Buy / buying AA miles with bonus promotion - good deal? [consolidated]
Dec 2, 2014, 6:23 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, TK *Gold, HHonors Gold, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 570
AA bonus miles. Good deal?
If you want 125k miles, pm me. I can sell you 125k for 2k.
Lest it be mistaken, this is of course a tongue in cheek response. Point being if you were going to spend money to buy a flight that you could get cheaper with an award ticket, then it's worth it it, else not.
Unless you need miles right away there are cheaper ways to accumulate these miles.
Lest it be mistaken, this is of course a tongue in cheek response. Point being if you were going to spend money to buy a flight that you could get cheaper with an award ticket, then it's worth it it, else not.
Unless you need miles right away there are cheaper ways to accumulate these miles.
Dec 2, 2014, 10:12 pm
#6
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 23
If you want 125k miles, pm me. I can sell you 125k for 2k.
Lest it be mistaken, this is of course a tongue in cheek response. Point being if you were going to spend money to buy a flight that you could get cheaper with an award ticket, then it's worth it it, else not.
Unless you need miles right away there are cheaper ways to accumulate these miles.
Lest it be mistaken, this is of course a tongue in cheek response. Point being if you were going to spend money to buy a flight that you could get cheaper with an award ticket, then it's worth it it, else not.
Unless you need miles right away there are cheaper ways to accumulate these miles.
Dec 2, 2014, 11:05 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: 대한민국 (South Korea) - ex-PVG (上海)
Programs: UA MM / LT Gold (LT UC), DL SM, AA PLT (AC), OZ, KE; GE and Korean SES (like GE); Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,995
It is at 1.88 cents per miles. If you use the old "2 cents per mile" as a criterion, it is on the border of being a good deal. If you need the miles and don't have the time to actually fly them, it is a so-so cost.
Dec 2, 2014, 11:22 pm
#8
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: Jose Cuervo Gold, Bud Light Platinum, Schwab 401K, VW Bug 2MM
Posts: 1,100
if you have an immediate desire and ability to book long haul F and would pay long haul Y+/super discounted J prices anyways, then it absolutely makes sense. Otherwise, no.
Dec 3, 2014, 8:16 am
#9
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: DCA
Posts: 7,769
There was another thread on this the other day...with which this one will probably be merged.
The answer is that if you can get more than $2360 value guaranteed, then yes. If you are staring at big fat first class award space to somewhere exotic, and you can lock it down in the bag, then by all means.
However, if you're just planning on buying these and sitting on them and seeing what ol' Dougie does with the program over the next coupla years, then no, this isn't a good idea most likely.
There is also the consideration of what mileage-earning alternatives you have. If you're a complete newbie with a clean slate over at Citi, you can probably rack up a similar number of miles through signup bonuses. If you're a longtime churner all tapped out over there and scraping the bottom of the barrel then this might be one of the few remaining options for big chunks of miles.
The answer is that if you can get more than $2360 value guaranteed, then yes. If you are staring at big fat first class award space to somewhere exotic, and you can lock it down in the bag, then by all means.
However, if you're just planning on buying these and sitting on them and seeing what ol' Dougie does with the program over the next coupla years, then no, this isn't a good idea most likely.
There is also the consideration of what mileage-earning alternatives you have. If you're a complete newbie with a clean slate over at Citi, you can probably rack up a similar number of miles through signup bonuses. If you're a longtime churner all tapped out over there and scraping the bottom of the barrel then this might be one of the few remaining options for big chunks of miles.
Dec 3, 2014, 8:34 am
#10
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: stl
Programs: AA LT Plat/8.1mm now with 1350 miles left in my account and proud of it.. SPG LT Titanium.
Posts: 3,079
Earlier in the year I was shopping for a J ticket to Asia and the cheapest way to buy it without actually using the miles in my account was to book it with my miles which I did and then replace the miles through this type of bonus sale. I thought a J class ticket to Asia for a little over 2k was a great deal. This may be more difficult now as I read about how little availability there is now.
Mar 31, 2015, 12:15 pm
#11
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 3,715
Thoughts on current miles buying promotion?
The current promo, which lasts until the end of April, offers up to 60K bonus miles on 100K purchased miles.
It seems better than the recent 40% pre-merger offers they had, although some of the mid-tier sweet spots have been eliminated.
It seems better than the recent 40% pre-merger offers they had, although some of the mid-tier sweet spots have been eliminated.
Apr 2, 2015, 7:00 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: BWI
Programs: Everyone!
