March 26, 2025

American Airlines Miles: Best Ways to Earn & Redeem for Domestic Flights

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American Airlines Miles: Best Ways to Earn & Redeem for Domestic Flights

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Welcome to Points for Normal People!

In this episode, we're diving into American Airlines miles. I know a lot of you want to use points for domestic travel, and American is a good option. We'll talk about the best times to use your miles on American flights, and how to earn those miles. I'll cover the pros and cons, and give you some tips to maximize your points. We'll also look at some tools to find the best deals, and I'll share a few tricks I've learned about booking with American.

For a video guide of navigating the American Airlines website, watch here: https://katiestraveltricks.com/navigating-the-american-airlines-website-video-guide/ 

ACTION STEPS

  • Consider opening a Barclay Aviator card
  • Sign up for Simply Miles: https://www.simplymiles.com 
  • Enroll a card in the American Airlines Dining Program
  • Get logged into American's eShopping portal
  • Consider browsing Loyalty Point Hunters (or joining their Facebook group): https://loyaltypointhunters.com 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

New Here?

Hi, I’m Katie from Katie’s Travel Tricks! I am here to help you learn the secrets that my family has been using for over a decade, using everyday expenses and welcome offers to supercharge your points earning. When you learn to do this, you can cover entire vacations every year.

Our family has been to Hawaii, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe — and more — all thanks to strategically earning and redeeming points. We've done this on a limited travel budget and now want to help you do it, too.


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Chapters

00:09 - Introduction to Booking Domestic Flights

03:28 - Pros and Cons of American Airlines Miles

07:59 - Dynamic Pricing and Flexibility Benefits

11:36 - How to Earn American Airlines Miles

15:05 - Maximizing Miles Through Shopping Portals

20:48 - Finding the Best Award Flight Deals

24:05 - Booking Tips and Action Steps

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:09.214 --> 00:00:12.599
As we work through all the best ways to book domestic flights with points.

00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.744
I'm starting with American Airlines.

00:00:14.744 --> 00:00:23.208
Today we'll talk about the best time to use American Airlines to book onto American flights, as well as the best ways to earn those miles.

00:00:23.208 --> 00:00:25.734
Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

00:00:25.734 --> 00:00:31.092
I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family.

00:00:31.092 --> 00:00:33.845
But I believe travel isn't just for the rich.

00:00:33.845 --> 00:00:50.531
That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that our family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every year.

00:00:51.119 --> 00:01:01.262
I know I promised in one of the first two episodes of season three that in episode three, which is today, that we'd be diving into a more complicated and lesser known way to book American Airlines flights.

00:01:01.262 --> 00:01:13.745
But as I continue to outline and script out season three, I realized I needed to start a little more simply and then go back and add more layers of complexity because it's going to make it easier to learn and absorb.

00:01:13.745 --> 00:01:26.182
So I will talk about that sweet spot I mentioned of booking American Airlines flights via Finnair next week and if you're itching to learn that, you can find our newly published article on that in the show notes.

00:01:26.182 --> 00:01:34.968
But today I wanted to talk about earning American Airlines miles and then redeeming those American Airline miles on American Airlines flights.

00:01:34.968 --> 00:01:47.653
Of course, I won't be able to cover every single aspect of this in one podcast episode, but I hope to give you a bird's eye view, as well as some suggestions of places you can go if you want to dive in and really learn more.

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:54.634
Let's start with some of the pros and cons for using American Airlines Miles to book onto domestic American Airlines flights.

00:01:54.634 --> 00:01:59.772
The American Airlines loyalty program, a-advantage, actually does have a lot to love.

00:01:59.772 --> 00:02:11.592
Generally, I would prefer to book domestic American flights with American miles if possible, but one of the biggest cons is that it can be harder to earn American Airlines miles.

00:02:11.592 --> 00:02:14.990
None of the major bank programs transfer to American.

00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:28.746
You can earn American miles from a few credit cards, but there's only one business card and, moving forward, most of these credit cards have stipulations where you can only earn a welcome bonus on them every 48 months.

