Ultimate Guide to American Airlines

Basic Economy

Basic economy (B), like all other airlines, is the cheapest but most restrictive fare class in American. Basic economy fares give you all the same onboard experience (service, seat type, and amenities) as a regular economy seat would. Paid basic economy does not earn AAdvantage miles or Loyalty points. International flights charge more for checked bags but give out free inflight meals.

• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, checked bag for fee (1st: $35, 2nd: $45, 3rd: $150 (US only)/$200, 4th-10th: $200)
• Boarding Group: Group 9
• Upgrades: Upgrades using cash or AAdvantage can be done anytime and to any fare class.
  *Elite status will not provide complimentary upgrades.
• Seat Selection: Seat selection at time of booking.
  *Elite status preferred seat selection benefits are ineligible.
• Mileage Earnings: Flights are ineligible to earn AAdvantage miles and million miler status miles.
• Same Day Changes: Elite status same day confirmed or same day standby changes benefits are ineligible.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All flights booked through American can be be cancelled for a fee of $99-$199. Changes are not allowed if flight originates in North America, but may be allowed for a fee in Europe, Africa, and certain other international markets. For flights originating within continental USA, the fee is $99 for paid reservations. For other North America flights, the fee is $129. For flights all originating elsewhere, the cancellation fee will be $199 for paid reservations or 19,900 AAdvantage miles for award tickets.

Main Cabin

Main Cabin (O,Q,N,S,G,V,M,L,K,H,Y) are American's regular economy fares. Fare class O or Q are the cheapest ticket price. If you see one of these, don't hesitate to buy! Basic economy fare buckets match main cabin ones, even if the fare codes all say B. As such, basic economy fares are also the cheapest when Main Cabin displays O or Q fare codes. Main Cabin Extra+ allows for selecting seats with more legroom (usually located at the front of the cabin or at exit rows). Main Plus adds an additional checked bag into the fare while Main Select allows for the fare to be fully refundable.

• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, checked bag for fee (1st: $35 (Main plus and Main Select are complimentary), 2nd: $45, 3rd: $150 (US only)/$200, 4th-10th: $200)
• Boarding Group: Group 6 (if a AAdvantage miles member) or 7/8 (if not a AAdvantage miles member)
• Seat Selection: Free seat selection for main cabin seating area. Some seats may cost a fee to select.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All award bookings can be cancelled or changed for free. For paid flights, changes only cost the fare difference while cancellations will refund the original cost in travel credit. Main Cabin Select refunds to original form of payment.

First Class

First class (A,F) is the premium cabin for most American's short haul international and domestic flights. The seats feature more legroom and recline than economy seats.

• Priority Privileges: Separate check-in line, expedited baggage arrival, exclusive security lines at select airports.
• Amenities: Blankets, water bottle at seat, Inflight alcohol, and wider selection of inflight snacks.
• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, 2 free 50 lbs checked bags. 3rd: $150, 4th-10th: $200
• Boarding Group:First (right after Concierge Key)
• Seat Selection: Free seat selection for all first class seating.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All award bookings can be cancelled or changed for free. For paid flights, changes only cost the fare difference while cancellations will refund the original cost in travel credit.

Premium Select

Premium select (P,W) is the premium economy product for Flagship American routes. These seats feature better recline and more legroom, much like first class.

• Priority Privileges: Separate check-in line, expedited baggage arrival, exclusive security lines at select airports.
• Amenities: Amenity kits, noise cancelling headphones, blankets, water bottle at seat, pre departure drink, and wider selection of inflight snacks.
• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, 2 free 50 lbs checked bags, 3rd: $150 (US only)/$200, 4th-10th: $200
• Boarding Group:Group 4
• Seat Selection: Free seat selection for all premium economy seating.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All award bookings can be cancelled or changed for free. For paid flights, changes only cost the fare difference while cancellations will refund the original cost in travel credit.

