How to Save 10% off Miles on Your Next Award Flight
Anya Kartashova April 28, 2018
Earning and stretching your miles is the main goal of reward travel. The fewer miles you use on a flight or the fewer points you redeem for a hotel, the better. Sometimes you’re lucky to find a low-level award, and sometimes you have to know the tricks. Did you know that certain credit cards give you a percentage of your miles back after you redeem them?
For example, the Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard from Barclays offers 5 percent of your points back in your account, and some co-branded American Airlines credit cards offer a mileage rebate as well.
Receive 10% of Your Miles Back
The Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard and the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite MasterCard from Barclays cardholders enjoy a 10 percent rebate on their redeemed miles.
You can earn a maximum of 10,000 AAdvantage miles back in your account per calendar year by redeeming 100,000 miles. If you redeem more miles per year, the rebate is capped at 10,000 miles. The limit applies per account, so you cannot combine the offers from multiple cards for a larger rebate.
Unfortunately, this offer does not apply to the Citi / AAdvantage Gold World Elite MasterCard members or the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage credit cardholders.
How I Saved 6,000 Miles on Flights to the Caribbean
About a year ago, I signed up for the Citi AA Platinum card with a bonus of 60,000 miles. I redeemed those miles for two flights to the Caribbean for my mom and me.
Related: How I Booked a $7,000 10-Night Trip to the Caribbean for $800
The AAdvantage program requires 15,000 miles between the U.S. and the Caribbean region at the SAAver level, so I had enough for two round-trip flights. After I booked the flights, I saw 6,000 miles back in my account a day or two later. They applied for both passengers, not just the cardholder. So, in this case, each of my flights cost just 27,000 AAdvantage miles. For a trip to the Caribbean, it’s a bargain!
For more details on this benefit of some co-branded AA credit cards, check out this FlyerTalk thread.