00:02:28.746 --> 00:02:38.862
Now it's because American miles can be harder to earn that next week we'll start talking about ways you can use other types of points and miles to book onto American flights.

00:02:38.862 --> 00:02:47.390
These other types of points are much easier to amass, but if you can get American miles, there are some really strong aspects of the program.

00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.205
First, let's talk about pricing.

00:02:49.205 --> 00:02:52.409
American uses a dynamic pricing model for its own flights.

00:02:52.409 --> 00:02:54.265
This is both a pro and a con.

00:02:54.265 --> 00:03:01.588
The con is that sometimes flights are really expensive, in particular the longer nonstop routes.

00:03:01.588 --> 00:03:09.447
If you want to fly on a cross-continental flight on a peak travel day, it's going to be hard to find a decent price on that flight.

00:03:09.447 --> 00:03:13.002
This isn't really different than if you were paying with cash.

00:03:13.002 --> 00:03:13.883
It's the same.

00:03:13.883 --> 00:03:19.668
This is probably most true for peak travel times like Thanksgiving week and Christmas and New Year's.

00:03:19.668 --> 00:03:23.480
It could be true for other holidays or school breaks as well.

00:03:24.122 --> 00:03:31.615
To give an example, I picked a few cities and I pulled up the Chicago to Fort Lauderdale Florida route for November, december and January.

00:03:31.615 --> 00:03:35.790
Now this is a time when a lot of people from the Midwest love to get away to Florida.

00:03:35.790 --> 00:03:44.275
As an aside, another pro for American their website makes it really easy to search for the cheapest possible award tickets because they have a monthly calendar view.

00:03:44.275 --> 00:03:55.546
So I was looking at the monthly calendar view for this route Chicago to Fort Lauderdale and I could see that there were a lot of days every month when it's only 6,000 American miles each way for this route.

00:03:55.546 --> 00:03:58.347
Now those aren't all nonstop flights.

00:03:58.347 --> 00:04:04.205
Sometimes the 6,000 point flight involves a connection, but sometimes that is on a nonstop flight.

00:04:04.205 --> 00:04:13.705
But if I look at that same route for peak travel days like the Friday and Saturday before Christmas, those routes jump to over 34,000 points.

00:04:13.705 --> 00:04:16.973
So that's where you see the pro and con of dynamic pricing.

00:04:16.973 --> 00:04:25.447
You can fly for a great price 6,000 points each way on many days and that's cheaper than it used to be when American had award charts.

00:04:25.447 --> 00:04:29.649
But if you're trying to fly on a peak date it's going to cost a ton.

00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:33.250
Now that's pretty much true of every US airline at this point.

00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:38.011
Those peak holiday routes are really hard to snag with a good price with points.

00:04:38.011 --> 00:04:42.971
So that pro and con is going to hold for United and Delta too, even Southwest.

00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:49.244
Another big pro for using American miles is that American has a really generous cancellation and change policy.

00:04:49.244 --> 00:04:55.185
You can cancel your flight up to the time of departure and get all of your miles back into your account with no fee.

00:04:55.185 --> 00:04:59.410
This makes American miles great for flexibility and for backup plans.

00:04:59.410 --> 00:05:11.043
You can also change your flight for free, though if you're changing to a more expensive route or flight, you would have to pay the additional.

00:05:11.043 --> 00:05:12.689
Another pro is that by using American Miles, you get to choose a seat for free.

00:05:12.689 --> 00:05:20.293
When you book with points, you're booking straight into American's main cabin, which means you're spared the low, no frills basic economy fare.

00:05:20.293 --> 00:05:25.887
The main perk is that you'll get to choose a seat for free, but that's really nice if you're traveling as a family.

00:05:26.346 --> 00:05:34.951
Another strong aspect of American's loyalty program is that if you live by a smaller airport, it's often the same price for a flight as it would be from a bigger one.

00:05:34.951 --> 00:05:48.353
As an example, I tried searching Chicago to Honolulu and then I compared that to Nashville to Honolulu or Des Moines, iowa to Honolulu, and I could find tickets for all of those at 22,500 miles each way.