Business/Flagship Business

Flagship Business (I,R,D,C,J) is American's flagship lie-flat seat cabin. American Airlines business class is a similar branding. The only distinction between Flagship and non-Flagship is the ability to access the Flagship Lounges. There have also been reports of online booking showing the wrong kind of Flagship tag. A rule of thumb is that all flights out of North America are flagship while ones to Caribbeans may not. Like Premium Select, this cabin is reserved for most American's long haul international and premium domestic flights. Flights that are marketed as Flagship Business Plus come with everything on Flagship Business, but the seats are bigger and at the front of the cabin and include a third checked bag.

• Priority Privileges: Separate check-in line, expedited baggage arrival, exclusive security lines at select airports.
• Amenities: Amenity kits, noise cancelling headphones, blankets, water bottle at seat, pre departure drink, and wider selection of inflight snacks.
• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, 2 free 50 lbs checked bags, 3rd: $150 (US only)/$200 (Free for Flagship Business Plus), 4th-10th: $200
• Boarding Group:Business (right after first class)
• Seat Selection: Free seat selection for all Flagship Business seating, except Flagship Business Plus, which costs extra.
• Lounge Access: Access to Flagship lounges and Admirals Club for same day flights.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All award bookings can be cancelled or changed for free. For paid flights, changes only cost the fare difference while cancellations will refund the original cost in travel credit.

Flagship First

Flagship First (A,F) is American's top tier cabin. The seats have more space than Flagship Business and can access Oneworld Emerald lounges and the Chelsea lounge at JFK. The airline is moving towards a direction of phasing this cabin out.

• Flagship First Check-in: Separate check-in line only for first class
• Priority Privileges: Separate check-in line, expedited baggage arrival, exclusive security lines at select airports.
• Amenities: Amenity kits, noise cancelling headphones, blankets, water bottle at seat, pre departure drink, and wider selection of inflight snacks.
• Baggage Policy: 1 carry-on and 1 personal item, 3 free 50 lbs checked bags, 4th-10th: $200
• Boarding Group:First (right after Concierge Key)
• Seat Selection: Free seat selection for all Flagship First seating
• Lounge Access: Access to Flagship First and Business lounges and Admirals Club for same day flights.
• Change and Cancellation Policies:
• 24 Hour Risk-Free Cancellation: All flights booked through American (cash and AAdvantage miles) are eligible for a full refund or change (minus price difference) if cancelled within 24-hours of booking.
• After 24 Hours: All award bookings can be cancelled or changed for free. For paid flights, changes only cost the fare difference while cancellations will refund the original cost in travel credit.

American Flights

American has made AAdvantage miles accrual on their own metal and marketed flights very simple: just based off how much you spend and what elite status you are at. The notable exception are basic economy tickets, which earn no AAdvantage miles. The following is the calculation of AAdvantage miles accrued on each flight:

Partner Flights

Flights marketed and operated by partner airlines earn AAdvantage miles based on the cabin class and the number of miles flown. American Partners are not limited to OneWorld alliance partners.

• Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines
• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• China Southern Airlines
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• GOL Airlines
• Iberia
• IndiGo
• Japan Airlines
• JetSMART
• LEVEL
• Malaysia Airlines
• Oman Air
• Porter Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• SriLankan Airlines

Transfer Partners

Citi ThankYou Rewards: 1 ThankYou Rewards point to 1 AAdvantage miles This is actually one of the top uses of ThankYou Rewards, given the value of AA miles on partner flights.

Marriott Bonvoy: 3 Bonvoy points to 1 AAdvantage miles. Generally discouraged to transfer because of the poor transfer ratio.

Bask Bank

Bask Bank has a special relationship with American Airlines. Instead of earning interest in a savings account, Bask Bank allows for the opportunity to earn 2 AAdvantage miles per dollar saved annually. Given the current interest rates, I would not recommend it until interest rates for savings accounts drop below 2.6%. My number to buy AAdvantage miles is at 1.3 cents per point.

