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Guide to Purchasing United Airlines Flight Miles

July 31, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

The United Airlines MileagePlus program is known for having great promotional offers and comparatively valuable miles, but you probably already know that if you’re a frequent flyer.

And if you often use your miles to lessen the cost of flights or upgrade for free, then you probably also know that additional miles are available for purchase if what you’ve earned through flights and card purchases isn’t enough.

But before you go buying miles, be sure you know what you need them for and exactly how many you need. This will help you determine whether there is a cost savings in purchasing the miles with cash. This involves researching factors such as what miles can actually get you in terms of trips, rewards and/or upgrades as well as what restrictions may apply when redeeming miles. These are all ever-changing and could mean the difference between saving money or losing money.

Purchasing United Airlines miles, like any other airline miles, is rarely beneficial to a consumer’s wallet, but if you familiarize yourself with how these frequent flyer points are priced and what their actual value is, you can take advantage of opportunities to save money in ways you might not otherwise have thought.

When is it a Good Idea to Purchase United Airline Flight Miles

United Airlines flight miles should only be purchased when the math makes sense and there is a clear ROI.

This could be when United Airline miles are being sold at incredible discounts (such as now) or when you need a small amount of miles to top off a reward or trip and purchasing the mile difference is cheaper than paying for it with cash.

Here are a few times when buying miles makes good sense and could save you money.

When United Airlines Offers Promotions or Discounts

For example, right now, United Airlines is giving customers that purchase miles an 85% bonus. This means that the entire balance of your purchase will be matched up to 85%, which effectively makes every mile worth 1.85% as much as it normally is.

This may change your calculus on whether or not it’s a right time for you to buy miles, especially if you already had a trip or upgrade in mind and are most of the way there on points.

Keep your eye out for United Airline bonuses like this. A 100% United Airline mile match bonus was also spotted earlier this month.

They come often and can either be available for anyone online or direct offers to you specifically (usually via direct mail). They’re usually “flash deals” which can last anywhere from a few days to a few months.

The percentage is usually a tiered offer that looks something like this:

purchase 5,000 to 14,000 miles: receive a 30% bonus
purchase 15,000 to 39,000 miles: receive a 50% bonus
purchase 40,000 miles or more: receive a 100% bonus

When Buying Miles to Get a Free Ticket or Trip

Everyone wants to fly for free, and one way to do this is to use your miles. Flights through United Airlines and its partners can be purchased with enough points. Award pricing tends to fluctuate wildly like any other ticket pricing, but you can always check what the exact cost in miles will be when booking a flight.

Just select the “Book with miles” when searching a flight and see what the going rate is for your desired ticket. Is your current miles balance almost enough to cover it, or not even close? What is the current price of miles? Always ask these questions. At the end of the day if it’s not cheaper to purchase the miles to get you to your award than it would be paying the difference in cash then it’s simply not worth it.

United Airlines requires that you purchase at least 2,000 miles per transaction. Pricing is variable. You can buy miles in increments of 1,000 all the way up to 150,000 as long as you do not exceed the annual max of 175,000.

The current cost of United Airline Miles is $35 per 1,000 or 3.5 cents each. As you can tell from the chart below, it gets pretty pricey pretty quick when you pay full retail.

Current Cost of United Airlines Miles

# of Miles	Cost
1,000	$35
5,000	$175
10,000	$350
50,000	$1,750
100,000	$3,500
175,000	$6,125

When Buying United Airline Miles to Upgrade Your Seat

If you want to experience more luxurious flying without your bank account experiencing the depletion of luxurious flying, you may want to look into a seat upgrade using your miles – and buying a tad more to get you there may be worth it.

Both United and Star Alliance flights are eligible for seat upgrades paid for with miles, and MileagePlus members that qualify for Premier status—the highest level of loyalty with United, based on your activity and points—have access to great upgrade availability with more perks than other members.

A seat upgraded to a higher fare could cost you upwards of 20,000 each. You may choose to upgrade with miles when selecting fare preferences when booking a flight or after a flight has been booked, but you are not guaranteed upgraded seats until you pay for them.

Those that fly regularly through one airline probably shouldn’t “waste” their miles on a seat upgrade, or their money on miles to be used for this purpose. There are ways to squeeze more monetary value out of miles, and there are easier ways to earn miles. But, if you have miles saved up and are willing to pay a little extra to close the distance for an upgrade, you could buy miles for much less than the full cost of the upgrade in dollars.

When is it Not a Good Idea to Buy United Airline Flight Miles?

Buying United Airline Miles at full price is almost always a bad call.

Don’t let this carrier’s clever advertising and appealing miles redemption selections trick you into throwing away your money on miles that aren’t worth what you’re paying for them.

Make sure to calculate the value of each mile as precisely as you can and always plan ahead when you intend to purchase them for yourself or others.

When the Math Doesn’t Work

If you’ve ever purchased miles from any airline at their full price, you almost certainly lost money. It’s just one of the ways that airlines profit. This is why purchasing more miles or points only makes sense when there are promotions going on or when you already have most of what you need (think 80% or more) to upgrade a seat or buy a ticket.

Get into the habit of calculating the cost per mile for every United Airlines flight. What is it if you buy miles and use those and what is it if you just buy with straight-up cash? More often than not, straight-up cash will be cheaper. But if miles are discounted and/or you have most of what you need already in your account, then, by all means, buy the miles.

Watch Out For Fees For Transferring United Airline Miles vs. Getting Them Directly

Miles make a great gift for people often in the sky but beware of United Airlines’ transfer and processing fees. Buying miles as a gift is a great gesture, but it might lose you money.

MileagePlus miles can be transferred between two accounts, but not without incurring considerable extra charges. For every 500 miles you transfer from your own account to the account of another MileagePlus member, you will be charged $7.50 and $30 per transaction for processing on top of that.

Remember these transfer fees when purchasing miles for others, and consider gifting them directly to their account instead.

The Ticket You Wish to Purchase With Miles May Not Even be Available

Picture this: you’ve planned a whole trip out and budgeted the costs down to the cent, only to find out that the ticket you planned to purchase with miles isn’t available. Don’t let this happen to you—scout awards seats well before booking a flight. They sometimes go fast and are given on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Check the availability of award seats early on in your trip planning process. Being a frequent flyer doesn’t guarantee you tickets that can be purchased using miles, so you should never buy additional miles before looking into this.

Final Thoughts

If you fly United Airlines often enough to consider buying extra miles, you probably already have a decent stash of them in your account. And if this is the case, you are a great candidate for purchasing more when it saves you money. Pay attention to rising and falling rates and any hot deals that might pop up, and you give yourself the best possible chance of spending less on your miles than they are worth. But most important of all, know what you want! You should never just purchase miles to purchase miles, even if they’re on sale. You should always have a reward, trip or upgrade in mind so that you can do the math to be sure there is an ROI in it for you.

MileagePlus miles no longer expire, so if you do end up buying a little more than you need or you make a purchase that might not have been as well-informed as it could have been, your balance won’t go to waste.

United Airlines miles are fairly valuable and can be used in a lot of ways, but in the vast majority of cases you’re better off earning them indirectly through flights and credit card transactions rather than purchasing them directly through the airline.

Guide to Buying Delta Miles and When It Makes Sense

July 22, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

The Delta Air Lines loyalty program, SkyMiles, rewards frequent flyers with countless redemption options and booking bonuses like no blackout dates.

This airline’s four-tiered membership programs stacks on even more benefits for the most loyal members. Each of the tiers (silver, gold, platinum, and diamond) have many features and perks with the diamond level being the most exclusive and rewarding.

You can use miles you rack up to book Award Travel flights, upgrade your seats to a better class, cash in on freebies with Delta Sky Club, and more.

Though Delta miles aren’t worth as much as frequent flyer miles you might earn with other carriers (1.1 cent per Delta SkyMile vs 1.3 cents per average airline mile) they can still save you money if you know what you’re doing.

