Best Ways to Book American Airlines Flights with Chase Ultimate Rewards

American Airlines currently isn’t a transfer partner with any of the major flexible currency programs, so unless you collect AAdvantage miles or transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to the AAdvantage program at a 3:1 ratio, you need to use other loyalty programs to book American Airlines flights using points.

If you have Ultimate Rewards points—the flexible currency earned through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program—or other flexible currency, it’s possible to use these points to book American Airlines flights.

There are two basic ways you can book American Airlines flights using Ultimate Rewards points:

• Through Chase Travel℠, which functions like a third-party online travel agency similar to Expedia
• Through partner airline programs, utilizing general principles discussed below and in best practices for searching Oneworld airlines

While points and miles enthusiasts often prefer the latter option, there are situations where booking through Chase Travel℠ makes sense.

How to Earn and Redeem Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase has several credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points through welcome bonuses and spending. 

Personal cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points include:

• Chase Freedom (not available to new applicants)
• Chase Freedom Flex®
• Chase Freedom Unlimited®
• Chase Freedom Rise® Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®

 Business cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points include:

• Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

Note: All information about the Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Rise cards has been collected independently by MileValue. Card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Earning rates, redemption rates and allowable use of points varies depending on several factors. Let’s focus on the earning rates first.

Each card has a different earning structure for spending, which provides an opportunity to leverage different cards to increase points earning. Options to earn more than 1 point per dollar spent include:

• Freedom Flex: Earn 5X points in rotating quarterly bonus categories on up to $1,500 combined purchases and subject to activation, 5X points on travel purchases through Chase Travel℠ and 3X points on drugstores and dining. Note: The original Freedom card also earns 5X points in quarterly bonus categories.
• Freedom Unlimited: Earn 5X points on travel purchases through Chase Travel℠, 3X points at drugstores and on dining, and 1.5X points on all other purchases. Note: The Freedom Rise—focused on students and other individuals new to credit cards—also earns 1.5X points on purchases.
• Sapphire Reserve: Earn 10X points on hotels (excluding The Edit^SM) and car rentals purchased through Chase Travel℠, 10X points on Lyft rides (through March 2025), 10X points on Chase Dining purchases with Ultimate Rewards, 5X points on flights purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3X on other travel and 3X points on dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services). For all travel purchases, points aren’t earned on the first $300 spent annually, which is reimbursed through the $300 annual travel credit.
• Sapphire Preferred: Earn 5X points on travel purchases through Chase Travel℠, excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual credit, 5X points on qualifying Lyft rides and Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 (maximum earning of 25,000 total points with Peloton) through March 2025, 3X points on dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services), 3X points on select streaming services and online grocery purchases, excluding Target®, Walmart® and wholesale clubs, and 2X points on other travel purchases.
• Ink Cash: Earn 5X points on office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services up to a maximum of $25,000 in combined purchases per year, 5X points on Lyft rides through March 2025, 2X points at gas stations and restaurants up to a maximum of $25,000 in combined purchases per year.
• Ink Preferred: Earn 3X points on shipping purchases, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines, internet, cable and phone services, and travel. Triple earnings are limited to a maximum of $150,000 in combined purchases per account year.
• Ink Premier: Earn 5X on Lyft rides through March 2025, 2.5X points on every purchase over $5,000 and 2X points on all other purchases.
• Ink Unlimited: Earn 1.5X points on all purchases.

Ultimate Rewards points can be used in several ways. Some methods—such as shopping with points at selected merchants—typically provide poor redemption value and aren’t recommended. Redemption options providing at least 1 cent per point value include: 

• Buying gift cards: The regular redemption rate is 1 cent per point, and there sometimes are opportunities for discounts of about 10%.
• Taking statement credits through the Pay Yourself Back® promotion: This option provides a statement credit for specific types of purchases, and the rate varies from 1.25 to 1.5 cents per point.
• Using points to book through Chase Travel℠: The redemption rate is 1 to 1.5 cents per point, depending on which credit cards you have.
• Transferring points to airline and hotel partners: The standard transfer ratio is 1:1, but points often can be redeemed within loyalty programs for much greater value, and there sometimes are limited-time transfer bonuses.

