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While our normal advice at TPG is to collect transferable points and miles that you can send to various hotel and airline programs, for me, it’s recently been all about American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
I’ve held top-tier American Airlines Executive Platinum status for most of the past decade, and I’ve always been able to squeeze a ton of value from the program, starting with my first major redemption: a first-class Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo way back in 2016 for just 80,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
The wild thing is that redemption still exists a decade later. In fact, I just wrote about scoring that same redemption again last year. Those kinds of outsize redemptions are nearly impossible with United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles these days.
Over the past year, I’ve scored a bevy of incredible redemptions with my AAdvantage miles. It’s the one airline currency that I still recommend people collect. Just in the past few months, I’ve been able to book multiple business- and first-class seats on Etihad Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and, of course, American Airlines. We’re talking flights to and from Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo, to name a few incredible destinations.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to outsize value from American Airlines.
There are several amazing welcome offers right now that are worth considering if you want to repeat some of these bookings. More details on that below, but let’s start with what I’ve been finding and booking.
Cathay Pacific business class to and from Asia
While it’s not easy to find availability these days, you can book Cathay Pacific business-class (or even first-class) tickets using American Airlines AAdvantage miles.
A few months ago, I saw the floodgates of availability had opened to book business class on Cathay Pacific to and from Seattle using either AAdvantage miles or Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards points. The reason? Cathay Pacific had just announced a new route to Seattle and made a bunch of seats available to Oneworld partners.
I booked a one-way ticket from Hong Kong to Seattle for just 70,000 AAdvantage miles plus $64.81 in taxes and fees. (I booked another of these awards for just 75,000 Atmos Rewards points plus $5.60 in taxes and fees to get to Hong Kong.)
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While this availability is pretty rare, it can be booked if you are patient.
Etihad business class to South Africa and first class to Abu Dhabi
Another hard-to-find redemption is booking Etihad first or business class, but the award gods must have been feeling generous this spring when Etihad suddenly opened the floodgates to American Airlines redemptions. Etihad even opened up bookings for its first class, The Apartment, via American Airlines.
I was able to book several first-class flights in Etihad’s The Apartment to and from Abu Dhabi and Paris. Each flight was just 62,500 American Airlines miles plus $158 in taxes and fees.
I cannot wait to try Etihad for the first time, and to do it in the legendary Airbus A380 in first class, which features a shower in the sky, is a dream come true. (I’ll be reporting on the experience for TPG.)
But the Etihad party didn’t stop there. I was also able to book the carrier’s new service from Atlanta to Abu Dhabi and then on to Johannesburg for just 75,000 AAdvantage miles each way in business class.
That’s 150,000 AAdvantage miles for an itinerary that would cost $5,785 in cash. Safari, here I come.
Japan Airlines first and business class to Tokyo and Shanghai
As I mentioned above, I’ve also been able to book Japan Airlines first class several times in the past few years, including for a trip later this year.
I found first-class award space on a Japan Airlines flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT) departing in September for just 80,000 AAdvantage miles.
I’ve also been able to book business-class tickets a few times using just 60,000 AAdvantage miles. Japan Airlines offers remarkable value in its premium cabins when you use your AAdvantage miles.
Another fun booking I pulled off last summer was from Tokyo to Shanghai for just 30,000 AAdvantage miles in business class. That plane was operated by Japan Airlines with a Boeing 777-300, which meant it offered first class, so I was able to select a seat in the first-class section for the three-hour flight thanks to having elite status.
Related: Tokyo Narita vs. Haneda: Which airport should you fly into?
American Airlines business class to Europe
Of course, AAdvantage miles are also super helpful if you just want to score a cheap business-class flight to Europe. You’ll often find business-class seats to Europe for as low as 57,500 miles and minimal taxes and fees.
You’ll need to be flexible and use American’s award calendar to find the cheapest dates, but it’s pretty common to find one or two seats on at least a few days every month.
Related: A review of American Airlines business class on the Boeing 777 from Rome to New York
We found these kinds of deals (i.e., business-class seats for as low as 57,500 miles each way) when American opened sales on several new seasonal routes from Philadelphia to Prague and Budapest, Hungary, beginning in May.
A search while writing this story found similar deals to London for this summer. A quick search also turned up one-way business-class flights to Paris this summer for as few as 65,000 AAdvantage miles.
How to find award availability
Here are a few of my top tricks to land these hard-to-find redemptions.
To start, flexibility is key. You may have to travel whenever seats are available, including at the last minute.
Try booking as soon as schedules open up. For airlines like Japan Airlines, you’ll find the best availability 11 months in advance, as that’s when it opens seats to partner airlines.
Award search tools have become a must in today’s points and miles world. Seats.aero and ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG parent company, Red Ventures) are my go-to picks for finding award availability, but I’ve also been testing out Roame.travel lately. The award tool Points Path sits on my browser, too, so I see award availability when I search on Google Flights.
When conducting award searches with American Airlines, I use the carrier’s award search calendar to find business-class seats for months at a time. Here’s an example of that for flights from New York to Paris.
As you can see, I found six days with more affordable saver availability at just 57,500 miles each way in business class. Score!
I usually search for flights from New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, even if I’ll need to book an inexpensive positioning flight to get there. That’s what I’ll do to position myself in Atlanta for that upcoming trip to Johannesburg that I mentioned earlier.
How you can bulk up your stash of AAdvantage miles
There are plenty of ways to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles, including opening one of Citi’s American Airlines-branded cards with high welcome offers.
Right now, the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (see rates and fees) is offering 75,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. While the annual fee of $595 is steep, the welcome bonus is worth $1,425 based on TPG’s February 2026 valuations.
Citi and American Airlines also recently launched the Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe™ Mastercard® (see rates and fees). The Citi / AAdvantage Globe has a limited-time welcome bonus of 90,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first four months from account opening.
Remember, Citi also recently announced the launch of transfers from its Citi ThankYou Rewards program to the American Airlines AAdvantage program for those with particular Citi cards, so that’s a good way to pad your AAdvantage account.
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