Whether you’re earning miles by flying Delta or making purchases through Delta partners or with Delta American Express credit cards, there may be times in which you need just a few more miles to get what you’re looking for. In which case, purchasing miles might make sense.

That said, purchasing Delta SkyMiles through your SkyMiles account is going to cost you 3.5 cents per mile at retail price with no promotions going on, which is significantly more than they’re worth.

Keep reading for more information about when it makes sense—and when it definitely does not—to buy Delta SkyMiles with your cash.

When is it a Good Time to Buy Delta Skymiles With Cash?

While purchasing airline miles in general is almost always a bad idea, it does make sense in certain situations.

In general, purchasing Delta SkyMiles in one or more of the following three scenarios tends to make the most sense for most people:

When Buying SkyMiles to Get a Free Ticket

If you have enough miles stocked up, you might be able to pull off flying for free (or almost free). To find out the price in miles of any given flight, simply select “Shop with Miles” in the search engine through the Delta site or the Fly Delta app.

A minimum of 5,000 miles is required in order to use your miles to book Award Travel, and redemptions must be made in 5,000-mile increments. If you see a great deal on a flight—say 10,000 or 15,000 round trip—and you are within just a few thousand miles of being able to get it, buying miles could be a sound investment.

If this is the case, only buy as many as you need. Delta will allow you to purchase as few as 2,000 miles at a time, but prices vary.

Key Takeaway: Make sure buying miles in order to get a free ticket won’t cost more than simply paying the difference with cash.

For example, imagine you’re trying to fly from Los Angeles to New York City and you already have 34,500 miles in your SkyMiles account. You then come across a ticket available for 36,000 miles – or – $460. You can either purchase the ticket without your miles for $460 cash or you can spend $70 to buy the minimum of 2,000 miles to top off the 1,500 you needed for your trip. In this scenario buying SkyMiles makes sense.

Two additional variables to keep in mind that could affect your bottom line cost are:

small fees are assessed for award redemption and
flights through partner airlines will have different Award Travel requirements.

When Buying SkyMiles to Upgrade Your Seat

Purchasing frequent flyer miles for seat upgrades is fairly common practice across all airlines, and this is true for Delta as well.

You’ll be able to upgrade your seat during or after booking using your miles balance for as many flights in your party as you want (just make sure there are enough award seats available).

If you value the added luxury of business or first class but don’t necessarily want to cough up the money for the considerable up-charges, using miles to upgrade is the way to go.

And if you don’t have quite enough miles to get that upgrade, then purchasing a few thousand to top it off may make sense.

The miles required to upgrade your seat is going to depend on where you’re going and when, but don’t expect purchasing the additional miles needed to be a cost-cutting option unless you already have a good portion of the miles required in your account.

When Buying Discounted SkyMiles

Another situation where purchasing Delta SkyMiles might make sense is when they offer special deals and promotions that drastically bring down the cost per mile.

Delta has been known to offer very competitive discounts on miles in the past. We’ve seen discounts run as high as 75% on miles, effectively reducing the cost of purchasing miles to roughly 1.75 cents per mile (vs 3.5 cents retail). This is still above the average value you receive per SkyMile (which sits at roughly 1.1 cent per mile) but it makes buying miles a much more attractive prospect, especially if you have a specific use in mind for them.

Buying these miles in large amounts when they go on sale likely isn’t the best idea without specific use cases for them. That said, if you’re very loyal to Delta and fly regularly it may be worth it to pick some up when the promotions take place and set them aside for future use.

When it is Not a Good Idea to Buy Delta Sky Miles

It’s never a good idea to purchase Delta flight miles when miles cost more than they are objectively worth. Here are a couple of things to watch out for when you’re considering whether or not to buy more miles.

When the Math Doesn’t Work

To know for sure if purchasing SkyMiles is a wise decision, you will need to put in a little extra work.

In a nut shell, make sure that the total price you pay purchasing the amount of miles needed for a trip is always less than what it would cost in cash.

Generally speaking purchasing lower increments 2,000 – 5,000 to top off an award is going to be the way to go. Here’s a table illustrating how expensive SkyMiles can get the more you purchase:

Cost of SkyMiles (assuming full retail price of 3.5 cents per mile):

Number of Miles	Cost to Purchase
2,000	$70
5,000	$175
10,000	$350
30,000	$1050
50,000	$1,750

Delta SkyMiles retail at $0.035/ea

When the Tickets You Wish to Buy Are Unavailable

Award seats are in short supply on most flights. If you’re considering buying miles for a particular flight or trip, make sure there are seats available ahead of time.

Sadly, not all flight seats can be purchased with miles, so you’ll need to plan as far in advance as possible if you intend to use miles to buy a ticket.

To check whether a flight has award seats available during booking, enter your desired flight information and select “Shop With Miles” or “Show Price in Miles.” If seats are available, you will see them and how much they cost. If there are no more seats available, you can try checking a different flight class to see if there are more there.

Final Thoughts

To get the most out of your Delta SkyMiles, whether they are purchased or earned, you need to make sure you know what they’re worth. Purchasing miles is usually not a smart move, but a few scenarios (outlined above) make it potentially beneficial.

Visit the Delta SkyMiles Deals page for a complete list of advertised offers including the best-priced tickets available. Flash deals that maximize the value of your miles are updated monthly.

If you already have a sizable pool of miles in your account and you have a specific upgrade or trip in mind, then buying a few more to nab that offer may be a good way to travel cheaper.

Buying Airline Miles – When To Consider This Option?

July 15, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

Miles can be earned through frequent flyer rewards programs with nearly any airline. If you fly often enough with one or two airlines, you will more than likely be rewarded for your loyalty with miles. These can be put toward any number of things, including ticket upgrades, hotel reservations, car rentals, and even airline-branded merchandise, if you’re into that sort of thing.

But what if you want more miles than you’ve currently earned making airline purchases or flying?

Many airlines give customers the option of purchasing additional miles or points for their accounts, but there aren’t many advantages in doing this as the price at which they are sold often exceeds the value in which they can be exchanged for.

The tactic of acquiring more miles than you’ve “earned” isn’t going to be a huge money-saving hack by any means, but there are some instances where it can cut costs and make your life easier.

We will cover those potential scenarios in this article.

When Should You Consider Buying Airlines Miles

In a nut shell, one may consider buying airline miles if doing so will:

Buying miles makes the price of the ticket more affordable than its retail price, or
Buying miles keeps you from having your frequent flyer account deactivated, or
Buying additional miles allows you to cash in a bonus offer or reward that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

If the price of the ticket is greater than the cost of purchasing necessary miles.

There are going to be times (albeit, not often) when ticket prices surpass miles prices. When this is the case, take advantage of the opportunity to save money and buy miles rather than the ticket itself.

To find out when this opportunity is present, you’ll need to do some basic math.

First, figure out the price per mile if you were to buy miles directly from your loyalty program’s website. Look for the “buy,” “gift,” or “transfer” tabs once you’ve logged in. The price per mile varies by airline, but a general rule of thumb is 2.5 to 3.5 cents per mile.

Second, after you’ve added up how much it will take to buy the required miles for the ticket, weigh this against the actual retail price of the ticket itself. Be sure to factor in taxes and fees.

To prevent accrued miles from expiring.

The last thing you want to do after racking up major miles is to let them go to waste.

Most frequent flyer programs set expiration dates on their miles if your account remains inactive for too long—18 months is fairly typical—and one way to keep an account active is to put more miles into it. It doesn’t matter whether these are purchased or earned or how many it is.

Especially if your favorite airline will let you purchase just one or two thousand miles or if your flying habits are more sporadic, buying miles to prevent account deactivation could be a great way to make sure that you never lose miles before you get a chance to use them.