00:05:48.353 --> 00:05:59.670
Now, from a smaller airport, of course, you might end up with more connections, but the fact that you can pay the same number of points but you can start from your smaller regional airport is really nice.

00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:03.069
One more in the pro column is just the ease of booking.

00:06:03.069 --> 00:06:08.312
Overall, it's a really straightforward booking process and that makes it very easy to recommend.

00:06:08.312 --> 00:06:11.990
As you can see, it's almost all pros, at least right now.

00:06:12.380 --> 00:06:25.112
Of course, airlines can change and drop customer-friendly policies, as we saw Southwest do abruptly just recently, but for American, as of now, you have no cancellation fees, great deal potential.

00:06:25.112 --> 00:06:32.966
You get to choose a seat for free, you have a website that's easy to use for searching and booking and good pricing, even from smaller airports.

00:06:32.966 --> 00:06:41.771
But there's that main drawback, which is that American miles are a little harder to earn, or a lot harder to earn than Delta, southwest and United miles.

00:06:41.771 --> 00:06:48.567
And then, as with any dynamic pricing model, it's still going to be really hard to find good deals for certain peak dates.

00:06:48.567 --> 00:06:51.742
So let's talk about how you can earn American miles.

00:06:51.742 --> 00:06:54.788
I mentioned it was harder, but it's still possible.

00:06:54.788 --> 00:06:59.050
Again, this is going to be a bird's eye view, but I will hit the highlights.

00:06:59.050 --> 00:07:03.891
First, of course, I have to mention earning American miles by opening a credit card.

00:07:03.891 --> 00:07:09.290
Now, there are currently no bank points that transfer to American Airlines miles.

00:07:09.290 --> 00:07:28.923
There was a limited period of time during the pandemic that Citi let you transfer their thank you points to American, and there is some speculation that Citi might add this back in the future, but as of today, in March 2025, this isn't true, so you have to earn miles directly with American.

00:07:29.846 --> 00:07:35.764
As of today, there are two banks that issue American Airlines co-branded cards Citi and Barclay.

00:07:35.764 --> 00:07:40.413
Barclay has one card that they issue called the A-Advantage Aviator card.

00:07:40.413 --> 00:07:45.125
They used to have a business version, but that was unfortunately discontinued a few years ago.

00:07:45.125 --> 00:07:51.721
Citi has a few different personal cards and one business card that are what we call co-branded cards.

00:07:51.721 --> 00:07:57.466
The Aviator card is that as well, which it just means you earn miles directly with American Airlines when you hold these cards.

00:07:57.466 --> 00:08:10.988
But most people focus on two of those Citi cards, so they'll focus on the American card from Citi with a $99 fee, and then there's also a Citi business card that has a $99 fee, and those are the ones I usually recommend to people.

00:08:10.988 --> 00:08:22.759
But these card options will change by the end of 2025 because Citi is becoming the sole issuer of American Airlines cards, and so the current Barclay Aviator card will be discontinued.

00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:27.961
This means that this year is a really great time to get a Barclay Aviator card, while you can.

00:08:27.961 --> 00:08:35.563
This card has a pretty standard bonus where it gives 60,000 miles after you make just one purchase and pay the $99 annual fee.

00:08:35.563 --> 00:08:38.211
It's a great offer for very little effort.

00:08:38.211 --> 00:08:42.100
The only downside is that it adds to your 524 count.

00:08:42.581 --> 00:08:48.442
For those of you who enjoy a quick history lesson, here's why there were ever two banks that were issuing American Airlines cards.

00:08:48.442 --> 00:08:59.034
It comes down to the fact that there was a merger of US Airways and American and before the merger, barclay issued the US Airways credit card and Citi issued the American credit cards.

00:08:59.034 --> 00:09:10.082
And then, after the merger, they reached this kind of complicated deal where Citi was considered the preferred issuer but Barclay was still allowed to issue their card, which was now an American Airlines card.

00:09:10.082 --> 00:09:18.856
But Barclay was really only allowed to advertise in airports and on planes, and that's all changing this year as Citi acquires the sole rights.

