(EXPIRED) Earn 500 Bonus AAdvantage Miles When Booking American Airlines Flights By May 18

American Airlines launched a new promotion a couple of days ago that’s running until next Monday. They’re offering 500 bonus miles when booking flights by that date for flights from July 1 through the end of the year.

The Deal

• Earn 500 bonus miles when booking American Airlines flights by May 18, 2020 for travel from July 1 to December 31, 2020.
• Direct link to registration.

Key Terms

• This offer is available to all AAdvantage® members
• You must register by 11:59 p.m. CT on May 18, 2020, and before flight purchase and travel in order for your flights to count toward this promotion
• Eligible flights must be both marketed by American Airlines and operated by American or American Eagle, booked in any published, purchased fare, and ticketed by May 18, 2020
• Flights booked with miles as the form of payment are not eligible for this promotion
• Flights that reach the maximum mileage earned per ticket may still be eligible for this promotion
• Travel booked or re-booked after May 18, 2020, isn’t eligible to earn bonus miles
• Eligible flights must be flown between July 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020
• Flights marketed and/or operated by other codeshare partners aren’t eligible
• You’ll earn 500 bonus award miles for each eligible flight once it posts to your account
• You can earn up to 5,000 bonus award miles for this promotion
• Bonus miles don’t count toward elite status qualification or AAdvantage Million Miler status
• Miles are subject to the standard AAdvantage program terms and conditions
• American may, at any time and without notice, change, stop or end this promotion in part or in full

Quick Thoughts

American Airlines has a limit of 5,000 bonus miles for this promotion, so you can earn the 500 bonus miles on up to 10 flights.

The email from American Airlines regarding this promotion specifically notes that you can change your reservation without change fees. They’re presumably hoping that this promotion will encourage some speculative bookings that people will end up taking. With 500 bonus miles only being worth ~$7 though, it’s a nice bonus if you’d be taking flights later this year if and when it’s safer to do so, but it’s certainly not rewarding enough to make it worth choosing American Airlines over any other airline.

The fact that you have to book by May 18 limits the promo’s usefulness too. While that was probably included to provide some sense of urgency among potential travelers, 500 bonus miles isn’t going to do much to make people rush to book travel for the second half of the year given all the ongoing uncertainty.

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