[ANALYSIS] American Airlines AAdvantage
American Airlines has a loyalty program called AAdvantage. Unfortunately, there are no Canadian credit cards in Canada that allows you to accumulate AAdvantage points. That being said, that doesn’t mean that Canadians cannot also earn AAdvantage points.
The reason why I like this program is because it is a Oneworld member, so you can use your points on all Oneworld member flights.
Here are so of the best ways to accumulate AAdvantage points:
1) Flying with American Airlines or other Oneworld members. If you bank all your flights from member airlines into accumulating American Airline points, your account can increase very quickly.
2) When you rent a car at one of these companies: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Carmel – Car and Limousine Service, Dollar, Europcar, Hertz, National and Thrifty, you can bank AAdvantage points instead of car rental points. Just be careful with this option because sometimes car rental companies charge an additional fee for accumulating certain loyalty program points.
3) Sign up for a E-rewards account to do surveys to help you earn E-Reward dollars that can be transferred to your AAdvantage account.
4) You can convert your RBC rewards to AAdvantage points. You will need to convert a minimum of 5,000 RBC Rewards points for 5,000 AAdvantage points.
5) Here is a complete list of other possible ways to earn AAdvantage points
If you enjoy flying internationally, accumulating AAdvantage points can really help you with your travels. They also have much lower fuel surcharges, unlike Air Canada and some of the other airlines.
U.S Airways merged with American Airlines and many of the details are moving forward to integrate both airlines. You can already start earning AAdvantage points when flying on U.S. Airways flights.
Furthermore, as of today, U.S. Airways is now a member of the Oneworld alliance. Therefore, you can use your AAdvantage or Dividend Miles (U.S. Airways) on all the member airlines. At some point in 2015, most likely, U.S Airways points will somehow be merged with AAdvantage, which I plan to watch the process closely.
Just remember to keep your AAdvantage account active once every 18 months to prevent your points from expiring.