The United Airlines MileagePlus program, for example, allows customers to purchase as few as 2,000 miles and it goes up in increments of 1,000. These miles cost $35 per 1,000 miles (or 3.5 cents each) so with the 2,000 mile minimum purchase requirement, it would cost you $70 ($35 per 1,000 miles) to purchase 2,000 miles and thus keep your entire allotment active.

Buying miles to cash in on a bonus or to top off a reward.

Many airlines run promotions to incentivize buying miles, and you’re going to want to be on the lookout for these. Don’t waste your time with deals that only save you a couple of cents a mile, but instead keep your eyes peeled for slashed rates. Rate reductions of anywhere from 10% to 50% are common when you buy more miles at a time. Here’s a good place to scrounge around for updated deals.

Topping Off a Reward

Buying miles is a quick and easy way to supplement what you already have in your account, but only if the math makes sense.

If you’re really close to being able to use your miles on a great reward or ticket but just don’t quite have what you need in your account, consider buying enough to close the distance. The vacation package of your dreams could be just a few thousand miles away.

Consider the following:

Let’s say you and your significant other want to go to Hawaii for vacation and you’ve saved 145,000 miles between the two of you.

In general, it costs ~40,000 miles for one roundtrip ticket to Hawaii (or 75,000 miles for business class).

You two easily have enough miles to cash in on a free trip (40,000 miles each x 2 = 80,000 miles required), but with just 5,000 extra miles you could go in business class (75,000 miles each x 2 = 150,000 miles required).

In this scenario, it could make sense to purchase the additional 5,000 miles to bring your allotment from 145,000 up to 150,000 to cash in on the business class trip to Hawaii rather than flying coach.

Where To Go To Buy Airline Miles

Where you need to go to purchase airline miles will depend on which loyalty program(s) you are a part of and which airlines you fly most often. For the most part, airlines want you to buy miles so they make this easy and obvious to find.

If you visit your loyalty program’s website or online portal, look for links saying “buy,” “gift,” or “transfer” miles.

Other Variables To Consider

As stated, purchasing miles isn’t going to make sense in most cases, so make sure that you know how to make this decision wisely when the option presents itself.

The following two considerations are also important to keep in mind if you are thinking about buying miles.

Can you purchase miles with a rewards credit card?

If you’ve got a great reward credit card in your wallet and it makes sense for you to purchase airline miles (using our guide above), then you may want to compound the miles you earn by purchasing them with your reward credit card.

Buying miles using a rewards credit card will earn you even more miles or credit card points at no additional cost to you—just make sure that both the airline and the card will let you do this.

The best cards count miles purchases as travel purchases, which is a good way to earn more points or miles than you pay for.

Co-branded airline cards are a great way to maximize the earning potential on anything travel-related with a certain carrier, especially miles, while general rewards cards may or may not be compatible with your airline of choice.

How many award seats are available on the flight?

Airline miles can’t just be used to purchase flight seats whenever you please. Unfortunately, award seats—or seats set aside specifically for award redemption—are often limited. And even more unfortunate, a carrier won’t always make it easy to find out how many award seats are still available when you go to book a flight.

Searching for tickets through your airline’s search engine and filtering the results is going to be your best bet, but make sure that you’re searching only direct flights, as flights through partner airlines are not typically eligible to be paid for with miles and points. Also note that if you are traveling with a large party, you are unlikely to be able to use miles for all of your seats. Usually, a flight or cabin only has between one and five award seats available, but this will depend on many factors including the airline, flight route, seat class, etc.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, the scenarios in which purchasing airlines miles makes sense are few and far between.

If you are close to being able to redeem a loyalty reward, your miles are about to expire due to account inactivity, your favorite airline is running a promotion you can’t pass up, or the cost of a flight ticket is greater than the cost of enough miles to pay for said ticket, then buying miles makes some sense. Outside of this, however, you’ll be hard pressed to find a scenario in which it would be advantageous to purchase miles.

Before you go through with any purchases, just make sure that you’re using the right credit card and award seats are still available on the flight you’re looking to take.

The ability to purchase airline miles is a useful option to keep in mind, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that frequent flyer miles or points are more valuable than they really are. The true dollar value of any given mile ebbs and flows.

14 Simple Ways to Keep Your American Airlines Points Active

April 7, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

The American Airlines points program, called AAdvantage, is how American Airlines thanks its customers for continued loyalty and how frequent flyers can earn miles that stretch their money farther. If you qualify for the AAdvantage program and want to know how to keep your account active, find out how to prevent your miles from expiring.

In a nut shell, you need to earn more miles or redeem what you already have to keep your points active. Flying is just one way to earn and keep miles from expiring, but it might not be the most convenient choice. There are countless other ways to earn miles through American Airlines that don’t involve boarding a plane at all, and plenty of ways to redeem miles too. Keep reading for 14 simple tips that will keep your points active.

Do American Airlines Miles Expire?

Yes, American Airlines miles do expire, but it takes 18 months of inactivity for this to happen. This is a relatively short expiration period, but it can easily be reset (an option that not all airlines offer).

Qualifying activity includes earning or redeeming miles, so all you have to do to keep the miles in your account from lapsing is to use miles or get more. And as soon as activity is registered on your account, the expiration date is automatically reset to 18 months from the time of most recent activity.

At this time, American Airlines is extending the expiration period for miles set to expire between April 2nd and June 30 of 2020 to July 1st due to travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders that make it harder to get and use points. So you might not have to worry about keeping your miles just yet, but you’ll want to know how to when that time comes.

Here’s how.

Fly

You don’t have to fly to earn miles, and you don’t even have to fly American if you are going somewhere. A trip through any of American Airlines’ one world or other partner airlines counts and will help you get points. Your miles can then be put toward American or partner flights, once you have enough.

So if you’re already planning to go somewhere, make sure you maximize your spending—and reset your account—by flying American or an American partner.

Use Your Miles to Shop

The AAdvantage e-shopping mall provides an opportunity for members to earn points per dollar spent at over 950 online stores. There are many participating stores to choose from, and the portal lets you sort these by name or earn rate, top stores, featured deals, store type (including at home comforts, food and drink, entertainment and education, and more), and trending stores.

But don’t think that shopping through a portal means your options are limited. This is far from the case, as you’ll have access to popular brands and companies like Apple, Nike, and Target. Some places will only give you a point per dollar spent, but some will give you seven. Keep in mind that earning even just a few miles is enough to prevent your balance from expiring.

Your first thought when you need new clothes, tech, or other household essentials might not be to make your purchases through American Airlines, but as long as this thought occurs to you at least once every 18 months, you could keep your American points active through online shopping alone.

Enroll in the AAdvantage Dining Program

Just like everyone has to shop, everyone has to eat, and American Airlines is prepared to reward you with more than just a full stomach when you dine at any of their 10,000 restaurant partners. AAdvantage Dining lets you earn miles per dollar when you eat out at thousands of local and nationwide establishments that you probably already eat at anyway. You won’t earn a whole lot unless you do this often, but at least your points won’t expire.

Just input your location into the search tool to see your options and find out how many miles you can expect to earn. Right now, AAdvantage Dining is also rewarding members one point per dollar for orders placed online and/or for delivery.

Transfer Miles

More miles than you know what to do with? Share them with someone else. Transferring miles to another person’s AAdvantage account will incur fees of $20 or more per 1,000 miles (login here for current rates) and processing fees on top of that, but it’ll also keep your points active, so it may or may not be worth it. You may transfer no more than 200,000 per year and transfers are not reversible or refundable. Keep this option in mind for when other methods, for whatever reason, aren’t going to work.

Buy Miles

Use the BGT Portal to buy, gift, or transfer miles.

Full disclosure: this is not the most practical or economical way to keep your points active, but it’s a choice nonetheless. Buying more miles will cost upwards of $30 per 1,000 miles and at least as much in processing, but you can do this quickly and easily in a pinch and it’s better than coughing up the cash to have miles reactivated if they expire. Plus, there are often promotions that’ll essentially match the miles you buy, making the fees more worthwhile.

