| | Take AAdvantage of these award rates | | by Ben Smithson, Senior writer | |  | I'll just say it: All airline miles are not created equal.
I've consistently found American Airlines AAdvantage miles to be more rewarding than Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus miles.
I have plenty of reasons, but for starters, these miles just got a lot easier to earn. While AAdvantage was lacking a credit card transfer partner for a while, now, holders of certain Citi rewards cards can transfer their ThankYou Rewards points to AAdvantage.
And among those eligible cards is the brand-new Citi Strata Elite℠ Card, which, in addition to some seriously strong earning power and premium benefits, is offering new cardholders a generous 80,000 bonus points after they spend $4,000 in the first three months from account opening, for a limited time.
If I had those 80,000 points to transfer, there are so many great ways I could use them in the AAdvantage program since, compared to those other airline programs, it has: - Lower international redemption rates: You can find business-class seats to Europe starting at 57,500 AAdvantage miles, compared to 80,000 MileagePlus miles or 145,000 SkyMiles.
- Cheap domestic award rates: You can get short-haul economy seats for as little as 5,000 AAdvantage miles each way, meaning those 80,000 Citi points could yield up to 16 domestic flights.
- A superior alliance: Since American is a Oneworld alliance member, AAdvantage miles can get you some of the lowest award rates on partner airlines whose business- and first-class products are truly the cream of the crop. I mean, just look at Japan Airlines' incredible new A350 first class — which deal-hunters can score for exactly 80,000 AAdvantage miles one-way between the U.S. and Japan.
I’ve already started transferring my Citi points to AAdvantage. It has instantly made the ThankYou Rewards program more valuable to me.
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