Get Your Free Holiday Gift from American Airlines! Register by 12/16/2020
Last Updated: 12/2/2020
Check Your AAdvantage Accounts and register!
American Airlines is offering holiday gifts if you register by 12/16/2020
Gifts we’ve seen so far are 500 Mile Upgrade Points, 250 AAdvantage Miles, and 100 AAdvantage Miles
While we would’ve preferred to see 2021 status challenges, Admirals Club day passes, complimentary Admirals Club drink vouchers, or system-wide upgrades for top-tier elites, we’re glad to see American Airlines offering AAdvantage members a gift this holiday season
To the Point
American Airlines sent out emails to AAdvantage members with a holiday gift offer! So far we’ve seen gifts ranging from 500-mile upgrade points (worth $40 each) to various amounts of AAdvantage miles, depending on your elite status. All you have to do is keep reading below, register by December 16, 2020, and within 24 hours your gift will be deposited by American Airlines into your AAdvantage account’s virtual wallet!
What are the holiday gifts?
So far, we’ve seen Executive Platinum members be offered 500-mile upgrade points, although in the American Airline’s Wallet it doesn’t say how many. We’re assuming that Executive Platinum members will receive two 500-mile upgrade points, worth a total of $80 if you were to buy them outright. Now the twist here is that Executive Platinum and Platinum Pro AAvantage members receive complimentary, unlimited domestic upgrades and can’t use these upgrade points. The points only really have value when an Executive Platinum or Platinum Pro member is traveling with a companion that is Platinum, Gold or doesn’t have status. While these will have limited value in 2021, once the AAdvantage elite status extension ends on January 31, 2022, we have a feeling that a lot of elites will be dropping down in their status levels and that these points will actually bring more value.
For Platinum Pro members, we’ve seen multiple data points that they have received 250 AAdvantage Award miles, worth approximately $3.50 based on our valuation of 1.4 cents per mile (CPM) per AAdvantage mile. This valuation is where we suggest that people make sure they redeem their miles for this value or more. We typically get a redemption value of 2.0 CPM, otherwise, we pay for our flights outright on either our Platinum Card from American Express or our Chase Sapphire Reserve card. This valuation would suggest that the gift is worth upwards of $5.00 on the higher side.
We’ve read of others receiving offers of 100 AAdvantage miles for lower status levels.
How to Redeem the Gifts
Log into your AAdvantage accounts, go to Promotions, and register by December 16, 2020. Then, 24 hours later, American Airlines will deposit your gift and add it to your American Airlines Wallet.
2021 Challenges - The Additional Gift?
In addition to the complimentary gift, American is also offering various challenges. Unfortunately, these are not status challenges for 2021 and into 2022. The challenge for Executive Platinum members is to book four flights for after January 1, 2021, in Premium Economy, Business, or First for travel. After meeting and completing the qualifying flights, an additional four 500-mile upgrade points and 2,000 AAdvantage bonus miles will be deposited into your account. We value these upgrade points at $40 each, which brings a net value of $160. For the AAdvantage miles, our valuation range is $28 to $40 for the 2,000 miles. That’s a total value of almost $200 on the lower valuation side.
What we find interesting here are the requirements that the travel has to be premium economy, which is usually only found on international flights, business or first class. While the rules don’t explicitly state that the travel has to be international, it’s certainly implied. There also doesn’t appear to be a date by which the flights must be taken, so there’s a possibility that you could meet the requirements later in 2021 when hopefully the world is a little more normal.
Final Point
Like kids on Christmas morning, we’re excited to see how many upgrade points are added to our AAdvantage accounts in the next 24 hours. We would’ve liked to have seen something a little more creative, such as targeted reductions in 2021/2022 elite status, system-wide upgrades for top-tier elites, Admirals Clubs day passes, Admirals Club drink vouchers, or many other options that could’ve to lead to more net revenue for the airline by giving AAdvantage members a taste of a more elevated travel experience that they then may be more willing to pay for down the road, while also landing a more impressionable impact this holiday season.
At the end of the day, with such a challenging year for the airline industry, we’re very grateful that American Airlines did something to celebrate our loyalty and bring some holiday cheer. We look forward to sharing these upgrade points with our friends & families on our next adventures in 2021!
Did you receive a 2020 holiday gift from American Airlines? Let us know by DMing us on Instagram, or by messaging us on Facebook!