Lazy Guide: American AAdvantage
Tl;dr: AA tends to have excellent pricing on economy flights with solid availability, albeit with rarer deep discount sales than some competitors. AA miles are easy to earn; the sheer number of cards available rewards churning and maximizing, but simpler setups can also be efficient.
Welcome to the Lazy Guide to American AAdvantage. This is not a comprehensive guide or a list of ways to get “maximum” value. Instead of “sweet spots,” we’re highlighting lazy spots—ways to use points to travel abroad with minimum cost and effort. These are just to get you started—redemption options are always changing and can vary based on your home airport, so we recommend verifying what works for your specific situation before pursuing any points strategy.
We have previously covered Delta Skymiles, my go-to for cheap trips when my schedule and destination are flexible, and Alaska Atmos Rewards, my favorite for award chart pricing and low-cost status opportunities. Next up: American Airlines AAdvantage. We used AA miles to book a round-trip award flight to Japan for 70k miles in 2023, and as I write this there are still plenty of flights available around that price; AA still has often excellent pricing. What’s new, though, is the airline’s relationship with Citi, allowing mileage earning not just with AA’s own cards, but with Citi’s excellent and massive portfolio of cards.
Who is AAdvantage best for?
AAdvantage miles are great for:
Those who want predictable award pricing with solid availability
Those who want to dabble in premium redemptions
Optimizers looking to leverage multiple cards for points from sign-up bonuses and spending category bonuses
If you prefer bargain-basement redemptions or want status with minimal spending and flying, you might prefer other programs.
How to redeem AAdvantage miles – lazily
American has an award chart for partner flights, with dynamic pricing on its own. That said, if you focus on the lowest rates, I have generally found round-trip pricing of about 70k miles to East Asia and roughly 50k miles to Europe round-trip. You won’t find that price on every route at any given time, but if you are somewhat flexible on timing and destination, you’ll have a good chance of success. In fact, when running Roame SkyView searches, AA always stands out to me for pricing and availability.
Although exact pricing can vary depending on your home airport, I find that AA’s pricing from the West Coast to Europe is significantly better than Alaska’s, while being roughly the same from the East Coast to Asia; something to keep in mind if you’re choosing between the two programs.
While taxes and fees are generally low, there are two big exceptions: BA and Iberia. BA surcharges can be particularly onerous, which can limit the program’s value to Europe, especially the UK, so if you have a particular destination you want to build your points strategy around, you’ll want to check to see if AA has low-cost alternatives to BA and Iberia on those routes.
AAdvantage awards can be canceled for free, which makes it easy to book a flight when you see good pricing and adjust plans later.
Although the easiest way to search availability is award-search tool Roame, which usually has good AA coverage, the AA website itself is very functional, and offers a color-coded award calendar search, which makes it fairly easy to scan multiple months of availability for the best pricing.
AA also has solid pricing in business class, often 100-120k miles round-trip, although availability can be very limited at that price point. Although I’m not a business class flyer, my general impression is that AA has better availability than Alaska Atmos and much better pricing than Delta, while United is a step behind AA on both counts.
How to earn AAdvantage miles
There are a number of cards that earn AAdvantage miles directly, or Citi Thank You points, which are transferable to AAdvantage (note that for some Citi cards, the ratio is less than 1:1 unless you have another, qualifying card).
American’s co-branded cards include the MileUp, Platinum Select, Globe, and Executive. You can earn Citi Thank You points with the Double Cash, Custom Cash, Strata, Strata Premier, Strata Elite.
Collectively, these cards offer bonuses on several spending categories:
12x on hotels, rental cars, and attractions booked via Citi Travel (Strata Elite)
10x on eligible hotels and rental cars booked via AA (Executive)
6x on flights booked via Citi Travel, dining during “Citi Nights” (Strata Elite)
6x on hotels booked via AAdvantage Hotels (Globe)
5x one largest spending category (Custom Cash)
3x on dining (Strata Premier, Strata Elite), gas and groceries (Strata, Strata Premier) and direct air and hotel bookings (Strata Premier)
2x on everyday spending (Double Cash), restaurants and gas (Platinum Select) restaurants and transit (Globe)
1.5x on everyday spending (Strata Elite)
Some limitations apply; check the terms and conditions.
AA can be particularly strong with a single-card setup, as the Strata Elite offers premium card benefits, strong base earnings, and bonuses on dining and travel booked via Citi. But if you want to optimize, you can pick up several Citi and AA cards, earn a bonus on each, and then pick and choose the perfect card for each spending situation.
The card lineup has a few drawbacks, though. Citi’s Strata Elite offers 4 AA Admiral’s Club passes each year, but lacks its own proprietary lounges like those from Delta partner Amex or United partner Chase. American’s own card lineup is also fairly lackluster at the moment. While offerings from Alaska, Delta, and United offer solid perks, loyalty fast tracks, and statement credits that can potentially recoup the annual fee, all of AA’s premium cards require paying a fee and sacrificing mileage earnings in exchange for a modest boost toward elite status.
There are many ways to earn AA miles without flying, but my favorite is Simply Miles, which allows you to activate offers to earn extra miles when using a linked MasterCard with a qualifying merchant.
How to get status on American, Lazily
AA status is based on a single metric, Loyalty Points, with entry-level Gold status unlocked after earning 40,000. Award flights do not count toward status, but many things do, including flights, Simply Miles purchases, and spending through AA’s shopping and dining portals.
AA credit cards earn 1 Loyalty Point for each mile earned, meaning you can unlock Gold status after spending $40,000 on base purchases or as little as $20,000 if spending on 2x categories. With so many other ways to earn Loyalty Points, it is possible to earn status with less spending. But earning Loyalty Points through card spending almost always means sacrificing more redeemable points that could be earned with another card. The Globe card offers up to 15,000 Loyalty Points annually – 5,000 after every 4 qualifying AA flights – although it can be complicated to break even on that card’s hefty annual fee.
Common pitfalls and alternatives
Failing to juggle cards. Although you can micromanage various Citi and AA cards to optimize rewards, failing to keep track of which card earns the most in a given spending situation could result in inefficient earning. If you want a simpler earning structure, consider the Bilt Palladium and/or the Atmos Summit for a highly rewarding one or two-card setup.
Overinvesting in co-branded credit cards. Although AA’s credit cards offer a free checked bag when flying with AA, these benefits don’t apply on international flights or with partners, so it can be difficult to get good value for your annual fee unless you are chasing status or paying a premium for lounge access with the Executive card. And while these cards can propel you toward status, they earn rewards at a significantly lower rate than competitor cards or even those from transfer partner Citi.
Lazy Take 🦥
If you want solid redemption options you can plan around, want to optimize around a single program, or want to experiment with premium redemptions without navigating complex foreign loyalty programs, American AAdvantage is great.
If you care more about deep discounts in coach, consider Delta SkyMiles. If you want similar reliable pricing but with big sales and an easier path to status, look at Alaska Atmos Rewards. Or, if you are a bigger spender and want a US frequent flyer program with good premium awards, check out United Mileage Plus.