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American Airlines is offering a hefty amount of bonus miles for donations to Stand Up to Cancer, a non-profit organization whose mission is to stamp out cancer worldwide.
While donating to this charity is certainly a worthy cause on its own, being awarded bonus miles with the purchase of a donation makes the offer even better.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Stand Up to Cancer contributes to research projects that aim to eliminate cancer.
American Airlines has partnered with the organization for several years. In fact, the airline wrapped one of its jets in the names of people who lost their lives to cancer — a project that thousands of people worldwide participated in.
There are 2 ways to earn increased bonus miles by donating.
If you do not hold an AAdvantage Mastercard credit card, you’re eligible to earn 25 American Airlines AAdvantage miles per dollar that you donate with no cap.
For example, a $1,000 donation would earn you 25,000 miles. While 25,000 miles can get you a domestic first class award ticket at saver rates, you can often find cash fares for around $500 for a one-way cross-country flight in first class.
However, donating to a cause such as this is very admirable on its own, so earning 25 miles per dollar spent on a donation is certainly a welcome bonus when participating in a great cause.
Hot Tip: Bonus miles earned from the Stand Up to Cancer promotion do not also earn Loyalty Points.
If you hold an AAdvantage co-branded Mastercard product, you’re eligible to earn 50 miles per dollar, as long as you donate a minimum of $25 and a maximum of $10,000. Assuming you maximize this offer and donate $10,000, you’d receive 500,000 bonus miles. While that’s certainly a lot of money, the redemption opportunities may be worth far more than the cost of the donation.
Take, for example, a one-way ticket from the U.S. to Australia in business class. This ticket typically costs 80,000 AAdvantage miles in business class, but can easily run north of $3,000 one-way (and often much more) if you were to pay cash.
Assuming you’re able to do 5 one-way trips on your miles, you might be able to get $15,000 of value from your tickets. Of course, you’d have to outlay a lot of cash to benefit, in addition to finding the award space required to maximize a stash of miles like this, but this offer is certainly better than the one for those who don’t have a co-branded credit card.
Hot Tip: Check out our full guide on redeeming American Airlines AAdvantage miles for maximum value!
If you’re in need of topping up your AAdvantage account with additional miles, now might be the time to do so while supporting a worthy cause. Note that this offer ends on September 30, 2023.
When you donate to Stand Up to Cancer, you’ll receive either 25 or 50 miles per dollar, depending on if you hold an eligible American Airlines credit card. You might want to consider this offer if you’ve been wanting to add to your mileage balance or purchase an award you’ve been eyeing.
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James (Jamie) started The Forward Cabin blog to educate readers about points, miles, and loyalty programs. He’s spoken at Princeton University and The New York Times Travel Show and has been quoted in dozens of travel publications.
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5 comments
Sean
August 04, 2022
Are these bonus miles treated as loyalty points for determining status?
Sean
August 04, 2022
Nevermind. I read elsewhere that they do not count as loyalty points. This would be good info to include here.
Katie Seemann
August 04, 2022
Hi Sean,
Correct, since these are bonus miles they won’t count as Loyalty Points, unfortunately. I’ll get that added to the post as I agree, it’s important info.
AnneG
August 04, 2022
While it’s still a contribution to a worthy cause, the donations are not tax deductible as charitable contributions and there is a warning on the landing page indicating that’s the case for amounts over $75 because you are receiving miles for the contribution. So you are basically paying 2 cents per mile. That may still be worth it depending on whether you have an immediate need for the miles but should be factored into the decision.
Terry Peets
August 05, 2022
I tried to donate $1,000 using the “50 points” button; the button was inactive…..I tried on two different browsers. At 50 points per dollar, I would donate. At 25 points per dollar, given the lack of loyalty points and the lack of deductibility, that offer was simply too expensive.
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