Want cheaper travel on oneworld member airlines such as Qantas and Qatar Airways? American Airlines is offering up to 50% more miles when buying AAdvantage miles. This works out to be around 2.15 US cents per mile at the best-value tier (when you purchase the most miles).
Note that this is one of the highest prices we’ve seen in recent times. The previous ‘up to 45% off’ offer had a lower per-mile cost of 1.76 US cents each.
These offers run almost monthly, with the lowest price usually offered in the middle of the year – followed by the start and end of the year. Keep in mind, buying AAdvantage miles makes the most sense if you’re going to book Business or First Class. We’d recommend waiting to see the next offer in 2022.
And if you’re not sure why you should buy miles, check out our guide on why you can save big with AAdvantage.
The current AAdvantage purchase miles promotion
| Expiry: 4:59 pm AEDT 1 January 2022 |
- Offer: 5% to 50% bonus miles (tiered)
- 5% bonus: buy 5,000 to 9,000 miles
- 10% bonus: buy 10,000 to 24,000 miles
- 15% bonus: buy 25,000 to 49,000 miles
- 20% bonus: buy 50,000 to 64,000 miles
- 25% bonus: buy 65,000 to 79,000 miles
- 30% bonus: buy 80,000 to 89,000 miles
- 40% bonus: buy 90,000 to 99,000 miles
- 50% bonus: buy 100,000 to 150,000 miles
- Valid until: 1 January 2022 (31 December 2021 US time)
- Best-value redemptions: domestic Qantas Business Class. Fiji Airways Business to Fiji. Qantas/Cathay Pacific/Japan Airlines Business & First within/to/from Asia. Qatar Business Class to Europe.
- Book awards online: for AA, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Etihad, British Airways and some others. Find the full list here.
- Book awards over the phone: for other partners, you can only book over the phone. You may be charged a US$30-40 fee. Our tip? Ask the phone agent to waive it if you weren’t able to book online.
This promotion yields the cheapest per mile price of ~2.15 US cents when buying exactly 225,000 miles for US$4,837.5 (~AU$6,780 at the time of writing). This is from buying 150,000 miles plus a 75,000-mile bonus.
Note: AAdvantage miles expire after 18 months of inactivity in your account, so make sure to keep your account active by earning/redeeming miles regularly.
Purchase AAdvantage miles here →
Offer history
The simplest way to track historical AAdvantage offers is with the US cents-per-mile cost for the best offer tier for that period. Note that some recent dates are missing as this guide wasn’t regularly updated during the peak of the pandemic.
| Date | Cost per mile (US cents) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| December 2021 | 2.15 | Highest |
| November 2021 | 1.77 | |
| July 2020 | 1.77 | |
| April-May 2020 | 1.84 | |
| March-April 2020 | 1.60 | Lowest |
| March 2020 | 1.86 | |
| February 2020 | 1.86 | |
| January 2020 | 1.78 |
Summing up
Australia and New Zealand-based flyers still have some well-priced sweet spots available. 20,000 miles for a Qantas Business Class flight from Sydney to Perth is a steal, and it works out to be AUD$521 each way with a 45% discount! Unfortunately, with the current 50% bonus offer, it’s not as good. It works out to be about AUD$630 each way.
AAdvantage’s generous award hold policy makes the process much less risky. You can hold an award for a few days, buy the miles and then call back to get it ticketed once they are added to your account.
The value isn’t as great for Economy flights, but having spare AAdvantage miles can certainly be useful. Not surprisingly, Business and First Class redemptions are where this program shines. Premium travel awaits!
Read how and why you should consider buying AAdvantage miles for travel →
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This guide was originally written by Daniel Kinnoch.
Is there any likelihood a more up to date analysis might be in the offing?
I am wondering what the catch is here. Basically, if I spend $1470USD ($2200 AUD approx) I could buy enough points for a business class redemption from Melbourne to europe?! Would Ireland (Dublin) be classed as Europe?! Or would that be ultra long haul? I currently fly home once a year and am looking at ways to minimise the back pain i get from sitting down for too long. Can one book a leg of a flight in business class and the other leg economy or is that not allowed? if so, might this be a good way to balance redmption spend vs back pain!
