AAdvantage’s Reduced Mileage Awards for Travel Oct. – Jan.

American Airlines AAdvantage periodically releases a list of discounted domestic sAAver level awards to cities all around the country called Reduced Mileage Awards. The maximum these awards are discounted is 7,500 miles roundtrip. The exact discount you receive depends on which AAdvantage credit card you have.

The latest list is good for travel in October through January.

Increased 75k Bonus for the AAdvantage Executive Card

Update: The 75,000 mile offer for the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard ends tomorrow (Thursday), so if you want the elevated bonus, apply by then! 

For a limited time, the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard is now offering a whopping 75,000 bonus American Airlines miles but for a higher minimum spending requirement of $7,500 within three months of opening the card

This is a large jump from the previous offer of 50,000 miles after spending $5,000.

The Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard is a great card for many people

New Iberia Route with Lots of Business Award Space for One

Iberia, flag carrier of Spain, just announced a new seasonal route between Madrid and San Francisco that will operate between April 25 and September 28, 2018.

Iberia currently flies to Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and New York City. Out of those destinations, Boston and Los Angeles are seasonal.

During peak travel season (spring/summer), this is what Iberia's US route map will look like:

Timing of New Route
Iberia's new seasonal San Francisco route will depart Madrid at 12:25 pm and arrive to San Francisco at 4:00 pm local time.

Citi AAdvantage Cards’ 60k Offers Return

Back in July we watched the 60k sign up bonus offers on each of Citi's AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCards (the personal and business) disappear.

Unpublished AAdvantage Re-engagement Challenge

In the midst of research for Monday's post, Buying Back Expired Miles, I stumbled upon some information from milecards.com that mentioned another way to earn back expired American Airlines miles via a Re-engagement Challenge. For frequent American Airlines/oneworld flyers, participating will be cheaper than paying to get larger amounts of expired miles back.

The general gist is that if you have miles that expired within the last five years, you can pay a flat $30 fee to register in a "Re-engagement Challenge".

Aussie AAdvantage Office No Longer Seeing Etihad Award Space

It looks as though the longstanding workaround to booking American Airlines awards flying Etihad--calling the Australia/New Zealand reservations office--is no longer a workaround. I hope this isn't the case, as redeeming AAdvantage miles to book premium Etihad cabins to the Middle East and on to the Indian Sub-continent region is/was one of the best uses of AAdvantage miles.
Background
Booking Etihad premium cabin award space with American Airlines miles has always been a bit tricky.

Link For 60k Offer on CitiBusiness Card (Better Than Public Bonus)

The Citi /AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard and the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World MasterCard bonus are now each offering 30,000 American Airlines for spending $1,000 the card within three months of account opening.

Historically that is not a very high sign up bonus for either. Periodically Citi will raise the bonuses to 50k AAdvantage miles for spending $3,000 in three months, and not that long ago the public bonuses were 60,000 miles for each of the personal and business cards.

If you missed out on the public offers, there's no need to fret.

Etihad Ends San Francisco Route as of October 29

Etihad currently flies to six cities in the United States from its hub Abu Dhabi:

Chicago
Dallas
Los Angeles
New York City (JFK)
San Francisco
Washington, D.C. (IAD)

October 28, 2017 is the last day Etihad will fly between Abu Dhabi and San Francisco. The new route network between Abu Dhabi and the US as of October 29 is pictured above.

This is not great news for those living on the west coast that want to fly Etihad as it decreases the overall amount of award space available.

How to Earn & Burn American Airlines Miles Fast

It's really easy right now to earn a lot of American Airlines miles fast.