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One of the best reasons to use credit cards these days is the amazing rewards you can earn. The best airline and travel rewards cards can turn everyday purchases into the vacation of a lifetime. But those rewards are only useful if you can redeem them. If you're wondering how to redeem American Airlines miles for your next trip, keep reading. Our guide includes step-by-step directions to redeem AAdvantage miles for free flights, and explores some of your other options.
Booking American Airline tickets with AAdvantage miles
By far the best use of American Airlines AAdvantage miles is to use them to book flights.
You can use AAdvantage miles:
- In place of cash to book tickets in any class (Main Cabin up to First Class)
- On domestic flights
- On international flights
Learn more: Travel for free with credit card miles
You can even use American Airline miles to book flights on many other airlines. Specifically, you can use AAdvantage miles to book award flights on Oneworld Alliance airlines, as well as a few non-Alliance partners. Most of these routes can be booked online through AA.com, but some may require booking by phone.
Step-by-step guide for redeeming AAdvantage miles
Here is how to redeem your miles for a flight:
- Log into your AAdvantage account.
- Search for available flights by entering your departure airport, arrival airport, and desired dates.
- Click "Redeem Miles" to see the flight cost in miles.
- Select the flight you wish to book from the available options.
- Confirm passenger details and contact information.
- Select your seat (when applicable).
- Review your trip details to make sure everything is correct.
- Select your payment method (this is to pay taxes and fees).
- Finish the booking by clicking "Pay Now."
Are there any extra costs to booking flights with miles?
Yes, there can be extra fees sometimes. When booking other types of travel with rewards points or miles, you usually use your rewards and that's it -- you're all done. Flight redemptions are a little different.
Most flights you book with miles aren't 100% free. You'll still be required to pay applicable taxes and fees.
Typical American Airlines domestic award tickets have a low out-of-pocket cost -- $5.60 to $11.20 per flight -- but international flights can have much higher fees. For example, flights to the U.K. on AA's partner British Airways can come with hundreds of dollars in extra fees. This is on top of the miles you'll need to use.
The out-of-pocket cost of a given ticket will be displaced below the miles cost while searching flights. Some routes may offer lower cash costs but higher miles costs, or vice versa.
If you're interested in getting a credit card that earns American Airlines miles, you can compare three of our favorites below. And if none of these appeal to you, take a look at our full list of the best airline credit cards for more options.
Types of American Airlines award tickets
How many AAdvantage miles you need to use to book a flight can vary based on the type of award ticket you book. Each type of American Airlines award has different miles levels depending on the destination and time of year. AA may also offer discounts or specials on select flights.
Learn more: American Airlines award chart
MileSAAver
American Airlines MileSAAver awards are limited offerings available on only some flights. They can be found on most AA routes, but they tend to go quickly, so you may need to book early.
The least expensive MileSAAver awards are for flights of less than 500 miles within the contiguous U.S. They cost 7,500 miles one way. At the far end, a MileSAAver ticket to the South Pacific will cost you 110,000 miles.
AAnytime awards
American Airlines AAnytime awards let you use miles to book a seat on any American Airlines (or American Eagle) flight with no blackout dates. However, AAnytime awards are usually much more expensive -- in terms of miles -- than MileSAAver awards. In fact, they can cost double or even triple the miles of a MileSAAver award.
AAnytime awards are separated into two categories: Level 1 and Level 2. In general, the level of the award is determined by the time of year and particular route. Peak season awards will be more expensive than off-peak awards.
The cheapest AAnytime awards are Level 1 AAnytime awards for flights within the contiguous U.S. They cost 20,000 miles each way. The most expensive AAnytime awards are Level 2 awards from the U.S. to the South Pacific and can cost up to 260,000 miles each way.
Web Special awards
American Airlines occasionally offers Web Special awards. These are random (from the user's perspective) discounted flights that can be as cheap as 5,000 miles for a one-way flight. There's no real way to predict where they'll show up. They aren't on the award chart.
Other ways to redeem your AAdvantage miles
Using your miles for free flights is great, but it's not your only option. You can put those miles to use in a number of ways. Just watch out for the redemption values. Most alternative uses of AAdvantage miles have a much lower per-mile value than redeeming for flights.
That said, here are some other ways you can redeem your miles:
- Flight upgrades: Use your miles to upgrade to the next cabin on American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia flights.
- Cars, lodging, and vacations: You can book a variety of rental cars, hotel stays, and vacation packages through the American Airlines portal.
- Luxury experiences: These include a personal airport escort or even helicopter airport transfers.
- Admirals Club membership: You can purchase or renew an Admirals Club membership, which gives you (and up to two guests) access to Admirals Club airport lounges around the world.
- Newspaper subscriptions: Redeem miles for a digital subscription to a variety of newspapers, based on your location.
- Donations: You can also use your miles to make a donation to a nonprofit through the AA portal.
How to earn American Airlines miles
There are a lot of ways to earn American Airlines miles. You can find more details on the AA website, but here's a quick overview:
- Book a flight with American Airlines.
- Make purchases with an AAdvantage cobranded credit card.
- Book a flight with a Oneworld Alliance or partner airline.
- Book a hotel, rental car, or vacation through the AA portal.
- Purchase miles from American Airlines.
- Shop online using links from the AAdvantage eShopping portal.
- Link a credit card to an AAdvantage Dining account.
- Shop using a SimplyMiles account.
If you noticed that only AAdvantage cobranded cards were listed, that's not an oversight. Unfortunately, AA is not a transfer partner for any of the major credit cards rewards points programs. So, you can transfer your credit card points or miles to your AAdvantage account.
Learn more: How credit card miles work
FAQs
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The number of miles required for a flight varies based on the route and the time of year.
The minimum number of miles for a regular award flight is 7,500 for Main Cabin MileSAAver flights of 500 miles or less within the contiguous U.S. The most expensive flights are First Class AAnytime Level 2 flights from the U.S. to the South Pacific, which can cost as much as 260,000 miles each way.
Every so often, American Airlines offers Web Special awards. These can be as low as 5,000 miles per flight. However, there's no way to predict these awards and there is no official list of these specials.
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No, you can't directly redeem AAdvantage miles for cash back. However, you can use your miles to make a donation to several nonprofit organizations through the American Airlines portal.
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Yes, you can use AAdvantage miles to book hotels through the American Airlines portal. However, this isn't usually a good idea, as redemption rates are poor. In our tests, average hotel redemptions had a value of $0.005 per mile. In contrast, flight redemptions almost always offer a per-mile value of $0.01 or more.
Our Credit Cards Expert
Brittney started her writing career in the world of science, putting her physics degree to good use. Her journey into finance started with building her personal credit, but soon grew into a borderline obsession with credit cards and travel rewards. For the last 7 years, she has enjoyed the ability to share her expertise with readers, as well as the opportunity to interview companies and individuals making an impact on our financial lives. She wholly believe most problems can be solved with the right research -- and a good spreadsheet -- and she specializes in translating complex financial topics into actionable advice to help educate and empower readers.
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