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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here – Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express, Citi ThankYou Premier Card

On Saturday, we saw the return of an excellent transfer bonus: Now through November 15, you’ll get a 40% bonus when transferring American Express Membership Rewards to Aer Lingus Avios, British Airways Avios or Iberia Avios. This transfer bonus amplifies all kinds of sweet spots in the Avios award chart, and this week we’re diving into the best of these sweet spots. We started on Sunday by showing you how to fly to Ireland for 10,000 Amex points one-way (or 19,000 round-trip) and shared on Monday how you can fly to Europe in business class for 49,000 Amex points round-trip.

Today, let’s focus on how you can fly AA’s best international business class products domestically for just 11,000 Membership Rewards points in each direction.

In This Post

The Sweet Spot

Here’s how this sweet spot breaks down: American Airlines codes its “domestic first class” seats as business class. And it only costs 15,000 British Airways Avios for nonstop business class awards on flights less than 1,151 miles. But, it gets sweeter: AA sometimes flies its internationally-configured aircraft on domestic flights. Even sweeter: The 40% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios means you only have to transfer 11,000 MR points to BA to book these award flights.

Finding nonstop award availability can be tough on American Airlines flights, especially since AA made some annoying changes to how it releases award availability in late 2017. However, it’s far from impossible to find award space — and flights on these premium-heavy wide-body aircraft usually end up having more award availability than on domestic aircraft.

The problem is, the schedules for these internationally-configured aircraft on domestic routes vary from month to month. So, we here at The Points Guy dig into AA’s schedule regularly to unveil where you can find these excellent seats. With an eye toward just those routes that are 1,151 miles or less, let’s take a look at the routes where you can book some of AA’s best international business class seats for 11,000 Membership Rewards.

Routes

777-200: B/E Aerospace Super Diamond or Zodiac Concept D

AA’s Zodiac seats aren’t great by international standards but are excellent for a domestic flight.

American Airlines’ 777-200 is a bit complicated. While the seat maps look identical, there are actually two business-class seat options. While both are lie-flat, one is significantly more spacious and stable than the other. However, either one would be a huge improvement from standard domestic first-class products you’d find on other AAircraft. So, here are the domestic routes under 1,151 miles where you can currently fly the 777-200:

From To Flight # Depart Arrive Starting Ending Frequency
DFW MIA 1219 16:54 20:48 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
MIA DFW 2808 9:10 11:21 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
MIA DFW 2774 10:15 12:20 19-Sep 19-Sep One-off
MIA DFW 196 10:45 12:51 27-Oct 27-Oct One-off

Boeing 767-300

Business class on AA
Business class on AA’s 767.

While AA’s 767-300 business-class seat isn’t winning any awards internationally, the seat does lie flat, and it’s a huge upgrade from standard domestic first-class products. Here are the routes and flights:

From To Flight # Depart Arrive Starting Ending Frequency
JFK MIA 243 15:30 18:50 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
JFK MIA 1571 11:05 14:13 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
MIA JFK 1142 19:30 22:32 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
MIA JFK 1571 6:59 9:55 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
MIA PHL 376 15:35 18:30 5-Sep 3-Oct Daily
MIA PHL 1623 6:55 9:46 5-Sep 4-Oct Daily
MIA PHL 2570 13:52 16:45 5-Sep 31-Oct Daily
PHL MIA 1114 13:15 16:05 4-Oct 4-Oct One-off
PHL MIA 2571 15:35 18:45 1-Sep 3-Oct Daily
PHL MIA 2595 17:45 20:57 1-Sep 31-Oct Daily
PHL MIA 2665 10:45 13:48 1-Sep 3-Oct Daily

787-8: Zodiac Concept D

While it’s certainly not my favorite American Airlines business class product, the lie-flat seats up front on AA’s 787-8 are definitely worth booking over a standard domestic first class seat. And you can try it out at least daily between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD):

From To Flight # Depart Arrive Starting Ending Frequency
DFW ORD 7 11:00 13:25 1-Sep 3-Oct Daily
DFW ORD 1080 12:40 15:00 30-Oct 31-Oct Daily
DFW ORD 2520 18:30 20:55 1-Sep 31-Oct Daily
ORD DFW 328 5:15 7:33 1-Sep 31-Oct Daily
ORD DFW 2412 9:00 11:28 28-Oct 31-Oct Daily
ORD DFW 2429 15:05 17:26 1-Sep 3-Oct Daily

What About Award Availability?

American Airlines has become known for having AAtrocious AAward AAvailability on nonstop flights, but I’m finding a decent amount of award availability on some of these flights. The availability is helped by the sheer number of business-class seats on these aircraft. Remember to use the best techniques when searching to save yourself time and hassle.

For example, here’s one 777-200 flight from Dallas/Forth Worth (DFW) to Miami (MIA) with seven business-class award seats available. Even better, a hot dinner is served on the flight.

How to Book

Now that you know the routes, you might be wondering how to take advantage of this opportunity. Thankfully, we have step-by-step instructions on how to do so.

First, make sure that you find award availability before transferring points. Then, to transfer points, log in to your American Express account, navigate to the point transfer page and select “Transfer Points” under the British Airways Avios tile. In our experience, Amex Membership Rewards transfer to British Airways Executive Club instantaneously. You’ll want to transfer 11,000 MR points to get enough Avios for a one-way award.

Once the Avios are in your account, search for the award flight you found, select your flight option from the search results and then click “Continue” at the bottom. Read and agree to the terms on the next page, clicking “Continue” again to progress. On the next page, your personal information should be populated from your account profile. Update as needed and click “Continue” again. On the final page, complete your payment information to finalize the booking.

Remember to use a credit card with trip delay and baggage insurance protection. Top choices are the Citi Prestige ($500 per passenger for 6+ hour delay), the Chase Sapphire Reserve ($500 per ticket for 6+ hour or overnight delay), Chase Sapphire Preferred Card ($500 per ticket for 12+ hour or overnight delay) and the Citi ThankYou Premier Card (12+ hour delay).

Earning Points

Since this transfer bonus only runs for two months, the promotion is going to be best for those who already have Membership Rewards points in the bank. But if you don’t have points in your Amex account — or want to resupply after taking advantage of this deal — here are three great credit card welcome bonuses that are currently available:

Bottom Line

While it’s a lot more fun to fly these lie-flat business-class products overseas, it’s also nice to try them out on domestic routes. In addition to the extra space, I’ve found the food and drink to generally be better on these internationally configured aircraft. So if you’re flying between one of the cities above, check to see if you can try out one of these aircraft for yourself using just 11,000 Membership Rewards.

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More Things to Know
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  • $550 annual fee.
  • Terms Apply.
  • See Rates & Fees
Intro APR on Purchases
N/A
Regular APR
N/A
Annual Fee
$550
Balance Transfer Fee
See Terms
Recommended Credit
Excellent/Good
Terms and restrictions apply. See rates & fees.

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