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American Airlines Extends Bonus Miles for Business & First Class Flights
JT Genter
Contributor
JT is a location-independent digital nomad traveling 250,000+ miles each year with his wife Katie.
Jan. 08, 2016
•
4 min read
American Airlines Extends Bonus Miles for Business & First Class Flights
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In 2015, American Airlines rolled out a program to incentivize business and first class travel by offering between 250-12,000 bonus points per segment. Good news! AA has extended the program into 2016 and will keep it in place "until the changes to earning award miles go into effect in the second half of 2016" — the exact date of which still hasn't been announced.
Earning Rates
This offer is best for AA Executive Platinum elites, who'll earn between 500-12,000 bonus points per segment — depending on the fare class and length of flight. Meanwhile, AA Platinum, Gold and general members are all treated the same for this promo, earning between 250-6,000 bonus points per segment.
The largest bonus is for AA Executive Platinum members booked into F, A, P, J, R or D fare class on flights over 3,000 miles (JFK-SFO and JFK-LAX are specifically included). Each of these segments will earn 12,000 bonus miles, which equates to $204 in value based on TPG's current valuation of 1.7 cents per mile. If you're not "ExPlat," these segments will each earn 6,000 bonus miles (worth ~$102).
Benefits
- These bonus miles are in addition to the base miles, class of service bonus miles and elite status bonus miles you'd otherwise earn.
- No registration is necessary for this promotion. American Airlines will automatically credit you these bonus miles after you fly.
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Limitations
- You must book into first or business class; upgrades into first/business class don't earn bonus miles.
- The flight must be an American Airlines-marketed flights, which means you should make sure the flight is sold as an AA flight number.
- In addition, the flight must be operated by American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines or Qantas to qualify for the bonus.
- As can be expected, bonus miles don't count toward elite status qualification or AAdvantage Million Miler status.
Example itinerary
Right now, you can book New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Dallas (DFW) for $398 round-trip in first class. This flight books into P class and the distance between these airports is 1,389 miles. So, it counts as a short/medium flight earning the larger bonus. Flyers would get a 500-mile bonus for each leg — or 1,000-mile bonus for Executive Platinum elites.
Let's break down the earnings:
| Standard | Gold | Platinum | ExPlat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Base Miles | 1,389 | 1,389 | 1,389 | 1,389 |
Class of Service Bonus | 695 | 695 | 695 | 695 |
Elite Bonus | -- | 347 | 1,389 | 1,389 |
Additional Bonus Miles | 500 | 500 | 500 | 1,000 |
One-way Miles | 2,584 | 2,931 | 3,973 | 4,473 |
Round-trip Miles | 5,167 | 5,862 | 7,945 | 8,945 |
Value of Miles | $ 87.84 | $ 99.65 | $ 135.07 | $ 152.07 |
While this is no mileage-run material, you can see that you can get a significant number of miles from the class of service bonus and this extended first & business class bonus.
Will this incentivize you to book upcoming travel in American Airlines first or business class?
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- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month