In 2015, American Airlines rolled out a program to incentivize business and first class travel by offering between 250-12,000 bonus points per segment. Good news! AA has extended the program into 2016 and will keep it in place “until the changes to earning award miles go into effect in the second half of 2016” — the exact date of which still hasn’t been announced.Earning RatesEarning rates depend on your elite status, booking class and distance of flight.This offer is best for AA Executive Platinum elites, who’ll earn between 500-12,000 bonus points per segment — depending on the fare class and length of flight. Meanwhile, AA Platinum, Gold and general members are all treated the same for this promo, earning between 250-6,000 bonus points per segment.The largest bonus is for AA Executive Platinum members booked into F, A, P, J, R or D fare class on flights over 3,000 miles (JFK-SFO and JFK-LAX are specifically included). Each of these segments will earn 12,000 bonus miles, which equates to $204 in value based on TPG’s current valuation of 1.7 cents per mile. If you’re not “ExPlat,” these segments will each earn 6,000 bonus miles (worth ~$102).The business and first class mileage bonus has been extended through at least June 30th.BenefitsThese bonus miles are in addition to the base miles, class of service bonus miles and elite status bonus miles you’d otherwise earn.No registration is necessary for this promotion. American Airlines will automatically credit you these bonus miles after you fly.LimitationsSign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.You must book into first or business class; upgrades into first/business class don’t earn bonus miles.The flight must be an American Airlines-marketed flights, which means you should make sure the flight is sold as an AA flight number.In addition, the flight must be operated by American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines or Qantas to qualify for the bonus.As can be expected, bonus miles don’t count toward elite status qualification or AAdvantage Million Miler status.Example itinerarySee how many miles you can earn on this sample itinerary.Right now, you can book New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Dallas (DFW) for $398 round-trip in first class. This flight books into P class and the distance between these airports is 1,389 miles. So, it counts as a short/medium flight earning the larger bonus. Flyers would get a 500-mile bonus for each leg — or 1,000-mile bonus for Executive Platinum elites.Let’s break down the earnings:StandardGoldPlatinumExPlatBase Miles1,3891,3891,3891,389Class of Service Bonus695695695695Elite Bonus–3471,3891,389Additional Bonus Miles5005005001,000One-way Miles2,5842,9313,9734,473Round-trip Miles5,1675,8627,9458,945Value of Miles$ 87.84$ 99.65$ 135.07$ 152.07While this is no mileage-run material, you can see that you can get a significant number of miles from the class of service bonus and this extended first & business class bonus.Will this incentivize you to book upcoming travel in American Airlines first or business class?[card card-name=‘Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’ card-id=‘22125056’ type=‘javascript’ bullet-id=‘1’]
