American Airlines Reduced Mileage Awards Sweet Spots
One of the more underutilized, or less known, perks of the American Airlines credit cards is the American Airlines reduced mileage awards calendar. American Airlines lists a whole bunch of airports in 3 month segments that are bookable for 1,000-7,500 miles less. The discount depends on which co-branded card you have and the distance flown. Let’s take a look at the program and some sweet spots on the current chart.
American Airlines Reduced Mileage Awards Program
The American Airlines reduced mileage awards program is a discount award system for American Airlines credit card holders. Depending on which cards you have you get 1,000-7,500 miles off round trip tickets. You can do one way flights for half the discount as well.
To be able to book the flights you need to find saver award availability to the destination airport or departure airport.
Which Cards Earn Provide A Discount?
Here is a list of the cards that receive a discount of 7,500 miles for flights over 500 miles or 2,000 miles for flights of less than 500 miles:
- CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard®
- CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Select MasterCard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite MasterCard®
- AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver World Elite MasterCard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard®
- AAdvantage® Aviator® Red MasterCard®
- AAdvantage® Aviator® Business MasterCard®
Here is a list of the cards that get a discount of 5,000 miles for flights of over 500 miles or 1,000 miles for flights of less than 500 miles:
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold MasterCard®
- AAdvantage® Aviator® Blue MasterCard®
American Airlines Reduced Mileage Awards Booking Process
Once you find the airport on the list you are interested in, and find a saver award, you have to call 800-882-8880 to book the discount flight. They will waive the phone fee since these are not bookable online.
Remember to have your discount code ready:
Link To Reduced Awards Page
August – September Award Sweet Spots
After taking a quick peak at the American Airlines reduced mileage awards calendar I found a couple of destinations of interest:
- Austin, TX – August, September – A cool bar scene with great live music. But it may be too hot for you to handle.
- Baltimore, MD – September – another option to hit up the Washington DC area or head to the Maryland shore for unlimited golf.
- Charleston, SC – August – A cool city with lots of charm.
- Cincinnati / Dayton, OH – Aug, Sept- Good for people based in the Cincinnati area where prices are always high.
- Cleveland, OH – Aug, Sept – A lot of miles and points people have this as their home airport.
- Colorado Springs, CO – Aug – A beautiful alternative to Denver. Be sure to check out their airplane restaurant.
- Daytona Beach, FL – August – One more beach trip before school starts up?
- Detroit, MI – August – Giving some hometown love. Hopefully I can take advantage as a departing airport.
- Fort Lauderdale, FL – August – Great beach vacation option.
- Fort Myers, FL – August – Hit up the beaches or Hyatt Regency Coconut Point.
- Gainesville, FL – Aug, Sept – Check out an early season Gators football game.
- Hartford, CT – Sept – Beautiful time to visit and some people say Connecticut has the best pizza out there.
- Hilton Head, SC – Aug, Sept – Golfers paradise!
- Knoxville, TN – Aug, Sept – check out the mountains or a football game.
- Madison, WI – Aug, Sept – A very cool college town set right on a lake.
- Myrtle Beach, SC – Aug, Sept – Always had a blast here as a kid.
- Nashville, TN – Aug, Sept – Check out the Honky Tonk scene.
- Nantucket, MA – Aug, Sept – The name says it all.
- New Orleans, LA – Aug – Nola baby!
- Orlando, FL – Aug – If you can brave the summer heat at the parks.
- Reno, NV – Aug, Sept – For the gamblers or anyone that wants to check out the beauty of Lake Tahoe.
- Richmond, VA – Aug, Sept – A beautiful area with lots of history.
- Roswell, NM – Aug, Sept – All the alien lovers out there!
- San Antonio, TX – Aug – Check out the amazing river walk area.
- San Francisco, CA -Aug, Sept – Hit up gorgeous bay area.
- Santa Barbara, CA – Aug, Sept – Alternative to LAX.
- West Palm Beach, FL – Aug, Sept – Another popular beach area.
The list is pretty extensive overall this time around so be sure to check it out.
Conclusion
I think many of us, myself included, forget about this amazing offer for American Airlines cardholders. Having to find saver awards makes it a tall task at times, and needing to call in to book the trip is a pain but I think the juice is worth the squeeze. Make sure you check online for saver award space before calling in and remember to have that discount code ready!
[…] Hat tip to MtM […]
Would love to hear someone’s experience with using this for a web special vs. main cabin award. I have a need to fly PHL to XNA and the web specials are 7.5 and main cabin is 12.5k. It would be awesome to fly there for 3,750 miles but it seems like it would most likely be 8,750–not as good a deal.
Also, I would assume main cabin inventory can be confirmed by T space listed in the details section of the AA site
I booked a round trip from SAN to CHO in May. Web special was 20k miles. The ticket I got with reduced saver awards was 17.5k. From talking to the rep the discount is off the base 25k (I assume that is called main cabin) and not off the web special award.
I always get confused about this topic with AA changing pricing so much. They have 20k from my airport to most airports in the US this spring. Are these eligible? This seems to be hard to use if you need to find a 25k flight (ie not a “web special” or another lesser price.
Unless they have changed things with their abandonment of their award chart I think it needs to be 25K flights. It does make it a lot more difficult than it used to be with their lack of normal saver awards now.
Do international itineraries work?
I am pretty sure it is just domestic flights.
Don’t be so sure Mark because last time I checked a trip to Vancouver, Canada or Toronto, Canada is considered as international flight.
[…] Hat tip to MtM […]
LEX and SDF when the races are on. Bests the heck out of cash tickets.
I bet cash prices get insane for sure.
Mark,
This is a good reminder. What if my wife has the credit card and I am an authorized user and also have a credit card. Am I eligible to take the miles from my account since I also have a credit card and listed? Or does it only have to be from my wife’s account?
I think since the card would be tied to her account they would take it from there. Don’t quote me on that though.
[…] Hat tip to MtM […]
Mark, is it possible to book the reduced award flight for a family? Thx
even with the cardholder flying?
Yes as long as you have the miles to cover it you should be able to book everyone on the reduced mileage awards. Miles must come from cardholders account though.
or no, because they are AA Web Special awards?
So, if I find award flights that are well over 500 miles each way to Corpus Christi for 10,000 miles RT, and I have the right credit card, will they really give me a discount of 7,500 miles – resulting in RT flights for 2,500 miles?
I would imagine they wouldn’t work if they are web specials since that is how AA has done it with partner bookings etc. But web specials are so new I can’t say for sure since I haven’t heard anything either way.
The short-term booking fee was eliminated earlier this month. No more $75 fee on bookings less than 21 days out.
Thanks Ben – missed that when updating this. Fixed!
Lansing. All month, every month.
Come to a MSU football/basketball game!