Get (And USE) an AAdvantage Credit Card

Using an American Airlines branded travel credit card is one of the easiest ways to earn miles without having to remember to do anything special. With one of the following four CitiBank / AAdvantage credit cards, you can earn miles for everyday spending on groceries, American Airlines purchases, food and drink, gas, and nearly anything else.

American Airlines credit cards include the:

Each card has its own unique perks, but all of them have mileage benefits (as well as travel discounts and perks). The MileUp card, for example, earns 2X miles at grocery stores, the Platinum Select earns 2X miles at restaurants and gas stations, the Executive card earns 2X miles on American Airlines purchases, and the Platinum Select business card earns 2X miles on cable and satellite purchases. No matter how you do most of your spending, one of these is likely to fit your lifestyle.

You probably don’t need to be told to not get credit cards you don’t need or for the miles alone, but one of these travel cards may just be right up your alley. And because there is no limit to the number of miles you can earn, spending with one of these cards might also be the perfect way to not only keep your points active but earn rewards effortlessly. Just be aware that some of these cards have annual fees.

Book a Hotel Stay

image credit: hyatt.com (AAdvantage hotel partner)

If using your credit card isn’t simple enough, the AAdvantage program makes it possible to earn miles in your sleep—as long as you’re sleeping in an American Airlines partner hotel. With big-name partners like Hyatt, Marriott, and Best Western, you can find a participating hotel just about anywhere in the world.

You can either stay at a partner hotel to earn miles—either flat rate or per dollar miles—or convert hotel points to American miles, and both of these actions count as qualifying activity on an account. You’ll maximize your return by staying at a partner hotel, so if you know ahead of time that you’ll be traveling, do this rather than converting points afterward (hotel points are not redeemable for an equal amount of airline points, so converting should be a last resort).

Book a Cruise

You might not associate cruises and flying with each other, but maybe you should. Similar to the partner hotel program, the American Airlines cruise program grants members miles when they take to the seas. Earn bonus miles well into the thousands per cruise when you book through American Airlines Cruises, with fares backed by a 110% best price guarantee (if you find a better price somewhere else within two days of booking through American, you’ll be refunded 110% of the difference).

Cruise lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and even Disney participate in this program, so don’t worry about not finding the trip you’re looking for. Tickets are sold at exclusive American Airlines discounted rates and, of course, earn major miles. Through June 30, 2022, earn one AAdvantage mile per $1 spent on cruises up to 10,000 miles.

Rent a Car

AAdvantage members can also earn when renting cars—at least 500 miles per rental day, in fact. When you book a car with American Airlines, you can rent through car rental programs including but not limited to Budget, National, Avis, and Hertz. Today’s featured deals, valid through May 31, 2020, include:

Save up to 35% and earn 1,000 bonus miles through Avis
Save up to 30% and earn 1,000 bonus miles through Budget

Save With Bask Bank

Want a way to earn miles while saving money? Bask Bank—an online, FDIC-insured bank that offers the only savings account that earns miles instead of interest—can make that happen. Right now, they are offering 5,000 miles when you deposit $5,000 into a savings account and maintain this balance for at least 30 days. Rather than an interest rate, you’ll earn a mile on the dollar with this account.

A single AAdvantage mile is estimated to be worth 1.4 cents, so you’re looking at sizable returns if you go this route. However, unless you fly a lot, you probably don’t want all of your interest in the form of miles; but if you do, this is an easy way to keep the deposits coming and your points active.

Sign up for e-Rewards or Miles for Options

American Airlines and other companies want your feedback, and they want it so badly that they’re willing to give you miles for it. Get 250 AAdvantage miles just for signing up with e-Rewards, an online market research community, then keep answering surveys of your choice (they don’t all have to be about flying) to earn e-Rewards currency that can be converted into miles. You’ll need a balance of $12 or more in e-Rewards to redeem, and these can be redeemed as miles.

You can also (or instead) sign up for Miles for Opinions, an American Airlines partner with a similar program. Participate in any surveys, panels, or focus groups you’d like to and receive miles deposited directly into your AAdvantage account.

Enroll in LifeLock

Protect yourself from identity theft and get 12,000 miles by enrolling in a LifeLock membership. You’ll need to be an active member for 31 days before the miles are yours, but then you’ll get even more (dependent on membership plan) in the second and third years of your membership if you choose to continue your LifeLock protection.

LifeLock will monitor your SSN and credit activity and scan for potential threats for $8.99/month (standard) and bank and investment activity on top of that for $22.49/month (ultimate plus). Obviously, signing up for a new identity theft protection service isn’t exactly going to save you money, but it’s something to consider if you want this type of insurance anyway.

Donate to Charity

If you’re feeling charitable, consider donating to an organization in collaboration with American: Stand Up to Cancer. This charity is committed to researching cancer treatments and cures, and American Airlines is committed to helping them do that by presenting members with the option of donating to earn miles. You’ll get 10 miles for every dollar you give over $25, and this action can be performed at any time. Just make sure to donate through American Airlines to get your miles.

Donate Some Miles

If you don’t want to donate cash for miles, you can go a slightly different route and donate your miles. This is an especially good option if you don’t have enough points to help with flight costs and/or want to support a worthy cause for no additional cost.

Donate miles to any of the following programs:

Miles for Our Well-Being, which supports the health and wellness of patients in partnership with Stand Up to Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Make-A-Wish
Miles for Our Heroes, which honors American military service members in partnership with Medal of Honor, the George W. Bush Institute, and the Gary Sinise Foundation
Miles for Our Social Good, which performs humanitarian work in partnership with the Red Cross, Feeding America, and UNICEF.

There is no minimum donation required and donations made in this fashion are not tax-deductible.

Final Thoughts

Since there are so many ways to earn and redeem miles, there’s no reason that your AAdvantage points need to expire before you can use them—to let this happen is not only wasteful but entirely avoidable. If you follow these tips and tricks, it’s easy to keep your account active and maximize your earnings.

But if you regularly come close to letting your points expire, keep in mind that adding more points to your account is only going to drive your total miles up and you’ll still have to use them at some point. There are certainly worse problems to have than too many miles, but the AAdvantage loyalty program isn’t going to do you much good if you’re not using your points.

Google ITA Flight Matrix Guide – Tips, Tricks & Hacks

March 4, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

The ITA Flight Matrix is the software that powers Google Fights and other popular booking portals.

Planning to travel by air soon but not sure of the best way to find a flight? Look no further than Google. But instead of using the standard web search engine you know and love and coming across numerous advertisements and sponsored results to sift through, try using the advanced flight search engine created by Google’s very own travel information software company, ITA Software.

If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of the ITA Flight Matrix, it’s probably because you’ve been using one of the many search engines powered by its groundbreaking technology.

Though the ITA Matrix functions as its own entity and can be used to search flights, the software behind it is actually used by countless other flight search engines. If you’ve ever visited search platforms and online travel agencies (OTAs) like Google Flights, Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, or Kayak or airline sites like United and Delta to find flights, you’ve indirectly used the ITA Matrix.

How Google Acquired ITA Software

Google and the ITA Matrix were not always the power couple that they are today. Though the company ITA Software was created by MIT grads in the 90s, it wasn’t until 2010 that Google announced plans to absorb the online air travel broker and its Matrix for a cool $700 million.

After this smart business move on Google’s part, the original Matrix tool was reimagined into Version 3.0, a more convenient and up-to-date translation of the original. The software that started it all, called QPX, was kept intact for use by corporate customers, but it was also rolled into Google’s own separate airfare search entity created in 2011, Google Flights

Google’s all-in-one flight search engine might sound like science fiction, but it’s a very real and very useful tool that also happens to be free to use. By extending its business to include cutting-edge search software, Google made finding travel information easier than ever for flyers and airlines alike.

