[Updates] How to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points without flying (Cheat Sheet to play the elite status game)

In 2022, American Airlines debuted a new simplified system for earning status: Loyalty Points. The good news for us is that in addition to earning Loyalty Points by flying, those coveted American Airlines Loyalty Points can also be earned by shopping through the American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping portal or using American Airlines SimplyMiles card-linked offers. This post is a cheat sheet listing the best of these offers and what you need to know to trigger them with low effort and high reward.

Why are we playing this game?

If you’ve stumbled on this post about easy ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage Loyalty Points but you aren’t sure why some of us are interested in playing the game, see this post: AA’s Loyalty Point Pursuit game: Earn status w/out flying.

Here’s how to keep score

If you want to play along with us in the quest to attain easy AA elite status, see this post: Keep score with the AA Loyalty Game Scorecard.

What works for earning American Airlines Loyalty Points? What doesn’t?

This section will be updated regularly based on my own experiment results and info from readers…

Official Tools for Earning American Airlines Loyalty Points

As we reported separately, the following non-flight activities earn Loyalty Points:

• AA credit card spend (In most cases, earn one Loyalty Point per dollar even if earning more than 1x due to a category bonus or promo)
• General Shopping and dining: AAdvantage eShopping, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage Dining
• Merchant specific shopping: FTD, NRG Energy, Reliant Energy, Shell Fuel Rewards, Vinesse, Vivid Seats, WeWork, Xoom
• Miscellaneous: Miles for Opinions
• Hotel Bookings: Rocketmiles, BookAAHotels.com, Hyatt (including miles earned through the AA/Hyatt partnership), Marriott, IHG, Marriott Vacations
• Rental Cars: You can book rentals through American Airlines, or book through most of the major rental car companies and credit rewards to your American Airlines account.
• Vacations and cruises: aavacations.com, bookaacruises.com

The following DO NOT earn Loyalty points:

• Buying, gifting, or transferring miles
• Government taxes, fees, and other charges associated with buying airline tickets
• Conversion of another program currency to AAdvantage miles
• AAdvantage credit card welcome bonuses don’t qualify, and neither do accelerators such as extra miles for category bonuses
• Miles earned with Bask Bank

Deal stacking: What works?

• Two similar SimplyMiles offers.  Sometimes you’ll see multiple offers on SimplyMiles for the same merchant but with slightly different terms.  If you can meet the terms of both offers with one purchase, you’ll get both bonuses.  People have reported success with this with Best Buy.
• Stack SimplyMiles card linked offer with Citi Merchant Offers for same merchant.
• Stack AA eShopping portal with SimplyMiles (and with Citi Merchant Offers).
• Stack Amex Offers with AA eShopping portal (note that you can’t stack Amex Offers with SimpyMiles since SimplyMiles only accveepts Mastercards)
• Meet SimplyMiles spend requirement with sales tax even if terms say no to taxes.  Tested successfully with the following merchants: Spot & Tango
• Completing an offer multiple times is sometimes possible. For example, when the AAdvantage eShopping portal was offering miles for prepaid Verizon accounts (since expired), I was able to open multiple prepaid accounts and get the miles for each one

Deal stacking: What doesn’t work?

• Stacking Future Fitness Amex Offer with AAdvantage portal (both require clicking through special links. Copying and pasting one link after clicking through the other did not work).
• Just Food For Dogs: This AA eShopping portal offer did not pay out miles for small purchases as expected.

Easy American Airlines Loyalty Points Offers

This post will have offers organized alphabetically under three headings:

• Current AAdvantage Loyalty Point Offers: All of the current opportunities for easy miles.
• Avoid These Offers: This section is dedicated to offers that look good but aren’t either because some component does not work as expected or because better deals are frequently available.
• Expired Offers: The graveyard for the ghosts of offers past.

Deals with a cost of 1c per mile or less that at least one thumb up (👍). Exceptional deals get two thumbs up (👍👍).

