Should You Buy American Airlines AAdvantage® Miles With Up to a 35% Discount? (2024)

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American Airlines has virtually stopped offering limited-time promotions for buying miles. Instead, it now offers an evergreen buy-miles discount of up to 35% off with no ending date. You can buy up to 150,000 AAdvantage^® miles per calendar year.

If you maximize this offer, you can grab AAdvantage miles for as little as 2.45¢ apiece. This is not a good rate for buying AA miles — so if you're keen on purchasing some miles to use now or stash away for later, this offer isn't the best time to do so.

Here's what you need to know about buying American Airlines AAdvantage miles, and when it makes sense to do so.

When Should You Buy AA Miles?

As with other loyalty programs, we generally don’t recommend buying American Airlines miles. Instead, we recommend earning AAdvantage miles through American Airlines credit cards or by opening a Bask Bank savings account.

That said, buying American Airlines miles can sometimes make sense. For instance, purchasing miles might be the fastest and most cost-effective route if you only need a few more miles to complete a specific redemption.

Also, if you're considering paying for a business- or first-class flight, it might be cheaper to buy the necessary amount of AAdvantage miles instead. The cost to buy the required mileage could be considerably cheaper than paying for the trip outright.

Some travelers may consider buying American Airlines miles to extend the life of expiring American miles. However, there are plenty of other ways to keep your AAdvantage account active.

Buy AA Miles Offer Details

• This promotion doesn't have a stated expiration date.
• You can buy up to a maximum of 150,000 miles.
• AAdvantage accounts must have at least one mile and be older than 30 days to purchase miles.
• Purchased miles are non-refundable and non-reversible.
• Miles purchased, transferred, or received as a gift won't help you earn American Airlines elite status.

Based on our AwardWallet team data points, all AAdvantage members (General, Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Executive Platinum) receive the same discount amounts and tier thresholds.

Here are the rates at which you can buy American miles during this offer:

• 0–5,000 miles: No discount (3.76¢ each)
• 6,000–24,000 miles: 10% discount (3.39¢ each)
• 25,000–79,000 miles: 15% discount (3.2¢ each)
• 80,000–104,000 miles: 20% discount (3.01¢ each)
• 105,000–149,000 miles: 25% discount (2.82¢ each)
• 150,000 miles: 35% discount (2.45¢ each)

Although the AwardWallet team are seeing the same offers, there is still a chance this offer will be targeted by member — not by elite status tier. So, you'll still want to double-check your account to see what American Airlines is offering you.

Pay Less When You Buy AAdvantage Miles

We've posted about some of the best sweet spots in the AAdvantage program. Let's check out a few of these redemptions and compare the typical cash price with the cost of purchasing American Airlines miles during this promotion. Just note that you'll need to purchase the full 150,000 miles to get the optimal rate of 2.45¢ per mile.

Los Angeles — Johannesburg in Qatar QSuite

You would be hard-pressed to find a better premium-class cabin than Qatar's QSuite business class. Qatar has offered the best business-class product since introducing QSuite in 2017.

QSuite is fitted with an entire capsule to yourself, with closed doors and configurations that allow a family to have dinner or a private area where you can get some work done. Los Angeles to Johannesburg is quite the haul — just under 21 hours of flight time! So, there's no better way to pass the time than enjoying all the amenities in this luxurious cabin.

Purchasing AA miles can save you big over buying Qatar business-class tickets

Just note that Qatar has drastically reduced the amount of business-class award availability offered to AAdvantage members. So, this sweet spot is currently a lot harder to book than before. Make sure you confirm award availability is bookable on American Airlines' website before buying miles.

• Mileage rate: 75,000 miles one-way
• Typical cash price: $6,625 one-way
• Redemption rate: 8.8¢ per mile
• Cost to buy exactly 75,000 AAdvantage miles (with a 15% discount): $2,399
• Cost to buy 75,000 AAdvantage miles (at optimal 2.45¢ per mile): $1,838

Los Angeles — Sydney in Qantas business class

Qantas has also significantly improved its business-class product over the past few years. Coupling a newer, better seat with Qantas' well-regarded service and soft product makes for a much more comfortable way of flying “down under!”