Booking Flights Through Chase Travel℠

When redeeming Ultimate Rewards points through Chase Travel℠, the value of each  point depends on which credit cards you have. To ensure you get the best value, combine points from different cards to your account with the highest redemption value and select that card when using Chase Travel℠.

Let’s look at an example for a flight that costs $250 through Chase Travel℠.  The value per point and total number of Ultimate Rewards points required with different cards are:

• Sapphire Reserve: Points are worth 1.5 cents each, and the purchase requires 16,667 points.
• Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred: Points are worth 1.25 cents each, and the purchase requires 20,000 points.
• Other cards: Points are worth 1 cent each, and the purchase requires 25,000 points.

If you have points in other flexible currency programs, you may want to look at their redemption rates and compare availability and pricing through each travel portal. As long as you have one of the premium Chase cards noted above, redemption rates through Chase Travel℠ are similar or better compared to other flexible currency programs.

There are several situations in which it may make sense to book flights using Ultimate Rewards points through Chase Travel℠, including:

• Cash prices are low.
• Award rates are high, relative to cash rates.
• Award seats for a preferred flight aren’t available through American Airlines partners’ programs, and you don’t have AAdvantage miles.
• You want to earn airline loyalty program points or elite qualifying credit for the flight but don’t want to spend cash on tickets.
• You don’t have a premium Chase card earning Ultimate Rewards points, so you can’t transfer Ultimate Rewards points to partner programs.
• You don’t want to add complexity of learning about new programs and taking multiple  steps—opening loyalty program accounts, transferring points and booking through new programs—to redeem Ultimate Rewards points.

Booking Flights Through Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners

There are restrictions on which Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to partners. To enable transfers, you or an authorized user, household member or employee (for business cards) must hold one of the following premium cards: the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Ink Business Preferred.

With the exception of points earned through the Ink Business Premier Card, points earned from other cards can be combined between Chase credit card accounts and then transferred to partners. 

For example, someone who holds the Freedom Unlimited and the Sapphire Preferred cards can move Ultimate Rewards points from the Freedom Unlimited to the Sapphire Preferred first and then transfer Sapphire Preferred points to partners. 

Chase Ultimate Rewards has 11 airline partners and three hotel partners. The regular transfer ratio with all partners is 1:1, so each Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1 loyalty program point.

Transfer bonuses are offered periodically with specific programs, and transfer bonuses enable you to get more than the usual number of loyalty program points. Recent Chase transfer bonuses to airline programs have been 20% to 40%. For programs that can be used to book American Airlines flights, recent transfer bonuses to British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus have been 30%. With a 30% transfer bonus, you’d get 1,300 Avios for every 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

American Airlines and other airlines have formed alliances and other partnerships, and as part of these agreements, points and miles from one airline loyalty program can be used to book flights on other airlines, with some limitations.

Like other airlines, American Airlines releases less award space to partner airlines than they make available for AAdvantage members. Historically, seats designated as “SAAver awards” were available to partner programs, but in recent years, it’s become increasingly difficult to identify award space available to partners. 

We previously discussed how to use fare codes and third-party tools to identify American Airlines flights that partners can book. It’s also become more common for some partners to have access to award space that others don’t.

As a general guideline, you’re more likely to find partner awards on routes and dates when American AAdvantage has lower award rates. It’s easy to find dates with lower award rates for a particular route using the monthly calendar view on American Airlines’ website. In addition, you can filter these results to limit by the number of stops and class of service. 

Here’s an example for a route discussed below with filters applied for nonstop flights in the main cabin.

While there are only two airline loyalty programs that are Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners and can be used to book American Airlines flights—British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus—you can use certain other airline loyalty programs that aren’t direct Chase transfer partners to book American Airlines flights.

