Hilariously cheap flights with the best airline loyalty program.

Happy Friday to all 520 of you - this newsletter is heating up.

I’m here to bring you the best deals in travel.

Please let me know if you want me to address specific topics.

Today, I’m doing a deep dive on (maybe) my favorite airline loyalty program, American Airlines AAdvantage.

Let’s get into it.

The basics:

I say AAdvantage is the best not because I’m a complete expert on every single airline program, but because I consistently see incredibly low prices to most of my top destinations. 

I use point.me often with clients to find the best deals - I joke that I already know AAdvantage will always be the cheapest option, it’s a matter of finding what’s in second place.

Some examples:

• Columbus, OH —> San Diego: 8.5k miles one-way

• Columbus, OH —> Aruba: 10k miles one-way.

• Dallas, TX —> London: 40k miles one-way (premium economy).

According to The Points Guy, AAdvantage are tied for the 2nd most valuable airline miles (right behind Avianca LifeMiles).

Here’s everything you need to know about them.

Earning points:

Here’s the kicker with AAdvantage.

And maybe this is why it interests me so much…

It’s hard to earn points.

How much you earn from flying American depends on your status:

Here’s the breakdown…

• Member (no status): 5 miles

• Gold: 7 miles

• Platinum: 8 miles

• Platinum Pro: 9 miles

• Executive Platinum: 11 miles

I’m a member, flying to Dallas next week, so I’ll earn around 2,200 miles.

As always, you can earn more points on the ground than the air.

This card (no annual fee in year 1) can quickly earn you 50k AAdvantage miles. I’ve seen the welcome offer on this one go up to 75k.

Unfortunately, as of June 24th, you can no longer transfer points from the Bilt Mastercard to AAdvantage. It was the only card that transferred to American.

If you have a stack of Bilt points, it may be worth considering transferring them over to American before the 24th if you’be been planning a getaway using American! (I may be doing this).

You can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to American, but it’s a 3:1 ratio, which is terrible.

Redeeming points:

Alright, you’ve got a stack of AAdvantage miles through flying, credit cards, or something else.

So what makes these miles so valuable?

All the redemption options.

Let’s check out some sweet spots.

*One note: Like many airline programs, American has some amazing deals that only have availability 1-5 times/month.

So, when I share you can fly Columbus —> San Diego for 8.5k points, I don’t mean you can do that everyday - I mean there is at least one day each month you can. (In this instance, there was 5 days in July you could).

Now to the sweet spots:

• Qsuites to the Middle East

  • Quatar’s Qsuites (American partner airline) are some of the most famous seats in the sky.

  • You can fly from a few U.S. cities direct to Doha for 70k miles + some chump change.

This is what that flight would look like:

Cash price today for that flight today is $5,694. 

8.1 cents per point isn’t bad.

Check out some more incredible ways to fly business & first class using American miles.

Other sweet spots:

• Domestic flights

  • You can fly almost anywhere in the U.S for as low as 8k miles one way.

  • I’ve seen award sales bringing those down to 5k one-way.

• Carribean/Mexico

  • I’ve consistently seen flight from all over the U.S. to the Carribean & Mexico for 8-10k one-way.

• SMALL AIRPORTS

  • Residents of Lincoln, Nebraska, I see you!

  • American doesn’t really charge more to fly out of Lincoln, Nebraska as they do to fly out of Miami (hub).

  • If you live in a small city, you can get massive value.

    • I just found a flight from my hometown of Fort Wayne, IN (super small airport) to Cancun, for only 10k miles one-way.

The final word:

You can’t go wrong focusing on American.

To my knowledge, it’s generally the best program to get you anywhere in the world.

I will say, you can find WAY better deals to Europe with Air France/KLM.

So, Europe is a weak point - but basically everywhere else, American is amazing.

Let me know if you have any questions about optimizing or earning American miles!