Cheers
I hope that helps and happy travels!
I know that the maximum AAdvantage points you can buy excluding bonuses is at 150k per calendar year. I already purchase 150k and have been trying to add 60K via their website it seems to allow me to purchase more. I haven’t finalised but before you’ll get a prompt that you had exceeded the maximum points but the prompt is not coming up this time. Have anyone of you guys know if someone had purchased more than 150K in a calendar year and was successful?
Perhaps it’s a glitch in your case. Or sometimes—speaking generally about frequent flyer programs, not AAdvantage in particular—they will up the maximum for a particular promotion.
I would like to know if I can transfer AA points to SPG? Since I want to transfer SPG points to Japan Airlines FF, but I can’t seem to see the option on AA website. Also, has anyone flown from Melbourne – Chicago using Japan Airline Business class? I am quite interested in this airline for this route.
Thanks a lot,
Uyen Le
Unfortunately Qantas don’t fly to Vietnam so this is why you can’t book it online through AA. You can however call them on 0291011948 and connect onto Malaysian or Cathay Pacific from one of the Qantas hubs in SEA ie: BKK, SIN or HKG, of course this is subject to Availability of award seats.
To find partner award not visible on AA’s website I suggest using Qantas to search for seats or British Airways (you will need to set in a free account) search google for “AA award search British Airways” for more information.
AAdvantage current has Up to 115,000 bonus miles currently (22/03/2018), i’ve had a look at flights from MEL to CDG, however, through Asia, and the Middle East and unfortunately no luck in July-Aug.
Have looked up Qantas, Emirates, even Advantage with no luck and have been on the phone, has anyone recently had any luck
I have quite a broad question for you;
Am looking at a one way business flight from MEL- LAX in May and just wanting to work out what the best service is (regardless of stops or not) and secondly whether there are any good deals or hacks that you expect might appear again over the next few months that would be worth jumping on?
Have a nice tally of Qantas points, however feel there business service has dropped of late.
Keen to get your thoughts
Cheers Ed
I dont think its correct to say ETIHAD Business to Europe is good value for Australians
SYD-LON is 85,000 points – yes good. But if flying Etihad, you need to break in AUH, so its 80,000SYD-AUH then another 42,500 = 122,500 to London.
My last AA purchase in July (The best deal to date) cost me AU$5580 after taxes, commission & conversion etc for 250,00o points (150k purchase +100k bonus). So thats AU2.23c/mile.
That makes Etihad return to London AU$5469 which is close to a discounted cash purchase….
Whereas other if not Etihad, AA redeems SYD-LON Rtn at 170,000 points so this would be AU3794 to me. OK’ish….
Trying to get from MEL to NYC (Business) in November. I’m reluctant to buy any Miles without being confident I can actually get my flight. So when I had a look at the AA offer, and punched in flights for Nov they didn’t return much (Economy only on the way and nothing available for 1 week either side of my return leg). I rang the Sydney number as suggested and the lady had the same result but did suggest I try again in a few days.
What’s the best way to do this – I’m not too fused whether the discount is 40% or 50% etc but just want to secure a Business class (or better) better at a reasonably specific time.
I’d pay someone to help organise this for me!
Yes, as you definitely should be. There is no best way to do this, other than to keep looking and see if you can find reward flights for the dates you want to travel – using Qantas.com to look for classic award availability may be easier and should still line up with what AA has on offer – and then if you find them, book using points checking the taxes first.
We have a whole series on the basics of buying points / miles here which may help.
When you say you check availability on Qantas’s website then ring AA, do you search for reward flights or normal payed flights? Also to get the seat held, do you do that through Qantas or AA?
Can I buy these miles and use them to upgrade from economy to business on on a qantas flight SYD>LON?
Thanks
Thank you,
Tim
At the same sale period, return economy to Europe was under $1k!