British Airways, Iberia and several other airlines use a common loyalty program currency called Avios and allow free Avios transfers between Avios programs. Indirect (second) transfers provide the ability to book American Airlines awards through Finnair Plus and Qatar Airways Privilege Club, which also use Avios as their rewards currency.

Given differences among award programs in award rates, award availability and other features, it’s worthwhile to compare options for a specific trip.

Let’s take a closer look at the Avios programs that can be used to book American Airlines flights. Since there is overlap in transfer partners among the major flexible currency programs, it’s also useful to review discussions of the different Avios programs and potential good uses for booking American Airlines flights in related articles focused on using American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points.

British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus

We’re discussing these two programs together since they typically have the same award structure and rates. Both programs use distance-based award rates and no longer publish award charts displaying the distance bands and Avios required. Award rates tend to be higher on flights with connections, since these programs charge by segment. 

Observed and reported award rates for American Airlines flights booked through British Airways and Iberia programs as of December 2024 are displayed below.

In most cases, we recommend using British Airways Executive Club instead of Iberia for booking American Airlines awards, because Iberia has a terrible policy for partner award cancellations and changes. 

British Airways provides options of paying the lesser of a $55 fee or the tax amount to cancel or change an award booking up to 24 hours before travel. Iberia Plus awards on several partners—including American Airlines—essentially can’t be changed and are completely nonrefundable.

If you’re certain that your plans won’t change or book within 24 hours of travel, you might want to check both programs to see if there are rate differences that make Iberia a better option. 

One advantage of booking through Iberia Plus instead of British Airways Executive Club is that Iberia allows booking mixed-class awards—for example, booking a short flight in economy and a transcontinental flight in first class—on a single ticket.

Finnair Plus

If you have Ultimate Rewards points and want to book through Finnair Plus, it’s a two-step process. First, you’ll have to transfer Ultimate Rewards to British Airways Executive Club and then transfer British Airways Avios to Finnair Plus. 

Finnair has a zone-based award chart for American Airlines flights. The following rates apply for award tickets booked through Finnair Plus. 

Finnair service fees are $50 for award cancellations and changes.

Finnair doesn’t support online searches for American Airlines and some other partner airlines, so you need to contact Finnair via online chat or call customer service to check availability and book award flights. In some cases, Finnair agents haven’t been able to see award space that’s available to British Airways and other partners.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

Like with Finnair, transferring Ultimate Rewards points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club is a two-step process using British Airways Executive Club as an intermediary.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club uses distance-based award rates and no longer publishes award charts displaying the distance bands and Avios required.

There are some differences in award rates through Qatar compared to British Airways and Iberia. Observed and reported award rates for American Airlines flights booked through Qatar Airways Privilege Club as of December 2024 are displayed below.

Qatar Airways charges $25 for award cancellations and changes made at least 24 hours in advance and $100 for cancellations and changes three to 24 hours in advance.

Keep in mind that booking through Qatar Airways Privilege Club can be frustrating. Qatar’s online searches don’t consistently produce results for certain U.S. airports and routes that may be bookable through agents. More specifically, routes served by American Airlines regional carriers and flights with connections don’t work well for online searches.

Examples and Search Results

Specific situations impact which booking option is best. Factors to consider include your specific route, class of service, travel dates and other aspects of the trip.

Given that recent articles have provided multiple examples for flights within the Americas, we’ll summarize findings and look at some new examples for flights between the U.S. and Europe.

Flights within North America

As detailed through examples in previous articles, we have found certain types of Avios to be better than others for booking American Airlines flights.

Short distance nonstop flights

For flights up to 650 miles, Qatar Airways Privilege Club has the least expensive one-way economy-class award rate at 9,500 Avios. For comparison, British Airways and Iberia award rates are 12,000 Avios, and Finnair’s award rate is 16,500 Avios. First-class awards follow the same pattern, with rates of 20,000 Qatar Avios, 24,000 British Airways or Iberia Avios and 40,000 Finnair Avios.

