Where Will 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage Miles Take You This Summer?

After flying plenty of miles with

American Airlines

, you may have finally earned enough

AAdvantage

miles (or points) to use on a trip. How does it work, and where can you go?

Let’s say you have 25,000 AAdvantage points to work with. This certainly sounds like a lot, and you really do need to fly a lot of miles and/or spend a good amount of money using an American AAdvantage branded credit card to earn these points. Yet with this said, you may be surprised by how the points system works and how much you can purchase with points.

Before you start using your hard-earned points to book flights, take a closer look at where 25,000 AAdvantage miles can actually take you.

First, let’s crunch some numbers

As you’re considering using your AAdvantage points to book flights, you need to understand how it all works. Contrary to the common assumption that airline miles equal actual miles in flight, the points system usually doesn’t work that way.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

NerdWallet goes into much further detail on how to earn AAdvantage points, so here are a few key points:

• American awards at least five AAdvantage miles/points for every dollar you spend directly with them. If you have elite status, you earn more points per dollar.
• You can also earn AAdvantage points by flying with American’s oneworld partners, but keep in mind that you might only earn 25% to 50% of flown miles with an economy ticket. (If you fly on a higher-class ticket, you can earn many more points.)
• You probably have the most opportunities to earn the most points with an American Airlines credit card, especially since they often offer 50,000 points or more upon signing and initial purchases.
• By signing up and spending with American’s official partners, which includes hotels, restaurants, car rentals, and even cruises, you can also earn AAdvantage points with them.

Image: American Airlines

Now that we see how to earn points, it’s time to examine how much your points are worth in terms of redemption for flights. Fortunately for you, American AAdvantage points are the most valuable you’ll find among U.S. carriers, with an average U.S. dollar conversion rate of 1.7 cents per point. Even better, American offers more punch for your points when you book flights directly with them.

Basically, there’s a good chance you can book a trip within the United States for 25,000 points or fewer, and you may have some options for short-haul international flights that fly less than 3,000 miles. But as you’ll see below, you’ll need to do some shopping to find a place you want to go that fits within your points budget.

Related

How To Earn American Airlines AAdvantage Miles On Non-oneworld Alliance Carriers

Looking at how to accumulate those points!

So, where can you go with 25,000 AAdvantage miles?

25,000 AAdvantage miles might initially sound like a lot. But once you’re ready to start using them, you need to temper your expectations. As we can now see with all our data on hand, 25,000 AAdvantage miles do not simply convert into 25,000 real-world miles to travel.

Image: American Airlines

To further illustrate this point, let’s try booking a trip with AAdvantage miles on aa.com. Looking at the September and October “shoulder season” between the summer and winter peak travel times, we can find some main cabin (or standard economy) round-trip flight deals to various U.S. domestic destinations.

If you’re on the East Coast and you like the idea of a fall leaf-peeping getaway, you can find round-trip deals for Burlington, Vermont (BTV), for under 14,000 AAdvantage points from Philadelphia (PHL), and for as low as 16,000 points from Charlotte (CLT). Meanwhile, out west, you can find round-trip fares for Albuquerque (ABQ) for under 15,000 AAdvantage points from Los Angeles (LAX).

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

If you prefer more of a warm weather weekend getaway, you can find round-trip deals from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Phoenix (PHX) for under 24,000 points (including a few nonstop flight options), and for as low as 18,000 points from Chicago (ORD) to Phoenix. Back east, you can find round-trip flight deals from New York City (JFK and LGA) to Miami (MIA) for as low as 21,000 points, and for potentially as low as 22,000 points from Washington (DCA) to Miami.

What about international flights?

Looking at the amount of points you’ll likely need to spend on a satisfying domestic weekend getaway, you might be wondering what’s possible for international trips. As long as you keep your expectations reasonable, you can make some good stuff work.

Sticking with the September and October “shoulder season,” you can find several good flight deals for easy, breezy, warm, and tropical Caribbean vacations. For instance, you can grab round-trip flight deals from Dallas to Cancun (CUN) for as low as 23,000 AAdvantage points. From Miami, you can jet your way to St. Maarten (SXM) for potentially as low as 24,000 points. And from Charlotte, you may be able to score a round-trip deal to Nassau, Bahamas (NAS), for as low as 19,000 points.

Sadly, your options with American may be more limited out west, as American’s cutbacks on international flights have hit hardest west of the Rockies. (For more details, read Gary Leff’s explanation of American’s West Coast operations at View from the Wing.) Still, you can find some round-trip flight deals from Phoenix to San José del Cabo (SJD) for as low as 19,000 AAdvantage points, and from Phoenix to Puerto Vallarta (PVR) as low as 21,000 points.

The takeaway? When you’re booking your getaway with points, be flexible

When we looked up flights to provide examples for this story, a few key highlights stood out. One is that flight costs (in terms of dollars and points) can vary greatly. From one day to the next, and even within a single day, one flight can cost several thousand points more than the next.

Image: American Airlines

If you’re not working on a very tight schedule, you can really use that to your advantage when you’re aiming to redeem your points on flights. If you don’t care much about nonstop flights, you may be able to save more by booking flights with short layovers. If you don’t have to leave and return on specific dates, you can check flight options on other days for cheaper flights. And if you really want to upgrade yourself to business class, prepare to pay significantly more.

Ultimately, you do have plenty of ways to fly American for your next vacation with 25,000 AAdvantage miles. As long as you play smart, you can play to score a sweet trip.