Google’s ITA Flight Matrix is the most robust flight search vehicle on the market today. Using the Matrix, users can select for flights by route, price, airline, and any other detail they desire in mere seconds. Here’s how to use the prolific but surprisingly accessible search engine to find your next flight.

How To Use The Flight Matrix For Best Results

Before Google’s acquisition of ITA Software, the user flight-shopping experience was messy and confusing with a single flight search resulting in pages and pages of competing outputs to choose from.

Fortunately for consumers now, it doesn’t get more user-friendly and customizable than Google’s ITA Flight Matrix, which allows travelers to tailor every aspect of their flight to fit their specific itinerary needs and search for the most affordable travel options. Plus, the ITA Matrix is straightforward and un-intimidating to use. Here’s how to build your whole search using the Flight Matrix search engine. See the empty search page below.

Selecting for Round-trip, One-way, or Multi-city Trips

To begin your search, simply toggle to select for your type of trip at the top of the Matrix site, where 3 options are organized into separate tabs: round-trip, where you purchase one ticket for both departure and arrival; one-way, where you purchase one ticket for only your departure; and multi-city, a round-trip option where you can choose separate cities for departure and arrival.

If you’re not sure what type of trip you want to take before you start your search, no need to worry. The search tool will auto-populate most of your selections between tabs so indecisive users don’t have to keep starting over.

Choosing City of Departure

The Google Flight Matrix allows users to specify exactly which airport they’d like to depart from using either a city name or airport code and filling in the Departing from search box. If you don’t know your desired airport’s code, find it at https://www.world-airport-codes.com/.

Searching a city that contains multiple airports will show all airports when you type the city’s name into the search bar. Choose “All airports” at the top of this list if you don’t have a preference.

Travelers can even use the name of a state for this search and see every airport in that state. This might be a good option for anyone that wants the cheapest flights and has some flexibility as to where they can go to take off.

Choosing Destination City

Choosing a destination city is no different than choosing a departure city in the Google Flight Matrix. Using the Destination box, just search the airport you’d like to land in, again by either a city name or airport code.

The “Nearby” option to the right of the Departure from and Destination boxes lets you search airports outside of the city you’ve chosen within a specified radius than ranges from 25-2000 miles—you can even select all of the options that pop up.

Users looking for round-trip flights can choose separate departure and destination cities/airports or opt to use the same. The “Reverse route” option swaps the destinations of arrival and departure.

Optional Advanced Routing Codes

Airport routing codes might sound a little intimidating, but they are just an advanced flight search option in the Matrix that you may or may not want to use to quickly specify your exact preferences.

Using only routing codes, you can indicate how many stops you wish to make, which airline you’d like to use, where you’d like to connect, your itinerary duration, and more. Find out how to determine the routing codes for travel searches below.

Specifying Dates In The Matrix

There are a few options you’ll want to be aware of when inputting your flight dates into the Matrix. First, in the Dates section, you’ll want to select either Search exact dates or See calendar of lowest fares.

When you toggle the mm/dd/yy Outbound Date o r Return Date box, a calendar will automatically pop up. Use this to find the dates you’re looking for.

Outbound Departure Date

For every date you select in the Google Flight Matrix, you have the option of also stipulating your preferred time of departure. These time brackets include:

● Early morning (before 8:00 AM)

● Morning (8:00 – 11:00 AM)

● Midday (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM)

● Afternoon (2:00 – 5:00 PM)

● Evening (5:00 – 9:00 PM)

● Night (after 9:00 PM)

You can select as few as one or all of these boxes. Don’t mind getting up early? Let the Matrix filter for early morning and morning flights to avoid airport traffic. Fares tend to fluctuate according to flight time, so if you’d like to see all of your options, check each time box or select “No preferred times” below.

Return/Arrival Date

When choosing your return/arrival date, you can specify your preferred time of arrival just as you could specify your preferred time of departure. Another handy feature of the entire dates section is the On this day only drop-down box. As you might guess, this lets you decide whether to open your search to include dates outside of your given range in your search results. These options include:

● On this day only

● Or day before

● Or day after

● Plus/minus 1 day

● Plus/minus 2 days

Take advantage of any flexibility you may have here to save money.

Filling In Number of Adults

When you get to the Adults section, be prepared to give the exact ranges of all passengers you anticipate being in your party. Those flying with adults only (between the ages of 18 and 61 years old) can just choose the number of adults from the menu and move to the next section.

Click Children, seniors if you’ll be taking anyone under 18 years old and/or above 61 years old with you because this will open up age selection options. Just like other flight search engines, the Google Flight Matrix wants to know how old your party’s passengers will be. Why? Because some airlines have certain age restrictions. For example, some require you to have tickets for passengers under the age of 2, others don’t. Some define adults and children differently.

Let the Matrix do the dirty work of weeding out the flights that won’t work for your party. All you have to do is select the appropriate number of passengers in each age bracket:

● Adults (18 – 61 years)

● Seniors (62 and over)

● Youths (12 to 17)

● Children (2 to 11)

● Infants in seat (under 2)

● Infants in lap (under 2)

Many airlines will ask that you either purchase your infant a separate seat or keep them in your lap for the duration of your flight.

Cabin Type Options

The Cabin section asks you to pick your flight type. Most airlines offer four classes of cabin types, and the Flight Matrix uses these as well: cheapest available (economy), premium economy, business class or higher, and first class.

Each flight class offers different services and accommodations to its passengers. Economy class—also known as coach or standard—is, of course, the most affordable option and first class is on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Economy flyers can expect only the most basic amenities, narrow seats and walkways, and minimal snack and beverage selections. Premium economy is a step better and business class a step better than that.

First class flyers usually enjoy spacious seating, luxury entertainment, privacy doors or even rooms, and fine dining. The Google Matrix is interested in your cabin preferences primarily so that it can cater your results to your budget. After all, you don’t want to see first class flights if you have a premium economy budget, do you?

Choosing Your Desired Number of Stops

Choose the number of stops ideal for you using the Stops box and selecting from the following:

● No limit

● Non-stop only

● Up to 1 stop

● Up to 2 stops

You will notice that the stops selection alone drastically changes your search results.

Extra Stops Allowed

Remember that the Matrix is designed to search all possible options for you, and if you allow it to hunt for even better deals, it will. Essentially, the difference between Stops and Extra stops is just is the difference between what you’re okay with and where you absolutely put your foot down.

If, for example, you’d prefer to keep your itinerary to 1 stop but you’d go as high as 2, choose 1 stop for Stops and up to 1 extra stop for Extra stops. This will guarantee that you aren’t passing your limit while also showing more flight choices.

Selecting Options In The Other Section

Toward the bottom of your Matrix search, you will see boxes to check in the Other section. These are “Allow airport changes” and “Only show flights and prices with available seats”.

Both of these boxes are automatically checked in the interest of saving you money, but you can uncheck “Allow airport changes” for a simpler itinerary or “Only show flights and prices with available seats” if you’re willing to risk not getting a spot on your flight.

What To Do When You Get To Currency

The Currency box search page is an optional advanced feature, but you can use it to show flight fares in a different currency. The currency you will see defaults to the currency of sales or departure city, so if you’re leaving from the United States, flight prices will be shown in USD or U.S. dollars.

When would changing this box come in handy? Say you have been on an international trip in Europe for a while and are ready to book a flight home to the United States. Your fares in the Matrix will be given in euros unless you change them to dollars, which you might prefer if that is the currency you are most comfortable using.

What Is The Sales City?

At the very bottom of the Google Matrix search box is the Sales option. The default for sales city is departure city, but international flyers might find cheaper flight options by changing sales city.

Sometimes, due to currency exchange rates, flight prices are different in different cities for no apparent reason. If you play around with currency and sales city, you might get lucky and find slightly lower fares.

Flight Search Example: Understanding and Filtering Results

To understand what your search and results will actually look like when you use the ITA Matrix to find a flight, take a look at this example.