Current American Airlines Loyalty Points Offers

AT&T Consumer: 6,200 miles for adding a line

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal

Cheat sheet:

• Not valid on prepaid service
• This won’t be worth it just for the miles, but if you are an existing customer adding a line, don’t forget the opportunity to earn miles doing so

Barron’s: 1,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown.

Offer: 1,000 miles with initial subscription once per AAdvantage account.

Cheat sheet:

• Eligible on one subscription per loyalty account number AAdvantage account (per the terms, you can’t sign up for it again even for another person through the same AAdvantage account)
• Subscription must remain active for 45 days. Schedule an email reminder if you want to remind yourself to decide whether or not to keep it.
• MarketWatch (which also has an offer) includes access to Barron’s and doesn’t have the 45-day terms, but I believe it should be possible to do both if you use different email addresses,
• Terms note an 8 week trial for $1, but I don’t see that after clicking through. The cheapest qualifying option appears to be the Print & Digital Subscription offer for $12 for 12 weeks, cancel any time. There is alternatively an offer for $2 per week, but it says that offer is billed as $8 for every 4 weeks, so you’d need to pay $16 to keep the service for at least 45 days that way.
• Note that this has been available for 1500 miles in the past, so it might be worth waiting.

Blue Apron

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal.

Offer: 5,000 miles

Cheat sheet:

• Terms indicate that subscription must remain active for at least 45 days, so this offer isn’t worth it unless you want the Blue Apron service
• We sometimes see a stacking opportunity with SimplyMiles and/or a card-linked offer
• Keep in mind that Blue Apron is available via many shopping portals and cash back offers sometimes exceed the value of the miles

Factor_: 2,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal

Cheat sheet:

• With 50% off the first box, the cost comes down to just over $40 for the first delivery, which doesn’t make this worth purchasing for the miles alone, but if you value the food this could nonetheless be a good deal
• Keep in mind that Rakuten is offering 60% back / 60x Membership Rewards points at the time of writing, which may be worth more to you

Fyt: 750 miles👍

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal (link)

Cheat sheet:

• Get $50 off first purchase with code GETFYT. I found some trainers with whom it appears possible to book a session for around $50 or less before the code is applied.

Naked Wines: 1,200 miles with first purchase

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal

Valid through: Unknown

Cheat sheet:

• We have seen offers of 2,500 – 3,200 miles over the past year. It may be worth waiting for the offer to increase

The problem: Many readers have had the miles clawed back and it isn’t clear how to avoid clawback. See comments around here (including before and after that comment). Additionally, the offer is void in AK, AL, AR, DE, HI, IN, MI, MS, MO, NJ, OH, RI, SD, TX, UT.

Marketwatch: 1,000 miles 👍

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown.

Offer: 500 miles with initial subscription.

Cheat sheet:

• Only eligible on one subscription per household. (Not sure what happens if you subscribe for someone else’s household?)
• Not eligible on any free products, trials, services, membership, subscriptions, and retailer marketing subscriptions. Note that some readers have reported success with the 4 weeks for $1 trial despite the terms.
• Note that this has been available for 1500 miles in the past (and is pretty frequently available for at least 1,000 miles), so it might be worth waiting.

Millionacres: 6,200 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

The problem: This appears to be an offshoot of The Motley Fool. If you see a card-linked offer like an Amex Offer, be aware that they may not stack.

Cheat sheet:

• This may be worth it for some after the Loyalty Points given the $99 starting price point (about 1.6 cents per mile / Loyalty Points)
• Note that we have sometimes seen this offer increase to 7,400 miles

Motley Fool: 6,200 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

The problem: The Motley Fool has reached out to say that the airline portal offers can not be combined with card-linked offers. They seem focused on making sure that people don’t get both, so it’s likely that something will get clawed back here.

