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35% discount when you buy AAdvantage miles. Should you do it?
American Airlines sent out an offer to their AAdvantage members today that is seriously worth considering…up to 35% off when you purchase miles. Now, this is a tiered offer meaning the more buy, the greater the discount that is applied. Let’s take a look
At the lower level
While this isn’t a horrible value, it isn’t the best out there and one that I wouldn’t recommend unless you NEEDED the miles for a booking. With a $30 processing fee you’re talking 2.8 cents per point. Not great really.
How much is this going to cost me at the upper level…
$1917.50 for 100,000 miles + $30 processing fee means…1.95 cents per point?!
That’s a damn good deal considering you can fly roundtrip to Europe from North America for 100k miles in business class. Under 2 grand for roundtrip business is an outright steal if you ask me. Well worth buying points.
Be Mindful tho!
If you are considering buying a 100k miles for a future trip I would certainly make sure that those award tickets are currently available before buying this many points for this much money. I do think this a very good deal; however, points are an every fluctuating currency and the trend is towards devaluation. Just be aware of this if you decide to buy on spec without a definitive trip in mind that has availability
In Conclusion
If you need to just top up your account with a few thousand miles to reach a threshold balance for an award you were considering redeeming, this would be a good time to get a little more bang for the buck. If you know a trip you’d like to take and there is avail and you need the miles…GO FOR IT! Great Deal in the eyes of MonkeyMiles
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
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.