S3E3: American Airlines Miles: Best Ways to Earn & Redeem for Domestic Flights

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<v Speaker 1>As we work through all the best ways to book domestic flights with points.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm starting with American Airlines.

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<v Speaker 1>Today we'll talk about the best time to use American Airlines to book onto American flights, as well as the best ways to earn those miles.

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to Points for Normal People.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family.

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<v Speaker 1>But I believe travel isn't just for the rich.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why, on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that our family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every year.

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<v Speaker 1>I know I promised in one of the first two episodes of season three that in episode three, which is today, that we'd be diving into a more complicated and lesser known way to book American Airlines flights.

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<v Speaker 1>But as I continue to outline and script out season three, I realized I needed to start a little more simply and then go back and add more layers of complexity because it's going to make it easier to learn and absorb.

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<v Speaker 1>So I will talk about that sweet spot I mentioned of booking American Airlines flights via Finnair next week and if you're itching to learn that, you can find our newly published article on that in the show notes.

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<v Speaker 1>But today I wanted to talk about earning American Airlines miles and then redeeming those American Airline miles on American Airlines flights.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, I won't be able to cover every single aspect of this in one podcast episode, but I hope to give you a bird's eye view, as well as some suggestions of places you can go if you want to dive in and really learn more.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's start with some of the pros and cons for using American Airlines Miles to book onto domestic American Airlines flights.

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<v Speaker 1>The American Airlines loyalty program, a-advantage, actually does have a lot to love.

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<v Speaker 1>Generally, I would prefer to book domestic American flights with American miles if possible, but one of the biggest cons is that it can be harder to earn American Airlines miles.

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<v Speaker 1>None of the major bank programs transfer to American.

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<v Speaker 1>You can earn American miles from a few credit cards, but there's only one business card and, moving forward, most of these credit cards have stipulations where you can only earn a welcome bonus on them every 48 months.

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<v Speaker 1>Now it's because American miles can be harder to earn that next week we'll start talking about ways you can use other types of points and miles to book onto American flights.

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<v Speaker 1>These other types of points are much easier to amass, but if you can get American miles, there are some really strong aspects of the program.

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<v Speaker 1>First, let's talk about pricing.

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<v Speaker 1>American uses a dynamic pricing model for its own flights.

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<v Speaker 1>This is both a pro and a con.

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<v Speaker 1>The con is that sometimes flights are really expensive, in particular the longer nonstop routes.

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<v Speaker 1>If you want to fly on a cross-continental flight on a peak travel day, it's going to be hard to find a decent price on that flight.

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<v Speaker 1>This isn't really different than if you were paying with cash.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the same.

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<v Speaker 1>This is probably most true for peak travel times like Thanksgiving week and Christmas and New Year's.

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<v Speaker 1>It could be true for other holidays or school breaks as well.

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<v Speaker 1>To give an example, I picked a few cities and I pulled up the Chicago to Fort Lauderdale Florida route for November, december and January.

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<v Speaker 1>Now this is a time when a lot of people from the Midwest love to get away to Florida.

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<v Speaker 1>As an aside, another pro for American their website makes it really easy to search for the cheapest possible award tickets because they have a monthly calendar view.

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<v Speaker 1>So I was looking at the monthly calendar view for this route Chicago to Fort Lauderdale and I could see that there were a lot of days every month when it's only 6,000 American miles each way for this route.

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<v Speaker 1>Now those aren't all nonstop flights.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes the 6,000 point flight involves a connection, but sometimes that is on a nonstop flight.

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<v Speaker 1>But if I look at that same route for peak travel days like the Friday and Saturday before Christmas, those routes jump to over 34,000 points.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's where you see the pro and con of dynamic pricing.

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<v Speaker 1>You can fly for a great price 6,000 points each way on many days and that's cheaper than it used to be when American had award charts.

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<v Speaker 1>But if you're trying to fly on a peak date it's going to cost a ton.

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<v Speaker 1>Now that's pretty much true of every US airline at this point.

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<v Speaker 1>Those peak holiday routes are really hard to snag with a good price with points.

