Guide to the American Airlines award chart

Drew Macomber

February 19, 2021 By

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American Airlines has moved to dynamic pricing. Know what that is? Basically, American reserves the right to charge whatever they want, whenever they want.

There’s still a oneworld award chart if you’re flying on American’s alliance partners. We’ve mapped a chart to help you see what your award flight should cost at a glance. Bookmark this page if you want quick access to an American Airlines oneworld award chart.

This post covers the following:

• oneworld award chart
• AA Award chart (with off-peak prices)
• AA off-peak dates
• How to price your own flight

By opening a couple of American Airlines credit cards, you can stockpile American Airlines bonus miles that will get you to some great travel destinations in Europe, Japan, or Australia.

I’m going to show you how to book American Airlines award travel to find the best deals. And check out our post on the best use of AA miles for some real inspiration.

Use the American Airlines partner award chart to get incredible value from your miles so you can fly in a Qatar Airways Qsuite. (Photo by Qatar Airways)

American Airline AAdvantage miles oneworld award chart

If you’re flying an AA alliance partner, you’ll find below the only AA oneworld award chart on the internet. The one thing not covered in the following award chart is that Europe is the one region that has off-peak (cheaper) prices for all partners, not just American Airlines flights.

Big note: Off-peak dates to Europe cost 22,500 miles. You’ll find this price when searching:

• January 10 to March 14
• November 1 to December 14

American Airlines AAdvantage award chart departing from the U.S.

If you are instead flying on an American Airlines plane (not with a partner airline), you’ll expect to pay the following prices. Again, dynamic pricing doesn’t guarantee these prices, but the general MileSAAver prices hover around the following:

Off-peak economyEconomyBusiness classFirst classUSA /Canada (≤ 500 miles)
7,50015,000
USA/Canada
12,50025,00050,000Alaska
15,00030,00055,000Hawaii20,00022,50055,00080,000Caribbean12,50015,00025,00050,000Mexico12,50015,00025,00050,000Central America12,50015,00025,00050,000South America Region 117,50020,00030,00055,000South America Region 2
30,00057,50085,000Europe22,50030,00057,50085,000Asia Region 132,50035,00060,00080,000Asia Region 232,50035,00070,000110,000South Pacific
40,00080,000110,000

American Airlines off-peak dates

American Airlines generally has five price points for award tickets:

• Economy Web Special (often the cheapest — we’ve seen some ASTONISHING award sales in the past)
• MileSAAver Off-Peak (not available for all regions)
• MileSAAver
• AAnytime Level 1 (ripoff)
• AAnytime Level 2 (most expensive, never book this one)

To get that ultra-low off-peak price in the second column above, here’s when you’ll have to search for your flights.

To Hawaii:

• December 29 to March 12
• August 11 to November 18
• November 24 to December 10

From Hawaii:

• January 7 to March 19
• August 18 to November 27
• December 3 to December 25

Caribbean, Mexico and Central America:

• April 21 to May 20
• September 9 to November 18

Europe:

• January 10 to March 14
• November 1 to December 14

To Japan:

• January 1 to April 30
• July 1 to November 30

From Japan:

• January 16 to April 19
• May 2 to 31
• September 1 to December 31

To Korea:

• January 1 to April 30
• July 1 to November 30

From Korea:

• January 16 to May 31
• September 1 to December 31

To China/Hong Kong:

• January 1 to April 30
• July 1 to September 30
• October 11 to November 30

From China/Hong Kong:

• February 1 to May 31
• September 1 to 19
• October 2 to December 31

South America 1:

• January 16 to June 14
• September 7 to November 14

How to navigate the AA award chart (to get an approximate price)

As American has kept its region-based award chart alive, you’ll need only to focus on the following:

• Your airline choice
• Class of service and pricing tier
• Your destination

What airline will you be flying?

As you’ve noticed above, American Airlines has two award charts. The first is for flights on American Airlines; the other is for flights on oneworld alliance and partner airlines.

American Airlines has a long list of oneworld airline partners:

• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian Airlines
• S7 Airlines
• SriLankan Airlines

Other partner airlines that are not part of the Oneworld alliance include:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air
• Cape Air
• China Southern Airlines
• Etihad Airways
• Fiji Airways
• GOL Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Interjet Airlines
• Seaborne Airlines

You can redeem your miles with any of the above partner airlines, which gives you a lot of flexibility.

Will you be flying coach, business or first class?

For American Airlines flights, decide whether you want to fly coach, business class, or first class. There are different award prices for each class of service.

As I say, avoid AAnytime airfares. These fares are the most expensive, and in many cases you could book multiple MileSAAver flights for the price of a single AAnytime flight. If you have last-minute travel plans or your dates are not flexible, it may be your only option.

American Airlines explains its fare buckets in detail here.

On a partner airline, you don’t need to worry about pricing tiers because everything is priced the same. Your only decision is whether you want to fly coach, business or first class.

Where are you going?

The final step to figuring out how many miles your trip will take is knowing which region of the world you’re visiting. You’ll find this information on the same charts above. For instance, a flight in coach from the U.S. to Europe should cost around 30,000 American Airlines miles on the MileSAAver fare.

And if you’re wondering how American Airlines defines a region, here is the link: specific region definitions. Some common examples include:

• Caribbean: Includes Bermuda and the Bahamas
• South America Region 1: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Manaus (Brazil)
• South America Region 2: Argentina, Brazil (excluding Manaus), Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela
• Asia Region 1: Japan and Korea
• Asia Region 2: Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam

How to use American Airlines miles

You can find some great deals on American Airlines. The fastest way to accrue a sizable stash of miles is by earning the welcome bonus on credit cards like:

The information for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select and Citibusiness Platinum Select have been collected independently by Million Mile Secrets. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Here are a few examples of flights you could take if you earn those bonus miles:

• Book short-distance flights within the U.S. Coach flights on American Airlines (500 miles or less) generally cost 7,500 miles one-way
• One-way flight to Europe in business class from 57,500 American Airlines miles, or a round-trip coach ticket from the U.S. to Europe from 45,000 American Airlines miles (during off-peak dates)
• Fly one-way to Japan in business class from 60,000 American Airlines miles
• Book a round-trip ticket to the Caribbean in business class from 50,000 American Airlines miles

You can read more about the best ways to use American Airlines miles to see just how powerful they can be!

Bottom line

American Airlines uses dynamic pricing, but also publishes a region-based award chart making it easy to figure out approximately how many miles you’ll need to book an award flight. We’ve created a oneworld award chart (the only one on the web) to help you see how many miles you’ll need for your desired AA partner award flight.

If you know where to look on the American Airlines award chart, earning any of those welcome bonuses can get you some big travel. You can use the miles for multiple short-haul trips within the U.S. or book a first class flight overseas — which could easily save you thousands of dollars.

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