00:09:18.856 --> 00:09:23.977
So if you're listening and you don't have a Barclay Aviator card, it is a good time to consider one.

00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:30.457
The main tricky thing with Barclay is that they don't like to issue any person more than one to two of their cards per year.

00:09:30.457 --> 00:09:36.841
So if you're looking at any of their other cards, like JetBlue or Wyndham or Hawaiian, you do have to space them out.

00:09:36.841 --> 00:09:50.072
As I said before, citi issues both personal and business cards that earn American miles, and with those I typically recommend the business version first, just because it doesn't add to your 524 count For that one.

00:09:50.072 --> 00:10:01.078
Look for offers of at least 65,000 miles and remember that these Citi cards only allow you to get the offers on their American Airlines cards every 48 months, so it's a long wait.

00:10:01.078 --> 00:10:07.001
That's why, on my three-year plan, I list the City Business American Airlines card as a great one to get.

00:10:07.001 --> 00:10:22.221
If you're trying to open additional cards beyond what I list in the plan and stay under 524, or if you want to substitute it for the Southwest business card, you may as well start that 48 month eligibility clock ticking as to when you can get it again.

00:10:22.682 --> 00:10:29.143
As an aside, if you open that City Business American card, it has this weird new way that it deposits the miles.

00:10:29.143 --> 00:10:35.231
They actually go into a business account and can be moved from there to different people that you designate in your business.

00:10:35.231 --> 00:10:43.597
But if you get that City Business American card, you just have to be aware that the miles are not going to get deposited straight into your American Airlines account.

00:10:43.597 --> 00:10:47.436
You have to log into your business account and then move them over.

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You should get an email with a login.

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We had to do it recently.

00:10:50.191 --> 00:10:55.041
So that's the overview of earning American miles through credit cards.

00:10:55.041 --> 00:10:58.231
Get the business card whenever you can meet the spend.

00:10:58.231 --> 00:11:01.864
Get the Barclay Aviator card if you can handle the 524 edition.

00:11:01.864 --> 00:11:08.121
Get the city personal card also whenever your 524 status can take it and it fits into your broader strategy.

00:11:08.769 --> 00:11:12.139
So American also has some opportunities to earn elite status and miles.

00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:26.561
Through leveraging some shopping deals With American, you can actually earn elite status without flying a single mile on their planes, which is not true of most other airlines, and so it's all about leveraging your spending, or sometimes spending in unique ways.

00:11:26.561 --> 00:11:37.077
Now, this isn't free and most of these deals will require attention to detail and tracking, and what I'm about to explain in and of itself is a huge world that some people really get into.

00:11:37.077 --> 00:11:38.941
That's like the main game.

00:11:38.941 --> 00:11:51.592
They're playing hard and they can earn a lot of American miles as well as what are called loyalty points, which is what gets you American status, because when you earn enough loyalty points, you get to earn different levels of American Airlines status.

00:11:51.592 --> 00:11:59.302
Then you have both the miles that you earn to book tickets and the status, which gets you some perks like potential upgrades when you fly American.

00:11:59.783 --> 00:12:06.403
Now, one of the big ways people earn points and loyalty status is through the American Shopping Portal and by stacking up deals.

00:12:06.403 --> 00:12:11.601
Basically, you can get extra American miles when you're shopping at certain online retailers.

00:12:11.601 --> 00:12:21.381
I talked a little bit about this in season one with ultimate reward shopping, where you can earn additional Ultimate Rewards by clicking through before you shop at certain retailers.

00:12:21.381 --> 00:12:28.235
And with Chase there's also you can add certain Chase offers to your account to earn cash back from certain retailers.

00:12:28.235 --> 00:12:35.871
So American has the same idea, going with both an eShopping portal and offers that you can link to your credit cards.

00:12:35.871 --> 00:12:40.582
With American, you can actually start doing it even if you don't have any American Airlines credit cards.

00:12:40.582 --> 00:12:48.763
And then another layer you can stack with American is using this website called Simply Miles.

