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American Airlines has introduced yet another “buy miles & get a bonus” promotion for anyone still happy to try to find value out of the AAdvantage program following the devaluation on 22 March. In February they offered miles at a little over 2 cents each while this time they’re matching December’s promotion of 1.8 cents per AAdvantage Mile.
The Current American Airlines Offer
The current American Airlines promotion is open through 28 April 2016.
As with most American Airline “buy miles & get a bonus” offer the current promotion is tiered…although this one is strongly weighted in favour of those purchasing the maximum amount of miles allowed.
If you purchase the maximum number of miles allowed, 150,000, you would end up with 265,000 AAdvantage Miles at a total cost of $4,486.88 including taxes and fees:
That equates to 1.8 cents per AAdvantage Mile purchased.
And, just to show you how heavily weighted the promotion is towards the very top end, if you were to purchase 1,000 fewer miles (149,000) you would net a total of 224,000 AAdvantage miles at a cost of $4,755.16…..
….equivalent to 2.1 cents per AAdvantage Mile. And that’s significantly more!
Should You Buy AAdvantage Miles?
Unusually for me I purchased AAdvantage Miles in the December promotion (at 1.8 cents each) and I did so because I knew I wanted to book a lot of truly premium seats before the devaluation on 22 March. There wasn’t much risk to my purchase because (a) I knew exactly when the miles would devalue and (b) I had three months to book the awards in a window that was 331 days wide.
Now, although the AAdvantage Miles cost the same as they did back in December, things are very different.
The devaluation on 22 March has seen a lot of the premium awards I booked with my miles go up in price quite steeply and what was once a good deal is now either very expensive (in terms of miles needed) or not that good a deal at all.
I’ve already shown how I value my AAdvantage Miles in the post-devaluation era (at around 1.3 cents each) but here are a couple of examples of how the value of awards has changed.
USA – London (Business Class)
American Airlines 777-300 Business Class Seat
The cost of a Business Class AAdvantage award between the US and London has increased from 50,000 to 57,500 miles each way.
If I had used the miles I purchased at 1.8 cents each for this award, a round trip would have set me back $1,800 + taxes and fees (approximately $2,050) while post devaluation the award would cost $2,070 + taxes and fees (approximately $2,320).
That may not seem like that big of a difference but it’s enough to make an award that was “ok value” become an award that isn’t really worth it.
Why?
Because it’s not that rare to find Business Class flights between the US and London coming in at under $2,000 and, on top of that, if you’re booking an award you still have the issue of finding availability…and that hasn’t been easy in recent years.
Taking another example:
USA – Hong Kong (First Class)
Cathay Pacific First Class Cabin
Most people’s preferred carrier on this route is Cathay Pacific and, while you could snag Cathay Pacific First Class awards for 67,500 AAdvantage Miles (one way) before the devaluation, post devaluation the cost has shot up to 110,000 (one way).
Pre-devaluation a round-trip (with miles purchased at 1.8 cents each) would have cost $2,430 – truly fantastic value – while now, the same trip will cost $3,960 if you were to purchase miles in this promotion – that’s hardly spectacular value!
None of this is to say that you can’t still find good value out there….it just means that things are definitely not how the used to be so you need to be careful with your reasoning when you’re thinking about buying miles in a promotion like this.
Bear In Mind
- Miles purchased from American Airlines are processed by the airline itself which means that you can earn bonus points with credit cards that offer bonus miles for travel/airline purchases (e.g. Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Premier, Amex Business Gold etc..).
- American Airlines will allow you to buy up to 150,000 miles in a calendar year excluding bonuses.
Bottom Line
American is offering its AAdvantage Miles up for sale at one of the lowest rates we’ve ever seen (and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more sales at this price point) so even American is acknowledging that its loyalty points are worth less than before. Bear this in mind when deciding whether or not to buy – things that were a good deal before are not always a good deal now.
There is definitely still value to be had out of the AAdvantage program but it’s easy to be drawn in by headline figures like “1.8 cents per mile” and end up overpaying for an award.
Do your homework, find out the regularly available cash fares for the trips you wish to book as awards, and then work out if this is a good promotion for you….and don’t forget to the include taxes and fees (often added to awards) in your calculations – they can make a big difference!
[…] very valuable currency and when you find them on sale for more than, for example, AAdvantage Miles (recently on sale for 1.8 cents each) then it’s a good indication that you should probably stay […]