American Airlines Aadvantage Card Miles Lifesaver

Murphy_The_Cat

One of the nice things about flying American Airlines, is enrolling for the Aadvantage frequent flyer programme and watching the mile QUICKLY stack up.

Sadly, with an 18month expiry time limit on using your miles, it is very easy to lose out on your "free" flights, due to a lack of activity of 18months or more.

Well, good news is here, because under the AAdvantage eShopping programme you can now earn points from shopping at UK retailers (you've been able to do this in America for yonks), so not only will you be able to keep your miles "live", you can add to them as well.

For me, this new scheme has potentially saved me over a grand :j:j:j:j, OR, made the difference in taking a trip to the States or missing out

blindman

Or you could sign up and receive 5000 miles with the CitBank AAdvantage Visa card.
They also were running a reduced mileage scheme this year

You can travel for just 30,000 AAdvantage miles to the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean - over 200 destinations on American Airlines.

Hope they do the same for next year.

1. Get 5K miles just for signing up-no spend required.
2. Spend for less than 1 year then cancel (the Annual Fee of £25 is waived for the first year) I usually keep the card for 2-3 months

Repeat 1.

MTC
Have you actually received AAdvantage miles through shopping with the stores?

Bmi started a scheme a few months back and it was a total disaster. Admittedly it was their first venture into this kind of miles earning.

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

Or you could sign up and receive 5000 miles with the CitBank AAdvantage Visa card.

MTC
Have you actually received AAdvantage miles through shopping with the stores?

Bmi started a scheme a few months back and it was a total disaster. Admittedly it was their first venture into this kind of miles earning.

The credit card thing woule be OK for myself, or Mrs Cat (we've both done it previously), but its of no use for my children !

With the wide range of stores who are in the scheme, buying a CD/DVD from Play (for example) will be enough to keep my miles live.

I haven't made a purchase yet (but in about 30 minutes, I will have done :j) and I'll let you know how I get on. On the link that AA provide, they stress that you must use the link that they provide and that you need to allow 8 weeks for miles to appear. I got all excited when I saw that Tescos is on the list, then less excited when I saw the exclusions.

blindman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I haven't made a purchase yet (but in about 30 minutes, I will have done :j) and I'll let you know how I get on. On the link that AA provide, they stress that you must use the link that they provide and that you need to allow 8 weeks for miles to appear. I got all excited when I saw that Tescos is on the list, then less excited when I saw the exclusions.

Here's the link for the thread about the bmi promo. It began in May and the relevant miles etc have just (6 months later :eek:) posted on my account. Loads of people had problems and we had to email a bmi staff regular to sort it all out. :rolleyes:

If it works it will be another way of keeping the miles alive without actually flying

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

If it works it will be another way of keeping the miles alive without actually flying

Thats the clincher, isn't it ? As AA don't have "free miles" promotions that often (& especially ones taht you can use more than once )

bairn7

Murphy,

Can you help me understand this!? The AA website is no help at all. I have 13000 miles from a trip last year. Going away in the summer 2009 so should have just over another 13000 miles and then if I am accepted for the AA Citi card I'll get another 5000 miles plus what I spend on the card.

My AAdvantage account says that the miles are deferred expiry through to Jan 2010. The current rate for a return flight (off peak) to the US is 40000 miles. so I would be about 9,000 short (which hopefully my CC use would make a good dent into!). So my questions are:

1. Do I have to fly by January 2010 for my miles to work or do I just have to book by then?

2. Do the miles cover the complete cost (including taxes etc) of the flight?

3. Could the flight be to anywhere in the US for 40000 miles (I would presume that NY, say, would be less miles than Vegas.

I'm a bit confused by all of this so would appreciate your help!!

Thanks
bairn7

blindman

bairn7 wrote: »

Murphy,

Can you help me understand this!? The AA website is no help at all. I have 13000 miles from a trip last year. Going away in the summer 2009 so should have just over another 13000 miles and then if I am accepted for the AA Citi card I'll get another 5000 miles plus what I spend on the card.

My AAdvantage account says that the miles are deferred expiry through to Jan 2010. The current rate for a return flight (off peak) to the US is 40000 miles. so I would be about 9,000 short (which hopefully my CC use would make a good dent into!). So my questions are:

1. Do I have to fly by January 2010 for my miles to work or do I just have to book by then?
AFAIK you have to book by then
2. Do the miles cover the complete cost (including taxes etc) of the flight?
Taxes are extra, but are lower than other carriers from UK
3. Could the flight be to anywhere in the US for 40000 miles (I would presume that NY, say, would be less miles than Vegas.
40,000 miles can get you to Hawaii or Alaska!
I'm a bit confused by all of this so would appreciate your help!!

