The Complete Guide to American Airlines Partners

American's partnerships with airlines both in and out of the Oneworld alliance make it easy to use miles abroad.
Elina Geller
Ramsey Qubein
By Ramsey Qubein and  Elina Geller 
Updated
Edited by Meghan Coyle

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You don't have to fly with American Airlines just to earn and redeem American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Thanks to a robust network of American Airlines partners, you can transfer your miles to about two dozen other airlines, getting yourself to more than 1,000 destinations around the world.

While American Airlines primarily serves destinations in the U.S., even international travelers can flex their status and miles to travel all around the world.

American is a founding member of the Oneworld Alliance, a network of about a dozen member airlines offering seamless travel between partners, transferable elite status perks and expanded options for earning and redeeming miles. That opens massive possibilities for ways you can earn American Airlines miles when flying with those airlines — while also allowing you to redeem American Airlines miles for flights on other airlines.

American also has plenty of other partners outside the Oneworld Alliance as well, providing even more opportunities for flexible flying.

Here’s everything AAdvantage members need to know about American Airlines partners.

Rack up miles or enjoy lounge privileges with our favorite American Airlines cards
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American Airlines airline partners

AAdvantage members can earn by flying the following Oneworld carriers and other partners. Flights on these airline partners are bookable with AAdvantage miles and many can be booked directly through the American Airlines website.

Oneworld

Oneworld partner

Earn miles

Redeem miles on AA.com

Alaska Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

British Airways

Yes.

Yes.

Cathay Pacific

Yes.

Yes.

Finnair

Yes.

Yes.

Iberia

Yes.

Yes.

Japan Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

Malaysia Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

Qantas

Yes.

Yes.

Qatar Airways

Yes.

Yes.

Royal Air Maroc

Yes.

Yes.

Royal Jordanian Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

S7 Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

SriLankan Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

Other airline partners

You will have to call customer service for assistance to book partners that you do not see on AA.com.

Partner

Earn miles

Redeem miles on AA.com

Air Tahiti Nui

Yes.

Yes.

Cape Air

Yes.

Yes.

China Southern Airlines

Yes.

No.

Etihad Airways

Yes.

No.

Fiji Airways

Yes.

Yes.

GOL Airlines

Yes.

No.

Hawaiian Airlines

Yes.

Yes.

Silver Airways

Yes.

Yes.

Earning miles with American Airlines partners

In 2022, American Airlines overhauled how elite status is earned with the airline. EQMs, EQDs and EQSs are gone, which simplifies things by eliminating complicated alphabet soup. Instead, flyers earn Loyalty Points, which can be earned when flying on American Airlines and its partners; spending through AAdvantage credit cards; and shopping, dining and making transactions with American’s other partners.

To learn all about earning status under the new program, check out our guide to American Airlines elite status.

If you fly on a Oneworld partner airline, you can expect to earn Loyalty Points on the base miles earned according to the distance flown plus cabin bonuses where applicable.

If you fly on American Airlines, you’ll receive Loyalty Points for the base AAdvantage miles earned according to the ticket price (excluding government-imposed taxes and fees). No cabin bonus applies. If this sounds confusing, you're not alone — Loyalty Points are kind of hard to earn.

When it comes to earning AAdvantage miles that can be redeemed for award flights, know this: The number of miles earned will depend on your status level, with general members earning 5 miles per $1, to Executive Platinum Elites earning 11 miles per $1.

🤓Nerdy Tip

When flying with partners, always make sure that your AAdvantage number is in the reservation and also printed on your boarding pass. Save boarding passes and ticket receipts from partner flights so that if miles don’t post to your account, you can request missing AAdvantage credit retroactively.

Redeeming miles with American Airlines partners

When it comes to redeeming AAdvantage miles, things can change quickly. In Spring 2023, American switched to fully dynamic award pricing. Award rates will now vary by demand, regardless of fare class.

Even so, the airline has published an "award chart," but note that there are no guarantees you'll be able to get the starting rate, depending on when you travel:

American’s website can be finicky. It's important to play around with it when looking for award availability since results can appear differently depending upon how you sort them on the page.

