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A couple of years ago or so American Airlines and Shell partnered to offer rewards when linking your AAdvantage and Fuel Rewards accounts. Up until recently you could get 100 bonus miles and Loyalty Points when joining Fuel Rewards and 2 bonus miles and Loyalty Points per gallon when filling up.
They’ve now enhanced that partnership as you can now get 250 miles and Loyalty Points when joining Fuel Rewards and 3 miles and Loyalty Points per gallon. While that’s not a substantial increase, it does change the math and makes earning with American Airlines a little more appealing.
The Deal
- Earn 250 bonus AAdvantage miles when joining Shell Fuel Rewards & then 3x miles & Loyalty Points per gallon.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- 250 bonus miles offer
- Expires August 1, 2024
- After successful registration, complete your first fill-up of at least 5 gallons during the Offer Period.
- Offer valid for new Fuel Rewards members only.
- AAdvantage Miles earned through this offer will be posted to your AAdvantage account within 45 days of completing the qualifying fill.
- 3x offer
- 20 gallon limit per fill up.
- No limit on lifetime miles earned through this offer.
- Your AAdvantage account must be linked to your Fuel Rewards account and opted into earning miles.
- AAdvantage Miles earned through this offer will be posted to your AAdvantage account in 7-10 business days.
- To switch how you earn – MILES or FUEL SAVINGS – go to the Fuel Rewards app and select American Airlines under “Link Partner Accounts”
Quick Thoughts
Fuel Rewards members normally save 3c, 5c or 10c per gallon depending on if they have Silver, Gold or Platinum Fuel Rewards status respectively. It feels like there’s always been some way of getting Gold status with virtually zero effort, so in the past earning 2x miles (and Loyalty Points) meant you were effectively buying those miles for 2.5cpp. That’s pricey and so I’ve never linked my AAdvantage account.
With this recent update to offering 3x miles (and Loyalty Points), the partnership becomes more appealing. If you’d normally have saved 5c per gallon, earning 3x miles instead means you’re effectively buying those for 1.67cpp. That’s not a no-brainer, but it’s also not a bad deal if you can get good value when redeeming your AAdvantage miles.
What’s now stopping me from linking my accounts is that I’m a T-Mobile customer. On T-Mobile Tuesdays every week there’s an offer to save 10c or 15c per gallon at Shell. Those savings are worth far more than the 3x miles and Loyalty Points, so I’m sticking with that for now. Update: Jayce has shared in the comments below that this works differently to how I thought. If you link your AAdvantage account with your Shell Fuel Rewards account, you’ll get 3x AA miles and forego the 5c standard discount for Gold members. However, the additional 5c or 10c off per gallon you get via T-Mobile Tuesdays does still get applied which makes linking my AAdvantage account much more appealing.
Ultimately though, unless you’re filling up a ton each month, the earnings will be incremental rather than substantial. You earn 3x miles and Loyalty Points per gallon rather than per dollar and there’s a limit of 20 gallons per fill-up. That means the maximum you’ll earn during each visit at Shell is 60 miles and Loyalty Points. Those earnings are nice to have, but they’re not going to get you into QSuites (if Qatar actually made any those seats available for partners in the first place).
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I’m a little confused last two times that I filled up pump is telling me I could save $.25 per gallon if i use that option would I not earn 3 miles per gallon?
Not sure why just got 100 miles rather than 250 miles as the sign on. Note that the sign on is just miles, not counting as LP.
I had the same problem… and recently noticed that I received a second posting of 150 miles with the same posting date.
I have not received any points/miles for my actual gas purchases yet.
Just saw the second 150 miles too. Thanks!
Thank you Steven. Does one need to have a SHELL credit card for this offer?
No
AA miles, who cares?
AA miles are arguably the most valuable of all airline miles — I’ll glad scrounge up whatever I can get
One AAdvantage of getting miles instead of the cash discount is that you can stack it with Upside.
Is that so?
Does the AA earning prevent the T-Mobile discount from applying? In the Fuel Rewards app, it lists the Gold discount and the T-Mobile discount separately, which suggests that it might be possible to earn the 3x AA mile while still claiming the T-Mobile discount.
I think it prevents the T-Mobile discount from applying. When claiming the offer in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, it gives you a code to add to your Fuel Rewards account. This week they offered 15c off per gallon; I already got 5c off per gallon, so the T-Mobile Tuesdays code boosted that by 10c. If linking your AA account, I don’t think I’d have gotten either the 5c or 10c discounts.
Right now I’m getting 15c off per gallon through t mobile. Because I choose to take the 3miles per gallon, I don’t get 5c of the t mobile discount, but I do get the remaining 10c off. So effectively instead of 15c off per gallon, I get 10c off & 3AAmiles/LPs
Awesome, that’s much better than I thought it would be. I’ll add a note to the post.
One of the weird downsides to this, in my experience, is if you link your AA card to this offer/program (and some also earn 2x miles on gas) then it will un-enroll that card from dining programs with the same backend system. This is a good deal if you prefer the miles over the cash discount.
Additional cents per gallon discounts are typically available for in-store purchases at Shell, as well as specific promotional items. I have had some fill-ups with discounts of over 60 cents. It’s hard to justify AA points.
This would appear to be an easy way to keep American miles from expiring, no?
Yep
Assuming probably not but…any chance this can stack with using Kroger fuel points to take the price per gallon down $1 (or in some places, as much as down $4.50 to under 10c)? If so that would be awesome to pay $0.09 per gallon (or even $1 off/gal) while earning 3 AAdvantage miles per gallon at the same time!!!
That won’t work unfortunately. When filling up it’ll ask you to choose Kroger or Fuel Rewards, so it won’t be stackable.
Thanks Stephen – yep that makes sense. In that case I’ll be sticking with Kroger then, as nearly-free gas >> 3 points per gallon earned
Where do you live??! In CO, I’ve only been able to get 10c off per gallon at Shell with my Kroger account.
Central Virginia – I’ve read it varies by geography where the limit might differ…here it’s up to $4.50 off…I know some other places where it’s up to $1.00 off… definitely a geographic-YMMV situation!