What is the highest AA credit card offer you have seen?

[Megma]

I am planning some credit card hacking and would like to use American Airlines because of existing miles I have/will earn this year. Currently they are offering 30K miles for new card sign ups. What is the highest you have seen for American Airlines? Delta, for example, was running a 50K mile promotion this year. Has anyone seen American do something similar?

I am aiming to get one RT ticket to Europe (exact location TBD, probably Paris) for my partner to meet me at the end of a work trip. I need 60k miles on American for this. By the end of the year I will have ~10,000 miles (from work travel mostly) and need 50,000 more.

I am realizing now that I probably should have taken advantage of the Delta promotion while it was available as the bonus is bigger than the miles I will get from all of my actual travel this year. I could also keep using the mileage card instead of my normal rewards cards to get more miles.

Worst case scenario is that we pay for a one way flight for one person for the two us to vacation in Europe. Could be worse :-)

Also I will probably cancel the card before an annual fee kicks in, this trip will be completed but will that impact any remaining miles I have earned?

Thanks for your suggestions!

[beltim]

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-thankyou-rewards/1632562-citi-platinum-gold-aa-cards-bonuses-benefits.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-thankyou-rewards/1615477-citi-executive-aa-now-75k-7-500-90-days-read-wikipost-first.html

[2Birds1Stone]

I got 50k AA and 50k UA in March. WHich is now 100k AA

[Ricky]

If the $450 annual fee posts after the 1st statement, and your points don't appear till after the first statement, how are you to avoid the annual fee?

[NotJen]

I got a 50k bonus on a Platinum card earlier this year, and then they sent me a mail offer for 30k bonus on the Gold card. So, 80k total this year. Already cancelled the Gold card, but will keep the Platinum until the annual fee is due for the free bag benefit.

[Megma]

Thanks for the links Beltim, literally I checked before posting and saw a 30k bonus when I googled for AA cards. Though the forum page says it's expired but the link they gave works. So I'll give it a shot!

Ricky, I wasn't looking at the Executive card, which does offer 75k miles but also the $450 annual fee and a 7,500 minimum spend to get the bonus. For me, it's not worth it. I was looking at the Platinum select card which waves the annual fee for the first year.

[Ricky]

I agree, doesn't seem worth it...but the 30k one does.

[use2betrix]

I got 50k AA and 50k UA in March. WHich is now 100k AA

I did the same. Good times.

[Trifle]

I got 70k on the AA Platinum last year.  And actually, I prefer the AAdvantage travel portal to Ultimate Rewards. 

[Megma]

Good suggestion! I have always found the Ultimate Rewards travel portal to have higher prices than other places, higher enough to offset any benefit I would get from using it.

I applied for the card with the 50k bonus (link from Beltim), that should be enough to get the flight to Europe that I want. I wasn't given instant approval which has never happened to me before but I got another card and refinanced my house in recent months, wish me luck on my eventual approval!