Frequent Flyer on American Airlines

St. Louis became our go-to airport and we started flying TWA since St. Louis was its hub. We began to use an airline-branded credit card to earn miles so that travel would be easier on our budget. At that time, we were still old-school and shared a credit card, but we figured out if we (scary! risky!) each had a credit card, then we got double the sign-up bonus for miles! We used our cards for everything, from groceries to car repairs. Now of course, using a credit card to earn miles only works if you have the policy of paying off your card in full every month. Period, no exceptions or you are not saving anything!

 Ah, that was the glory days of frequent flyer miles. We could find seats on almost any flight. American Airlines ended up swallowing TWA in 2001, but maintained St. Louis as a hub so we could fly direct all over the country. But it was also an opportunity- with new American Airlines cards and bonuses we really racked up miles. The interesting thing was that when TWA merged and all our miles went to American, we had incredible status (like we had flown 200,000 miles in one year, ha!). When American switched their branded Citi Advantage Visa to a Master Card, which they were going to do automatically, we went ahead and signed up for the new Citi Master Card and got more bonuses. Whew! Also, we were able to put our oldest college tuition (without a penalty) on our credit card and pay it off with the money we had saved for college. I have amassed nearly a million “miles” over time on the American Airlines program (called AAdvantage). We have flown our whole family (5 people) to the Virgin Islands twice, to Curacao and to St Martin on frequent flyer tickets with American. We’ve also gone to Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Italy, as well as Thailand, Cambodia and Hong Kong. The Oneworld Alliance has 15 partners: American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Qatar to name a few. There are other airlines that can also be booked on American or conversely (and better) is to book American flights on the partner sites, for example on the Etihad Airways or Alaska Airlines sites. But overall, American Airlines actually has some of the highest valued points of any program. This can vary by what flight you choose, but ultimately it is figured by how much your flight would cost if purchased divided by how many miles it takes to book the flight. One of the most informative sites to follow for very detailed information is The Points Guy.

The American Airlines AAdvantage eshopping portal simply awards you extra frequent flyer miles if you buy through their hundreds merchants that participate. Stores participating include Barnes and Nobles, Best Buy, and Target. The amount of miles per dollar awarded varies, but I have used it to buy computer paper (free shipping) and earned 2 miles/$ with free shipping from Best Buy. 2 miles/$ multiplied by $20 = 40 miles + 20 miles from using my card = 60 airline miles, all for something I was going to buy anyway. You can also “get the button” which means your computer will alert you to the fact that a merchant you were browsing participates in the AA eshopping portal and thus you won’t miss out on earning extra miles.

American Airlines allows people to book flights 331 days ahead of time. Booking two business class one way flights costs 263,000 Avios (the British Airways frequent flyer points name)- which is an insane amount. American Airlines, on the other hand, charges 140,000 miles for the same flight. You can follow availability of the flight you want on British Airways, then call AA (at midnight when you get to 331 days ahead) and book the flight with your American Airlines miles on the phone. There is no extra charge to do so on the phone since AA does not list availability on its website. Right now, these are the flights available 331 days ahead of time:

We were able to secure business-class frequent flyer tickets on Japan Airlines to Bangkok and coming home on Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong. I was probably nearly as excited to fly long-haul business class as I was to go to Asia! As a bonus at that time, our credit card offered a 10% rebate back to us in miles. So what value did I receive for my miles? The flight would have retailed for $6,000 per person -$250 we paid in “fees” divided by 130,000 miles per person comes out to 4.4 cents per mile.