Last year Citi and American Airlines added some interesting perks for credit card holders.
There was one thing that really stood out: Earn Miles for Using Miles:
Earn 10% of your redeemed AAdvantage miles back- up to 10,000 AAdvantage miles each calendar year.
This sounded like an amazing offer. How could you go wrong with getting back miles for using them! The only negative to the offer was that the mileage rebate was capped. To make this a true 10% back offer, I’d like to try to not redeem more than 100,000 AAdvantage miles in any given year. By doing so I could earn the full rebate.
I was looking to set up my travel plans for most of 2013 early this year so I had an idea. If I could get an AA award booking done before 2012 was over, maybe I could earn the 10% rebate for 2012 and 2013 (if I decided to book another flight with AAdvantage miles).
Prior to booking an awards flight on AA, I called up the AAdvantage Gold phone line. I asked for information about how the credit card mileage rebate worked. The customer service rep wasn’t so sure about this offer. However, he did guess that I would be credited back my 10% after I took the actual flight, not at the time of booking the flight.
The rep’s answer made sense. What a bummer! I was hoping that I could book a flight, earn my miles refund immediately and still qualify for this same offer in 2013.
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Fast forward to a couple of days ago. I was checking my AAdvantage account balance online. While checking recent activity I noticed a couple of thing:
- Mileage for the AA flight that I booked for the end of June had been deducted from my account on 12/20/12. The miles were deducted in two 50,000 mile increments.
- I earned 10,000 miles for the Citi 10% Awards Bonus, also credited on 12/20/12.
This was amazing news! Now if I decide to book another AA award flight in 2013 I will still be eligible for the 10% mileage refund (up to 10,000 miles in a calendar year).
