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At the end of October, American Airlines rolled out a new mileage discount program called Economy Web Specials which offered AAdvantage members a chance to book economy flights for as little as 5,000 miles each way. Although American started with just six obscure routes, it expanded to 11 routes in early November and American has been steadily adding routes ever since.
This week has seen the most aggressive expansion yet with discount options now available on 39 routes including flights to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America and Europe.
Airline: American Airlines
Routes: See routes broken out by region below
Cost: One-way economy award flights from 5,000+ miles for domestic flights; 5,000+ miles to the Caribbean; 9,000+ miles to Europe; 13,500+ miles for Hawaii flights; 20,500+miles to South America
Dates: Starting January 8, 2019 through the end of the calendar, although availability may be scattered on some routes
Booking Link: Directly with American Airlines
Pay Taxes/Fees With: Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, Citi Premier Card, Citi Prestige Card (3x on airfare plus excellent trip-delay insurance) or Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (2x on travel)
In This Post
Domestic & Canada
With this week’s expansion, there are now 29 routes in the US and Canada that are available through Economy Web Specials: ABQ-SAT, BOS-GSO, CLE-MSP, CLT-MLB, DFW-BRO, DFW-CRP, DFW-FLL, DFW-ICT, DFW-LIT, DFW-MAF, DFW-MFE, DFW-MSY, DFW-YYZ, IAH-ABQ, IAH-SNA, IND-AUS, LAX-AUS, LAX-LAS, LAX-PDX, LGA-ORF, LGA-RIC, MCO-BWI, OKC-SNA, ORD-ROA, PHL-GSO, PHX-LAS, PHX-LGB, PIT-MCO, RDU-DAY.
I haven’t had the chance to price each of them out, but there are a number of routes that would typically cost 12,500 miles each way but are available for as little as 5,000 miles each way.
Examples include New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Norfolk (ORF) for 5,000 miles one-way:
Los Angeles (LAX) to Portland (PDX) for 5,000 miles one-way:
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) for 5,000 mile one-way:
Mexico & Caribbean
Three Mexico/Caribbean routes have been added to the discount program:
- Miami (MIA) to Aruba (AUA)
- Miami (MIA) to Belize City (BZE)
- Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Montego Bay (MBJ)
Off-peak award flights to Mexico and the Caribbean cost 12,500 miles each way and standard award flights cost 15,000 each way. But with Economy Web Specials, you’ll get flights for as little as 5,000 miles each way. And availability is great too, even during peak travel times. Here’s Miami to Aruba in March — nearly everyday has flights available for 5,000 miles:
Europe
There are now four transatlantic routes included in the Economy Web Specials program:
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Barcelona (BCN)
- Raleigh/Durham (RDU) to London Heathrow (LHR)
- St. Louis (STL) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
- Miami (MIA) to Madrid (MAD)
And the pricing on some of these routes is spectacular — such as Miami to Madrid during peak summer for as low as 9,000 miles one way plus taxes of just $5.60:
This is a huge discount to the 22,500-mile off-peak award pricing and even more of a discount to the standard 30,000-mile award pricing.
Hawaii
In early November, American Airlines added two Hawaii routes to Economy Web Specials. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been expanded beyond these two routes:
- Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL)
- Phoenix (PHX) to Honolulu (HNL)
The pricing on these routes is all over the place, but I’m finding some options as cheap as 13,500 miles each way:
South America
With this week’s expansion, American Airlines has added one route to South America: New York’s Kennedy (JFK) to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (GIG). Discounted flights start as cheap as 20,500 miles each way vs. the 30,000-mile standard economy award rate.
How Economy Web Specials Works
I’d recommend reading through all of the details in this post about how Economy Web Specials works. However, as a quick briefer:
If these awards leave your AAdvantage account depleted, here are some ways to replenish your account:
Source: thepointsguy.com