Everyday Partners

There is only 1 notable everyday partner, Shells. Link your AAdvantage account to Shells here an earn 3 miles per gallon of fuel.

American Affiliate Portals

AAdvantage Hotels: Earn AAdvantage miles and loyalty points for spend on base hotel rates booked through AAdvantage Hotels.

AAdvantage Vacations: Earn 1x miles and loyalty point per dollar (2x for AAvantage card holders) when booking through AAdvantage Vacations.

AAdvantage Experiences: Earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points (2x for AAvantage card holders) when booking through AAdvantage Experiences.

AAdvantage Dining: Earn 5x AAdvantage miles per dollar when purchasing from participating restaurants in AAdvantage miles Dining while using a credit linked to the dining portal.

AAdvantage Shopping: Earn AAdvantage miles when purchasing items through AAdvantage eShopping. SimplyMiles: Earn AAdvantage miles when purchasing items with a Mastercard linked to SimplyMiles. Would highly recommend if the card is not linked to another shopping portal.

Other Methods/Partners

For other ways to earn AAdvantage miles and more partners, visit AAdvantage miles partners.

American Flight

US carriers have one of the best online user interfaces for booking award flights. American, for instance, just requires you to check a box that says "Redeem Miles" when searching for flights.

An award calendar when selecting "Calendar" that is right next to the weekly date award bar. This will allow you to look at awards with a monthly view.

These flights are dynamic in value and even economy awards can sometimes get good value. There are 2 things that make redemptions on AA even greater:

1. Fuel Surcharges: American does not pass on fuel charges to your award ticket. This is most important for when traveling internationally, as other carriers tend to pass on fuel surcharges.
2. Free Changes and Cancellation: Probably the best thing about American awards is the ability to freely change and cancel tickets if not in Basic Economy. This allows for a lot of flexibility to book backup flights with.

Partner Flight

American has a wide selection of partners that AAdvantage miles can be redeemed. The best way to redeem AAdvantage miles for outsized value is to redeem on partner flights that don't originate or end in the United States or Canada. That is because American has a great partner award chart for those flights.

To summarize the article, some of the sweetspots include North American to Asia business class for 60,000 AAdvantage miles, Middle East to Asia for 40,000 miles in business and 50,000 miles in first, and North America to Maldives in business for 70,000 miles.

• Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines
• Aer Lingus
• Air Tahiti Nui
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• GOL Airlines
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• SriLankan Airlines

Hyatt Free Night Awards

After reaching a certain Loyalty Point threshold, unlock the ability to redeem AAdvantage miles for Hyatt free night awards. Since the amount of AAdvantage miles required is so high, this is highly discouraged. Currently, Hyatt category 4 awards have a maximum pricing of 18,000 points and category 7 at 35,000 points. This would be exchanging 1 AA mile for a maximum of 0.72 Hyatt points category 4 or 0.58 Hyatt points category 7. Both of these redemption rates are poor for AA miles.

• 40,000 LPs: Redeem 25,000 AAdvantage miles for a category 1-4 Hyatt Free Night Award
• 125,000 LPs: Redeem 60,000 AAdvantage miles for a category 1-7 Hyatt Free Night Award

Fixed Point Costs

American has a few options that AAdvantage miles cost are directly tied to the cash price:

• Admiral's Club Membership: Buy Admiral's Club membership for the year at 70,000 AAdvantage miles (1.21 cents per point).
• Admiral's Club Day Pass: Buy Admiral's Club membership for the year at 70,000 AAdvantage miles (1.21 cents per point).
• American Vacations: Book American vacation packages (flight + hotel, or flight + car rental).

Other Options

For more information, visit American's website.

AAdvantage Requirements

American has 4 tiers of status for their AAdvantage members.

