choices are usually best avoided since you don't tend to get a lot of bang for your miles, and you generally need to redeem in increments of 1,000 miles.
Tips for maximizing miles
Thanks to American Airlines' various banking, airline, and other partnerships, it's relatively easy to earn AAdvantage miles both traveling and on everyday purchases. Likewise, the airline makes it simple to redeem your miles for everything from nearly-free award flights to gift cards and magazine subscriptions.
As with any rewards-related calculation, though, do your math and make sure you get enough value from the miles you cash in to justify doing so. Otherwise, it might be better to hang onto them a little while longer in the hopes of scoring something better, like an award ticket in first or business class once you start traveling again.
In the meantime, you could consider signing up for an American Airlines co-branded credit card to rack up even more miles for when you're ready to use them.
AAdvantage Rewards frequently asked questions
How can I earn AAdvantage miles?
You can earn AAdvantage miles by opening a loyalty account with American Airlines, then flying with American Airlines or partner airlines, using AAdvantage co-branded credit cards, and participating in shopping and dining programs.
What can I redeem my AAdvantage miles for?
AAdvantage miles can be redeemed for travel on American Airlines or other partner airlines with direct relationships with American Airlines, or within the Oneworld alliance. Miles can also be used for hotel stays and gift card redemptions, although these options aren't as valuable.
What are the AAdvantage elite membership tiers and their benefits?
AAdvantage elite status tiers range from Gold to Platinum, Platinum Pro, and top-tier Executive Platinum. Each tier offers progressively enticing benefits such as bonus miles on flights, priority boarding, free checked bags, and complimentary access to better seats and upgrades.
How can I maximize my AAdvantage miles?
Make the most of your AAdvantage miles by booking American flights on co-branded American Airlines credit cards, and find the best redemptions by learning how to leverage alliance partners and other strategies to book first- and business-class flights on American Airlines and partner airlines.
Are there any strategies for reaching elite status faster?
The best way to quickly earn status involves flying exclusively with American Airlines and partners to accumulate qualifying miles. You can also take advantage of elite status challenges or promotions and put all of your spending on AAdvantage credit cards that earn elite qualifying miles on purchases.
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