Thanks
bairn7

Flyertalk has some useful info

bairn7

Oh don't say that blindman...the decision of where to go is hard enough as it is lol!

Thanks for the help! :beer:

Murphy_The_Cat

As blindman says ^^^^^^

It really can be a VERY generous scheme.

Here is the full list of UK retailers who will give you Airmiles for buying with them.
IMO, this is is a very decent list and with some planning and careful purchasing (with your citicard ???), you could rack up some serious mileage.

Alibris
Alienware
Allposters.co.uk
Ancestry.co.uk
Apple Store GB
AVON
Bags Direct
Benefit
Bhs
Blacks
Blackwell
Blockbuster
Blooming Marvellous
Blue Nile
Boden
The Body Shop
Boots Kitchen Appliances
Borders
Bose
Brown Bag Clothing
BT Shop
BT Total Broadband
Burton
buyagift
BuyCosmetics
Cameras2u
Cath Kidston
CD WOW!
Charles Tyrwhitt
Co-op Electrical Shop
Comet
Cotswold Company
Currys i-shop
Dell GB
Direct Cosmetics
Dixons
DIYtools
DRESS-FOR-LESS
Early Learning Centre
easyCar.com
easyVan
eBags
Eden4flowers.co.uk
Electrical123
Empire Direct
Ernest Jones
euroffice
Everything But The Music.com
Exhilaration
Firebox
FLEUROP
Forzieri
FranklinCovey Europe
Furniture123
GAME
Gameplay
GearZone.co.uk
Genes Reunited
Get Lenses
Glam Outlet
GLTC - Great Little Trading Co.
GoldSmith
Greenfingers
H. Samuel
Halfords
Hamleys
Heals
Healthy Direct
Hewlett-Packard
hmv.com
Holland and Barrett
HomeBase
Hotel Chocolat
House of Fraser
The Hut
I Want One of Those
iTunes
JD Sports
Jessops
John Lewis.com
Kitbag.com
Knickerbox
Kodak Shop
L'Occitane
La Redoute
La Senza
Lands' End
Laura Ashley
LEGO
Letterbox
The Link
Links of London
LOVEFiLM
MacWarehouse
Maplin Electronics Ltd
Marks & Spencer
Micro Direct
Misco
Montage
Mothercare
Musicroom.com
Newitts
Newsweek Europe
Nike iD
Northern Tool & Equipment
Oddbins
OfficeGiant
Online Golf
PALM STORE
PC World
Pet SuperMarket
PetPlanet
Play.com
Pure Collection
QVC
Red Save
Robert Dyas
Route One
Ryman
Sainsburys Kitchen Appliances
Scotts of Stow
Sendit
Shoe-shop.com
Shoes Direct
Shudoo.co.uk
SkinStore
Snapfish
Sock Shop
Sound and Vision
The Sports HQ
SportsDirect
SweatyBetty
Tesco.com
Thomas Pink
Tooled Up
ToysRUs
Unicef Shop
Viking Direct
Vision Direct
Vitamins Direct
The Wall Street Journal Europe
Waterstone's
The White Company
Whittard Of Chelsea
WildDay.com
Woolworths

bairn7

doh! I've just bought pressies from H Samuel that would have given me over 1000 miles!!! I hope they'll give me a refund so I can book through AA before Xmas lol!

Thanks Murphy

Murphy_The_Cat

blindman wrote: »

MTC
Have you actually received AAdvantage miles through shopping with the stores?

Bmi started a scheme a few months back and it was a total disaster. Admittedly it was their first venture into this kind of miles earning.

Well after monitoring my purchasing via Aadvantage links I can give you the good news that YES, in MOST cases the miles show up. Its not instant (4-6 weeks seems to be the going rate), but it does work - the miles are there.

For the Cat Family, its meat that we have been able to keep 3 sets of miles 'live' which will give a free flights to the States OffPeak, next year. Sadly, we won't be able to earn enough miles to get MTK2 along as a freebie, but we are able to keep her miles 'live' as well.

I'm as chuffed as Mr Chuffed, who got a job as a Chuffer for Chuffers Ltd, based at Chuffington.