This is the search page for a trip from Chicago to Los Angeles. The results page is shown below.

Look at the different drop-down menus above the results. Filtering options include Price, Airline, Depart, Arrive, Duration, From/To, Stops, a nd Advisory. These choices will allow you to not only sort your results in various ways but also change aspects of your trip without having to go back and edit your whole search.

Select departure time and compare prices.

Want to change your departure time window? Simply select Depart and click the boxes you’d like to see results for.

Want to see the shortest or longest possible flights? Select Duration and toggle the sliders as needed.

You will notice that the Matrix automatically filters prices by low to high, showing the cheapest flight options first in orange type. If you hover your cursor over the prices for any of the flights, a box showing the exact price per passenger and the total cost will appear. Click on a price to see that flight’s itinerary.

Remember flights can’t be purchased directly from the ITA Software.

Comparing Airline Options

Using the Airline menu, you can select for and/or delete airline options from your search. “All airlines” is automatically selected, but you can check and uncheck boxes as you please. If for some reason you prefer not to fly through American Airlines, for instance, uncheck its box and these flights will no longer appear in your search.

Because different airlines price their flights differently, analyzing all fares across airlines might be smart. Some frequent flyers through a particular airline can use this feature to ensure that they can put miles and points toward the price of their flight.

Saving Money Using The Google Flight Matrix

There are a few simple rules you can follow to save more money using the Google Flight Matrix before you’ve even gotten to the results page. Use search strategies such as the following to make sure that your results only include the most economical options out there.

Fly economy—select this option from the Cabin section.
Be flexible—open up your search to include more days and times (choose “Plus/minus 2 days for Dates and “No preferred times” for outbound and return flights).
Allow stops, airport changes, and connections.
Avoid hidden fees (keep reading to see how).
Take advantage of the See calendar of lowest fares feature.
Try entering a few different currencies and sales cities.

Follow these steps in your search and use the hacks provided later in this article, you’re sure to get the best value on your next flight.

Price Differences Between The Matrix And Google Flights

So, are prices the same between across the Google Flight Matrix API (Application Programming Interface) and Google Flights? Not quite, but the Matrix is more accurate.

Until Book With Matrix, users could not book using the Matrix. And while they still can’t purchase directly from ITA using Book With Matrix, they can input their selected itineraries to find the exact flight they’re looking for. Because this redirects users to travel agency and airline sites, these prices are always up-to-date and what you see in the Matrix is what you’ll get.

Google Flights, on the other hand, doesn’t usually reflect changes when airlines update prices. Because of this, you might be shown a fare that’s no longer offered and you won’t see the true price of a flight until you prepare to check out.

As for other flight comparison sites, you can expect similar, if not the very same, fares between these and the Matrix. For the same round-trip premium economy flight from Chicago to L.A. shown in this article, the total price is $2639.40 across:

The ITA Matrix
Flight Network
Priceline
Expedia
United Airlines

How To Use Routing Codes In The Google Flight Matrix

Routing codes can restrict your options so that you see only precisely what you want to see, but how do you know what codes to use? You don’t have to be a computer programmer or tech wiz to use advanced routing language, but it might take a little practice to craft coded queries. Here are all of the possible input options.

Using routing code syntax may help you drill down to your ideal flights quicker.

By clicking “Advanced routing codes,” you can input codes and narrow your search quickly and accurately. Every flyer is different and has different preferences, and the Matrix leaves room for all of these. Here are a few real examples for reference. (Note: Find an airline’s two-letter code using IATA’s code search tool.)

Routing Code Examples

These example queries came directly from a Google Help page devoted to ITA Routing Codes.

● A direct flight through American Airlines: [AA] or [C:AA]

● Up to three flights, at least one through US Airways: [F? US F?]

● Two connections or less: [X? X?]

● Two connections or more: [X X+]

● A flight on US Airlines followed by a flight on United Airlines: [US UA]

Keep in mind that you will have to input your codes into the right box for each part of your flight. If, for instance, you are flying round-trip and don’t want to make any stops on the way back (Destination flight), you will need to input this code into the Returning routing code box beneath your second flight as opposed to the Outbound routing code box beneath your first flight.

Extension Codes

In addition to the standard routing codes shown above, users can use extension codes to sharpen their searches even further. These can limit the number of stops, establish minimum connection times, and even prevent overnight flights from being displayed. See these below.

You can have a routing code, an extension code, or both—just be sure to plug your codes into the right boxes.

Extension codes, like routing codes, are a helpful advanced feature of the search engine. Some flyers, for instance, might want a specific connection point so they can drop in a friend’s city for a cup of coffee—they would use [X:___] and fill in the blank with the code for the connecting city—and they could even specify a minimum connection of 1 hour using [/ minconnect 60] to make sure they have sufficient time to visit.

Think you’re ready to try coding for yourself? Try this example: You’re willing to make a single stop on your flight anywhere other than New York City, and you’d like to avoid this stop being either red-eye or overnight. What would the code be?*

Tips And Hacks For Booking Flights

In the past, tickets couldn’t be purchased directly from ITA Software. Now, however, there is the almost too-good-be-true BookWithMatrix tool (which is not affiliated with Google or ITA Software). This program redirects users to booking sites right from their search. If you thought building the perfect search was easy, wait until you see this part.

To book your chosen flight through Matrix, follow these steps:

Select the flight you want by clicking its price. This will direct you to a page titled “Itinerary Details”.
Highlight the entire itinerary page by clicking CTRL + A. Once the whole page is highlighted, click CTRL + C to copy.
Input this itinerary into the BookWithMatrix toolbar by clicking CTRL + P.

Note that “BookWithMatrix” is not actually affiliated with the ITA matrix or Google.

This is how your page will appear once you’ve followed the above three steps. Now you should be ready to book your flight and all you have to do is navigate to the Book With… button and choose from a couple of flight booking sites that use the Matrix, such as Flight Network and Priceline. But before you do that, make sure you know exactly what you’re agreeing to.

Airplane tickets are tricky. Hidden fees and bloated prices can quickly overwhelm even the savviest travelers, but don’t let them trip you up or catch you off guard. When it comes to actually booking, there are many hacks for ensuring that you are getting the best possible fare using your search results. Follow these tips and tricks for best results.

How To Quickly Spot Hidden Fees

One money-saving booking trick is to know how to spot hidden fees. Most flights come with hidden fees and unexpected expenses that you often wish you’d known about ahead of time. For your next flight, you can. Save money by avoiding bogus charges associated with:

● Checking luggage

● Prebooked seats

● Reservation changes

● In-flight Wi-Fi

● Payment card type

Some flight fees are unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for them. Find out before y ou book what you will be charged for checked and carry-on bags (most airlines offer carry-ons for free, but not all), what payment types come with additional service fees, whether there is a cancellation or change charge (and what it is), and which in-flight amenities are not complimentary. Usually, important flight information is included in a detailed separate document or page attached to a ticket booking screen. Scan this thoroughly if you don’t want any charges sneaking up on you and look into the common ones listed above.

Identifying Economy Class Flights

Perhaps it goes without saying, but choosing economy class is often going to save you the most money and one of the easiest cost-cutting hacks to use. This, well, economical option is designed for people that are willing to sacrifice comfort and convenience for savings.

Economy class flights are denoted with many labels, including third class, coach class, steerage, standard economy, and budget economy. Airline booking codes for economy class include O, Q, N, S, G, V, L, M, K, H, and Y. If you see one of these, your ticket is an economy ticket, and you’re probably getting the lowest fare possible.

The Google Flight Matrix makes identifying economy class flights easy by allowing you to search for this cabin type exclusively (see section about cabins above).

Using The Full Calendar For Lowest Fares

Remember that See calendar of lowest fares s ection of the Matrix? Here’s how to take full advantage of that. The results page lists the cheapest options right at the top, but you can see even lower fares by selecting See calendar of lowest fares in the Dates section of your search. You will then need to type in your departure date and approximate length of stay.