I am currently researching and planning for a (1st) family holiday overseas to Hawaii. The AA scheme looks attractive. I jumped on AA site and wanted to check out Business Class for dates in June 2017 but says not available. Should I take this as gospel? The business class comes up until the month of March 2017 then after that nothing. Can I buy miles from this site and use them to book QANTAS flights to Hawaii? Appreciate your time.
First of all, award seat availability is getting more and more limited. It’s hard to find for us commoners not in the industry, unless we’re extremely flexible and/or are extremely passionate (ie. follows FlyerTalk threads and/or subscribes to ExpertFlyer…)
When return business class tickets from Oz to Europe can be had for ~$5000 when on sale, compared to US$3434 + taxes (in the table above), I know which I would rather. I lock down my dates of travel, wait for sales and have the flight I want, and collect points + status credits. No working around dates with reward availability, routing availability…
Just my 2c worth. But do tell me if my reasoning is flawed.
You won’t find availability for all American partners on the AA website – Qantas are on there, but Cathay are not, for example. So you can research availability by using Qantas.com, or the British Airways website if you become a member there. Cathay and Qatar both show up on the BA website, for example.
Have a read of the beginners guide to buying miles for more.
And no, Qantas Points can’t be transferred to any other currency,
I was just wondering. With my AA account am I able to purchase a ticket for someone else in their name using my points (they do not have an AA account) or does it need to be in my name?
Thank-you,
Zac
Cheers,
Zac
I have booked a number of partner awards with and AA – in every case it has waived the phone booking fee for Partner Awards that can’t be booked online such as Etihad. Their agents are generally very well trained and helpful (another big plus) and in every case they have waived the fee without me even having to ask.
Thanks if you can help
I have contacted American direct, via social media and via other blogs and NOTHING has been done by the web team.
Availability looks fantastic on the website, but 95% is false.
If you ring they will find the odd BA flight with heavy surcharges, as Sophie mentioned.
I asked them is it incompetence or fraud?
I checked the AA website which showed good availability to London so went ahead and bought the miles for a First class redemption. Every time I go and book the flights showing as available, the site tells me the flights I’m selecting are not available anymore. Still trying to get my money back. How are you supposed to know that their site in showing ghost seats?
Anyone has had the same problem?
Some suggestions…
Have you tried calling back and seeing if a different agent can book them? Also worth calling a different call centre as well, i.e. call the US via Skype or similar if you were calling the Australian number before (or vice versa).
Can you find business availability instead?
If you need help with looking for alternative options if the above doesn’t work, shoot me a message via the Help function at the bottom corner of your browser/device window.
You’ll know this now, but for others I’d always worth calling to make sure the seats are definitely bookable before buying.
You are not alone.
I have contacted them multiple times and it’s still the same!
I’m new to purchasing miles so apologies if the question is rather stupid, I’m looking to take advantage of the AAdvantage point bonus when buying miles and would like to book a return flight from HKG to LAX. However I would prefer to fly AA’s oneworld partner Cathay instead, could anyone please tell me how I would redeem this flight online? As Cathay does not show up as an option when booking on AA’s website.
Thanks!
Another question: how soon can one reasonably expect to find business class seats? I ask because I’m currently waiting to hear if I’m to be posted to the U.S. for work. If I am, my employer will be giving me cash for business class flights for all three of us at full price – but I book myself and can keep the difference. As you can imagine, my wife and I are keen to save as much as possible!
If I get the posting, I’ll most likely have two to three months warning of a move. So, if there’s an offer to buy points, is it realistic to think we can buy the necessary points and get three business class trips to the states at such short notice?
Thanks. And love the blog and your new email course – very eye opening!
2-3 months booking ahead is tricky. You’ll probably find this is the toughest time to book award seats. But – you if you can wait until last minute, you might be able to find some availability. It’s a tricky conundrum though given your situation. I’d probably suggest that if you know you can use the points for other trips back home it won’t be too risky to buy them – worst case scenario you can try and redeem them for a trip in a year’s time if you want to come back to visit family/friends, if you can’t find availability. It wouldn’t be ideal though, of course.
I’d also suggest draughting in an award point booking service to help you find seats for your trip either way to give you the best shot at using them.
