In the near future, American Airlines will introduce another payment method for booking flights: cash and miles.
American announced on October 2 that “in the coming weeks eligible AAdvantage members will be able to combine cash and miles when booking flights on aa.com and American’s digital app.”
Even though this feature isn’t live yet, American has already published enough details to give us a pretty good idea of how it’ll work.
Cash and Miles Will Show Up During Checkout
There won’t be a separate cash and miles search.
Instead, members will log in to an AAdvantage account and search for flights using cash as usual. After selecting a flight and getting through the trip insurance prompt, American will display any available cash and miles options.
A slider will let members choose from the available combinations. Move the slider, the price updates, and whatever is left gets paid in cash.
But American’s cash and miles terms reveal that there won’t necessarily be a single exchange rate between AAdvantage miles and dollars.
The airline says the rate can vary depending on the destination, itinerary, flight, or service. American will also decide which combinations of cash and miles are offered, and those choices can vary based on how many miles are in an account.
So, 10,000 miles could theoretically knock a different amount off one ticket than another. We won’t know what those numbers actually look like until cash and miles bookings go live.
It’s also not yet clear whether the option will be limited to flights operated by American and American Eagle or extend to eligible partner-operated flights booked through American.
You’ll Still Earn Miles and Loyalty Points
Using miles to cover part of a ticket won’t stop the remaining cash portion from earning AAdvantage miles.
American says members will earn base miles (and therefore Loyalty Points) on the part paid in cash. That includes the base fare and carrier-imposed fees, but not government taxes and fees.
There are a few other quirks buried in the terms. Taxes and fees always have to be paid in cash, and cash and miles won’t necessarily be available for every destination, fare, itinerary, flight, or seat.
Once one of these tickets is booked, it can’t be changed, either. If plans change, the reservation needs to be canceled and booked again.
If a ticket is eligible for a refund, the miles go back to the AAdvantage account. The cash portion follows the normal rules for the fare.
More on This: How to Change an American Airlines Award Flight Online
How Useful This Is Comes Down to the Math
For someone sitting on, say, 15,000 AAdvantage miles without enough to cover an entire flight, cash and miles gives that balance another potential use. Those miles could instead knock down the cash price of an eligible ticket.
Whether that’s worth doing is a question for a little bit later on.
American already made clear that the value of those miles can change from one booking to another. Until the feature goes live, we don’t know whether using 10,000 miles might save $100, $150, or something else entirely, for better or worse.
But once cash and miles starts appearing on aa.com and in the American app, we’ll check some actual flights and see what American is offering.
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