Now Get Up To 115,000 Bonus AA Miles When Buying Miles – 1.8 Cents Each

American Airlines has been running a promo for a while where you could get a bunch of bonus miles when you purchase miles. Now, ahead of the January 4 expiration date of the offer, they have hiked the ceiling even higher so that you can earn a total of 115,000 bonus miles when purchasing the limit of 150,000 miles. After the taxes and fees, it brings the per mile cost to 1.8 cents each – best price of AA miles ever! But, should you buy?

Now Get Up To 115,000 Bonus AA Miles When Buying Miles – 1.8 Cents Each

First things first – the elephant in the room when it comes to earning/purchasing AA miles is the looming date of March 22nd. That is the last day to redeem miles at the current award levels on the AA award chart before the devaluation strikes at premium cabin travel. In light of that, should you drop several thousands of dollars on AA miles right now?

Here are the details of this promo:

• To buy the maximum of 150,000 miles (and receive the 115,000 miles as a bonus for a total of 265,000 miles), you must spend $4,425 on miles. On top of that is the tax and excise fee for a total of $4,786.
• AAdvantage members must purchase at least 6,000 AAdvantage miles or more in a single transaction from the Buy or Gift Miles program by 11:59:59pm CT January 4, 2016, to be eligible to earn bonus miles.
• The applicable bonus miles are awarded to the recipient for Gift Miles transactions. The applicable bonus miles awarded are shown beside each mileage increment in the mileage selection drop-down box. Bonus miles earned do not count toward the annual limits.
• Transactions are nonrefundable and nonreversible
• The miles successfully purchased or transferred will post to the designated account immediately
• Each AAdvantage member is limited to purchasing or receiving in a calendar year, a combined total of no more than 150,000 AAdvantage miles
• Miles purchased through the Buy Miles program or received as a gift through the Gift Miles program count against this total
• The miles purchased with the Buy Miles program and received with the Gift Miles program do not count towards AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Executive Platinum or AAdvantage Million Miler^SM status qualification
• A confirmation email will be sent to the primary buyer/gifter and/or recipient, using the email address(es) associated with the AAdvantage account(s) and any additional email address provided
• AAdvantage accounts less than 30 days old are not permitted to Buy or Gift Miles.
• Miles are sold directly by AA which means that if you use a credit card that gives bonus miles for purchases with airlines, you will earn that bonus on the card as well
• Buy Miles Link

Is It Worth It?

To spend $4,700 on miles to redeem can be a risky proposition. I would only advise this if you already have a plan in mind and if you found space for your trip. Remember, you can put AAdvantage awards on hold for 5 days and miles purchased will post immediately. So, put your awards on hold before you buy to make sure you can get what you want!

What Can You Do?

You could fly on Etihad’s A380 in their Apartment 3 times if you purchase the max!

What can you do with that many miles?

• For 265,000 miles, that is one roundtrip in first class aboard Etihad’s A380 from JFK to Abu Dhabi (if you find award space) at 180,000 miles and then it still leaves you 85,000 miles. That is just 5,000 miles shy of another one-way on that route.
• It is also enough for almost 4 oneway trips aboard Cathay Pacific’s first class cabin to Asia 2. If you redeem for that, it would mean that you paid $1,200 for each oneway aboard Cathay Pacific First Class. You cannot buy it at that price! But, that is still $2,400 roundtrip!

Counting The Cost And Value

• If you redeem normally for economy, this is likely not for you unless your redemption values are at least 2.5 cents each per mile
• If you plan on purchasing business class fares, this is a great promo as it will likely give you that same trip in first class for the same price or even much less than business class would cost
• If you are unsure of your travel plans right now, this is likely not for you as availability on the great routes/flights will book up as time gets nearer for devaluation and you do not want to be stuck with this many miles at that cost!

However, if this is a great promo for you, go ahead and buy now and then buy again the 1st of the year to get the maximum! Since you can only purchase 150,000 miles per calendar year, you could do it now and on January 1-4 and get a total of 530,000 AA miles – but for $9,500.

Summary

I will not be a buyer as I picked up 100,000 AA miles last month for under $200 out of pocket, thanks to some great mileage run opportunities and trading Avios for AA miles with the deal I did. That is still a lot of money and I am still trying to plan what I will book before the devaluation. But, just because I won’t buy does not mean it is a bad deal! It will definitely work for some of you so plan it out! I like having options and AA has expanded options for people by raising the ceiling on their bonus offer.