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<v Speaker 1>So that pro and con is going to hold for United and Delta too, even Southwest.

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<v Speaker 1>Another big pro for using American miles is that American has a really generous cancellation and change policy.

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<v Speaker 1>You can cancel your flight up to the time of departure and get all of your miles back into your account with no fee.

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<v Speaker 1>This makes American miles great for flexibility and for backup plans.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also change your flight for free, though if you're changing to a more expensive route or flight, you would have to pay the additional.

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<v Speaker 1>Another pro is that by using American Miles, you get to choose a seat for free.

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<v Speaker 1>When you book with points, you're booking straight into American's main cabin, which means you're spared the low, no frills basic economy fare.

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<v Speaker 1>The main perk is that you'll get to choose a seat for free, but that's really nice if you're traveling as a family.

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<v Speaker 1>Another strong aspect of American's loyalty program is that if you live by a smaller airport, it's often the same price for a flight as it would be from a bigger one.

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<v Speaker 1>As an example, I tried searching Chicago to Honolulu and then I compared that to Nashville to Honolulu or Des Moines, iowa to Honolulu, and I could find tickets for all of those at 22,500 miles each way.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, from a smaller airport, of course, you might end up with more connections, but the fact that you can pay the same number of points but you can start from your smaller regional airport is really nice.

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<v Speaker 1>One more in the pro column is just the ease of booking.

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<v Speaker 1>Overall, it's a really straightforward booking process and that makes it very easy to recommend.

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<v Speaker 1>As you can see, it's almost all pros, at least right now.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, airlines can change and drop customer-friendly policies, as we saw Southwest do abruptly just recently, but for American, as of now, you have no cancellation fees, great deal potential.

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<v Speaker 1>You get to choose a seat for free, you have a website that's easy to use for searching and booking and good pricing, even from smaller airports.

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<v Speaker 1>But there's that main drawback, which is that American miles are a little harder to earn, or a lot harder to earn than Delta, southwest and United miles.

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<v Speaker 1>And then, as with any dynamic pricing model, it's still going to be really hard to find good deals for certain peak dates.

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<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about how you can earn American miles.

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<v Speaker 1>I mentioned it was harder, but it's still possible.

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<v Speaker 1>Again, this is going to be a bird's eye view, but I will hit the highlights.

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<v Speaker 1>First, of course, I have to mention earning American miles by opening a credit card.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, there are currently no bank points that transfer to American Airlines miles.

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<v Speaker 1>There was a limited period of time during the pandemic that Citi let you transfer their thank you points to American, and there is some speculation that Citi might add this back in the future, but as of today, in March 2025, this isn't true, so you have to earn miles directly with American.

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<v Speaker 1>As of today, there are two banks that issue American Airlines co-branded cards Citi and Barclay.

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<v Speaker 1>Barclay has one card that they issue called the A-Advantage Aviator card.

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<v Speaker 1>They used to have a business version, but that was unfortunately discontinued a few years ago.

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<v Speaker 1>Citi has a few different personal cards and one business card that are what we call co-branded cards.

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<v Speaker 1>The Aviator card is that as well, which it just means you earn miles directly with American Airlines when you hold these cards.

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<v Speaker 1>But most people focus on two of those Citi cards, so they'll focus on the American card from Citi with a $99 fee, and then there's also a Citi business card that has a $99 fee, and those are the ones I usually recommend to people.

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<v Speaker 1>But these card options will change by the end of 2025 because Citi is becoming the sole issuer of American Airlines cards, and so the current Barclay Aviator card will be discontinued.

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<v Speaker 1>This means that this year is a really great time to get a Barclay Aviator card, while you can.

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<v Speaker 1>This card has a pretty standard bonus where it gives 60,000 miles after you make just one purchase and pay the $99 annual fee.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a great offer for very little effort.

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<v Speaker 1>The only downside is that it adds to your 524 count.

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<v Speaker 1>For those of you who enjoy a quick history lesson, here's why there were ever two banks that were issuing American Airlines cards.

