More than a year ago I published “Why AAdvantage is my new favorite mileage program.” It was not, and is still not, my favorite points program. That honor goes to transferable points programs: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, etc. Additionally, AA is not my favorite airline to fly. In fact, it’s very, very far down my list. For one extreme example of why AA isn’t my favorite airline, see: “My AAdventures AAttempting to fly AA to London.” But American Airlines AAdvantage miles remain my favorite airline miles. That will change if/when they devalue their partner award chart, but for now I love ’em.
Reasons for loving AA miles
Please see my previous post, “Why AAdvantage is my new favorite mileage program,” for full details, but for now here’s a summary of things I love:
- Free cancellations on all awards
- Free changes to partner awards
- AA Roulette: AA often randomly offers excellent award pricing on AA-flown awards. Keep checking!
- Partner award pricing: Great award pricing on partner awards, especially for flying business class
- Great partners to fly: AA miles can be used to fly awesome airlines including Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar, and more.
- Most partner awards are bookable online
- Low fuel surcharges with most partners: AA usually doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on award flights (with the notable exception of awards flown by British Airways).
- Domestic partners: When flying within the U.S., it’s possible to use miles to fly not just AA itself, but also Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian airlines on certain routes.
- Loyalty Points: When earning AAdvantage miles, you usually earn Loyalty Points as well. This means that if you earn enough AAdvantage miles (even through shopping or credit card spend), you can earn elite status.
- Award Hold: AA lets you put awards on hold for up to 5 days.
My recent experience flying around the world
Last Week, as part of the Million Mile Madness challenge, I flew around the world in order to fly all 15 airlines needed to earn 1 Million SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) miles. Several times, I booked non-qualifying award flights as a way of connecting between qualifying flights and to get home at the end. It just happened that I booked all three of these award flights with AA miles. And all three flights were awesome!
Here’s an overview of the flights I booked with AA miles:
- I paid 62,500 AA miles + $142.93 to fly:
- Paris to Abu Dhabi on Etihad First Apartments
- + Abu Dhabi to Jeddah on Etihad business class
- I paid 40,000 AA miles + $75 to fly:
- Riyad to Doha to Jakarta on Qatar business class
- I paid 80,000 AA miles + $43 to fly:
- Tokyo to Chicago on Japan Airlines first class
In total, I flew nearly all the way around the world, mostly in international first class, for a total of 182,500 miles. That’s a steal. Here are some pics and details from my flights…
Paris to Abu Dhabi on Etihad First Apartments
This flight was incredible. It was a daytime flight and so even though it clocked in at under 7 hours, I was able to fully take advantage of everything offered: champagne; wine; meal service with caviar, lobster tail, and fillet; comfortable bed for napping; in-flight shower; etc.
Abu Dhabi to Jeddah on Etihad business class
While this Etihad flight wasn’t nearly as fancy as the previous one I flew, it was still very nice. I enjoyed an excellent meal.
Riyad to Doha on Qatar business class
Even though this flight was only an hour and 20 minutes long, they managed to provide a full breakfast meal service.
Doha to Jakarta on Qatar business class
This was technically a daytime flight, but since I had just come from an earlier time zone, it felt like the middle of the night to me. I enjoyed yet another terrific meal, laid down and slept like a baby for four or five hours, then woke to enjoy breakfast.
Tokyo to Chicago on Japan Airlines first class
JAL (Japan Airlines) does first class right. It was an incredible experience from the get-go…
At the airport I was ushered through a special entrance with its own private security reserved only for JAL first class passengers at Tokyo Haneda airport.
Next, I went to JAL’s first class lounge and sampled a treat from each of the lounge’s unique areas:
In the Salon, I enjoyed hand drip coffee: 
In the Sushi area, you can probably guess what I tried there:
In the RED SUITE, I taste tested a couple glasses of Saki:
And in JAL’s Table, I tried the chili-steamed bun. It was amazing.
On board the flight, I found myself in a huge, comfortable seat:
The amenity kit was probably the most elaborate I’ve ever seen:
The flight attendant poured me a glass of Salon champagne 2013. I’m not usually into champagne, but this was stellar. If all champagne was like this I would very much be into it. But a quick Google search suggests that these go for about $1500 per bottle, so I’ll stick with regular wine when not flying JAL.
The Japanese meal I ordered was excellent.
I asked to have the empty seat across the aisle made into a bed for me. While I didn’t find this bed to be as comfortable as the Etihad Apartments bed, I still slept soundly for many hours.
Near the end of the flight, I purchased a special edition 100th anniversary Hibiki whiskey that is only available to JAL and ANA first class passengers. It cost 60,000 yen (about $390 USD), but people have been reselling it for much, much more.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Sorry this is total BS on the miles award….I just tried to book SFO to LHR 317K miles. You need to get your story straight
IDK, I just booked NRT to BOS last night, 60k miles in biz, JL.
