What’s the Value of American Airlines AAdvantage Miles? (Calculator)

In the past few years, American Airlines has made a dizzying array of changes to its AAdvantage program. With new rules on how to earn and burn miles, it can be hard to know how much miles are worth now.

The short answer is this: American AAdvantage miles have a value of 1.6 cents each. This is a baseline value, drawn from real-world data on hundreds of main cabin routes, not a maximized value. In other words, you should aim for award redemptions that offer 1.6 cents or more in value from your American miles.

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NerdWallet compared real-world prices to determine that each American mile is worth about 1.6 cents. You can use it as a point of reference when making your own bookings. If you’re getting more than 1.6 cents per mile for a given American redemption, you’re scoring above-average value.

How can you get more value? Start with the basics of redeeming American miles, then look for sweet spots and other optimizations. Generally, you’ll get more value by flying in premium cabins, especially with partner airlines (see “value when booking business class” below).

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Use this calculator to determine how much any number of American AAdvantage miles is worth, based on our valuation. This is useful for comparing the value of an award ticket to the cost of a cash ticket.

American miles offer slightly above-average value compared to other airlines.

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Digging one level deeper, we can look at how the value of miles varies when used in different time frames and in different cabins (main cabin versus business). We compared three booking time frames:

• 15 days before departure.

• 180 days before departure (six months).

• Peak winter holiday travel (Dec. 22-29).

Booking far in advance yielded the best value in our analysis. This doesn't mean booking last minute or during the holidays will never offer good redemptions, but it does mean that using them in this way certainly doesn't offer above-average value, on the whole.

» Learn more: Redeem your American miles for your dream trip — Here's how

A few years ago, AAdvantage miles were worth only about 1 cent apiece. That value has increased significantly since.

American miles can be used to book flights on American, of course, as well as dozens of partner airlines (through AA.com directly, not by transferring to partners). They can also be leveraged to upgrade seats.

Watch out for other redemption options, like renting cars or booking vacation packages. Yes, these technically add versatility to your American miles, but they rarely offer decent value.

» Learn more: The complete guide to American Airlines partners

You can supplement the American Airlines miles you earn in the air by using an American-branded credit card for purchases on the ground. American offers a range of cards, from a no-frills, no-annual-fee version to a $595-a-year premium card with airport lounge access and other VIP benefits. Each of them earns miles with every purchase, as well as bonus miles with American and (in some cases) in other common spending categories. For most travelers, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® is a solid option. For an annual fee of $0 intro for the first year, then $99, you get:

• 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases; 2 miles per dollar at gas stations and restaurants; and 1 mile per dollar on other purchases.

• 1 Loyalty Point (toward elite status) per 1 eligible AAdvantage mile earned from purchases.

• Bonus offer: Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $7,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

• First checked bag free for you and up to four companions traveling on your reservation.

• Priority boarding, in-flight discounts and more.

We collected hundreds of data points comparing the cash value with award (mile) value for the same routes and dates. That is, we compared the cost of a given ticket in either cash or miles, across many tickets.

This method differs from others in that it looks at actual redemptions rather than hypothetical, maximized redemptions. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a real-world indication of how much these miles are worth under typical circumstances.