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<v Speaker 1>It comes down to the fact that there was a merger of US Airways and American and before the merger, barclay issued the US Airways credit card and Citi issued the American credit cards.

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<v Speaker 1>And then, after the merger, they reached this kind of complicated deal where Citi was considered the preferred issuer but Barclay was still allowed to issue their card, which was now an American Airlines card.

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<v Speaker 1>But Barclay was really only allowed to advertise in airports and on planes, and that's all changing this year as Citi acquires the sole rights.

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<v Speaker 1>So if you're listening and you don't have a Barclay Aviator card, it is a good time to consider one.

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<v Speaker 1>The main tricky thing with Barclay is that they don't like to issue any person more than one to two of their cards per year.

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<v Speaker 1>So if you're looking at any of their other cards, like JetBlue or Wyndham or Hawaiian, you do have to space them out.

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<v Speaker 1>As I said before, citi issues both personal and business cards that earn American miles, and with those I typically recommend the business version first, just because it doesn't add to your 524 count For that one.

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<v Speaker 1>Look for offers of at least 65,000 miles and remember that these Citi cards only allow you to get the offers on their American Airlines cards every 48 months, so it's a long wait.

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<v Speaker 1>That's why, on my three-year plan, I list the City Business American Airlines card as a great one to get.

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<v Speaker 1>If you're trying to open additional cards beyond what I list in the plan and stay under 524, or if you want to substitute it for the Southwest business card, you may as well start that 48 month eligibility clock ticking as to when you can get it again.

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<v Speaker 1>As an aside, if you open that City Business American card, it has this weird new way that it deposits the miles.

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<v Speaker 1>They actually go into a business account and can be moved from there to different people that you designate in your business.

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<v Speaker 1>But if you get that City Business American card, you just have to be aware that the miles are not going to get deposited straight into your American Airlines account.

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<v Speaker 1>You have to log into your business account and then move them over.

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<v Speaker 1>You should get an email with a login.

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<v Speaker 1>We had to do it recently.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's the overview of earning American miles through credit cards.

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<v Speaker 1>Get the business card whenever you can meet the spend.

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<v Speaker 1>Get the Barclay Aviator card if you can handle the 524 edition.

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<v Speaker 1>Get the city personal card also whenever your 524 status can take it and it fits into your broader strategy.

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<v Speaker 1>So American also has some opportunities to earn elite status and miles.

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<v Speaker 1>Through leveraging some shopping deals With American, you can actually earn elite status without flying a single mile on their planes, which is not true of most other airlines, and so it's all about leveraging your spending, or sometimes spending in unique ways.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, this isn't free and most of these deals will require attention to detail and tracking, and what I'm about to explain in and of itself is a huge world that some people really get into.

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<v Speaker 1>That's like the main game.

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<v Speaker 1>They're playing hard and they can earn a lot of American miles as well as what are called loyalty points, which is what gets you American status, because when you earn enough loyalty points, you get to earn different levels of American Airlines status.

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<v Speaker 1>Then you have both the miles that you earn to book tickets and the status, which gets you some perks like potential upgrades when you fly American.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, one of the big ways people earn points and loyalty status is through the American Shopping Portal and by stacking up deals.

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<v Speaker 1>Basically, you can get extra American miles when you're shopping at certain online retailers.

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<v Speaker 1>I talked a little bit about this in season one with ultimate reward shopping, where you can earn additional Ultimate Rewards by clicking through before you shop at certain retailers.

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<v Speaker 1>And with Chase there's also you can add certain Chase offers to your account to earn cash back from certain retailers.

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<v Speaker 1>So American has the same idea, going with both an eShopping portal and offers that you can link to your credit cards.

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<v Speaker 1>With American, you can actually start doing it even if you don't have any American Airlines credit cards.

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<v Speaker 1>And then another layer you can stack with American is using this website called Simply Miles.

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<v Speaker 1>So with Simply Miles you can link any MasterCard and then you have even more opportunities to earn bonus American miles.

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<v Speaker 1>So there's a lot of great opportunities where you can use Simply Miles and the American Shopping Portal and double dip the points.

