Barcaly AAdvantage Aviator just launched a new ‘Flight Cents’ program which allows you to opt in and buy miles with every purchase you make by having your purchases rounded up to the nearest dollar. Each cent which gets rounded up will buy you .5 miles, which is the same as saying it costs 2 cents per mile.
I don’t think there are too many people who would buy American miles for 2 cents per dollar, and certainly not to do so indiscriminately, so this new program is mostly useless. I guess if you need a few more miles to reach a threshold, this can be a way to buy miles for 2 cents each. You can see more details about the program in the FAQ.
Hat tip to reader E.
The funny thing is they sent me this email and i briefly read it but i didn’t understand what they were talking about so i was like hummm whatever i’ll go the Doctor of credit and read it from there and actually understand.
I don’t see why people bash this, afterall, they are selling miles at 3-5 cpm. 2cpm is a deal compare to those.
It’s not for everyone, but surely has its place.
I get a large Mickey D’s coffee and pay $1.06 which I value is worth $2 all day long since I was paying 2.26 and 2.54 for dunkin and Starbucks medium coffee. So now I get 48 miles when I stop for my daily coffee, sure I paid 2 cents per mile but I feel I received $2 in value for a large coffee. It’s really a value proposition of spending $2.
I feel like the survey I got about Flight Cents was pointless and they were going to implement it anyway.
If even a dozen idiots sign up it’s a win for them. Same as the idiots buying a “mileage boost” at check-in.
Kicked this dog to the curb after getting my last grandfathered 10K bonus.
I live near a small airport with high airfare, so AA miles are very valuable because of the fixed award chart. I get at minimum 4 cents per mile with each redemption, so buying them at 2 cents is a steal.
Until they move to a variable award chart…
You can buy them for under 1.8 cents a piece right now (150k for $2676). Ends today though.
If this were Wells Fargo, you’d be enrolled by default and have to make a phone call to cancel.
At Wells Fargo, you’d probably have to go in person, even if the closest branch to you is 500 miles away.
This is really smart IMO and might catch on. It won’t be used by us, but your everyday person who’s clueless about the value of miles and pays a $100 annual fee to earn ~ $25k in miles per year through normal spend might jump at something like this.
Selling miles and their credit card program is their money maker.
If they offered to round down and take .5 miles out of my AA account for each cent I’d be buying a whole lot of .99 Amazon gift cards.
That would be a winner lol
LOL American… they must be smoking something there.