Intermediate to longer distance connecting flights within the continental U.S. and Canada

In most cases, Finnair Plus awards are going to be the least expensive Avios option for booking these itineraries. Regardless of distance or number of connections, Finnair’s rate is 16,500 Avios one way in economy within the region. With British Airways and Iberia, the least expensive connecting option—incorporating two flights under 650 miles each—is 24,000 Avios in economy.

Qatar Airways is the wildcard with award pricing for connecting flights on American Airlines. Given the lack of published award charts and limitations in online search capabilities, our data points are from communications with Qatar agents during 2024. 

The award rates provided imply that Qatar award pricing is based on the distance band corresponding with the combined distance of flights rather than the sum of the distance bands for each individual flight. If that approach is applied consistently, Qatar could have lower award rates than Finnair on many domestic routes.

To illustrate the difference, let’s consider a hypothetical routing with two segments of 500 miles and 900 miles each (1,400 miles total).

• The award rates shared by Qatar agents suggest that Qatar’s award rate would be 18,000 Avios, the expected rate for the 1,151 to 2,000 miles distance band.
• If Qatar award rates were calculated the same way as British Airways and Iberia rates, the award rate would be 28,000 Avios, which is the sum of 12,000 Avios (rate for up to 650 miles) and 16,000 Avios (rate for 651 to 1,150 miles).

Flights between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii

Finnair Plus has the lowest award rates for travel between the continental U.S. and Hawaii at 15,000 Avios per direction in economy class. The rate is the same whether flying nonstop or with a connection. 

Using British Airways, Iberia or Qatar programs, award rates vary. The least expensive nonstop one-way economy award rate from a western gateway—such as Los Angeles, which is under 3,000 miles from Hawaii—is 16,000 Qatar Avios or 20,000 British Airways or Iberia Avios.

Flight from Chicago to London 

Let’s look at flights between the U.S. and Europe, comparing options for booking through Chase Travel℠ and through transfer partners for a one-way nonstop American Airlines flight from Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR). The estimated distance for this flight is 3,953 miles.

At the time of writing, options for booking in the main cabin directly through American Airlines were:

• AAdvantage award for 19,000 miles plus $5.60 taxes and fees
• Revenue ticket for $507.30 for a main cabin fare that’s changeable and refundable for an American Airlines credit or $620.30 to make the ticket eligible for full refund to the original form of payment. Note: Other revenue fares are available, but these two options are most similar to the award option.

Booking through Chase Travel℠

If you choose to book this ticket through Chase Travel℠, the revenue ticket pricing is exactly the same as through American Airlines.

Paying the full ticket price with Ultimate Rewards points for the $507.30 main cabin fare requires: 

• 40,584 points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Preferred cardholders (displayed below)        
• 33,820 points for the Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders

Booking through Chase Transfer Partners

If you transfer Ultimate Rewards points to partners, the same number of Avios are needed to book the American Airlines economy flight from Chicago to London through the British Airways, Iberia and Qatar Airways programs: 20,750 Avios. Taxes and fees vary among these programs within a range of $232.30 to $267.30. British Airways Executive Club has the lowest taxes and fees.

Finnair Plus charges 23,000 Avios for one-way economy flights between North America and Europe. The chat agent didn’t see as much award availability as was displayed for other programs, and taxes and fees for the route were about $260. While Finnair is the most expensive redemption option for this route, Finnair awards would be less expensive than British Airways, Iberia and Qatar options for longer flights and/or connecting itineraries.

Comparing Chase Travel℠ vs. partner program booking options

When considering whether to book by transferring Ultimate Rewards points to partners or booking directly through Chase Travel℠, there are two other important considerations: taxes and fees on award tickets and the value of points earned if booking through Chase Travel℠.

With respect to the taxes and fees, you can use two different approaches to more accurately compare options. The first approach involves dividing the tax and fee amount by the value for 1 Ultimate Rewards point and adding the result to the number of points needed for the award. You could assign value based on a personal threshold or use the rate available if redeeming points through Chase Travel℠. The latter approach is used in the calculations below.