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<v Speaker 1>So here's an example of how that could look.

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<v Speaker 1>On American eShopping right now, when I was looking up this week, there's a deal where you can earn 4,500 American miles on the first month of a paid subscription to Blue Apron.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's a meal delivery service.

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<v Speaker 1>It also says you have to stay subscribed for 45 days.

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<v Speaker 1>Then Simply Miles has an offer you can link to a card where you can earn 1,200 American miles if you spend $50 at Blue Apron.

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<v Speaker 1>If I wanted to stack and use both of these offers, here's how I would do that.

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<v Speaker 1>First, I would link a MasterCard to my Simply Miles account.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's how I would do that.

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<v Speaker 1>First, I would link a MasterCard to my Simply Miles account I personally have an American Airlines card linked there.

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<v Speaker 1>Then I would activate the Simply Miles offer.

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<v Speaker 1>All of the Simply Miles offers have to be activated.

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<v Speaker 1>You do that just by finding the offer when you're logged in and clicking activate.

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<v Speaker 1>Then I would go back to the eShopping page.

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<v Speaker 1>I would find the 4,500 mile Blue Apron deal and click through to get to Blue Apron.

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<v Speaker 1>I would then select a plan option that costs just slightly more than $50 and check out.

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<v Speaker 1>So this is going to trigger the $50 minimum for my Simply Miles because I'm paying with that card that I linked on Simply Miles.

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<v Speaker 1>Now Blue Apron is a weekly delivery service and we have to stay subscribed for 45 days, but we don't want to pay $50 per week.

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<v Speaker 1>So what you can do instead is go in as soon as you get your first order settled and ordered, and then you can click to skip all of your subsequent deliveries until it's been 45 days since you got your first one.

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<v Speaker 1>This is important, otherwise you'll end up paying for extra meals that you don't want or need, so you just skip them every week for at least 45 days and then you finally cancel after 45 days.

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<v Speaker 1>It helps to even put that cancellation date on your calendar with a reminder for yourself.

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<v Speaker 1>So after 45 days you'd earn the 4,500 miles from eShopping, and then you've earned the 1,200 miles for spending $50 through Simply Miles.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's an example of something that takes a little bit of management management and it's not free, but it's a way to earn extra miles.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also earn miles per dollar spent even at places like Walmart or Ulta or Nike or Home Depot.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a lot of stores on American's eShopping portal and, depending on your shopping habits, just these miles might really add up.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, if you really want to do this and maximize this, my best recommendation is to check out a site called Loyalty Point Hunters.

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<v Speaker 1>They have a lot of resources on their site, they have a Facebook group and they even have regular emails that you can sign up for that.

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<v Speaker 1>Go out that highlight what the best current deals are.

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<v Speaker 1>The guides on their site are more in-depth than what I will cover on this podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>I will warn you that people aren't necessarily very nice in their Facebook group, not like in our group, where I delete people's comments if they're not nice and I give them warnings.

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<v Speaker 1>But there are people that know their deals For a few periods of time in the past few years.

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<v Speaker 1>I've tried to get into this.

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<v Speaker 1>I love the idea behind it, but it just wasn't for me.

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<v Speaker 1>I personally just like the simplicity of earning big chunks of points through credit card welcome offers.

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<v Speaker 1>That gives me enough points for my needs and doing all of the searching and the weighing and the activating offers wasn't for me.

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<v Speaker 1>But there is a lot of potential value there and there's a lot of potential miles there if it interests you and you have the time and you're willing to do the work.

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<v Speaker 1>If that's you, you might even want to consider the paid membership to Loyalty Point Hunters.

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<v Speaker 1>This isn't sponsored.

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<v Speaker 1>I get zero dollars if you do this, but it will save you time if you want to dive into this.

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<v Speaker 1>The daily emails they send are really straightforward and tell you about any potential stacks that they found, and then they even tell you about any other card link offers you might have access to.

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<v Speaker 1>So I'd say overall that that is the biggest potential for ongoing earning of American miles, but it takes a lot of management.

