• What awards can I book using ‘old miles’ earned prior to July 1, 1989?

In 1989, AA changed the rules of the AAdvantage program so that miles could expire. Any miles earned prior to July 1, 1989 do not expire and can still be used to redeem awards based on the 1989 award chart. These ‘old miles’ can be very valuable compared to current AAdvantage miles for certain awards. The old award chart was previously available on a website maintained by FlyerTalk member FewMiles. That website is now defunct as of July 2010, but the pages are still archived here.

In July 2012, AA announced that all non-expiring ‘old miles’ would convert to normal expiring miles with a 25% bonus as of November 1, 2012.

FT: Old (Pre-1989) AAdvantage Miles - Awards, Upgrades, etc. (consolidated) (historical and most recent information)
FT: Non-expiring miles to be converted to normal miles, with 25% bonus (as of Nov 2012)