What this does is show you fare prices for an entire month or more, with ticket prices for your trip displayed on each day. Select one of these days as your exact departure date and your arrival date will be automatically chosen based on the length of your stay. This feature lets users see fare fluctuations all in one place without having to edit their search over and over again to hunt for the lowest fares.

Comparing Two, One-Way Hacker Fees

One trick that’s trending among thrifty air travelers is known as the hacker fee or fare. This is the process of piecing together two individual flights on separate airlines to form a round-trip in order to save money.

To try this hack, pull up a round-trip flight in one window, one-way departure flight in another, and a one-way arrival flight in a third. Select the cheapest fare options for each and do a side-by-side comparison of itinerary prices. To ensure that you are actually seeing the lowest prices, use the calendar above.

Booking Flights Using Airline Points And Rewards

Loyalist flyers with miles to use and cardholders with airline points might want to know how to use the Matrix to book flights using their rewards. This process is simple.

First, if there’s a particular airline you must use to redeem rewards, filter your results or search to include only that airline. Next, find the best flight for your trip and input your itinerary into Book With Matrix. At some point during your booking and checkout process, there should be an option to use points and rewards.

If there is not an option to redeem rewards on the websites linked through Book With Matrix, just save a copy of your Matrix itinerary and show it to a travel agent or airline representative. They will be able to use the provided fare codes to find the right flight for you and walk you through cashing in on miles and points. This tip will guarantee that your hard-earned points aren’t wasted.

Should You Use The Matrix To Book Flights

The Google Flight Matrix can handle the most complex travel plans and navigate the entire scope of flight search data for you, condensing only relevant results into a useful and easy-to-navigate page. This powerful search tool can make tedious components of travel significantly easier to manage, and you stand to lose nothing by using it (it’s free, remember?). Soyes, youshouldbeusingtheMatrixtofindandbookflights.

If you’re like the 4 billion and counting passengers turning off electronics and fastening their seat belts for lift-off each year, odds are good that you’ll be taking to the sky soon. And if you do, save yourself the stress of endless searching by using the Google ITA Matrix. Once you learn how to use this search engine, you’ll never go back to your previous methods of finding flights.

*Answer: [~NYC / -overnight;-redeye] with ~NYC in the routing code box and -overnight;-redeye in the extension code box.

American Eagle Credit Cards – Is Applying Right For You?

February 24, 2020 by flyergeek Leave a Comment

You probably know American Eagle Outfitters best for the ubiquity of its clothes in high schools and on college campuses. The American Eagle brand can be seen in stylish logo hoodies, ripped baggy jeans, trendy crop tops, and everything else the kids are wearing these days—and it’s basically been popular since its creation.

But how has AEO, founded in 1977, beat the odds and stayed on top of the game through the decades? The company has managed to not only stay relevant but even grow by implementing innovative marketing campaigns that appeal to a wide range of young consumers and by introducing its now highly successful lingerie and intimate clothing line, Aerie.

Plain and simple, American Eagle sells higher-quality clothes than their competition and celebrates diversity with inclusive ads and product lines. They give the people what they want, and the people want AEO to stick around. With over 1,047 stores globally, the company isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Maybe you’re a regular American Eagle patron and you’re wondering whether signing up for one of their store cards would be a good idea. Keep reading for an in-depth review of AEO credit cards and all the information you’ll need to make a decision.

An Overview of AEO’s Two Store Credit Cards

American Eagle offers not one but two credit card options to its customers, so you’ll have to know the difference between them in order to decide which is best for you. The AEO Connected^® credit card is the standard option and the AEO Connected^® Visa^® offers more bells and whistles, plus a surprising perk.

Both American Eagle credit cards are issued by Synchrony Bank, an institution that has firmly established its presence in the retail credit card sector with over 100 store-branded cards, the likes of which include juggernauts Amazon, Lowe’s, Gap, and Marshall’s. Here’s everything you should know about the AEO Connected^® card.

The AEO Connected® Credit Card

First up, AEO Connected. The “basic” AEO Connected^® credit card option is only slightly more basic than its VISA counterpart and itself has a long list of perks and rewards. The benefits of this card include:

🛍️	20% off your first card purchase
🛍️	An extra 10% off every other purchase
📦	Free shipping to the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada
💵	15 points earned on the dollar
💵	$10 off reward for every 2,500 points
👖	Buy 5 get 1 free on jeans and bras
🦹🏻‍♂️	$0 fraud liability
📱	Mobile and online account management

The Connected card also offers coupons and events to cardholders, like:

🎁 – 15-20% off birthday coupon.	Valid for 15% off any single total purchase for Full Access members and 20% for Extra Access and cardholding members.
🛒 – Personal shopping day coupon.	A coupon for between 10 and 20% off a single total purchase, depending on what promotion is being run at the time of signup.
🎟️ – 6 cardholder events each year.	Including savings events, opportunities to earn extra points, and more.

The AEO Connected® VISA® Credit Card

So how does adding that “VISA” to the AEO Connected card make a difference? Well, the AEO Connected^® VISA^® credit card offers all of the perks of the Connected credit card, plus:

You can use it anywhere VISA cards are accepted.
Earn 5 points for every $1 spent outside of AEO.

Yes, anywhere. You don’t have to be shopping at an American Eagle store to be earning American Eagle points, and that goes for online purchases too.

AEO Connected’s Extra Access Program

All cardholders are considered to have “Full Access” to Connected rewards from the time they sign up for an AEO credit card, but they are upgraded to “Extra Access” status when they spend $350 or more on net qualifying purchases with their AEO credit cards in a calendar year.

Extra Access members enjoy a birthday coupon for 20% instead of only 15% and a $15 credit reward on 2,500 points instead of $10. To maintain Extra Access status, members must continue to spend $350 annually. Otherwise, they return to Full Access status and lose any additional rewards they may have earned under the higher-tier membership level.

An In-Depth Overview of AEO Connected’s Rewards Program

The fine print on the AEO card rewards program is extensive, so here’s a breakdown on how to earn, manage, and spend points and rewards for the two cards.

An Important Note About AEO Connected

Before diving into nitty-gritty credit card reward details, it’s important to note that AEO credit cards are entirely separate from the AEO Connected rewards program. This just means that you’ll have to be both a cardholder and enrolled in AEO Connected in order to earn the benefits outlined above for each card (and some of these benefits are actually just Connected benefits).

Not all AEO Connected members are credit card holders, but all AEO credit cardholders are Connected members because they are automatically enrolled in the rewards program upon signup as long as they provide a valid email.

For the purposes of this article, AEO credit card rewards and AEO Connected rewards will be considered together as all cardholders enjoy at least Full Access Connected perks.

How to Earn Points/Rewards

Upon signup for an AEO credit card, customers are instantly awarded 500 points. From there, all purchases made online, in-store, and over the phone earn points.

The amount of a qualifying purchase that earns points is equal to the transaction total after rewards and discounts have been applied and before tax is added. For example, a $50 purchase (before tax) for which a $10 coupon is used only earns points on $40 of the total.

Individual stores may run promotions in which cardmembers receive additional points and/or discounts for certain purchases over a limited period of time, but these are up to the discretion of store administrators and vary by location. In addition, administrators may at any time terminate, expand, limit, or otherwise modify the Rewards program for their store with no warning.

Be sure to stay updated on the deals and terms of your local AE stores if you want to get the most out of your membership.

How Points and Rewards Are Issued

Points earned are automatically applied to a customer’s loyalty account via email, text, and/or the AEO mobile app (remember: a valid email address is required for enrollment with AEO Connected, as no paper statements or rewards are issued).

There is a 14-day waiting period to receive points and credits between the time of purchase for which rewards were earned and the time these rewards can be redeemed. American Eagle tells its members that they can expect to wait between 15 and 21 days to receive a reward after reaching that reward’s point

threshold. After this time period, updates to a customer’s account balance should be reflected in their Connected account at ae.com and on the app.

