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This is just about as good as it gets for AA miles.
American Airlines puts their miles on sale just about every month. In fact, I can’t recall a month this year when they didn’t put them on sale. But now, they’ve put their sale miles on sale for Thanksgiving weekend and you’ve got a couple more days to take aadvantage of this sale inside of a sale. Personally, I wish that they would have done one more sale, and done a sale inside a sale inside a sale, and done a little co-brand with Chris Nolan’s Inception. A boy and his monkey can only wish… Let’s take a look at how you can drop almost $5k on American miles at roughly 1.77 cents a pop.
The sale is a sale inside a sale – netting an additional 20% bonus 
270k miles would cost you $4,786.88…1.77 cents per mile.
This provides some great opportunities to buy business class tickets: Assuming you can find avail.
US —-> Europe is 57,500 —–> $1019
US—–> Japan & Asia 1 is 60k —–> $1,063
US—–> Asia2 is 70k —–> $1,241
If you have a co-branded AA card that gives you 10% back it yields even better value
( Barclay Aviator Red, Citi Platinums, Citi Exec )
US —-> Europe is 57,500 —–> $1019 $917
US—–> Japan & Asia 1 is 60k —–> $1,063 $956
US—–> Asia2 is 70k —–> $1,241 $1117
Gary Leff has written an article where he illustrates a tax rule that allows you to get the taxes back on miles redeemed for foreign carriers. That would reduce the price per mile to 1.65 cents.
Assuming you have a co-branded card and haven’t exhausted the 10k annual maximum refund, you could fly Cathay Pacific business class for $1039 each way from the States to anywhere in Asia. That’s a great deal.
Interested? Go Here.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 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, 2024
- $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.
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