If you do select AA as your carrier of choice, another way to accrue AA miles is to use BankDirect as your online bank. BankDirect offers a "mileage checking" account which pays 1 AA mile per $10 on deposit per month (up to $200K on deposit). It's not quite as attractive as it used to be because they did institute a $12 per month fee. However, since we are in a very low interest rate environment now, I find that the value of the miles I can earn at BankDirect far exceeds the puny interest that most banks are willing to pay me on a checking account.

You're young, so you may not have a lot of cash to place in checking. But you are in school, so perhaps your checking account does swell at certain times during the year (before you pay your tuition, for example). Parking cash in a BankDirect mileage checking account will earn you miles. And since it earns you miles every month, you won't have to worry that your AA miles will expire.

Here's a link for you. Remember to read all the terms carefully.
http://bankdirect.com/products/checkingmileage.aspx

I believe you earn 1000 AA miles if someone refers you to BankDirect. If you are interested, someone here on FT can refer you. I'd be glad to if you send me a Private Message (click my name on the left side).