When a cardmember makes a return, any rewards earned on that purchase are removed from their account.

How to Manage Points and Rewards

Cardmembers can view their reward balances as well as access credits and coupons through their Connected account either online or through the American Eagle/Aerie mobile app. From there, customers can also see reward activity and keep up with current Connected offers.

How to Use Points and Rewards

Points will never expire as long as members make at least 1 purchase a year, or in a 375 rolling period from the date of signup. This keeps a Connected account active. However, rewards do expire, and after only 45 days from the date of issue. For example, if you received a $10 off coupon for reaching 2,500 points, you have only 45 days to use it before it is nullified.

Rewards can be accessed and redeemed through a member’s Connected account at https://www.ae.com/ca/en/myaccount/aeoconnected. Customers must present email or text rewards and credits at the time of purchase, whether online or in-store, in order to redeem.

Credits and coupons contain codes that can be easily used to make online or over-the-phone purchases. Identification and/or proof of Connected membership may be required to use rewards at retail locations.

How Much Are Points and Rewards Worth?

Plain and simple, Connected rewards aren’t worth “real” money. Rewards, points, and credits earned have no monetary value and cannot be exchanged for cash. Rewards and points cannot be traded or sold and a customer cannot request to exchange store credit for money.

How to Apply for AEO Cards

The application process for an American Eagle credit card is no different than any other card application process. Interested customers can either apply in-stores or online through Synchrony’s application and must provide the following information:

Name
Address
Phone number
Email address
Date of birth
Last Four digits of your social security
Annual net income

This information is enough for Synchrony to determine whether an applicant should be approved or denied credit. Upon credit approval, customers are then enrolled automatically in the AEO Connect program and awarded their signup points.

Core Demographic of AEO Cards

Because the people that score the most with an AEO credit card are people that frequent the establishment, it makes sense that the AEO credit card core demographic is comprised of its most loyal customers.

American Eagle Outfitters’ core demographic is comprised of middle- to upper-class, primarily caucasian, 15- to 25-year-old male and female patrons. Because one must be at least 18 years old to be approved for any credit card, AEO’s core card demographic is the 18- to 25-year-old range. Aerie, American Eagle’s women’s lifestyle brand and one of its greatest sources of revenue in 2020, caters specifically to women.

Prices at this behemoth retail store are reasonable enough to be affordable to the average middle-class citizen and products feel high-end enough to appeal to the upper-class. However, this doesn’t mean that just anyone that shops at American Eagle can get one of their credit cards—credit approval is still a factor.

Credit Score Minimum

AEO Connected^® credit cards aren’t altogether difficult to get approved for, even for those with credit scores in the fair range. Applicants with low-600s credit scores can expect to be approved for an AEO Connected^® credit card as long as they don’t have any major blemishes on their record, but they’ll probably be stuck with a meager $150 credit limit.

As for AEO Connected^® VISA^® credit cards, scores in the upper-600s to low-700s are more typical. Because these are VISA cards and can be used everywhere that VISA is accepted—which is most anywhere—these are much more difficult to obtain than the exclusively store-branded credit card.

In short, low-average to average credit scores are generally approved for AEO Connected cards and 620 is the absolute minimum.

Pros and Cons of American Eagle Credit Cards

So these credit cards have a handful of appealing rewards and are easy enough to get, but does that make them worth getting? As with any credit card, there are advantages and disadvantages to AEO Connected cards.

Perks of the Connected Cards

Outside of the credits and rewards that AEO cardmembers can automatically count on, there are a couple of notable benefits to having a Connected credit card or Connected VISA.

Extra Access status.
Members that are upgraded to Extra Access status are rewarded just a little extra for their loyalty. Though not much, an additional $5 here and there would add up for frequent shoppers.
Use of cards outside of AEO.
Obviously, this only applies to the Connected VISA, but the convenience of being able to shop with your AEO card outside of AEO is a definite perk. For responsible buyers looking to build their credit and able to stay on top of payments, an AEO VISA is a decent option.

Connected Card Cons

Connected cards have their fair share of disadvantages. Some of the rewards offered to Full and Extra Access customers are decidedly stingy, the cards have high APRs, and the Connected program does not guarantee rewards long-term. These are just a few of the cards’ obvious drawbacks.

1. Discounts can’t be combined. The extra 10% or 15% off that members earn on AEO purchases cannot be combined with other discounts, which would be a huge bummer for some of the thriftier shoppers out there. In addition, there are many stipulations on the “earn free jeans and bras” bonus, like the fact that clearance jeans and bras —discounted at 49% or more off the original price—are excluded from the buy 5 get 1 free deal. Any AEO fan could tell you that jeans and bras are often clearanced, and that this “deal” would soon feel disappointing.

2. Late payments and APR. There are no annual fees for either AEO Connected credit card, but there is a late payment fee of up to $38 and 28.24% APR for either card.

3. Rewards must be used quickly and can’t be replaced. The Connected rewards program is quite restrictive. With a pretty small window for using rewards and a no-replacements policy, many credits and coupons could go unused. If you don’t find yourself shopping at American Eagle or Aerie every 45 days, you stand to lose any rewards you’ve earned.

4. Points don’t rollover. Points earned will not be carried over in the event that American Eagled ends their Connected rewards program and members will not be compensated for leftover rewards, so any point hoarders could suffer significant losses unexpectedly.

Why mention this?

Because ending a rewards program to start another has happened before at American Eagle Outfitters.

The AERewards program, predecessor to the AEO Connected program, was fully replaced in September of 2017. Members were automatically enrolled in AEO Connected and issued final credits, but there is no guarantee that Connected members would be similarly compensated in the event of program termination.

Of course, the Connected program isn’t set to end at this time, so this is only a small possible risk.

How Do AEO Cards Compare?

American Eagle might be able to compete using clever advertising and a solid collection of products, but how do their credit cards compare with other department store credit cards?

Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria’s Secret, and Gap are just a few of American Eagle’s fiercest competitors. See the table below for an analysis of the competition.

Card	APR %	Rewards Expiration period	Points Per Dollar	Where to Use	CreditKarma User Rating
AEO Connected	28.24	45 days	15	AEO and Aeire	1/5
AEO Connected VISA	28.24	45 days	15	Anywhere VISA is accepted	1/5
Abercrombie & Fitch	26.74	1 year	15	In-store only at Abercrombie & Fitch	3/5
Victoria’s Secret Angel	27.24	90 days	5+	Victoria’s Secret, PINK, Bath and Body Works (in-store)	3.5/5
Gap VISA	27.49	2 years	5	Any GAP brand store (Banana Republic, Old Navy, etc.)	5

Final Verdict: Should You Sign Up?

Is AEO Connected the paperless credit card program you didn’t know you needed? That depends on how often you’re purchasing American Eagle apparel.

For the average consumer, AEO Connected credit cards aren’t the best credit cards out there, but they’re also not the worst. They have higher APRs than their store-brand card competitors and shorter rewards lifespans, but they also make it easy to rack up points. For shoppers with low credit scores that spend a reasonable portion of their money on American Eagle products, these cards are within reach and cost nothing annually, making them a fine option.

That said, you won’t be able to earn cash back or use these cards anywhere you please (unless you get the VISA version). Experienced credit card users that plan to stay on top of their balances will, at the very least, earn a few bucks here and there. Newbies, however, could fall victim to exorbitant interest fees and lose much more than they could gain.

If you do choose to apply for a Connected card, watch out for late fees, foreign transaction fees, and reward expiration dates to make the most of your card.

AmAll in all, most people should look elsewhere for a good credit card. Only those whose closets are filled floor to ceiling with American Eagle-branded merchandise—and who absolutely pay their card balances in full each period—would truly benefit from AEO Connected cards; high APRs and rewards with short shelf-lives should be red flags to anyone that doesn’t fall into that category.