00:12:48.763 --> 00:12:53.980
So with Simply Miles you can link any MasterCard and then you have even more opportunities to earn bonus American miles.

00:12:53.980 --> 00:13:01.400
So there's a lot of great opportunities where you can use Simply Miles and the American Shopping Portal and double dip the points.

00:13:01.400 --> 00:13:03.417
So here's an example of how that could look.

00:13:04.330 --> 00:13:13.541
On American eShopping right now, when I was looking up this week, there's a deal where you can earn 4,500 American miles on the first month of a paid subscription to Blue Apron.

00:13:13.541 --> 00:13:15.557
So that's a meal delivery service.

00:13:15.557 --> 00:13:19.634
It also says you have to stay subscribed for 45 days.

00:13:19.634 --> 00:13:28.538
Then Simply Miles has an offer you can link to a card where you can earn 1,200 American miles if you spend $50 at Blue Apron.

00:13:28.538 --> 00:13:32.331
If I wanted to stack and use both of these offers, here's how I would do that.

00:13:32.331 --> 00:13:35.493
First, I would link a MasterCard to my Simply Miles account.

00:13:35.493 --> 00:13:36.153
Here's how I would do that.

00:13:36.153 --> 00:13:39.455
First, I would link a MasterCard to my Simply Miles account I personally have an American Airlines card linked there.

00:13:39.455 --> 00:13:42.255
Then I would activate the Simply Miles offer.

00:13:42.255 --> 00:13:45.118
All of the Simply Miles offers have to be activated.

00:13:45.118 --> 00:13:48.740
You do that just by finding the offer when you're logged in and clicking activate.

00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:51.201
Then I would go back to the eShopping page.

00:13:51.201 --> 00:13:56.965
I would find the 4,500 mile Blue Apron deal and click through to get to Blue Apron.

00:13:56.965 --> 00:14:02.727
I would then select a plan option that costs just slightly more than $50 and check out.

00:14:02.727 --> 00:14:09.283
So this is going to trigger the $50 minimum for my Simply Miles because I'm paying with that card that I linked on Simply Miles.

00:14:09.809 --> 00:14:16.756
Now Blue Apron is a weekly delivery service and we have to stay subscribed for 45 days, but we don't want to pay $50 per week.

00:14:16.756 --> 00:14:28.836
So what you can do instead is go in as soon as you get your first order settled and ordered, and then you can click to skip all of your subsequent deliveries until it's been 45 days since you got your first one.

00:14:28.836 --> 00:14:39.655
This is important, otherwise you'll end up paying for extra meals that you don't want or need, so you just skip them every week for at least 45 days and then you finally cancel after 45 days.

00:14:39.655 --> 00:14:43.793
It helps to even put that cancellation date on your calendar with a reminder for yourself.

00:14:43.793 --> 00:14:52.900
So after 45 days you'd earn the 4,500 miles from eShopping, and then you've earned the 1,200 miles for spending $50 through Simply Miles.

00:14:52.900 --> 00:14:59.679
So that's an example of something that takes a little bit of management management and it's not free, but it's a way to earn extra miles.

00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:06.158
You can also earn miles per dollar spent even at places like Walmart or Ulta or Nike or Home Depot.

00:15:06.158 --> 00:15:13.142
There's a lot of stores on American's eShopping portal and, depending on your shopping habits, just these miles might really add up.

00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:20.461
Now, if you really want to do this and maximize this, my best recommendation is to check out a site called Loyalty Point Hunters.

00:15:20.461 --> 00:15:27.659
They have a lot of resources on their site, they have a Facebook group and they even have regular emails that you can sign up for that.

00:15:27.659 --> 00:15:30.458
Go out that highlight what the best current deals are.

00:15:30.458 --> 00:15:34.081
The guides on their site are more in-depth than what I will cover on this podcast.

00:15:34.081 --> 00:15:43.355
I will warn you that people aren't necessarily very nice in their Facebook group, not like in our group, where I delete people's comments if they're not nice and I give them warnings.

00:15:43.355 --> 00:15:48.878
But there are people that know their deals For a few periods of time in the past few years.