Watch out for taxes

While points redemptions can be a swell deal on partner airlines, beware of one caveat: taxes and fees.

You'll almost always still have to pay taxes and fees when booking on points. For flights within the U.S. on American, the fees are typically a negligible amount (starting $5.60 per person, per award).

However, that's often not the case when booking flights via American transfer partners. Here's an example when you book British Airways awards through American AAdvantage that shows how taxes and surcharges on these awards are through the roof. The example below shows American’s 60,000-mile round-trip award pricing, but when it comes with nearly $600 in fees, the value changes significantly.

With this mix of dynamic pricing and award chart standards, it can be hard to gauge how many miles will be needed for an award flight. Still, American deserves accolades for not deleting its award charts entirely. American publishes “region definitions” at the bottom of this page if you are unsure of how the airline categorizes each country.

How to book partner flights on AA.com

Since American’s website does not provide every possible route, a phone reservation agent might be able to search for more options. All Oneworld airlines appear in AA.com search results, but airline partners may not always appear. For airlines like Etihad, AAdvantage members should call American to redeem miles.

To book flights, use the search tool from the homepage or select flights from the “Plan Travel” dropdown at the top of AA.com.

This will take you to a page where you can enter your travel information with the option to select “All Airlines” at the bottom of the page.

For the best results, use the calendar search. Another trick is to search for award space segment by segment using the form above.

Let’s say you are flying between New York and Helsinki. Try searching New York to a Oneworld hub like London or Madrid first. If you find space, then search for flights from that hub to Helsinki. Once you find both, try to see if you can price the entire itinerary together as one award. Sometimes, longer connections that don’t appear in the initial search might prove fruitful.

American is generous in that it allows travelers to hold award tickets, giving you more time to search for a better option or other parts of your trip. This means you can call American and have a specific award ticket set aside for you (without paying for it) while you finalize plans or search other options. The allowable length of hold times varies based on when the award flight is scheduled for departure and can last as long as five days. Not all award tickets are eligible for holds, so it's best to call the airline.

Once you purchase the award, changes or cancellations result in a fee for award tickets, which varies based on where the reservation was made.

Elite benefits on partner airlines

One of the perks of achieving elite status is enjoying benefits when flying partner airlines.

When you hold elite status with American Airlines, you'll have automatic elite status benefits when flying on other Oneworld partners. Here's how each American Airlines elite status tier maps to Oneworld elite status:

American Airlines AAdvantage elite status

Oneworld elite status

ConciergeKey.

Emerald.

Executive Platinum.

Emerald.

Platinum Pro.

Emerald.

Platinum.

Sapphire.

Gold.

Ruby.

Among the top benefits of each tier of Oneworld elite status:

Oneworld Emerald

  • Access to business and first class lounges.

  • Access to priority check-in.

  • Fast track at select security lanes.

  • Priority boarding.

  • Preferred or reserved seating.

  • Priority status on standby waitlists.

  • Priority baggage handling.

  • Extra baggage allowance.

Oneworld Sapphire

  • Access to business class lounges.

  • Access to priority check-in.

  • Priority boarding.

  • Preferred or reserved seating.

  • Priority status on standby waitlists.

  • Priority baggage handling.

  • Extra baggage allowance.

Oneworld Ruby

  • Access to priority check-in.

  • Preferred or reserved seating.

  • Priority status on standby waitlists.


How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are our picks for the best travel credit cards of 2024, including those best for:

Cards for American Airlines from our Partners
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

on Capital One's website

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
4.7
NerdWallet Rating
Rewards rate

2x-5x

Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Earn 5X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options.

Miles

Intro offer

75,000

Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

Miles
Citibank Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ MasterCard® Credit Card

on Citibank's application

Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
4.6
NerdWallet Rating
Rewards rate

1x

Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible AAdvantage® mile earned from purchases.

Miles

Intro offer

70,000

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

Miles
Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card

on Chase's website

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
5.0
NerdWallet Rating
Rewards rate

1x-5x

5x on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases.

Points

Intro offer

60,000

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Points
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