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.
Book discount AA award tickets with Reduced Mileage Awards
American Airlines gives cardholders of their co-branded Citi and Barclay credit cards an exclusive opportunity to book Aadvantage award tickets at reduced rates. Every two months, AA releases a list of airports that qualify and allows you to book discount AA award tickets with reduced mileage awards. Depending on the credit card that you hold and the distance of the flight flown you can earn a roundtrip discount anywhere from 1000 to 7500 AA miles. Valuing AA miles at just a $0.015, using this benefit will save you $100 in value. That’s a great deal.
Which cards qualify?
These cannot be booked online:
You need to call into AA to book these tickets and the normal phone booking fees are waived.
-
Call American Airlines Reservations at 1-800-882-8880 (reservation service charge waived)
-
Book through a travel center ($35 for travel within the U.S. and $45 for international travel)
These charges will be waived for Executive Platinum elite members using miles from their account.
As long as one city is listed you’re good to go
If you want to fly to LAX or out of LAX and LAX isn’t listed as a city, it doesn’t matter. Just one of your cities has to be listed. I’ve used this exclusively for flights to Indiana when IND is listed as a qualifying city. I’ve had a couple phone reps say that LAX isn’t listed and therefore couldn’t book it, and I’ve had to kindly remind them that as long as one city is listed then the flight should be bookable.
Another issue that comes up is some phone agents will say that these need to be booked to a listed destination rather than just between ( or from ):
Reduced mileage awards offer eligible AAdvantage® cardmembers a discount when redeeming American Airlines AAdvantage® miles for one-way or roundtrip MileSAAver awards to select destinations.
If you run into an rep that insists on this interpretation just say “oh my gosh, I didn’t realize that,” hang up and call again. You’ll find one that will book it.
Here is the list of codes to give the phone rep: One way/Roundtrip
Usually with award ticket there is no need to book roundtrip tickets. I almost always book two one way tickets in case I want to move my trip around, etc. However, it can be advantageous to book these as a roundtrip booking to avoid paying two phone fees.
The list of airports is so long it’s easier to just link to the AA website
When you’re ready, call: 1-800-882-8880
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.