Uncategorized

Earning miles from an award ticket

a stuffed toy and a banana on a tray in a plane

We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.


Earning miles from an award ticket

It never hurts to add your frequent flier number to an award ticket. What do I mean exactly? Say you’re using British Airways Avios to fly on American Airlines. Your Avios number would normally be added and the benefits associated with that status would be reflected as well. But, what happens if you’re Executive Platinum on American? You want those benefits right? Well you can add that number to the ticket. Not only will you get those perks, but in the event that there is a schedule change or a computer glitch, you may even earn American Aadvantage miles from that award ticket. Pretty dope, right? I just benefitted from a computer glitch when I flew from Abu Dhabi through London to Nice, France and ended up earning miles from an award ticket booked with American Aadvantage.

I flew Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad’s Business Studio, then from London to Nice on British Airways in Club Europe. All booked with American miles.

This was all booked with points. I shouldn’t have earned anything from the booking, but lo and behold….I did. I not only earned redeemable miles, but EQM and EQD as well. Pretty sweet huh. Never hurts.

Earning miles from an award ticket

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

a blue credit card with blue lines and white text

Learn More

Affiliate Link

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
  • 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 2x on all other travel
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
  • Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
  • $95 Annual Fee

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex®  and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

5 Comments

  • […] Earning miles from an award ticket […]

  • Chris June 13, 2017

    Hey Miles! Just curious, you said you booked with AAdvantage, what program did you earn the miles in? And also was it due to schedule change or did your flight go as planned? I have an award hkg-lhr in business booked thru AAdvantage on American metal and would love to try to get Avios or even better the tier points for it.

    • Miles June 13, 2017

      Hey Chris – I actually earned the miles on AA – weird glitch. I have had it before where I booked with Avios, added my AA number, and earned AA off it. You can call into AA and change the Aadvantage number on the itinerary to your Executive Club number…earning miles off award tickets isn’t something that happens very often, but when it does, it’s worth the minimal effort. The bigger benefit is having your status then on the itinerary. For instance – If you’re OW Emerald, but you booked with Avios on AA, it won’t show up until your AA account is added, etc.

      • Chris June 13, 2017

        Thank you for the info on how to add my BA number, I always wondered how that was done. Speaking of glitches, I think I commented about being rebooked into Y during the BA fiasco and earning the corresponding tier points and Avios, well a couple days ago I received the Avios and tier points for the CDG-LHR leg that originally was my first segment (which was cancelled) before I got rebooked direct to BOS. Glitch or did I get credit because it was cancelled?

        • Miles June 13, 2017

          Yes, I remember! So my experience with BA is that when there is a schedule issue and you’re rebooked the fare bucket changes – this happened to me last year when I was crediting to AA and booked into I. They cancelled my flight and I was rebooked into J and earned the corresponding EQM, RDM. It also happened to me earlier this year on AA during a storm and I could voluntarily change my flight. Did so on the website and was bumped to a Y fare bucket.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.