If you have an American Airlines AAdvantage account, or are looking for a home for a large pile of hotel loyalty points you feel you may never use, this promotion may be of interest.
Until March 15th, American Airlines is offering a 25% bonus when you convert points from the following schemes:
Best Western (usually 5:1)
Choice Hotels (5:1)
Hilton (20:3)
Hyatt (5:2)
IHG (5:1)
Marriott (from 5:1)
Club Carlson (10:1)
Wyndham (5:1)
The missing one is Starwood Preferred Guest. This is a shame as Starwood has the most generous airline conversion rate of all at 1 : 1, or 1 : 1.25 if you convert in chunks of 20,000 SPG points. Melia, La Quinta and Langham are also not participating.
Marriott’s ‘hotel and air’ packages are also excluded – only straight transfers of Marriott Rewards points will get the bonus.
A 25% bonus is never enough to make a bad deal into a great deal, but if you had been thinking about topping up an American Airlines account then this is a decent option.
The conversion must be ‘initiated’ by midnight on March 15th – it doesn’t matter how long the miles take to reach AA.
Key uses of AA miles include NO FUEL SURCHARGES on transatlantic flights as long as you are on an AA or US Airways plane and their generous redemption rates (60,000 miles return in Business or 80,000 in First) from Europe to the Middle East on BA, Etihad or a oneworld airline.
Full details can be found on the American Airlines website here.
(Want to earn more hotel points? To see our complete list of promotions from the major chains, click here to visit our ‘Hotel Promos’ page or use the link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
About Head for Points
Indeed, AA miles can be pretty valuable:
AA – 80,000 miles + £93.31 – MEL(-SYD)-DXB-LHR-EDI in *F*, 60k in C
SQ – 80,750 miles + £437.16 – MEL-SIN-LHR [then need sep LHR-EDI – 4.5k + £17]
QR (via BA) – 140,000 miles + £205 – MEL-DOH-EDI
QF (via BA) – 100,000 miles + £359 – MEL-DXB-LHR-EDI
So AA are the lowest cost by far, both points and cash. You can see why all the US bloggers opt for travelling in F rather than C given the small incremental price difference!
Alan, we are planning a trip to Australia in probably 3 years to visit family. We usually holiday in the US and spend our Avios that way. If AA is one of the cheapest ways in terms of miles and charges then how do you collect AA miles in the UK. I only collect Avios via credit cards and shopping and not frequent flying. We would be looking at EDI – LHR- SIN (poss stayover for 3 days) on to MEL for say 3 days then to BNE then back from BNE to EDI with no stops. What would I need to collect in terms of miles and what is the best way to collect them in the UK.
Sadly there’s not many great options – I earned mine via AA credit card sign up (x2) and some IHG and other online shopping purchases. You obviously can also credit flights to them, potentially of more use with the reduced BA earnings in the future. If each person signed up for the CC they might get enough for redemptions – however the BIG caveat is that you’re planning a trip in 3 years and there’s likely to be at least one if not two AA devaluations before then, certainly one is imminent with the US merger. This makes it a much more unknown quantity (as is the case with any FF plan!).
AA’s now on holidaycheck.com. Have been earning 150 Air Berlin tbs per review (capped at 10 per month) but think AA rate is lower.
Click on share your experiences on home page for all partners. Useful German based site which asks for evidence (booking email) of hotel stays every ten or so reviews, so is a lot less made up than trip advisor often seems to be.
This is on my ‘to do’ list for an article this week!
Ok thanks Alan, think I will keep it simple and stick to Avios saving!
You can also earn AA miles by converting Amex points to SPG . I always wait for a SPG to AAdvantage bonus. During the last bonus period I trade 80000 MR for 40000 SPG which converted to 60000 AA instead of the normal 50000.
I value 60000 AA much more than 80000 Avios.
You can also collect AA via erewards ( search google for a 750 sign up bonus. In fact open a few with individual emails as when transfering erewards the name can be changed to keep depositing points into the same AA account) its surprising how quick you can accumulate a nice AA fund.
Thanks xcalc, I will bear that in mind – I already use e-rewards so will try that!
Ah great, thanks for clarifying that – I almost made mention of going via SPG but couldn’t remember if excluded or a rubbish transfer rate! Based on the indicative redemption costs I noted above at their present redemption levels AA miles are worth at least double Avios (in pure miles terms, let alone once you consider taxes!) so agree that seems a good transfer rate.
True, that is not a bad deal. Same with Lufthansa – my last LH First Class trip was part funded the same way, Amex to SPG to Miles & More.