Posts: 1,024
I guess you are talking about the "up to 60%" bonus:
https://buymiles.aa.com/en/buygift
I am passing on it but who knows if the selling miles philosophy will more closely mirror US (cheap sales frequently) or AA (expensive sales frequently).
It is not bad if you need to top off for an award....just be aware the drop-down price is the base price, but then you have taxes/ fees on top of it (ex. the $2,950 for 160,000 miles ends up being $3,201 for me). Still that ends up a cost of $.02 per mile if you do the maximum (the less you buy, a little less good the deal is).
So, the question is could you get a good enough value out of that (ex. loss of flexibility to use other airlines, loss of earning miles on the flight) and would you use it in the near future (i.e. AA could change their point requirements for awards at any time).
For Coach, I usually only bulk buy miles at about $.0167 each or less...calculated by (900 typical Europe Roundtrip -100 award ticketing fees) / (40,000 AA Off Peak Europe Roundtrip Coach Award+8,000 lost mileage earning).
It gets a little tougher to value for Business because obviously few people would pay $5-10K for a flight....but it is definitely worth some amount of incremental extra value that is very subjective.
Anyhow, I don't need the miles now so will be waiting to see if they offer a better deal....the 2 times last year I bought (US DM) were 50,000 miles for $567 ($.0113 each during the 2 100% bonus "share miles" promotions) and 100,000 for $1,880 ($.0188 each during the many 100% bonus "buy miles" promtions).
This wouldn't be as good as any of those but now that AA and US combined, there may not be such good deals again, who knows....
https://buymiles.aa.com/en/buygift
I am passing on it but who knows if the selling miles philosophy will more closely mirror US (cheap sales frequently) or AA (expensive sales frequently).
It is not bad if you need to top off for an award....just be aware the drop-down price is the base price, but then you have taxes/ fees on top of it (ex. the $2,950 for 160,000 miles ends up being $3,201 for me). Still that ends up a cost of $.02 per mile if you do the maximum (the less you buy, a little less good the deal is).
So, the question is could you get a good enough value out of that (ex. loss of flexibility to use other airlines, loss of earning miles on the flight) and would you use it in the near future (i.e. AA could change their point requirements for awards at any time).
For Coach, I usually only bulk buy miles at about $.0167 each or less...calculated by (900 typical Europe Roundtrip -100 award ticketing fees) / (40,000 AA Off Peak Europe Roundtrip Coach Award+8,000 lost mileage earning).
It gets a little tougher to value for Business because obviously few people would pay $5-10K for a flight....but it is definitely worth some amount of incremental extra value that is very subjective.
Anyhow, I don't need the miles now so will be waiting to see if they offer a better deal....the 2 times last year I bought (US DM) were 50,000 miles for $567 ($.0113 each during the 2 100% bonus "share miles" promotions) and 100,000 for $1,880 ($.0188 each during the many 100% bonus "buy miles" promtions).
This wouldn't be as good as any of those but now that AA and US combined, there may not be such good deals again, who knows....
Apr 2, 2015, 8:49 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Seat 2A
Programs: AA EXP LT GLD 1MM, BA GLD, NH/UA*G, Hyatt Dia, Marr Tit LT PLT, IHG Spire,HH Dia, MGM NOIR,Hertz PC
Posts: 10,571
That's a very good promo in my opinion. I don't think there will be anything better in the near future.
130k = $2,725.56 USD
That's a RT in F to Asia on CX F. Can't beat that! ^
130k = $2,725.56 USD
That's a RT in F to Asia on CX F. Can't beat that! ^
Apr 2, 2015, 1:42 pm
#14
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Chicago
Posts: 73
I took full advantage of the offer. I'm an infrequent flyer with no status who uses miles for international trips in business or first, never for domestic and never for coach. Being able to purchase 160k miles in a single year is lovely.
Apr 9, 2015, 5:49 pm
#15
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 19
Bonus miles 60000 if you buy 100k miles
They say in a calendar year one might buy maximum 100k miles. How does bonus miles will be added here?
It costs $2950 to buy 160k miles, might a good idea to score a first class ticket to India(I have 20K miles). First class tix is running 10k right now. Good idea to buy the miles and do first class travel? Will there be any fees?
thanks
Swamy
It costs $2950 to buy 160k miles, might a good idea to score a first class ticket to India(I have 20K miles). First class tix is running 10k right now. Good idea to buy the miles and do first class travel? Will there be any fees?
thanks
Swamy