Earning American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

Note: Read the primer on Earning Miles if you have not already.

Credit Cards

The best way to earn AAdvantage miles is with any of the three Citi AAdvantage MasterCards listed below. SPG Starpoints can be useful too, but they are harder to accumulate in large quantities. You can view the current best offers for all of these cards at Credit Cards.

Credit Card	Minimum Signup Bonus / Spend / Time
Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard	50,000 miles / $3,000 / 3 months
Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard	75,000 miles / $7,500 / 3 months
CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard	50,000 miles / $3,000 / 3 months
American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card	25,000 SPG / $3,000 / 3 months
American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card	25,000 SPG / $5,000 / 3 months

Starpoints transfer to AAdvantage miles at a 1:1 ratio, but there is a 25% bonus if you transfer in increments of 20,000 points (i.e. you will receive 25,000 AAdvantage miles for 20,000 Starpoints).

Credit CArd Churning

The three Citi AAdvantage cards can be churned. For more information, see How To Earn A Signup Bonus Multiple Times.

Bonus Category Spending

CitiBusiness AAdvantage: 2x points on Gas, Telecommunications, and Car Rentals

Manufactured Spend

I don’t know of any ways to combine MS with the bonus categories above, so I don’t bother. Most of the miles I earn with American Airlines are from credit card signups.

Dining Rewards

American Airlines AAdvantage Dining.

Shopping Portal

American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping.

Miles Expiration

AAdvantage miles expire after 18 months of inactivity. Any mileage activity at all (e.g. earning and/or redeeming) will extend your expiration for another 18 months.