Over the past few years I’ve earned a lot of American Airlines AAdvantage miles. I’ve earned miles both from flying and from a few different credit card sign-up bonuses. As I racked up the miles I began thinking of ways to use my miles. One of the issues I’ve mentioned before is that I often have a hard time burning my AAdvantage miles. That’s because I don’t like not earning EQM or EQD on long-haul trips!
Over the past several months I’ve come up with a few different flights I’d like to take with miles. For starters, I want to fly Qantas First Class from Sydney to Dallas. I actually recently booked that exact flight, but due to poor time management skills I may not be able to take the flight after all. That particular redemption cost a total of 110,000 AAdvantage miles per one way award.
Additionally, I would really love to use my AAdvantage miles to fly Etihad Apartment (First Class) from Abu Dhabi to New York. I want to take this flight because of two very specific words “onboard shower.”
Again, the Etihad flight would cost about 110,000 AAdvantage miles each way. While both of these redemptions are exciting they aren’t exactly practical.
Using AAdvantage Miles As An Insurance Policy
See, as much as I’d love to take both of those previously mentioned flights often, I just don’t have that many miles. I could most likely take one of those flights each year, but that would be about it. After each redemption my AAdvantage account would be empty.
Instead, I tend to use AAdvantage miles as an insurance policy. As I often travel on multiple itineraries with various carriers I generally am not protected in the event of a delay. Because of this, if I miss a connecting flight there is a possibility that my entire itinerary would fall apart. In that case I could find myself in Europe with a canceled return flight. If this happens it could cost several hundred or even thousand dollars to find a return flight back home.
That’s why I try to always keep a generous stockpile of American Airlines AAdvantage miles. If I find myself in a bind I can almost always find a reasonable economy class long-haul redemption to get me home. For example, if I found myself stranded in London tomorrow it would cost well over $800 to get home. If I didn’t feel like spending an additional $800 I could instead pay just 22,500 AAdvantage miles. That’s not a bad deal considering the circumstances.
Using AAdvantage Miles For Short-Haul Positioning Flights
I also tend to enjoy using AAdvantage miles to pay for short-haul positioning flights. You may not know this, but it’s often cheaper to book a transatlantic flight between less attractive city pairings. Additionally, it’s often less expensive to book round trip flights which originate in Europe, especially premium cabin flights.
So, let’s say you booked two round trips flights. The first gets you from the US to/from London while the second is from Oslo to/from the US. In order to begin the Oslo/US round trip you have to somehow get from London to Oslo. There are of course several way to accomplish this goal, but I’d most likely use AAdvantage miles to pay for British Airways flights. Here’s why.
A last-minute flight from London to Oslo costs well over $300! I may not know exactly when I want to go to Oslo either, which is why I’ve waited until the last-minute to book this flight. Perhaps I wasn’t sure how many days I’d want to spend in London.
Instead of paying $344 I could just use 12,500 AAdvantage miles to pay for the flight. Sure I’d also have to pay $45 in taxes and fees, but I’d get to where I wanted to go for a whole lot less than $300.
The same principles apply for other parts of the world, including the US. You could potentially save $100s of dollars booking a transatlantic flight from Los Angeles or New York and using miles to get to either.
Final Thoughts
It’s funny how rarely I read about the “practical applications” of airline miles. Typically you only read about how you can fly First Class around the world using your accumulated airline miles. However, airline miles can be a very useful tool which can help you out in a jam or save you some money.
While I’m going to continue searching for aspirational award opportunities (Etihad First, Cathay First, JAL First) I’m also going to start really considering using miles for positioning flights more often. It’s crazy to think that I could save several hundreds of dollars by flying out of a nearby airport and use just a few thousand miles to get there.