Qantas A380 business class. Credit: Qantas

• Mileage rate: 80,000 miles one-way
• Typical cash price: $6,662 one-way
• Redemption rate: 8.3¢ per mile
• Cost to buy exactly 80,000 AAdvantage miles (with 20% discount): $2,408
• Cost to buy 80,000 AAdvantage miles (at 2.45¢ per mile): $1,960

Abu Dhabi — London in Etihad first class

Speaking of the best premium-class cabins around, we would be remiss not to give a shoutout to Etihad Airways' first-class cabin — as it's right up there alongside their Arabian Peninsula neighbor. The beauty of having AAdvantage miles is the ability to book amazing Etihad first-class flights through the American Airlines website.

And while Etihad's first-class is one of the most outstanding premium cabins in the world, it comes with a hitch — it's incredibly difficult to find availability. So if you're looking for an Etihad flight to book, you'll need to search for close-in availability.

• Mileage rate: 62,500 miles one-way
• Typical cash price: $3,679 one-way
• Redemption rate: 5.9¢ per mile
• Cost to buy exactly 63,000 AAdvantage miles (with 15% discount): $2,015
• Cost to buy 62,500 AAdvantage miles (at 2.45¢ per mile): $1,531

Boston — Sao Paulo in AA business class

This is an article about American Airlines, right? I'm sure that's what you asked yourself after reading the flight examples above — as none of them were on American Airlines! But don't worry; we've got you covered when it comes to a flight on the largest airline in the United States.

American Airlines has always held a firm grip on routes to and from Central and South America — it is called “American” Airlines, after all! While not as good as it once was, American still has solid premium-class cabins that make long-haul journeys much more comfortable than traveling in economy.

• Mileage rate: 55,000 miles one-way
• Typical cash price: $2,205 one-way
• Redemption rate: 4¢ per mile
• Cost to buy exactly 55,000 AAdvantage miles (with a 15% discount): $1,759
• Cost to buy 55,000 AAdvantage miles (at 2.45¢ per mile): $1,348

American Airlines Buy Miles History

We have compiled a list of former American Airlines promotions for buying miles. As you can see, this cost-per-mile rate of 2.45¢ apiece isn't great, but is the rate American Airlines offers most often recentl.

A few promotions in 2020 offered rates in the 1.7-1.8¢ apiece range, but we aren't sure if American will ever drop the cost-per-mile this low again:

Maximize Your Miles Purchase

While most programs don't sell their miles directly, American Airlines is an exception — you'll buy miles directly from AA. This is great news because your purchase should trigger the travel category bonus on many credit cards. Some of the best travel rewards cards to use would be:

• The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn 5x Membership Rewards points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel — up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year, then 1x.
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®: The AAdvantage credit card that earns the most miles on American Airlines purchases is the AA Executive Card. Cardholders earn 4x AAdvantage miles on eligible American Airlines purchases. The catch? Buying AA miles isn't specifically listed in the list of eligible purchases — nor is it listed in the list of ineligible purchases. So you might want to try a small purchase first.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points on anything that codes as travel after exhausting the $300 annual travel credit (which applies automatically to the first eligible purchases).
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points on the first $150,000 of annual spending across bonus categories, one of which is travel; earn 1X after passing this spending limit.
• Citi Strata Premier℠ Card: Earn 3x ThankYou^® Points on air travel, gas and EV charging stations, and other hotels.
• AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver Mastercard®: Earn 3x AAdvantage miles on American Airlines purchases.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Earn 2x Ultimate Rewards points on anything that codes as travel.

Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use To Buy Points and Miles?

Other Ways To Earn AAdvantage Miles

American Airlines credit cards

If you're not in a hurry, another way to beef up your AAdvantage stash is through a sign-up bonus on a co-branded credit card. For example, the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® is offering 65,000 bonus AAdvantage miles after $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.

Some of the other options include:

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
• AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®

American Airlines transfer partners

Unfortunately, American Airlines doesn't partner with bank and hotel loyalty programs. Sure, you could temporarily transfer Citi points to American Airlines in 2021, and American Airlines was one of the original Bilt Rewards transfer partners. However, American Airlines didn't extend the transfer partnership with Citi and ended its partnership with Bilt in June 2024. It's even ended transfer partnerships with hotel programs like Shangri-La and Best Western.

That leaves just a few transfer options to American Airlines AAdvantage:

Final Thoughts

This promotion's per-mile purchase rate for buying American Airlines AAdvantage miles is nothing to write home about. This offer will be around for the foreseeable future — as there is no stated expiration date.

For those who are dead-set on grabbing American Airlines miles while they cost as little as 2.45¢ apiece, this promotion could offer good value depending on your situation.

Do you see any reason to buy AA miles at 2.45¢ a piece?