No, this has nothing to do with the fact, that English is my second language! In my previous posts I mentioned that I value 1 mile at 1 cent. Any mile. Also, when I say “value”, it means , that is what I am willing to pay for it. Well, truth be told, while all miles are created equal in my eyes, some are more equal than others ! That is the case with AAdvantage miles.
For my family it’s essential to bring my parents over from Europe to visit grandkids on a regular basis. Not bringing them is simply not an option. In fact if I didn’t have miles, I would get a part-time job, so I could accomplish this. AAdvantage award chart allows one to fly from Europe to USA for only 40000 miles roundtrip from October 15-May 15 . That schedule works pretty well for my parents.
In addition, as an AAdvantage cardholder I get 10 percent of my miles back, so award price goes down to 36000 miles. That’s incredible! The routing is not always the best but Air Berlin, AA partner, more than makes up for it with its wide award seats availability. By comparison, United charges flat 60000 miles for the same type of award. Sure, the routing is a little better because of Lufthansa partnership, but not by leaps and bounds.
There is a tremendous value to be had when you use AAdvantage to fly from USA to Europe. That is because you can tack on one way ticket from Hawaii, Caribbean or another city in USA for 0 additional miles. I will do another post on this later.
Also AAdvantage award chart allows one to fly for 12500 one way within continental US or Canada. When you have a family like me, it’s incredibly important to have this option. In fact I would advise you avoid airline programs, that don’t let you redeem miles for 1 way ticket, if you have several people to think about.
Among traditional mileage programs AAdvantage is my favorite , hands down. Once again, this is what works for my family situation. So I guess I would be willing to pay a little more for AAdvantage mile, maybe 1.04 cents. I might even be willing to pay more than that, if I didn’t have a good stash already. But I don’t like to stock up on miles speculatively because of the ever looming threat of devaluation.
There is a very good offer currently available for Citi AAdvantage credit card. It gives 50000 miles after 3000 dollars spent in 3 months, annual fee waived. I don’t like to use the word “urgent”, but it literally could disappear at any moment. And when it does goes away, there is a good chance this card may never reach this sign-up bonus level again. I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so ( any “Monk” fans?)
As always, you have to have good credit and self-discipline, when it comes to getting new cards. Also I get no commission or any incentive from it if you apply. If you want to get more details, look in my “Best deals” page.
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
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