Or – just enjoy the fact that your employer will pay for your travel and get the exact dates, routing and airline you’re after – and minimise the stress. You’ll have enough going on as it is moving overseas, monitoring flight options you might just want to park and give a miss. Your call!
Thanks for your reply – I really appreciate you taking the time out to answer my question. I had thought about buying the points and keeping them if they can’t be used – but they’re not cheap and if I can’t use them for this purpose, then I’m out of pocket at a time I least can afford to be. I thought I might hit the call centre as soon as I have a decision on the job and see what they can organise and/or call in the experts before I buy the points and see where that gets me. If that fails… oh well, then I go to plan B and pay full fare – it’s not a bad situation to be in! You’re definitely right that I’ll have enough to worry about without adding the stress of monitoring flights constantly.
Thanks again.
I’m new to this so I just wonder a couple things.
1.Do I book my ticket with my AA miles through the AA website (we are traveling from Australia-Europe)?
2.How long are the points valid?
Milage expiry – none, but you need to have some activity in your account once per year, from memory.
Just a quick question – how can I book CX biz award flights with AA miles? I tried using AA website but was only shown AA biz award flights..
Thanks!
Ah, I assume you mean Emirates Syd-Bkk? No, American won’t let you use points on Emirates even if it is a Qantas codeshare.
Thanks
Govale
The main thing is not to buy outside of a promotion and to have a use in mind for the miles as you can only buy limited amounts!
Cheers.
Forgive the newby question but when it comes to redeeming AAdvantage miles, do you actually get to choose which partner airline you get to fly with? Ie. You aren’t just spotted in on whatever codes are it’s running in that region.
Thanks also for all the info you provide on this site. It really is a great resource.
You certainly do choose what airline you want to fly – if they have points seat availability, you can book it. Nothing to do with American codeshares.
I didnt even realise Alaska Airlines had their own points special recently. They seem to have the best deal at the moment as they have AA/QF/EY/BA/CX partnerships.
If someone purchases points on AA can they transfer that to their Alaska Airlines account ?
I checked out Etihad awards booking and I almost got a heart attack when I read how many miles are required for a return trip to Europe from Melb. From memory it came to about 700K miles. If these award flights are available on Etihad then I can double check that AA’s customer centre in Sydney right ? In theory it should come to 120K miles with AA through Etihad.
Your tip on another post about Nexus was fantastic.
thanks
AA and Alaska programs can’t be linked, you buy points in one of those programs and you have to redeem them there. They share some partner airlines though, that’s about the extent of the linkage in terms of redemptions.
Etihad redemptions with AA are not at the 700k mark – I am guessing you saw the high level Etihad Guest pricing on their website? You do need to be aware that with Etihad redemptions with AA from AU to Europe for example AA will make you pay for AU-Abu Dhabi and Abu-Dhabi Europe as two separate awards which costs a bit more. If they are available with Etihad at the LOW level (so not the 700k mark) then they should be available through AA. So it will be more than 120k unfortunately.
And yes, you can double check using their Australian phone number and get them to help with research.
Thanks for your great posts.
Just with checking availability on Qantas.com, there seems to be very little available for first class award travel, actually for all classes of travel to the U.S. Is this usually the case for travel to the U.S.? I’m looking at tickets for Syd to DFW (San Antonio actually) in Sept 2015.
Am I better off ringing AA australian call centre and find what’s available or logging onto AAdvantage and checking there?
Thanks
There are some tricks to get around this such as booking using BA or Qantas points, waiting, cancelling, then rebooking on AA at 330 days prior to travel, but it’s not easy for a number of reasons. Otherwise you just have to keep looking and hoping someone else cancels their ticket and it comes back into inventory and is available to book again.
Given it is less than 330 days out before I want to travel and take advantage of these bonus miles, should I check through AA? Or availability is the same as what’s on Qantas?
Thanks again!
Certain carriers incur different charges, and I’m not sure on Etihad and AA. Just give them a call to confirm.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll ring and ask.
had the opportunity to go J or F next month out of HKG the good woman said no lets sit together as we always do in business class!.