Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Last chance for 15,000 American Airlines miles with a free credit card sign-up

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

A quick reminder that TOMORROW (Monday) is your last chance to apply for the American Airlines credit cards to benefit from the current 15,000 miles sign-up bonus.

Whilst a far cry from the amazing 35,000 miles they offered last year, this is still a very good offer for a free card.  I would expect the offer to drop back to the normal offer of 5,000 miles from Tuesday.

Here is the link to the application form.

The representative APR for the card is 17.9% variable.

The key facts of the card are discussed in my review. Here are the key points:

The cards are issued by MBNA, so if you already have the bmi, Virgin, Lufthansa, Etihad, Emirates or United cards it may impact your ability to get them

However, MBNA has a history of allowing you, if rejected, to still get them if you agree to reduce the credit limit on your existing cards

The cards come as an American Express and Visa double-pack, earning 1.5 miles per £1 on the Amex and 0.75 miles per £1 on the Visa

The cards are free.

The bonus is triggered as follows:

5,000 miles for the first purchase

10,000 miles when you spend £1,500 within 90 days

There is NO restriction that the spend must be on the American Express card. All of the qualifying spend can be made on the Visa card if you want.

MBNA does not like ‘churning’. If you have previously had the AA cards, you are unlikely to receive the bonus again. If you apply now, you will not be able to receive another bonus in the future, at least for a few years. You will be fine to apply for other MBNA cards, however.

In this old article about buying American Airlines miles, I mentioned some of the ‘sweet spot’ redemptions, such as Etihad flights from the UK to the Middle East for 30,000 miles one-way in business class.

On its own, 15,000 American Airlines miles is not enough to make it worthwhile starting an AA collection. However, if there was a redemption you liked the look of (perhaps an Etihad First Class Suite to the Middle East from London for just 40,000 miles) and you had a way of topping them up via a points purchase or a hotel points transfer, it might be worth a look.


How to earn American Airlines miles from UK credit cards

How to earn American Airlines miles from UK credit cards (April 2024)

American Airlines no longer has its own UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn American Airlines miles from a UK credit card

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to American Airlines miles at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 American Airlines miles per £1 spent on the card.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Comments (16)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • John says:

    This can all pay off. I got the 35k bonus last year, somehow accrued a 10k bonus at Christmas from the a scheme – not clear why but not complaining. With all the spending I had about 52k points so I topped up with spg miles I think and got another a card from mbna when there was no offer on for a further 5k. Which gave me 60k points which I’ve just redeemed for business return from uk to India on jet and qatar, having never flown on AA! And the taxes were just £240 or so, so the fuel surcharges are very low or none existent.

  • AndyGWP says:

    Not sure if this is common knowledge (or even if it is normal behaviour for these things!), but it appears that the surname on the credit card does not need to match the frequent flyer account surname (not sure if other factors are used tho!)

    • Dan says:

      I’m not sure how this is possible because there is no opportunity to enter your frequent flyer number during the sign up process. I have two AAdvantage accounts and it took me a while to get AA to change the posting of the miles from one AAdvantage account number to another.

  • Charlie says:

    I’m about to redeem on Cathay one way from HKG to LHR. we took advantage of the 35K bonus MBNA card last year, then the SPG card for another 25K bonus. Lots of little AA miles picked up along the way (including even the passport challenge on Facebook!) have built up too.

    The Aadvantage shopping site was useful for getting AA miles if buying non physical goods such as hotel stays and trial newspaper subscriptions.

    Interestingly the Cathay route I’m looking to redeem requires less AA miles than Avios or Virgin miles.

  • AndyGWP says:

    (side note… I got my points for the facebook “AA passport challenge” earlier this month)

    • pazza2000 says:

      I haven’t received mine now that you mention it, I actually credited a BA flight to AA specifically for this promotion also.

  • Redwood says:

    Looks like the bonus has already reverted to 5,000 miles as there is no mention of 15,000 miles on the AA website. Just 5,000 on your first purchase…

  • AviosNewbie says:

    Raffles, does AA allow transfer of miles and is there any limit? I used the 35k bonus offer last year, and managed another 25k miles through spends. I’m now thinking of applying for the card in my wife’s name to get the 15k miles. Can I then transfer her miles to my account?

    • Rob says:

      No I don’t think so.

      If anyone is off to Hawaii they are useful for 5k Hawaiian Airlines inter island redemptions.

      • Alan says:

        If this is a redemption ticket on Hawaiian and it gets you out of their hefty baggage charges ($15 each way for members of their programme, $25 each way for others) then this could be handy. Beware these extra fees though if it doesn’t! I bought the ticket direct with them and had to sign up to their programme or end up paying $10 each way in fees for crediting them to AA.

        • Dan says:

          We used AAdvantage to do a multi stop over in the USA including hawaii, LA, Chicago in both April last year and March this year (yes I know, Hawaii twice in 12 months is a lot!)……the best way to minimise Hawaiian Air (not AA) bag charges is to take out their free loyalty cards and then its half price. A small saving if you have 3 people flying.

          Also, yes, you can transfer miles between family members, but its costly. You are better off buying them a one way or return ticket yourself directly from your AAdvantage account.

          • Rob says:

            I passed on your bag tip to my mates whose parents are flying Hawaaian soon. He was both grateful and annoyed at how much money he has wasted himself paying their full bag fee!

          • Alan says:

            Yep, I mentioned this in a previous comment a week or so back – sadly it sounds like even on redemption bookings they charge a baggage fee. At $30 per bag each way it’s pretty hefty too. Signing up to their programme halves the fee bit then on cash tickets you don’t accrue any miles – clearly a way to save them having to pay AA for miles!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.