American Airlines Advantage is AA's frequent flyer collection scheme and I have to say that it is one of the best frequent flyer schemes that I have found in recent years; the only problem being that as I live and fly mainly out of Manchester in the UK the flights from this airport are limited to flights to Boston and Chicago.
How to register? Registration and monitoring of your account can all be done via the American Airlines UK website. This is a very quick registration process involving the usual name and address details. You are then sent a user name and password and away you go!
When you register you will receive 1,000 miles as a bonus and you can also gain additional miles for signing up for email alerts etc. making it quite satisfying to see you balance flying up quite quickly!
The site is easy to use and navigate and has a range of features that allows you to manage your Advantage account and any bookings that you may have made with the Airline.
Online tools include: Receiving
up-to-date offers in terms of collecting miles and also spending them.
Chasing any miles that may be missing from your account
Redeeming miles
Frequently Asked Questions
How many miles to…? To be honest we could be here all day if I started detailing the mileage needed to fly here there and everywhere! Generally, you can fly with the US for approx 20,000 AA miles and to fly internationally from the UK to the USA is about 40,000 for economy seats and the equivalent club seats being around 90,000.
The earlier you book, quite often the better the deal you will be able to secure but AA often have some great deals on last-minute flights and if you check their website often and also sign up for email alerts you will find out about the best prices to fly. Some of the deals are really great as well with internal US flights being as low as 12,000 miles per person round trip!
You also receive miles every time you fly (we received approximately 7,000 for flying economy to Boston from Manchester) and you also receive a 1,000 bonus for booking online.
Does it save you money?
Yes most definitely. I flew to Chicago last year for 40,000 miles as well as approximately £63.00 taxes that I had to pay on top. If I had paid for my flight then I would have had to pay approximately £300 plus taxes on top for the flight saving me a cool £300!
You can also use miles to upgrade i.e. if you purchase an economy seat then your mile scan be used to upgrade to club class and so on. The other good thing is that miles never expire so you can just keep building them up which is good news if you are planning a big or special trip!
Ways to earn miles that don't involve flying?
I am currently saving my AA miles for a trip to the US next year and I am hoping to fly Club Class which does mean collecting a staggering 90,000 miles and as I won't be able to clock up that many miles
You can earn miles by travelling on a host of other AirMiles including all One World partners such as British Airways, Aer Lingus and Qantas.
A range of partner hotels, car hire and credit cards as well as shopping opportunities also give a great way to earn extra miles. I won't go into details here but my favourite ways of earning additional miles being based in the UK are: Marriott Hotels (have miles credit from stays worldwide directly to you AA account) Citi Advantage card (bonus miles when you join and miles for every £ that you spend) Erewards (collect miens for completing online surveys) Sign up for AA email alerts (you will receive bonus offers for flying etc.) Miles are quite often sold on Ebay and some deals can be very expensive but occasionally there are some bargains to be found (mainly on the US Ebay rather than the UK site!)
A few miles short? Don't worry if you are miles short for a trip as you can purchase additional miles directly from AA up to a maximum of 40,000 miles per year. Buying 5000 miles for example will cost $137.50 plus $30.00 transaction fee (full details are available from AA)
You can also gift and shares miles with other people if you have friends or relatives who are saving miles. Transaction fee charges will be applicable.
Are there any other advantages? The real advantages with this programme start once you get to Gold and Platinum membership. There are no real perks just being a normal member other than collecting the miles and redeeming them and receiving special offers except that you may occasionally be offered an upgrade if purchasing a full economy fare ticket.
However, once you get to Gold status you can then enjoy perks including more regular upgrades (for example when you fly from Manchester to Boston) there is no club class however, club class seating is offered free of charge to Gold and Platinum elite members but non-elite members have to pay £100 per leg to book and these seats can only be reserved when you check-in at the airport!)
Additional Gold membership advantages: Business Class check-in and boarding regardless of class of travel. 25% mileage bonus for flights on American Airlines and airline partners. Discounted Admirals Club (American Airlines lounges; but there aren't any in the UK!!) memberships. Priority check-in, preferred seating and priority standby and waitlisting on any oneworld alliance airlines. Additional Platinum advantages: First Class check-in and boarding regardless of class of travel. 100% mileage bonus for flights on American Airlines and airline partners.
Booking? Booking using AA miles is just as simple and straight-forward as if you were booking flights and paying cash for them. You can either book via the AA website or by telephoning their customer services department. Using the online booking system is easy, just log in and then click the Advantage logo and follow the easy steps including selecting date of travel, number and details of persons travelling and you can even pre-book your seat. The payment for taxes etc should be via credit/debit card and you will then receive a confirmation 'E' ticket that you just print and take to the airport when you check in.
Downsides to the programme?
The only real disadvantages are that this is obviously a collection schemed that is biased towards people living in the United States as this is obviously an American Airline. The main two drawbacks are merely the reduced number of flights from the UK (this isn't so bad if you live near London) and also that the special offers and also collection opportunities are far less within the UK than in the US. Having said that however, if AA fly to your destination in the US and you have enough miles to fly for free then it's a great schema that works really well and is efficient and well administered as well as being easy to use!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We're rather spoilt for airports and airlines around here. Whilst a loyalty bonus sounds a great idea, I've not heard the best of reports about American Airlines. Richard.
Paul99ine 24.11.2005 15:59
This sounds pretty good, however at the moment I save and use airmiles. Pauline.
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Advantages: good service, excellent food, good frequent flyer programme Disadvantages: consider only the price, it's quite expensive than other airways.
Nov 22nd, 2005
very helpful by (100%):
