Personally, I am not a huge fan of buying miles from the airlines. I don’t think that it makes sense most of the time. I have, however, bought US Airways Dividend miles when they have had a sale, and used miles + cash option when booking premium international awards using BMI miles that is essentially buying miles.
American Airlines has recently been pushing miles sales more aggressively than in the past. It must be a good way to get cash in now in exchange for award travel on AA or partner metal some later date. Last December American run a similar miles sale. You can buy maximum 40000 AAdvantage miles per year per account. Bonus miles do not count toward this limit.
Right now you can buy 55000 miles (40000 + 15000 bonus) for $1100 ($1212.50 after $30 transaction fee + taxes). This comes to 2.2 cents per mile.
When it makes sense to buy miles?
- Short on miles for premium international flight award on partner airlines
- Oneway travel in markets where OW fares are expensive
- Travel that requires flexibility as award tickets can be changed/canceled for a fee/without fee almost like flexible tickets
The short answer is nothing at least not in the short term. Now all the so called legacy carriers have been to bankruptcy protection and some even more than once. Continental Airlines, now part of United, went through this cycle twice in the 1990’s, and all the other legacies United, US Airways, Delta, and Northwest, now part of Delta, all went through this same process in the last decade. Some have suggested that AMR made a mistake of not going through this process when all of their competitors did.
Most of the programs have transfer ratio of 5000 points/miles into 10000 Hilton HHonors points. The only two programs where this 1 mile/points to 2 HHonors doesn’t apply are American Airlines and CSA. With American, CSA, and Icelandair the transfer can be completed online. Others must be called in.
