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Finally Redeemed AAdvantage Miles

Posted by Sean | Posted under Airlines, Credit Cards | June 27, 2008

Whew! I’ve been hanging on to AAdvantage miles for awhile now. Last night, I finally went to redeem some for an international ticket between NRT and STL. I’d read some horror stories of routes that needed to be booked an eternity in advance, but we had plenty of availability and the process was straightforward.

The breakdown of the miles is as follows:

14,000 Original Tokyo Trip
25,000 CC Signup Bonus
11,000 Additional Spend
=====
50,000 International Award (Off-Peak)

By my math, the marginal spending required to convert a sleepy 14,000 mile balance into an award was $11000, and the price of ticket+fees was $1200, effectively equaling a rewards rate of 11%… more than comparable rewards.

The real "found money" came from DW. She almost let 28,000 miles expire. We had to revive them with a minor purchase through AAdvantage Shopping, 17 months into the 18 month expiration period. Another 25K CC bonus and she reached the $1200 ticket after only $750 of spending on gas & groceries.

Of course, the math will be different on future tickets, if there are future tickets.

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