Loyalty Points are American's metric for how valuable a member is. Below are the ways to earn loyalty points with American:

• All Flights: 1 loyalty point per 1 mile earned (base miles for partner flights).
• Credit Cards: 1 loyalty points per dollar spent on any Citi American Airlines card. In addition, Citi AAdvantage Executive card earns an additional 10,000 loyalty points after earn both the 50,000 and 90,000 loyalty point for a total of 20,000 loyalty points once you reach 90,000 loyalty points each year.
• Promotions: American may run promotions to earn additional loyalty points.

AAdvantage Benefits

The list below are the benefits that all medallion members have. I have ranked the list in order of which perk I find to be the most valuable benefit.

• Additional free checked bags
• Complimentary Main Cabin Extra Selection
• Complimentary Preferred Seat Selection
• Complimentary Companion Upgrades
• Priority Check In
• Priority Waitlist Status
• Luggage Tags

The chart below summarizes the benefits that differ for each tier:

Milestone Rewards

For certain loyalty thresholds, earn additional rewards. Unlike other airlines, AA milestone rewards also impact benefits attainable with their partners such as Avis and Hyatt. They go really high, rewarding the high spenders that can reach those thresholds.

Rewards that I find exciting:

• 15,000 LPs: Coming Soon: 2 inflight food and beverage coupons on flights where service is offered
• 100,000 LPs: Automatic Hyatt Discoverist and Avis President Circle's Club
• 175,000/250,000 LPs: 2 Systemwide Upgrades
• 400,000/550,000/750,000 LPs: Hyatt category 1-4 Free Night Award, Gift AAdvantage Platinum Status
• 400,000 LPs: Multiple Systemwide Upgrades, Hyatt category 1-7 Free Night Award, Gift AAdvantage Platinum ProStatus

Status Match

American offers status matches to other airline elites. Publicly eligible airlines include:

• Southwest
• JetBlue
• Delta Airlines
• United Airlines

The requirements are a reduced number of loyalty points threshold to reach within 90 days for the corresponding elite status. Airlines not listed on there could also be worth a try to match, since data points point to a high success rates for matching from a foreign airline.

Million Miler

For every 1 million miles flown, American awards lifetime elite status. American counts miles flown on American and partner operated flights (excluding basic economy) booked cash. Unfortunately, American Airline's million miler, as the first million miles only gives the lowest status, unlike Delta, United, and Alaska who offer the second lowest status, one eligible for lounge access. For each million miles reached after and include 2 million miles, receive 4 system wide upgrades. Each threshold Million miler thresholds are as follows:

• Gold - 1 million miles and 35,000 miles
• Platinum - 2 million miles
• Platinum Pro - 4 million miles
• Executive Platinum - 5 million miles

Citi American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp

A notable exception to the Miles up card is the presence of foreign transaction fee. Unlike other $0 annual fee airline credit cards, this card has foreign transaction fees that disincentivizes booking foreign flights using the card.

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Citi Business AAdvantage Platinum Select

For a $0 introductory annual fee before $95 on renewal, you can test drive the card. This card's main benefit is the free checked bags as well as the ability to earn loyalty points for every dollar spent. For high spenders that care about AA status but not Admiral's Club access, this is the card to go.

Citi AAdvantage Globe

To be honest, this is the weakest card of the lineup. The coupons are incredibly limiting, with monthly restrictions for purchases that are typically made yearly. The card comes with 4 Admirals Club passes which also come with the Citi Strata Elite card. At least the Strata Elite has competitive multipliers and priority pass. This card does come with a 10,000 loyalty point bonus after completing 4 AA flights. Could be worth it for more loyalty points.

Citi AAdvantage Executive

The flagship card of the lineup is the Citi AAdvantage Executive card. The card comes with a few annoying coupons but the flagship perk is the Admiral's Club acces that comes with the card. The Club access allows for entry into not only Admiral's Club, but also Alaska Airline and Qantas airline lounges when flying on Oneworld airlines.