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American Airlines and Citi currently offer reduced mileage awards — the latest iteration of which allows you to book discounted travel now through September 2016.
Before you ask: Yes, the discount applies to flights both to and from the listed airports, although the terms now clarify that “travel must originate in the 48 contiguous United States or Canada.”
Who’s Eligible?
If you have one of the following cards, you can save 7,500* miles off of a round-trip award ticket (or 3,750* off one-way):
- Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard
- Citi/AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard (as well as the old Visa and Amex versions)
- CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Select Visa or MasterCard (not accepting new applications)
- CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard
- AAdvantage Aviator Silver/Red/Business MasterCard (not accepting new applications)
Or, you’re eligible for 5,000* miles off of a round-trip award ticket (or 2,500* off one-way) if you have one of the following:
- Citi/AAdvantage Gold MasterCard (as well as the old Visa and Amex versions)
- AAdvantage Aviator Blue MasterCard (not accepting new applications)
If you have multiple types of cards (i.e., the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard and Citi / Platinum Select MasterCard), you’re only eligible to get one 7,500- or 5,000-mile discount. However, these redemptions will still be eligible for the 10% mileage rebate available on qualifying cards. So, your net mileage cost for a round-trip economy flight could be as few as 15,750 miles.
*Award flights of less than 500 miles (each way) now cost just 15,000 AAdvantage miles round-trip — rather than the standard 25,000 miles round-trip. While these <500-mile award flights aren’t eligible for the 7,500- or 5,000-mile discounts noted above, you can use an eligible card to save 2,000 (1,000) miles off of a round-trip redemption. This means that you’ll pay just 13,000 (or 14,000) AAdvantage miles round-trip for flights of less than 500 miles.
June Airports
Under the just-ended version of this promotion, American Airlines included 62 airports for June, but this sadly only 22 airports made the cut on this version.
Here are some you might be interested in booking:
July Airports
In the heart of summer travel season, there are 37 airports on the list for July. Some of the notable airports:
August Airports
Once you exit the peak summer travel season, AA opens up a lot more airports for the reduced mileage awards — including 95 airports on the list for August. So many, in fact, that we needed three maps to make the airport codes readable.
Here are the top contenders for August:
September Airports
A whopping 109 airports are included in AA’s list for reduced mileage award flights in September. Of the many options, here are some to keep in mind:
Not mapped for space: Vancouver (YVR)
How To Book
Once you’ve found MileSAAver award availability on American Airlines’ website, call American Airlines at 1-800-882-8880 — or your elite reservations number, if applicable — to book the award ticket. As these awards aren’t available for booking online, the booking agent that you speak with should waive the standard $30 phone-booking fee.
For June-September 2016 reduced mileage awards, the discount code that you’ll have to provide the agent is:
| 7,500 / 2,000-mile cards | Within the US (excluding <500) |
Flights under 500 miles |
To/From Canada |
| Savings (per round-trip) | 7,500 | 2,000 | 7,500 |
| First Class (2-cabin aircraft) | UD21X2A / AVM86 | UD14A / AVA36 | UD26X2A / AVA33 |
| Business Class (3-cabin aircraft) | UD28X7A / AVA31 | n/a | UD33X7A / AVA34 |
| Main Cabin | TD8X7A / AVM85 | TD6X5A / AVA35 | TD11X2A / AVA32 |
| 5,000 / 1,000-mile cards | Within the US (excluding <500) |
Flights under 500 miles |
To/From Canada |
| Savings (per round-trip) | 5,000 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| First Class (2-cabin aircraft) | UD22X5A / AVM83 | UD14X5A / AVA30 | UD27X5A / AVA27 |
| Business Class (3-cabin aircraft) | UD30A / AVA25 | n/a | UD35A / AVA28 |
| Main Cabin | TD10A / AVM82 | TD7A / AVA29 | TD12X5A / AVA26 |
Tips
Keep in mind the following as well:
1. The discount requires booking by July 31. The list of airports for August and September will likely change on August 1.
2. The $75 close-in booking fee still applies to award flights within 21 days — waived when American Airlines Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum are using miles from their account.
3. As you can tell by the codes above, the discounts are also available for domestic business and first-class flights. The savings of 7,500/2,000 (5,000/1,000) miles are the same regardless of the cabin booked.
4. Award flights to/from Canada no longer cost the same amount of miles as flights inside the US; award flights to/from Canada start at 30,000 miles round-trip in economy. If you are flying to/from an eligible city, you can apply one of these codes to save 7,500 (5,000)-miles.
Source: thepointsguy.com