How To Earn 100k+ American Airlines Miles [In 90 Days]
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As the largest airline in the world, American Airlines carries passengers to more than 190 domestic and international destinations each year.
By joining American Airlines AAdvantage, the airline’s loyalty program, you can quickly earn miles that can then be redeemed for free travel and merchandise.
Best of all, by using the right strategies, it’s possible to earn as many as 100k+ miles in 90 days.
Once you know how to earn 100,000 American miles, check out some of the other best ways to earn more.
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Why Would You Want to Earn 100k Miles?
There’s no question that 100,000 is a TON of miles, but what can they really do for you.
Perhaps you have a specific trip in mind that you want to save up for… maybe you’ve been working hard and want to ensure you’re ready to book your next vacation… or you may want to fulfill a dream of flying the whole family first class to Paris!
Whatever your reason, the American AAdvantage program provides plenty of opportunities to earn miles! Let’s take a look at the options.
1. Sign up for American Airlines Credit Cards
One of the easiest ways to earn AAdvantage points is to sign up for a travel rewards credit card that partners with the program.
For instance, you can earn SPG points with the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express and then transfer them to AAdvantage miles on a 1:1 basis.
You’ll also receive a bonus of 5,000 miles for every 20,000 SPG points that you transfer to American Airlines (or any of SPG’s partners for that matter).
For example:
- Transfer 20k SPG points, receive 25k AA miles.
- Transfer 40k SPG points, receive 50k AA miles.
Pretty cool, huh?
| CREDIT CARD | CARD INFO |
|---|---|
| Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express |
|
Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express |
|
Hot Tip: You can use our transfer partner calculator to make these calculations for you!
You can also earn miles by signing up for multiple American Airlines credit cards. Sign-up bonuses for these cards typically range from 25k-50k points, with specials coming fairly regularly.
Remember, you will need to meet the minimum spend in the first 3 months before you can receive the sign-up bonus for most of these cards.
It can take up to 8-10 weeks after meeting the minimum spend requirements for the bonus miles to appear in your American AAdvantage account.
Here are some quick reviews of the American Airlines credit cards:
| CREDIT CARD | CARD INFO |
|---|---|
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard® | Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on American Airlines purchases. Earn 1 AAdvantage® mile for every $1 spent on other purchases. Annual Fee: $95 (Fee waived for the first 12 months) Our Review |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard® | Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases Annual Fee: $450. Our Review |
| CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Mastercard® | Earn 2 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 spent on purchases at telecommunications, car rental merchants and at gas stations. Annual Fee: $95 (Fee waived for the first 12 months) Our Review |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® | 1 AAdvantage® mile for every $1 spent on purchases. Annual Fee: $50 (Fee waived for the first 12 months) Our Review |
| AAdvantage® Aviator™ Red World Elite Mastercard® | Earn 2X miles on eligible American Airlines purchases Annual Fee: $95 |
2. Use the American AAdvantage Dining Program
Did you know you can earn miles for dining out? Sign up for the free American Airlines Dining Program and earn AAdvantage miles every time you eat at one of the over 11,000 participating restaurants and bars.
All you have to do is attach a credit card to your account and you will automatically earn bonus American miles when ever you dine at a partner restaurant. miles are added to your account in this program — up to 5 points per $1 spent, including tax and tip!
For instance, spend $1000 each month dining out and you’ll get up to 5,000 miles — for a total of 15,000 miles in only 3 months!
You can earn up to 5X points per dollar spent, including tax and tip! For instance, if you spend $1,000 each month dining out and you can earn up to 5,000 miles — that’s a potential 15,000 miles in only 3 months!
3. Take a Trip on American Airlines
With American Airlines’ current revenue-based system, you’ll earn American miles based on how much you pay for your ticket.
You’ll earn at least 5X miles per dollar spent, and even more with elite status:
- Gold (7X)
- Platinum (8X)
- Executive Platinum (11X)!
During a recent search, we found a one-way ticket for a main-cabin seat on American Airlines from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dallas (DFW) listed for $138.
For this flight, you would earn 690 miles. With elite status, you would earn 966 miles (Gold), 1,104 miles (Platinum), or 1,518 miles (Executive Platinum). Not bad!
You’ll even earn miles when you fly Oneworld partner airlines or non-alliance partner airlines. In most cases, the miles you will earn on partner airlines is based on a percentage of base miles plus a cabin bonus if applicable.
4. See a Show (American Airlines Audience Rewards)
Who doesn’t enjoy taking in a show during a night out? It’s possible to earn up to 2,200 American Airlines AAdvantage miles per ticket!
Just purchase tickets to participating productions in the Audience Rewards program to earn miles in this free program.
5. Change Television Providers
What does television have to do with frequent flyer miles?
Switch to a qualifying package from DIRECTV, and you’ll add 25,000 AAdvantage miles to your balance! There’s no need to buy equipment to get started, and you may be able to get premium channels free for 3 months.
Make sure the terms and conditions of your the switch make sense for you so you don’t end up spending more than you want.
Using Those 100k+ American Airlines AAdvantage Miles
Once the 100,000 American miles are in your AAdvantage account, you need to figure out how you want to use them.
Check out our guide for the best ways to redeem American miles. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
U.S. to French Polynesia: You can fly Air Tahiti Nui in economy class for 40,000 American miles or try out their business class product for 80,000 miles on your journey to French Polynesia.
Japan Airlines premium cabin: Experience luxury when you redeem 80,000 miles to fly first class to Japan on Japan Airlines. You can also try business class for 60,000 miles.
See our step by step guides for booking Japan Airlines first class and business class with American miles.
Short U.S. flights: Book a flight of 500 miles or less within the U.S. for only 7,500 miles each way in economy. If you prefer business class, you can redeem 15,000 miles.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s not too hard to earn 100,000 American miles. It might only take a couple of sign-up bonuses to get you there.
If you want some more fun ways to earn miles, there are even more options out there such as the American Airlines shopping program.
You can check out our 21 best ways to earn American miles if you want some more ideas so you can earn the miles for the trip of a lifetime!
I currently have a Citi AAdvantage, with renewal memberships fees soon due. If I were to close the account, how long would I have to wait until I can open a “new account” and earn all of the bonus miles for signing up for a new card? In other words, how long do I have to wait until I become a “new applicant”?
You’d have to wait at least 24 months.