TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.
When I write a post here on TFM there can be any one of a number of reasons why I chose to write it – I may think the information in it will save someone money, I may think that a review of a product will better inform travelers of what’s on offer and, sometimes I consider the post to be a PSA. This post definitely falls into that last category.
It’s not secret that the AAdvantage program is a shadow of its former self and it’s not really a secret that American Airlines makes premium cabin SAAver awards available about as often as LA sees a total eclipse of the sun….but despite all this the airline keeps on hawking its miles like a pusher on a street corner.
The airline keeps tempting travelers to buy its currency by releasing a new offer every few weeks and each time I find myself thinking the same thing: “I wonder how many people are being taken in by this?”
Don’t get me wrong, if you know what you’re doing and you have a definite plan for the miles then you can probably still just about get a good deal out of some of these offers.
But let’s be honest here. Most people don’t know what they’re doing and American knows that as well as anyone….that’s why AAdvantage keeps trying to tempt people in.
I’m here to shine a light on why these offers are a terrible idea for most people.
American’s Latest “Buy Miles” Promotion
I’m not even going to offer up a link to the promotion – that how badly I want people to stay away – but here’s the gist:
The promotion runs through 31 August 2017 and these are the bonuses available.
As usual the lowest cost per miles is available to those who buy the maximum:
That equates to approximately 1.83 cents/mile.
The first thing to note is that this is slightly more expensive than the last promotion American Airlines ran where miles were sold for around 1.73 cents each….so straight away that should tell you that this isn’t a great deal.
The second thing to note is that if you buy just 1,000 fewer miles the price/mile jumps:
Here the price is approximately 1.99 cents per mile (you can get it cheaper than that if you buy just 100,000 miles but I’m not going into that as it’s still a bad deal).
What’s Wrong With AAdvantage Miles?
As I’m writing this in a cafe and as I really need to get back to the house I’m helping to renovate I’ll keep things brief-ish:
The best uses of AAdvantage miles are:
- Business Class SAAver awards on American Airlines aircraft
- Premium Cabin awards on some of American’s partner airlines.
The issues:
- American Airlines very rarely releases Business Class SAAver awards on its own aircraft often forcing travelers to use partners such as British Airways which charge outrageous fees on award bookings – that makes the idea of buying miles in order to book these awards ridiculous.
- Premium Cabin awards on partner airlines now require a lot more miles than they used to so they’re not as great a use of miles as they used to be….and they’re also getting harder and harder to find.
- It’s often possible to book Business Class fares with actual money for less than it will cost you to buy the miles and then book an award.
For example:
Even if you could find a roundtrip Business Class SAAver award on American Airlines between the US and Europe it would cost you at least 115,000 miles.
Using the best currently available rate to buy miles (1.83 cents each) that award would cost $2,105 and, just recently, we’ve seen Business Class fares to Europe as low as $1,400 (HT: VFTW).
Those Business Class fares would earn you miles you can redeem (hopefully!), miles towards elite status and elite qualifying dollars…..and they’re over $700 cheaper than the alternative!
They’re also not all that rare. You’d be a LOT better off not buying miles and biding your time until the next set of cheap Business Class fares come along…they come along a lot more often than American’s SAAver awards!
Bottom Line
American Airlines miles have never been harder to use efficiently and effectively so why would you hand over good money for them?
Sure, if you happen to be able to see an award available right now that makes sense (mathematically) to book then you may do just fine buying miles…but for most people it’s a terrible use of hard-earned cash.
Think before you buy and, unless you can score a great deal, don’t encourage American Airlines by buying a currency that it has been devaluing overtly and stealthily for at least three years.
