tell me about American Airline miles program

[mtquinn]

i just signed up last night in the hopes of redirecting some of our spending to get a free flight...eventually. Are there some particulars about their program I should know? Do you have any good tips to share? I know to pay monthly bills with these types of cards (I use my Disney Visa very often).

Just wondering if there was anything I should know. I am looking to go to Disney with the family this August, as well as year.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We use it alot. But honestly we dont use it for flights since southwest is closer to us now.

We have it tied to their cc as well. My dh travels alot and asks for american from his employer.

You can also use the miles for a hotel room at disney but it will be at the non discounted price. They dont consider any discount codes. You can only book this through aa vacations. We did this in the past.

Right now we have like 150k miles in the account and this month dh is going to china and then again to california so we just rack up the miles etc.

You can e shop with them and also do their dining program (I personally dont do any of these).

I just sign my dh up for every promotion they have to get extra air miles etc.
This could be hotels like Hilton, rent a cars etc.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I switched my earning to AA about 8 or so years ago when I realized that AA allowed you to earned lifetime elite status based on all miles earned, not just those earned while flying. I earned Lifetime gold (1 M miles) about 4 years ago and expect to earn Lifetime platinum (2M miles) in about a year.

With elite status comes faster check in, faster security lines in some ariports, free checked luggage for your party, ability to stand-by, some free upgrades, and earlier boarding.

My favorite way to earn is with the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex. With this card, each time you charge $20,000, you can convert it into 25,000 AA miles. SPG points can also be converted into other programs: my parents used their points for discounts on Virgin Upper Class to London when travelling on the DCL Baltic cruise last summer and I have used points for Amtrak rewards to travel to DL. Look for a bonus when sigining up; they offered as many as 30,000 points last year.

I also have a Citibank AA MC. Generally, one mile for each $, although I sometime get bonus offers. I beleive Citibank has a very good sign up offers right now of as much as 75,000 miles.

We usually use the AA miles for upgrades to FC on cheap coach fares. -- Suzanne

 

[librarygal]

AA has an off-peak award to Europe that is only 40,000 miles for a RT flight. This is a much better use of miles than a $250 domestic flight since air fare to Europe can be over $1,000. I have over 100,000 miles and plan to use them to fly to Italy to take a cruise.

 

[beansmom]

aa miles is exactly how we are flying to italy this week. We have also used them (in a period of 3 years) for a trip to London and a trip to Dallas. Not too bad, imo.

We can use only 35k ea to go to Hawaii next winter. Alo-HA!