For a Sapphire Reserve cardholder, the calculation using British Airways tax and fees amounts are 20,750 Avios + ($232.30 / $0.015) = 36,237 Avios. That’s more than 33,820 Ultimate Rewards points required to book through Chase Travel℠, so many people would prefer to book through Chase Travel℠ in this situation.

The second approach is to adjust the number of points you want to use toward payment within Chase Travel℠. This example is for the Sapphire Preferred Card, whose points are worth 1.25 cents each through Chase Travel℠. If choosing to use the same number of points that would be needed to book the award through partners (20,750 Ultimate Rewards points), the cash payment required would be a little bit more than the taxes and fees for a British Airways award.

While the case for booking through Chase Travel℠ is stronger for the Sapphire Reserve Card, both scenarios look better when considering that you earn points and miles through a Chase Travel℠ booking. This provides another advantage compared to transferring points and booking through a partner program. 

We didn’t include points and miles earned in the calculation, because there are too many variables—such as the ticket’s fare class, program to which points and miles are credited, and passenger’s elite status—to quantify the number of points and miles earned through a Chase Travel℠ booking.

Flight from Rome to Dallas 

A second example shows that different options may be better when considering awards on a different route and date. Rome to Dallas is a longer nonstop flight of about 5,614 miles.

We checked award availability and found a flight for the lowest award rate of 19,000 AAdvantage miles + $59.81.

With the longer distance, Finnair’s regional one-way award rate of 23,000 Avios in economy is less expensive than awards through British Airways, Iberia or Qatar Airways. With the other programs’ distance-based pricing, the award rate would be 31,000 Avios for the same flight in economy class.

Similar to the previous example, taxes and fees when booking through partner programs are higher than taxes and fees if booking through the AAdvantage program. Taxes and fees on partner bookings vary slightly among programs in a similar range as the Chicago to London flight.

Revenue tickets for this flight are significantly more expensive. Once again, ticket prices are the same on American Airlines website and through Chase Travel℠.

Given the high cash prices for these flights, it would be significantly more expensive to book this flight through Chase Travel℠ compared to booking through partner loyalty programs. Paying the full ticket price with Ultimate Rewards points for the main cabin fare requires:

• 91,505 points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Preferred cardholders         
• 76,254 points for the Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders

Even considering that taxes on award tickets are over $230 and airfare booked through Chase Travel℠ earns airline points or miles, it doesn’t make sense to book this flight through Chase Travel℠ given the significant difference in Ultimate Rewards points needed compared to booking through partner programs.

Final Thoughts

Flexible currency, including Chase Ultimate Rewards, is powerful because it allows you to book award flights without having a specific airline’s own points and miles.

The best way to book American Airlines flights using Ultimate Rewards points varies depending on the specific flights, so it’s a good idea to check multiple airline loyalty programs and Chase Travel℠ to find the best option. Factors to consider include:

• Chase Travel℠ redemption rate: The Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.5 cents each through Chase Travel℠, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Preferred cardholders get 1.25 cents per point through Chase Travel℠.  Without any of these cards, the redemption rate is 1 cent per point.
• Differences among airline loyalty programs that use distance-based awards: Three of the airline programs that are direct or indirect Ultimate Rewards transfer partners and can be used to book American Airlines flights have distance-based award rates. British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus awards have the same distance bands and award rates, and both programs’ rates are determined by summing rates for each flight segment. Qatar Airways Privilege Club has lower award rates for some shorter distance flights and may calculate them based on total distance for connecting itineraries.
• Region-based pricing and total distance advantages for long flights and connecting routes: A program with pure region-based pricing, like Finnair Plus, often provides good value for longer flights and connecting routes. Award rates almost always are higher for distance-based programs that price awards based on the sum of award rates for each flight’s distance compared to total distance for all connecting flights.
• Other program differences: There may be situations where award rates aren’t the only consideration. For example, it may be worth booking through a program that has better award availability, is user-friendly, provides full online search and booking capabilities, and has good change and cancellation policies with low fees.

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