Cheat sheet:

• As noted above, this probably won’t stack with the common Amex Offer for $50 back on $99 or more. It may still be worth it for someone after the Loyalty Points given the $89 starting price point (about 1.44 cents per mile / Loyalty Points)
• Note that we have sometimes seen this offer increase to 7,400 miles

Ollie’s: 1,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown.

Offer: 1000 miles with initial subscription

Cheat sheet:

• Cheapest plan I found was $9.45/wk (for a 10lb Chihuaha) for a total of $18.90.
• There is a Current Amex Offer that is valid for $25 back on $25 or more. Note: Check the terms of the Amex Offer as it may require going through a specific link (I don’t have this offer). If that is the case, it might be possible to click through the AAdvantage portal and then copy and paste the Amex link into the same browser and get both (YMMV).

Pimsleur Language Programs: 1,000 total miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: Earn 1,000 bonus AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when you subscribe to Pimsleur Language Programs via the AAdvantage eShopping portal.

More info: Pimsleur Language Programs: Easy 1,000 American Airlines Miles & Loyalty Points.

Cheat sheet:

• Terms state that this offer is valid for online subscriptions. The cheapest subscription costs $14.95 per month, cancel at any time. At effectively 1.5c per mile, this deal won’t be worth it for many readers
• Note that there have been some reports of clawbacks on those who have canceled during the free trial period
• There is also an Amex Offer for Pimsleur that’s good for $20 back when you spend $20 or more. As Tim notes in his post about that offer, it may be possible to click through from the AA portal and then paste the Amex Offer link into the same browser and earn both the Amex Offer and the portal points, but YMMV.

Spot & Tango: 1,000 total miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: 1,000 for your first order through AAdvantage eShopping, 930 miles with $25+ order from SimplyMiles card-linked offer. Note that the offer was previously better and there were stacking components, but the reward has been just 1,000 miles for more than 1 year without changing.

More info: AA’s Loyalty Point Pursuit game: Earn status w/out flying

Cheat sheet:

• Order total for a 10lb dog should come to about $25 with sales tax
• Requires a recurring subscription, but after ordering you can immediately change the next delivery to be 3 months away (to give plenty of time to cancel if you don’t want to keep the service)
• This offer used to be highly stackable. There is no current stacking offer at the time of writing, but past stacking options have included:
  • Citi Merchant Offers: $20 back on $25+ (stack with SimplyMiles)
  • SimplyMiles: 930 miles with $20+ purchase
  • Chase Offer for $15 back on $25+ (stack with SimplyMiles if you have this on a Mastercard)
• In the past, with stacking opportunities, this deal has been as low as 0.15 cents per Loyalty Point / mile, though without stacking it is not very attractive at an effective 2.5c+ per point

The Wall Street Journal: 1,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal

Valid through: Unknown.

Offer: 500 miles with initial subscription once per AAdvantage account. Note that we have often seen this offer run at 1,000 to 1,200 miles and occasionally as high as 1,500 miles.

Cheat sheet:

• Eligible on one subscription per loyalty account number AAdvantage account (per the terms, you can’t sign up for it again even for another person through the same AAdvantage account)
• Subscription must remain active for 45 days. Schedule an email reminder if you want to remind yourself to decide whether or not to keep it. Should work well with the WSJ Digital subscription, which costs $0.50 per week, billed as $2 every 4 weeks (which means a total cost of $4 to keep the subscription for the minimum 45 days).
• Note that this has been available for 1500 miles in the past (and is frequently at or above 1,000 miles), so it might be worth waiting.

USA Today Network: 350 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal

Cheat Sheet

• The advertised rate is a higher payout only valid on an annual subscription. See the monthly digital subscription rate for the best deal.
• Digital all-access costs $1 for the first 6 months, which makes this a low-cost way to earn a few miles / loyalty points
• This offer has been 500 miles at times, so it’s worth waiting for a better offer

uShip: 3,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal

Cheat sheet:

• Valid only after delivery is completed
• Does not appear to be limited to single use
• uShip is essentially a peer-to-peer shipping network that allows individual operators to pick up and ship items for you. This one probably isn’t worth doing only for the miles since the nature of this service means that shipping costs will be too high to do this deal just for the miles, but if it is repeatable it could be a good deal for someone reselling larger items. I have used uShip many times to ship things like wood stoves / ovens / boats / etc.