00:15:49.018 --> 00:15:50.402
I've tried to get into this.

00:15:50.402 --> 00:15:54.142
I love the idea behind it, but it just wasn't for me.

00:15:54.142 --> 00:15:58.855
I personally just like the simplicity of earning big chunks of points through credit card welcome offers.

00:15:58.855 --> 00:16:06.941
That gives me enough points for my needs and doing all of the searching and the weighing and the activating offers wasn't for me.

00:16:06.941 --> 00:16:15.255
But there is a lot of potential value there and there's a lot of potential miles there if it interests you and you have the time and you're willing to do the work.

00:16:15.255 --> 00:16:20.318
If that's you, you might even want to consider the paid membership to Loyalty Point Hunters.

00:16:20.318 --> 00:16:21.201
This isn't sponsored.

00:16:21.201 --> 00:16:25.280
I get zero dollars if you do this, but it will save you time if you want to dive into this.

00:16:25.280 --> 00:16:34.740
The daily emails they send are really straightforward and tell you about any potential stacks that they found, and then they even tell you about any other card link offers you might have access to.

00:16:34.740 --> 00:16:43.644
So I'd say overall that that is the biggest potential for ongoing earning of American miles, but it takes a lot of management.

00:16:43.644 --> 00:16:53.513
One more small thing you could do would be to sign up for the American Airlines dining program, where you can link a card and you'll automatically earn bonus miles when you dine at certain restaurants.

00:16:53.513 --> 00:17:02.072
Typically, you can only have any given card linked to one dining program, like you could do the American dining program or United or Southwest or Built.

00:17:02.072 --> 00:17:10.584
But if your focus is on American miles, you could pick one card that you use when you're dining out, link that to your American dining and then use that to pay.

00:17:10.584 --> 00:17:14.214
So that's the biggest ways you could be earning American miles.

00:17:14.777 --> 00:17:19.719
Now let's move on to an overview of how to find the best ways to use them for domestic flights.

00:17:19.719 --> 00:17:26.382
As you're looking for flight deals, there are a few tools that can help you look for those with American in particular.

00:17:26.382 --> 00:17:31.497
American does have sales on award flights and sometimes those are advertised and sometimes they aren't.

00:17:31.497 --> 00:17:33.769
They do have a landing page.

00:17:33.769 --> 00:17:37.698
I will link in the show notes where they feature different particular deals.

00:17:37.698 --> 00:17:44.519
This can be a good place to browse if you have some miles and some flexibility and are just kind of looking for a good deal.

00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:51.611
It lets you enter your departure city and even your budget of how many miles you want to spend, or if you're more of a visual searcher.

00:17:51.691 --> 00:17:53.496
American also has a map feature.

00:17:53.496 --> 00:18:01.837
I will link it in the show notes as well, but you can also search on Google just AA miles finder map to pull it up on Google.

00:18:01.837 --> 00:18:08.834
I think it's a particularly helpful tool if you have a certain weekend you want to travel but you're really flexible on where you want to go.

00:18:08.834 --> 00:18:12.130
You can filter by budget and then just scroll through the map.

00:18:12.130 --> 00:18:20.114
Just note that it sometimes takes a long time to load the map, so you might look at the page and not see it for a while and think that for some reason it's not there.

00:18:20.114 --> 00:18:21.036
It's there.

00:18:21.036 --> 00:18:22.429
It's just taking a long time to load.

00:18:22.429 --> 00:18:28.750
If you already know where you want to go but you're flexible on that date, you don't really need to use the map.

00:18:28.750 --> 00:18:33.096
In that case I'd recommend just using American's regular search function.

00:18:33.096 --> 00:18:35.900
American's website has really good functionality.

00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:40.713
As I mentioned, my favorite way to look at flights is the monthly calendar view.

00:18:40.713 --> 00:18:47.436
Once you're in that monthly view, you can even filter for nonstop flights to really see which dates are the cheapest.

00:18:48.045 --> 00:18:56.207
Now, as I go through this information, I also want to be clear that there are a lot of really great ways to use American miles to book international flights.

