American Airlines Awards Anniversary Prizes

American Airlines AAdvantage was one of the world’s first true loyalty programs for frequent fliers. Launched in 1981, this year it celebrated its 40th anniversary. To celebrate, in April this year, AA launched an instant win promotion, featuring prizes, bonuses, and special offers. Whilst ostensibly a birthday celebration, it was pretty evident that these awards were designed to get AAdvantage members flying again. Prizes included Admirals Club memberships and passes, seat upgrades, hotel, and rental car offers, and, of most interest to us at Reward Flight Finder, bonus AAdvantage Miles that could be used for future American Airlines points redemption.

The American Airlines points for flights on offer through the promotion ranged from 40–4,000 AAdvantage Miles, enough at the higher end to make winners start thinking about taking American Airlines points flights. Better still there were multiple opportunities to enter, allowing those who actively participated to get far closer to an American Airlines points redemption. Members were also entered into a sweepstake to win a grand prize of one million AAdvantage miles, enough mileage to redeem A LOT of American Airlines points flights.

AAdvantage Members Get Their Prizes

Whilst the promotion featured some instant-win prizes, many of the participants were beginning to wonder what had happened to the bonus Miles awards. Particularly since, with travel opening up again and some attractive offers available, now is a great time to start thinking about using American Airlines points for flights again.

Now, after a month and a half of waiting, according to reports from Reward Flight Finder members, the bonus Miles prizes are starting to arrive in their winner’s AAdvantage accounts. If you are an American Airlines AAdvantage member, and you think you could be due a bonus award, log in to your account and check the “My Activity” section of your member dashboard. If your winnings are showing they will be dated as earned on the last day of the promotion and all your cumulative bonus Miles will show as a single transaction.

These Miles can be redeemed immediately for American Airlines points flights. (Don’t forget, if you are from the UK, US-based airlines refer to “Reward Flights” as “Award Flights” or “Award Travel”.) If you are thinking of traveling this summer we strongly recommend that you check the latest AA schedules, since the carrier has made several short-notice changes to its planned flight operations in recent weeks. The good news is that American has paused the expiration of Miles through to at least the end of 2021, due to the Coronavirus pandemic and introduced greater flexibility too. Currently, there are no change fees for all domestic, short-haul international, and most long-haul international flights bookings on Premium Cabin, Premium Economy, and Main Cabin fares. However, Basic Economy fares bought on or after April 1, 2021, are non-refundable and non-changeable.

American Airlines redeem points at a cash equivalent value of approximately 1.4 US cents on average, though the cash equivalent value American Airlines redeem points for typically ranges between 1 and 1.8 US cents.

So, in summary, it’s good to see that AA hasn’t forgotten its commitment to award bonus AAdvantage Miles to participants in its anniversary promotions. Hopefully, the lucky recipients will be able to use their Miles to grab an award flight for some late summer sun or an autumn/fall vacation.