Take quick action! The Points Guy reports that American AAdvantage is offering substantial bonus miles for booking cruises.

Exciting update for American Airlines enthusiasts: This month, you have the opportunity to earn significant bonus miles by reserving a cruise.

On Monday, American Airlines Cruises introduced a new promotion that offers customers 2 American Airlines AAdvantage miles for each dollar spent on a cruise fare (calculated before taxes and fees). This is double the usual offer of 1 mile per dollar spent.

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For instance, if you spend $8,000 on a cruise fare during the promotion, you can accumulate up to 16,000 AAdvantage miles.

That’s a considerable amount of AAdvantage miles. The Points Guy (TPG) currently estimates AAdvantage miles to be worth 1.7 cents each. Therefore, 16,000 miles would be valued at $272 according to our assessment.

To put it differently, those 16,000 miles can secure you two free flights within the contiguous United States and Canada by booking a miles ticket at the AAdvantage program’s minimum award rate of 7,500 miles per ticket.

A chance to benefit twice

The double miles promotion is part of a larger campaign this month at American Airlines Cruises, known as America’s Largest Cruise Sale, which provides extra savings and benefits in certain situations, depending on the cruise you select (in addition to any discounts offered by the cruise lines).

The extra savings and benefits per line include:

Moreover, you can earn extra miles when booking a cruise with an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card. As usual with American Airlines Cruises, you receive an additional AAdvantage mile for every dollar spent on a cruise when using an American Airlines AAdvantage card.

This means you can earn up to 3 miles for each dollar spent on a cruise fare with this new promotion. For an $8,000 cruise, you would accumulate 24,000 AAdvantage miles.

Be aware that you need to act quickly to secure the bonus miles. The increased mileage promotion is available only until June 28. This offer is applicable to new cruise bookings planned to occur between Tuesday, June 11, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2025.

Information regarding the bonus mile promotion

This new bonus mile offer differs from some airline frequent flyer program offers for cruises in that it is available to customers who book any category of cabin or suite, not just higher-category cabins.

Here are some important points to note: Bonus miles are granted per cabin and are provided to only one passenger per cruise reservation. To be eligible, customers need to book via the American Airlines Cruises portal.

Related: How to reserve a cruise using points and miles

In addition, the number of miles customers earn from the promotion is calculated based on the total cruise purchase price, excluding port charges, port expenses, taxes, and insurance.

Other fine print:

• There is no restriction on the number of miles you can accumulate.
• Your American Airlines AAdvantage number needs to be supplied before departure.
• Miles are credited to the member’s account within six to eight weeks after the cruise concludes.
• Cruises must be paid using U.S. dollars.
• AAdvantage members will accumulate Loyalty Points for the base miles gained when booking through American Airlines Cruises, though bonus miles earned during promotions will not count towards Loyalty Points.

Which credit card would be best to use for booking?

To get the most out of your purchase, consider using an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card, like theCiti® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®Refer to the rates and fees. As previously mentioned, it will grant you extra bonus miles when you book a cruise via American Airlines Cruises. Currently, this card provides 100,000 bonus miles after you spend $10,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account.

If you lack an American Airlines card, consider using a card that offers bonus points for cruise purchases. A strong candidate is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which provides 2 points per dollar spent on travel, including cruises. Currently, you can earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account.

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