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I'm not going into that today, since this is about booking domestic flights, but that is something to keep in mind and that's personally how we end up using most of our American miles, since we use Southwest for domestic flights.

00:19:07.384 --> 00:19:08.571
Just so you have a mental gauge of pricing.

00:19:08.571 --> 00:19:09.590
Typically, flights within the US would start at 6,000 miles ish.

00:19:09.590 --> 00:19:11.255
Sometimes we see as low as 5,000 miles domestic flights, just so you have a mental gauge of pricing.

00:19:11.255 --> 00:19:14.071
Typically, flights within the US would start at 6,000 miles-ish.

00:19:14.071 --> 00:19:17.444
Sometimes we see as low as 5,000 miles during web specials.

00:19:17.444 --> 00:19:18.606
These are for one-way flights.

00:19:18.606 --> 00:19:27.871
Longer flights might be at their lowest around 12,500 miles, but even when I was searching New York to LA, there were some dates that were only 7,000 miles.

00:19:27.871 --> 00:19:31.798
Now, those were very sporadic and not for any non-stop routes, though.

00:19:31.798 --> 00:19:43.300
Flights to Alaska seemed to be about 15,000 miles at their cheapest and flights to Hawaii were mostly around $22,500 each way at their cheapest, sometimes down to $20,000 from the west coast.

00:19:43.300 --> 00:19:47.637
Again, all pricing is officially dynamic, but this is just to give you a gauge.

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So really you're just going to have to search routes that you're interested in to start to get a feel for what they cost.

00:19:53.733 --> 00:19:56.849
I'm going to add a few random booking tips here and then we're going to wrap up.

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Remember, next week we're going to talk about alternate ways to book American flights if you don't have American miles.

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So one thing to understand is that, while the American website is very user-friendly, sometimes you can do more with a phone agent.

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There is typically a charge to book through a phone agent, but if they're doing something that is not showing up online, that fee is typically waived.

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Now the example I'm going to give is about international flights, but I still think it's worth mentioning.

00:20:23.045 --> 00:20:34.089
So a few years ago I had booked a ticket through American for my mom to fly to Spain, but the problem was that she had a very specific date and time she had to fly, so we couldn't find a good option for her.

00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:35.855
At first that was leaving from Chicago.

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So instead I used American miles to book her from JFK in New York to Spain with a layover in London, and then she was planning to use Southwest points to fly to New York the day before and she was just going to spend the night in a hotel there.

00:20:50.189 --> 00:21:00.876
Her flight from JFK to Europe was on a Friday and then I noticed that there were some American flights at a pretty decent price for Thursday night from Chicago to New York.

00:21:00.876 --> 00:21:15.638
So I thought, instead of flying Southwest, what if we just try to call and add it onto her ticket so it's all under one ticket, because it is better to have the whole reservation ticketed with the same airline if possible, because if something goes wrong early in the journey it's easier to fix it that way.

00:21:15.638 --> 00:21:22.491
So we were prepared to pay the extra 10,000 miles or whatever it was.

00:21:22.491 --> 00:21:26.287
That American was charging for Chicago to New York and, like I said, she already had that hotel in New York for the night, so she already had to spend the night in New York.

00:21:26.287 --> 00:21:33.599
But that agent, when we called, was actually able to add on that extra leg Chicago to New York and it didn't cost anything extra at all.

00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:41.194
That's because it was all the same, essentially saver fare class and she was still going from the continental US to Europe.

00:21:41.194 --> 00:21:51.000
This time she just had one more leg Now that routing wasn't coming up when we were searching on AAcom, because sometimes they don't show you those long overnight layovers.

00:21:52.664 --> 00:21:54.131
Because sometimes they don't show you those long overnight layovers.

00:21:54.131 --> 00:22:01.051
But it's just good for you to know that sometimes the phone agents can do something that you can't find yourself online, especially when it involves an overnight layover.

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I find that the phone agents are pretty good with helping with layovers of under 24 hours, because those really long ones that are pushing 20 hours don't always show up as an option online.

