Author Topic: American Airlines Advantage Miles  (Read 3297 times)

pbkmaine

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American Airlines Advantage Miles
« on: April 15, 2017, 08:21:00 AM »
I have 19,856 miles in my American Airlines account. I don't want to buy magazines, and I don't plan to travel on American anytime soon. American won't let me redeem for gift cards until and unless I have 25,000 miles on my account. What are my options?

geekette

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2017, 08:28:11 AM »
You can get a Citibank AAdvantage credit card and get their bonus miles (fee waived the first year), or you can join their dining program and get 3 miles for every dollar you spend at participating restaurants (not many around here, though).

Catbert

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2017, 09:36:06 AM »
When you buy things on line go through their shopping portal.  May take a long time, but at least your miles won't expire.

Edited to add:  AA miles expire after 18 months of inactivity so be sure to do something to keep them alive.  Using the shopping portal is the easiest.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2017, 11:17:55 AM by mary w »

chasesfish

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2017, 01:26:01 PM »
Second the CitiCard if you haven't signed up for it.  Spend the minimum, you'll be around 60k, then redeem at you feel necessary.

FrugalZony

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2017, 01:50:12 PM »
You can donate them if you think you wont use them. Red Cross, Doctors without borders etc
Giving them to someone else will cost you around $ 240

If you just want to keep them alive the AA Mastercard is a good way to do that and scoop up the bonus
You can also do the suggested shopping portal or just buy a few miles, they currently have a bonus buy promo, but the value is not really good
« Last Edit: April 15, 2017, 03:03:25 PM by FrugalZony »

lexde

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2017, 02:08:16 PM »
Second the CitiCard if you haven't signed up for it.  Spend the minimum, you'll be around 60k, then redeem at you feel necessary.

I actually did this twice since the second offer did not have 24 month language. Now have about 130K AA miles and am just waiting until I can take off of work to go somewhere nice with my SO. Highly recommend the AA Citi Plat for this reason.

If you can't find a 60K offer, call them and ask if they will honor it - I had a 60K on my first offer then a 50K on my second and they bumped it up to 60K.

FrugalZony

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2017, 03:09:46 PM »
Second the CitiCard if you haven't signed up for it.  Spend the minimum, you'll be around 60k, then redeem at you feel necessary.

I actually did this twice since the second offer did not have 24 month language. Now have about 130K AA miles and am just waiting until I can take off of work to go somewhere nice with my SO. Highly recommend the AA Citi Plat for this reason.

If you can't find a 60K offer, call them and ask if they will honor it - I had a 60K on my first offer then a 50K on my second and they bumped it up to 60K.
Lucky you!
I had the 50 k offer and the 60k came on THE DAY AFTER I had applied.
I called them and asked them to match it and they said no, but they gave me 1000 points for the trouble of calling.
Better than nothing, but still a bummer!

pbkmaine

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2017, 03:58:48 PM »
Thanks, all! I took your advice and applied for the credit card.

Trifle

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Re: American Airlines Advantage Miles
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2017, 02:23:02 PM »
You can also use the miles toward a hotel stay (and car rentals) through their portal. I recently had ~18,000 AA miles I wanted to use up, and that's what I did.