American Airlines Passengers Can Now Redeem Miles on China Southern

The Hollywood dating scene has nothing on airline partnerships. Just a few months ago, China Southern Airlines made an exit from the SkyTeam alliance, and the carrier has already gotten chummy with another airline. Effective March 20, American Airlines passengers can earn and redeem AAdvantage miles on China Southern (CZ). CZ fares with the following booking codes will award passengers American miles at these rates.

AA Earning Rates on China Southern

If your China Southern flight has a different booking code and isn’t listed in the table, then the ticket won’t earn any redeemable miles. Additionally, none of the China Southern-marketed tickets will earn Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) in the AAdvantage program, unless you book a codeshare flight with an AA ticket number.

As an AAdvantage member, you can also redeem your AA miles on China Southern flights. A one-way SAAver seat in economy class will set you back 37,500 miles, and a business-class seat will cost 70,000 miles. Flight redemptions cannot be made online yet, but it’s possible to book these itineraries over the phone by calling American Airlines. Unfortunately, first-class bookings are not an option at this stage of the partnership.

The development isn’t that surprising, considering AA has been investing in China Southern since 2017. Now that CZ is no longer part of SkyTeam and the alliance-imposed limitations are gone, the two carriers can expand their codeshare agreement.

Although an official frequent-flyer partnership has been established between American Airlines and China Southern, there’s been no word of China’s largest airline becoming a Oneworld alliance member. Even if the possibility becomes real, let’s not forget that Cathay Pacific, a competing airline based in Hong Kong, is one of the founding alliance members and has a right to veto any new member in the China region looking to join the alliance.

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