AMERICAN AIRLINES SALE TO SHARE MILES

Expiration Date – March 31, 2016

You see the email come into your inbox – American Airlines is offering a discount or bonus on AAdvantage miles you can purchase for yourself, share or gift to someone else. It’s a sale - it must be a good deal! Hmmm…or is it?

See our detailed Tip to find out when and if it ever makes sense to purchase or gift miles!

And even though American Airlines is offering a discount of up to 30% to share miles through March 31, 2016, sharing miles never makes good financial sense even with a sale or bonus!

If you transfer miles without a bonus or discount, it will cost you between 1.17 cents (50,000 miles) on the low-end and a whopping 3.25 cents (1,000 miles) on the high-end for each American AAdvantage mile transferred inclusive of the $20 transaction fee. And because you’re simply transferring existing miles instead of buying new miles, you have to factor in the value of the transferred miles (which we value at 2 cents per mile) you lose from your own account. This makes it a very expensive and poor economic decision at any level even with a bonus or discount.

The Wrap-Up:

Instead of gifting or sharing miles, it is a better value to use your miles to purchase an award ticket for the intended recipient. And it rarely makes sense to buy, gift or share AAdvantage miles speculatively as it is a very expensive way to acquire miles especially without a bonus.

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