This is potentially replacing a previous flight PVG-NRT-DFW-PHL, mix of JL + AA, 70k miles.
I’m in a hub to be fair but I get a lot of use out of these miles. I was originally super bummed years ago when they replaced USAir which had some great deals but they’ve proven to be decent for me. They are also great for close-in I find, I can usually grab something if last minute plans come up. If not I get it with Alaska miles usually.
Also was a super easy status to MS, this was 1st year I tried (tbh mostly to be a Flooozy with citi cards to use pbp) and I earned exec plat relatively quickly and easily.
Just checked again , 387k today business class….definitely all over on international flights
If you are booking in high season like summer that might be the case. I’m not sure on that specific route, I’ve not flown it myself. But I’d imagine it would be a popular one. US – Europe on summer is the one thing pretty tough with AA though again if it’s close in I’ve found it sometimes (even better chance if you are flying solo)
Is calling British Airways customer service the only way to book Domestic U.S. flights from the west coast to the east coast with BA Avios? Online it’s always an error or never shows anything for any dates
Do you have articles on how to get the most out of AA miles? My wife and I have 200K each. She wants to go business or First to Europe; but looking at flights from DFW to Rome or Paris Business class next summer it is too much! Thanks!
Yeah on popular flights (US-Europe) in summer you gotta book early, 300+ days out. Or be flexible and grab something closer in.
How many miles/points/dollars was the Tokyo to Chicago first class ticket on Japan Airlines?
Probably the 80,000 miles and $43 mentioned in the article. Greg used this only for a one segment flight but it would cover anywhere in the US to anywhere in Asia 1 (Japan and Korea) so he could have included an additional flight in the US after reaching Chicago and an additional flight from Korea (or Japan) to reach Japan at the beginning of the flight.
Thank you
It literally says this in the article.
Superfluous
I’m an AA flier with status and think they’re fine for domestic travel, although the availability of upgrades has plummeted since I first got status towards the end of the pandemic.
AA’s weak spot is US to Europe front cabin. There’s decent availability but, because it’s almost entirely on BA (and other members of the IAG crime family), the co-pays are ridiculous.
I’ll be seriously looking at moving to Alaska Mileage Plan for next year since I could probably knock out about a third of the miles needed for oneWorld Emerald on award travel alone.
AA is not mine either and other than the old Eastern Airlines, AA is the 2nd program I joined in the early 80’s. Now, AA has cancelled flights in the middle of an international journey and lately could care less about helping my wife get home one flight earlier due to her father almost passing, and he did pass, and she did not get to see him.
Hard to imagine you don’t win the Style portion. Amazing.
How many days out did you find the Etihad CDG flight? How were you alerted? Was it bookable online?
Now if only they would have transfer partners and allow family pooling
It’s the scarcity from no transfer partners that helps make it valuable. Less demand for the supply of decent awards.
How far in advance did you book the JL F flight?
About 16 hours before the flight
Did you book the JAL flight thru the AA website? I’ve been looking for a while to find a deal to Japan and back, but haven’t had much luck
I was on the same JAL flight earlier this year which became available only a few days before the flight — and even then, neither I nor the phone agent could actually book it right away. At least sometimes, JAL availability only shakes loose a one, two, or three days in advance (I think Greg mentioned that he booked this flight as soon as it became available, something like 36 hours before departure).
This is one of my favorite articles that you have posted and inspires me to try out more J and F products. Thank you!
Thanks
How did you get so many AA miles?
Mostly credit card bonuses and a short lived deal a few years ago where it was possible to buy miles very cheaply
Thanks for the responses in the comments, Greg, and for the great post! I think another key reason you love AA (or the reason that unlocks everything that you love about AA) is your stash of cheaply-acquired AA miles, which are otherwise difficult to obtain. Especially for someone like yourself (and many of us) who never book AA cash flights.
I will never get over not being targeted for that SimplyMiles deal. Ugh.
How many AA miles do you have
I now only have about 200,000 left but my wife has 300,000
Where do you get your stash of AA miles Bask bank?
I think Greg got them mostly from an offer a couple of years ago for charity donations that earned 240 miles per dollar donated — making a $5,000 donation worth 1.2 million miles. In effect, buying the miles for under a half cent a point.
Yeah. What an amazing offer, kinda crazy they offered something so good. I would have jumped at it if I had been into miles and points back then.
I was sitting in Mexico with no Mastercards with me, Simplimiles not set up, and no one at home to get hold of one of the few Mastercards I had in the sock drawer.
That said it took a leap of faith to think the deal would be honored and I’m not sure I would have done a huge contribution even if I had access to the deal.
What’s the real lesson here? Put all your credit cards (even the sock drawer residents) in your password manager or similar safe storage.
I didn’t do much better. For some reason I didn’t pay attention to this offer when it came out.