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<v Speaker 1>One more small thing you could do would be to sign up for the American Airlines dining program, where you can link a card and you'll automatically earn bonus miles when you dine at certain restaurants.

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<v Speaker 1>Typically, you can only have any given card linked to one dining program, like you could do the American dining program or United or Southwest or Built.

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<v Speaker 1>But if your focus is on American miles, you could pick one card that you use when you're dining out, link that to your American dining and then use that to pay.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's the biggest ways you could be earning American miles.

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<v Speaker 1>Now let's move on to an overview of how to find the best ways to use them for domestic flights.

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<v Speaker 1>As you're looking for flight deals, there are a few tools that can help you look for those with American in particular.

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<v Speaker 1>American does have sales on award flights and sometimes those are advertised and sometimes they aren't.

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<v Speaker 1>They do have a landing page.

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<v Speaker 1>I will link in the show notes where they feature different particular deals.

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<v Speaker 1>This can be a good place to browse if you have some miles and some flexibility and are just kind of looking for a good deal.

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<v Speaker 1>It lets you enter your departure city and even your budget of how many miles you want to spend, or if you're more of a visual searcher.

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<v Speaker 1>American also has a map feature.

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<v Speaker 1>I will link it in the show notes as well, but you can also search on Google just AA miles finder map to pull it up on Google.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it's a particularly helpful tool if you have a certain weekend you want to travel but you're really flexible on where you want to go.

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<v Speaker 1>You can filter by budget and then just scroll through the map.

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<v Speaker 1>Just note that it sometimes takes a long time to load the map, so you might look at the page and not see it for a while and think that for some reason it's not there.

00:18:20.114 --> 00:18:21.036
<v Speaker 1>It's there.

00:18:21.036 --> 00:18:22.429
<v Speaker 1>It's just taking a long time to load.

00:18:22.429 --> 00:18:28.750
<v Speaker 1>If you already know where you want to go but you're flexible on that date, you don't really need to use the map.

00:18:28.750 --> 00:18:33.096
<v Speaker 1>In that case I'd recommend just using American's regular search function.

00:18:33.096 --> 00:18:35.900
<v Speaker 1>American's website has really good functionality.

00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:40.713
<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned, my favorite way to look at flights is the monthly calendar view.

00:18:40.713 --> 00:18:47.436
<v Speaker 1>Once you're in that monthly view, you can even filter for nonstop flights to really see which dates are the cheapest.

00:18:48.045 --> 00:18:56.207
<v Speaker 1>Now, as I go through this information, I also want to be clear that there are a lot of really great ways to use American miles to book international flights.

00:18:56.207 --> 00:19:07.384
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going into that today, since this is about booking domestic flights, but that is something to keep in mind and that's personally how we end up using most of our American miles, since we use Southwest for domestic flights.

00:19:07.384 --> 00:19:08.571
<v Speaker 1>Just so you have a mental gauge of pricing.

00:19:08.571 --> 00:19:09.590
<v Speaker 1>Typically, flights within the US would start at 6,000 miles ish.

00:19:09.590 --> 00:19:11.255
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes we see as low as 5,000 miles domestic flights, just so you have a mental gauge of pricing.

00:19:11.255 --> 00:19:14.071
<v Speaker 1>Typically, flights within the US would start at 6,000 miles-ish.

00:19:14.071 --> 00:19:17.444
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes we see as low as 5,000 miles during web specials.

00:19:17.444 --> 00:19:18.606
<v Speaker 1>These are for one-way flights.

00:19:18.606 --> 00:19:27.871
<v Speaker 1>Longer flights might be at their lowest around 12,500 miles, but even when I was searching New York to LA, there were some dates that were only 7,000 miles.

00:19:27.871 --> 00:19:31.798
<v Speaker 1>Now, those were very sporadic and not for any non-stop routes, though.

00:19:31.798 --> 00:19:43.300
<v Speaker 1>Flights to Alaska seemed to be about 15,000 miles at their cheapest and flights to Hawaii were mostly around $22,500 each way at their cheapest, sometimes down to $20,000 from the west coast.

