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Until the end of August, American Airline’s ‘AAdvantage’ loyalty programme is offering some chunky bonuses if you are interested in purchasing AA Miles. The bonuses are staggered, and at the top end you can pick up AAdvantage Miles for ~ 1.43p ($1.88 cents) each.

To get the Miles at that price though, you would have to purchase 235,000 (150,000 standard + 85,000 bonus Miles) for a fairly whopping ~ £3,370.00 ($4,425.00 USD).

85,000 bonus Miles works out as a 56.6% bonus on top of the 150,000 which isn’t bad at all, but it’s still a big investment! Fortunately, you can get very similar discounts for purchasing about half that amount.

The standard price for buying American AAdvantage Miles directly is about 2.24p (2.95 cents) per Mile, so by maxing out on this offer you can pick them up for ~1.43p each, a roughly a 36% discount.

I’ve crunched the numbers to show the maximum effective discounts for all the bonus tiers below, working on the assumption that you would be buying the minimum required to trigger the higher bonus each time.

• 15,000-29,000 + 3,000 Bonus = £360.00 for 18,000 Miles (15,000 + 3,000). So, 2p each or a 10.7% discount.
• 30,000-49,000 + 10,000 Bonus = £672.00 for 40,000 Miles (30,000 + 10,000). So, 1.68p each or a 25% discount.
• 50,000-74,000 + 22,500 Bonus = £1,120.00 for 72,500 Miles (50,000 + 22,500). So, 1.545p each or a 31% discount.
• 75,000-95,000 + 40,000 Bonus = £1,680 for 115,000 Miles (75,000 + 40,000). So, 1.46p each or a 34.8% discount.
• 100,000-149,000 + 55,000 Bonus = £2,240.00 for 155,000 Miles (100,000 + 55,000). So, 0.144p each or a 35.7% discount.
• 150,000 + 85,000 Bonus = £3,370.00 for 235,000 Miles (150,000 + 85,000). So, 1.43p each or a 36.16% discount

Good deal?

As I wrote yesterday when discussing the current SPG transfer bonus that AA is running – it really depends on a lot of different factors.

If you regularly pay cash for Business Class tickets anyway and don’t have a decent stock of AA Miles already, then by purchasing any of the amounts offering a 30%+ discount, you’re likely to come out quite far ahead, as long as you redeem the Miles sensibly.

Similarly, if you’re saving up to book Business of First Class for a special trip like a honeymoon, then this might be a good way to reduce the cost.

If you would never pay for Business/First or already have plenty of AA Miles, I’d give this one a miss!

It’s also worth pointing out that AA have ran more generous discounts in the past, so if you’re not in a hurry it might be worth waiting for a better deal.

If you do decide to take advantage of the purchase bonus, make sure you know exactly how many Miles you need, what the taxes/fees would be (usually very little when using AA Miles unless you redeem them for BA flights), and whether there is award availability for the dates you want (it’s usually best to use the BA website to check availability, unless you want to redeem on Etihad).