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AA discounts purchased miles again: up to 85k bonus AA miles
American Airlines is at it again with yet another discount on purchased miles. The last time around was a sweeter deal with over 100k bonus miles after purchasing 150kAA. The first thing that comes to my mind when I see discounts one period after another is what’s going to happen after August 31st at 11:59:59 when this offer ends? Will the next promo be better or worse? Right now I have a huge bevvy of AA miles from aligning all my 2016 travel with them, and leftover from credit card bonuses, banking bonuses, etc so I’m not really in the market for buying miles. But, like I said when about the 100k bonus, if you need miles for a trip this could be a great opportunity to offset some cost. Let’s take a look at the new 85k bonus AA miles offer.
The Offer:
Here is the offer as laid out on aa.com As you can see it’s a tiered off like AA has done in the past, rewarding you with more bonus points the more that you spend. It’s also worth noting that taxes are applied to purchase price.
Maxing out the deal would set you back almost $4800. Roughly $0.02/mile
A note about the taxes
Hypothetically, if you decide to purchase miles for a trip to Asia and you’re redeeming those miles on partners of American like Japan Airlines or Cathay Pacific, you are entitled to claim the taxes paid for purchasing miles back on your tax return. An article by Gary Leff last year cites the IRS and says that the Federal Excise Tax imposed on these purchased miles aren’t applicable if the travel redeemed by the miles is on a foreign carrier. Something to consider as this would drop the price by $331.88 and lower the effective rate of points to 1.8 cents.
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.
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