00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:21.000
But if you give the phone agents the exact flights you want and they don't involve layovers of 24 hours or more, they might be able to piece it together for you under one itinerary.

00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:26.396
The layover does have to be less than 24 hours for this to work, otherwise it's not considered a layover.

00:22:26.396 --> 00:22:31.387
Again, for us it only worked out because it was the same fare class as the international flights.

00:22:32.048 --> 00:22:38.053
My next little random piece of advice is that when you book a flight with American Miles now, you do get to pick your seats for free.

00:22:38.053 --> 00:22:39.894
So you should do that right away.

00:22:39.894 --> 00:22:47.440
But what a lot of people don't seem to know is that at check-in time all the preferred seats become free to book as well.

00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.690
Before check-in those preferred seats cost extra, but after check-in those preferred seats cost extra, but after check-in they're usually free.

00:22:54.690 --> 00:22:57.356
So it's good to look at those and see if you can spread out or get a better seat.

00:22:57.356 --> 00:23:05.573
This doesn't include extra legroom, just the ones that are preferred, which are usually right now the ones that are closer to the front or their aisles or windows.

00:23:05.573 --> 00:23:10.252
We've been able to get much better seats by doing this on not only American but other airlines as well.

00:23:10.734 --> 00:23:16.202
For action steps today, this is really for anyone who wants to start focusing on earning American miles.

00:23:16.202 --> 00:23:17.648
That might not be everyone.

00:23:17.648 --> 00:23:22.227
If you're focused on Southwest for domestic flights, this might not be urgent for you.

00:23:22.227 --> 00:23:31.251
But if you want to start earning American miles, you'll want to first of all consider opening that Barclay Aviator card while it is still available to open.

00:23:31.251 --> 00:23:35.338
It's an easy way to earn 60,000 miles just by paying that $99 fee.

00:23:35.338 --> 00:23:39.154
By the way, I don't have an affiliate link for that card at all or a referral link.

00:23:39.154 --> 00:23:41.252
I'm just telling you because I think that that's a really good offer.

00:23:41.252 --> 00:23:48.729
Then I'd suggest signing up for Simply Miles and enrolling a MasterCard While you're there, you can also enroll a card in the dining program.

00:23:49.148 --> 00:23:53.053
If you have a certain card that you often use for dining out, you should enroll that one.

00:23:53.053 --> 00:23:55.635
It doesn't have to be a MasterCard for the dining program.

00:23:55.635 --> 00:24:00.580
Just keep in mind that you can only enroll it in one of the card-linked dining programs.

00:24:00.580 --> 00:24:09.011
So you do have to choose if you're enrolling that card in American's program or Bilt's program or United's program or Southwest's and so on.

00:24:09.011 --> 00:24:11.696
But if your focus is on American miles, you should enroll it there.

00:24:11.696 --> 00:24:30.630
If you really want to start earning American miles through shopping deals, you just take a minute and make sure that you can get logged into American's e-shopping portal and then I consider browsing loyalty point hunters or joining their Facebook group If you really want to focus on that or consider if you want to dabble in that or focus on it.

00:24:31.251 --> 00:24:38.295
As a quick reminder, I'm able to support my business almost solely through people taking the time to apply with my affiliate links for credit cards.

00:24:38.295 --> 00:24:43.497
But I'm committed to sharing the best offers, even if they don't earn me a commission.

00:24:43.497 --> 00:24:52.830
As I mentioned that Barclay card, it doesn't have affiliate links or referral links, so I've never earned anything off of that offer, but I still love to tell people about it because it is a great offer.

00:24:52.830 --> 00:25:04.726
If you find yourself wanting to support my business next time you go to sign up for a credit card but can't find the card that you want to sign up for on my best offers page, send me an email and I can always let you know if I have an affiliate link for it or not.

00:25:04.726 --> 00:25:09.674
I really appreciate when people do this, because I just appreciate the support for my business.

00:25:09.674 --> 00:25:16.471
Thanks so much for spending time with me today and I look forward to seeing you next time, where we will continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.