00:19:43.300 --> 00:19:47.637
<v Speaker 1>Again, all pricing is officially dynamic, but this is just to give you a gauge.

00:19:47.637 --> 00:19:53.272
<v Speaker 1>So really you're just going to have to search routes that you're interested in to start to get a feel for what they cost.

00:19:53.733 --> 00:19:56.849
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to add a few random booking tips here and then we're going to wrap up.

00:19:56.849 --> 00:20:02.311
<v Speaker 1>Remember, next week we're going to talk about alternate ways to book American flights if you don't have American miles.

00:20:02.311 --> 00:20:09.213
<v Speaker 1>So one thing to understand is that, while the American website is very user-friendly, sometimes you can do more with a phone agent.

00:20:09.213 --> 00:20:17.372
<v Speaker 1>There is typically a charge to book through a phone agent, but if they're doing something that is not showing up online, that fee is typically waived.

00:20:17.372 --> 00:20:22.092
<v Speaker 1>Now the example I'm going to give is about international flights, but I still think it's worth mentioning.

00:20:23.045 --> 00:20:34.089
<v Speaker 1>So a few years ago I had booked a ticket through American for my mom to fly to Spain, but the problem was that she had a very specific date and time she had to fly, so we couldn't find a good option for her.

00:20:34.089 --> 00:20:35.855
<v Speaker 1>At first that was leaving from Chicago.

00:20:35.855 --> 00:20:50.189
<v Speaker 1>So instead I used American miles to book her from JFK in New York to Spain with a layover in London, and then she was planning to use Southwest points to fly to New York the day before and she was just going to spend the night in a hotel there.

00:20:50.189 --> 00:21:00.876
<v Speaker 1>Her flight from JFK to Europe was on a Friday and then I noticed that there were some American flights at a pretty decent price for Thursday night from Chicago to New York.

00:21:00.876 --> 00:21:15.638
<v Speaker 1>So I thought, instead of flying Southwest, what if we just try to call and add it onto her ticket so it's all under one ticket, because it is better to have the whole reservation ticketed with the same airline if possible, because if something goes wrong early in the journey it's easier to fix it that way.

00:21:15.638 --> 00:21:22.491
<v Speaker 1>So we were prepared to pay the extra 10,000 miles or whatever it was.

00:21:22.491 --> 00:21:26.287
<v Speaker 1>That American was charging for Chicago to New York and, like I said, she already had that hotel in New York for the night, so she already had to spend the night in New York.

00:21:26.287 --> 00:21:33.599
<v Speaker 1>But that agent, when we called, was actually able to add on that extra leg Chicago to New York and it didn't cost anything extra at all.

00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:41.194
<v Speaker 1>That's because it was all the same, essentially saver fare class and she was still going from the continental US to Europe.

00:21:41.194 --> 00:21:51.000
<v Speaker 1>This time she just had one more leg Now that routing wasn't coming up when we were searching on AAcom, because sometimes they don't show you those long overnight layovers.

00:21:52.664 --> 00:21:54.131
<v Speaker 1>Because sometimes they don't show you those long overnight layovers.

00:21:54.131 --> 00:22:01.051
<v Speaker 1>But it's just good for you to know that sometimes the phone agents can do something that you can't find yourself online, especially when it involves an overnight layover.

00:22:01.051 --> 00:22:11.190
<v Speaker 1>I find that the phone agents are pretty good with helping with layovers of under 24 hours, because those really long ones that are pushing 20 hours don't always show up as an option online.

00:22:11.190 --> 00:22:21.000
<v Speaker 1>But if you give the phone agents the exact flights you want and they don't involve layovers of 24 hours or more, they might be able to piece it together for you under one itinerary.

00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:26.396
<v Speaker 1>The layover does have to be less than 24 hours for this to work, otherwise it's not considered a layover.

00:22:26.396 --> 00:22:31.387
<v Speaker 1>Again, for us it only worked out because it was the same fare class as the international flights.

00:22:32.048 --> 00:22:38.053
<v Speaker 1>My next little random piece of advice is that when you book a flight with American Miles now, you do get to pick your seats for free.

