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I have posted previously about Delta and earning Delta Skymiles. However, my time up in the air is split between both American Airlines and Delta. In honor of flying my 100th flight with American Airlines for 2019 last week, this #WanderlustWednesday post will focus on American Airlines. Specifically, I will cover 6 different ways to earn American Airlines Miles (also called AAdvantage®).

Earn American Airlines Miles

1. Fly American Airlines or a OneWorld or Partner Airline

The first and most obvious way to earn American airlines miles is by flying. Just because the side of the plane does not say American Airlines, does not mean you can’t earn AAdvantage® miles. Check the list of OneWorld and partner airlines here. Be sure to enter in your AAdvantage® number in order to ensure that the miles get credited to your AA account.

2. Credit Cards

As I talked about in this overview of travel hacking, getting an American Airlines co-branded credit card and getting a welcome bonus for hitting a certain amount of spend is the fastest way to earn American Airlines miles without flying. It allows you to earn 50,000+ miles at once just for doing your regular, everyday spending. Earning quick chunks of miles like this allows you to earn faster than you would flying, and with a lot less hassle. 

The key is to channel your regular spending into the one card that is offering the welcome bonus. I usually try to time signing up for a card when I know I have a large expense upcoming.

American Airlines has linked up with Citi and Mastercard to offer a variety of cards that might suit your needs with different perks, sign on bonuses, and annual fees. (Pro tip: Don’t sign up for < 50,000 welcome bonus points unless you have a big upcoming expense and don’t think you would regularly qualify). 

This also might be obvious, but if you are a couple, you and your spouse can each get your own card with your own welcome bonus. You don’t have to do this at the same time, but you might NOT want to add each other as an authorized user so that both of you will be able to earn a welcome bonus at some point.

3. Rental Cars

Rental cars were another thing discussed in my travel hacking overview. Often if you are planning a trip, you might need a rental car. You might as well get some extra frequent flyer miles for this as well. Here are the rental car partners for American Airlines.

4. Shopping in Online Portals

Signing up for new credit cards might not be your thing, which makes online shopping portals an one of the most appealing ways to earn American Airlines without flying. If you already do a lot of your shopping online then you should be using shopping portals to maximize the miles and points that you are earning.

Every major airline (and many credit cards) have points and miles earning gateways to many popular online retailers you already shop at. Simply start your search at the shopping portal (here is a link to American Airlines’s) and continue to check out as you regularly would. You can earn miles for every dollar spent shopping through these portals. The key is to never let a mile earning opportunity go to waste.

5. AAdvantage® Dining

Another one of the ways to earn American Airlines miles is through AAdvantage® Dining. This is a separate program where you can sign up, register your credit or debit card with the Dining portal and then use that card when you are out to eat and earn some extra AAdvantage® miles.

6. Pet care with Rover.com

If you are in need of house sitting, pet walking, or pet boarding during your travel, think of Rover as the “Airbnb of pet care”. This is a website that links pet sitters up with pet owners. You can sign up here.

Sign up for Rover and get 2,000 AAdvantage^® miles after your first Rover walk or stay is complete. (Already have a Rover account? Enter your AAdvantage^® number here.) Get one AAdvantage^® mile for every dollar spent on future Rover bookings. 

Earn American Airlines Miles Fast

Hopefully you have learned a few new ways to earn American Airlines miles quickly to get to your next trip faster. Have any tips for earning American airlines miles? Please share them with the group in the comments.

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