You Can Now Redeem American Airlines AAdvantage Miles on This South American Low-Cost Airline

JetSMART is a Chilean low-cost airline that you need to know about if you’re planning a trip to South America.

Flights with the airline, which operates a growing number of routes around the continent, can now be booked using American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

Here’s everything you need to know.

How To Redeem AAdvantage Miles on JetSMART Flights

The possibility of earning AAdvantage Miles when hopping around South America on JetSMART flights started in September 2024.

After fixing some initial technical issues, it’s now also possible to redeem AAdvantage miles for JetSMART flights. For the time being, it’s only possible to do so via JetSMART’s website and not via aa.com or the American Airlines mobile app.

Let’s take a look at an example.

JetSMART’s homepage displays a booking search option with a prompt to use AAdvantage miles.

After entering flight search details and hitting “SMART Search,” I was prompted to add my AAdvantage number.

I searched for flights on the popular tourist route from Santiago (SLC) to Calama (CJC) — the gateway to the Atacama desert.

I was surprised to see redemptions available for just 1,700 miles plus $8. That’s really quite good!

Taking a look at the 3:01 p.m. departure, I was given the option of choosing from JetSMART’s 3 fare types. Pack SMART costs an additional 3,300 miles, and Pack FULL charges an extra 4,800 miles.

Thus, a Pack SMART fare that includes both a large cabin bag and a checked bag would cost 5,000 miles plus $8.07 in fees. We value AAdvantage miles at 1.4 cents each, so you’re paying $78.07 in value between the miles and cash co-pay.

Is It Worth It?

To get an idea of the true value for money, it’s always good to compare a miles redemption with the cash price of a ticket. In the case of this example, you could buy the same ticket for $64.65. That’s around $14 cheaper than the cash value of the miles redemption.

For this particular flight, it wouldn’t make too much of a difference whether you paid cash or redeemed miles. However, there are occasions when using miles is clearly better, and vice versa.

Final Thoughts

Travelers with AAdvantage miles in their virtual wallets can now use them to travel around South America with JetSMART.

Low cost might not be for everyone, but in a place like South America, where there aren’t a ton of redemption options, JetSMART becomes an appealing choice.