American Airlines AAdvantage
The American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flyer program is one of the best in the oneworld alliance. While AA does have high mileage prices for some regions, the program is still worth looking into – especially when flying to Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East, or the Indian Subcontinent.
Sadly, AA miles are not the best if you want to travel to Europe – that’s because American Airlines rarely releases award seats in Business or First Class on their own flights, and their other European partners like Finnair and Iberia also rarely release award space… which means you are left with British Airways – which charges insane fuel surcharges on award tickets.
General Rules
American Airlines AAdvantage has many complex rules involved when redeeming miles for award travel. The best award redemptions with AA aren’t completed on AA.com, but rather over the phone. The general rules of award travel with American Airlines miles are as follows:
- No stopovers allowed
- A layover can be up to 23 hours and 59 minutes on an international award ticket
- Domestic layovers cannot generally be longer than 4-6 hours, with some exceptions
- Your routing must be within the Maximum Permitted Mileage
- There must be a published fare with the transoceanic carrier you are going to fly
- FREE changes
American Airlines B767 Business Class
Transit Rules
American Airlines has several rules regarding transiting en route to your final destination on award tickets.
- You must fly the most direct routing, but are allowed reasonable connections and routing within Maximum Permitted Mileage
- so you can fly Seattle – New York – London, but obviously can’t fly New York – Seattle – London
- You cannot transit via a third region, with some exceptions
- the first region is your region of departure
- the second region is your region of arrival
- the third region would be a transit region, only if allowed
Third Region Exceptions
With AA awards, you generally cannot transit via a third region. For example, you cannot fly from Seattle to Hong Kong to Tokyo as you would be flying North America -> Asia 2 -> Asia 1 regions – and you cannot transit via the Asia 2 region if flying from North America to Asia 1. However, you can fly from Seattle to Tokyo to Hong Kong as you would be flying North America -> Asia 1 -> Asia 2 and American Airlines allows you to fly to Asia 2 via the Asia 1 region in this case.
Here is a list of exceptions:
- North America -> Middle East, Indian Subcontinent
- Europe
- North America -> Indian Subcontinent
- Hong Kong (HKG)
- North America -> Africa
- Europe
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- North America -> Asia 2
- Asia 1
- Central America, South America 1, South America 2 -> Africa, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent
- Europe
- South America 2 -> Africa
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Europe -> Asia 1
- Asia 2
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Europe -> Asia 2
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Europe -> Australia
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Europe -> South Pacific
- Asia 1
- Asia 2
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Middle East, Indian Subcontinent -> Asia 1
- Asia 2
- Middle East, Indian Subcontinent -> South Pacific
- Asia 2
- Africa -> Asia 1
- Asia 2
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Africa -> Asia 2
- Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
- Asia 1 -> South Pacific
- Asia 2
The above indicates, for example, if you are flying from the Europe region to the South Pacific region, you can transit via Asia 1, Asia 2, or via Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR). For example, if you want to fly from London to Sydney, you can fly:
- London – Tokyo – Sydney
- London – Hong Kong – Sydney
- London – Doha – Sydney
In each case above you are transiting via a third region en route from London to Sydney and all of those third region routings are allowed.
Qatar Airways, an AA partner
In Conclusion
American Airlines miles are incredibly useful when redeemed on their partner airlines – especially for travel on Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airways, Qantas, and Qatar Airways. My favourite redemption is Europe to the South Pacific in First Class – you can fly some incredible airlines for a great cost in miles – and you can also avoid British Airways, which means the taxes and fees will be very low.
Happy Booking!