00:22:38.053 --> 00:22:39.894
<v Speaker 1>So you should do that right away.

00:22:39.894 --> 00:22:47.440
<v Speaker 1>But what a lot of people don't seem to know is that at check-in time all the preferred seats become free to book as well.

00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.690
<v Speaker 1>Before check-in those preferred seats cost extra, but after check-in those preferred seats cost extra, but after check-in they're usually free.

00:22:54.690 --> 00:22:57.356
<v Speaker 1>So it's good to look at those and see if you can spread out or get a better seat.

00:22:57.356 --> 00:23:05.573
<v Speaker 1>This doesn't include extra legroom, just the ones that are preferred, which are usually right now the ones that are closer to the front or their aisles or windows.

00:23:05.573 --> 00:23:10.252
<v Speaker 1>We've been able to get much better seats by doing this on not only American but other airlines as well.

00:23:10.734 --> 00:23:16.202
<v Speaker 1>For action steps today, this is really for anyone who wants to start focusing on earning American miles.

00:23:16.202 --> 00:23:17.648
<v Speaker 1>That might not be everyone.

00:23:17.648 --> 00:23:22.227
<v Speaker 1>If you're focused on Southwest for domestic flights, this might not be urgent for you.

00:23:22.227 --> 00:23:31.251
<v Speaker 1>But if you want to start earning American miles, you'll want to first of all consider opening that Barclay Aviator card while it is still available to open.

00:23:31.251 --> 00:23:35.338
<v Speaker 1>It's an easy way to earn 60,000 miles just by paying that $99 fee.

00:23:35.338 --> 00:23:39.154
<v Speaker 1>By the way, I don't have an affiliate link for that card at all or a referral link.

00:23:39.154 --> 00:23:41.252
<v Speaker 1>I'm just telling you because I think that that's a really good offer.

00:23:41.252 --> 00:23:48.729
<v Speaker 1>Then I'd suggest signing up for Simply Miles and enrolling a MasterCard While you're there, you can also enroll a card in the dining program.

00:23:49.148 --> 00:23:53.053
<v Speaker 1>If you have a certain card that you often use for dining out, you should enroll that one.

00:23:53.053 --> 00:23:55.635
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't have to be a MasterCard for the dining program.

00:23:55.635 --> 00:24:00.580
<v Speaker 1>Just keep in mind that you can only enroll it in one of the card-linked dining programs.

00:24:00.580 --> 00:24:09.011
<v Speaker 1>So you do have to choose if you're enrolling that card in American's program or Bilt's program or United's program or Southwest's and so on.

00:24:09.011 --> 00:24:11.696
<v Speaker 1>But if your focus is on American miles, you should enroll it there.

00:24:11.696 --> 00:24:30.630
<v Speaker 1>If you really want to start earning American miles through shopping deals, you just take a minute and make sure that you can get logged into American's e-shopping portal and then I consider browsing loyalty point hunters or joining their Facebook group If you really want to focus on that or consider if you want to dabble in that or focus on it.

00:24:31.251 --> 00:24:38.295
<v Speaker 1>As a quick reminder, I'm able to support my business almost solely through people taking the time to apply with my affiliate links for credit cards.

00:24:38.295 --> 00:24:43.497
<v Speaker 1>But I'm committed to sharing the best offers, even if they don't earn me a commission.

00:24:43.497 --> 00:24:52.830
<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned that Barclay card, it doesn't have affiliate links or referral links, so I've never earned anything off of that offer, but I still love to tell people about it because it is a great offer.

00:24:52.830 --> 00:25:04.726
<v Speaker 1>If you find yourself wanting to support my business next time you go to sign up for a credit card but can't find the card that you want to sign up for on my best offers page, send me an email and I can always let you know if I have an affiliate link for it or not.

00:25:04.726 --> 00:25:09.674
<v Speaker 1>I really appreciate when people do this, because I just appreciate the support for my business.

00:25:09.674 --> 00:25:16.471
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for spending time with me today and I look forward to seeing you next time, where we will continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.