Verizon consumer: 3,700 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal.

Cheat Sheet: 

• Not valid for prepaid plans or devices
• Earn 3,700 miles for adding a line (we have seen this offer at 6,200 miles before)
• Earn 3,700 miles for Home Internet (as low as $25/mo for existing Verizon customers)
• Only 5 miles per $1 on accessories
• Miles tend to post very quickly

Verizon Business Markets: 10,900 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal

Cheat Sheet:

• Service must be activated for at least 45 days
• Eligible on 3 lines per loyalty account
• We have sometimes seen a stacking Amex Offer
• We have seen the payout reach as high as 14,900 miles (though not for almost a year)
• Keep in mind that cash back payouts sometimes reach as high as $150, so there is an opportunity cost involved in choosing to earn miles

Visible Mobile: 1,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping portal (1000 miles – link)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: Get 1,000 miles when you join Visible Mobile as a new customer.

Cheat sheet:

• The cheaper Visible Mobile plan costs $25 per month, but it looks like you can use code 5OFF3MO to bring the cost down to $20 per month for the first 3 months, which would make this offer more appealing when the payout is increased.
• The portal payout for Visible has often been 2,200 or 2,500 miles, so it may be worth waiting.
• Visible has in the past offered a $200 gift card of your choice (options include Mastercard, Amazon, Best Buy, and more types of gift cards) when you port a line and maintain service for at least 3 months. There is no current such offer, but it might be worth keeping an eye on this.
• There is also an occasional Chase Offer for $25 back on $25 (YMMV)

Avoid these offers

Bespoke Post: 500 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Offer: 500 miles with initial sign-up

The problem: Several readers have reported getting the miles clawed back after skipping the first delivery (and without cancelling the account). See this comment and replies to it.

Thrive Market

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal.

Offer: 20 miles per $1

The problem: 20 miles per dollar only eligible on the membership fee, not on groceries.

Just Food for Dogs

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal.

Offer: 1,200 miles with first purchase

The problem: Quite a few readers have tried this one and none have reported success in getting the miles. See this comment and replies to it.

Expired Offers

Winc Wines: 2,500 miles 👍👍

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (1500 miles – link) + SimplyMiles (link) (1,000 miles) + Citi Merchant Offer

Valid through: Unknown for portal. SimplyMiles offer expires 1/31/22

Offer: 1500 miles with order through AAdvantage eShopping (no minimum purchase). 1K Miles from SimplyMiles with $29.96 new member offer. $20 back on $30 from Citi merchant Offers.

More info: AA’s Loyalty Point Pursuit game: Earn status w/out flying

Cheat sheet:

• Order the new offer that’s good for four bottles of wine for $29.96.
• With tax, your total will likely be more than $30 to trigger the Citi Merchant Offer. If you have no tax, click “I want to choose my own wines” and find a bottle that costs $1 more.
• Stacking options:
  • AAdvantage portal: 1500 miles with purchase
  • SimplyMiles (Mastercard only): 1,000 miles with new member offer of $29.96
  • Citi Merchant Offer: $20 back on $30+
  • Net cost = ~$10 for 2500 miles (0.4 cents per Loyalty Point).
• Note that this offer may be repeatable

Sunbasket: 3,700 to 4,700 miles👍

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link). Sack with SimplyMiles (link) and Citi Merchant Offers or stack with targeted Amex Offer (enrollment required)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: Get 3,700 miles with your first Sunbasket order through AAdvantage eShopping

More info: 3,700 American Airlines Miles & Loyalty Points With Sunbasket; Stack W/ Amex & Card-Linked Offers

Cheat sheet:

• Note that Swagbucks alternatively offers $75 back and MyPoints offers 12,000 points (worth a similar amount), so this offer may not be the best for you.
• Stacking options:
  • Amex Offers (stack with shopping portal and Collinson card-linked offers below)
    • : $12 back on $65+
    •  $25 back on $50+ (better deal for those targeted)
  • SimplyMiles (Mastercards only, stack with shopping portal and possible stack with Citi merchant Offers and collinson offers below): 1,000 miles on $65+
  • Citi Merchant Offers (stack with shopping portal, SimplyMiles, Collinson offers below): $20 back on $65+
  • Collinson card-linked offers (choose one and link card before purchase):
    • Caesars Rewards Marketplace – 1,080 points (link)
    • Choice Privileges Online Mall – 780 points (link)
    • Emirates Skywards – 540 miles (link)
    • JetBlue TrueBlue Shopping – 540 points (link)

Byte: 2500 miles 👍

Source: AAdvantage Shopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: Earn 2,500 miles with purchase of the $14.95 Impression Kit (note that this only works with the Impression Kit)

Cheat sheet:

• Only valid on the $14.95 Impression Kit and only on first purchase
• Note that there is a Citi Merchant Offer for $100 back and a SimplyMiles offers, but those offers have not posted for readers. Just get the $14.95 Impression Kit for an easy 2,500 miles.

Blooom: 1200 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown.

Offer: 1200 miles with fist time analysis only (appears to be valid with initial portfolio analysis, no purchase required)

Cheat sheet:

• All you need to do is link some sort of retirement account (401k, IRA, etc).
• No credit card information or commitment is required
• I tried this with an IRA that had no money in it and got an error that it requires further review.
• You do need to log in via Blooom, so consider whether or not you want to share login credentials and grant potential access to information

Bright Cellars: 3,000 miles

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal (link)

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: 3000 miles with order through AAdvantage eShopping with first time initial wine club new membership

Cheat sheet:

• Clicking through AA should give you 4 bottles for $38 + tax (came to $41.04 in my state).
• Members who have previously subscribed are not eligible.
• Note that you have to take their “wine quiz” to get your “suggestions”. You can then switch out wines if you don’t like the suggested wines, but the price does not change and you can only switch each recommendation once. You don’t get to pick the replacement, their algorithm does (though in my case I tried replacing one and got a wine that was rated higher on Vivino than any of the other bottles recommended). I did not complete the order as I don’t need the wine.
• Keep in mind that this is a subscription. Not sure how tough it is to cancel.

Babylist: 1,000 miles (no purchase req)

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal

Valid through: Unknown

Offer: Get 1,000 miles when you create a baby registry.

Cheat sheet:

• Note that this can be done whether or not you are currently expecting. For instance, you could select that you are “still trying”.
• No purchase necessary.
• Miles pending within a day or two and deposited at AAdvantage within a day or two thereafter

Verizon: 6,200 miles with a prepaid line

Source: AAdvantage eShopping Portal. Stack with Chase Offer (net cost ~$14) or Amex Offer (net cost ~$3)

Valid through: 1/19/22

Offer: Get 6,200 miles with new prepaid service.

More Info: 6200 American Airlines miles / Loyalty Points with Verizon (including prepaid). Stack w/ offers.

Cheat Sheet: 

• Cheapest plan comes to about $39 with tax with autopay discount or $44 without Autopay.
• Targeted Chase / Bank of America Offer for $30 back on $40 brings net cost to about $14, varies slightly due to tax).
• Targeted Amex Offer on some business cards is good for $75 back on $75 (cost of two lines was about $78 with tax, net $3 after or single line on highest plan came out to a similar amount with a $5 hotspot add-on).
• Caution: some readers have orders track but fail to post points. Others have received a “payment declined” error only to find the next day that their payment was charged and order completed after all. Proceed with caution and see the comments in the post linked under “More Info” above.
• When this works, miles post very quickly (usually pending 1 day after order ships and deposited into AAdvantage account the day after that).

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