Ultimate Guide to Buying Airline Miles and Points in 2024

There are countless ways to earn airline miles or points, from lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses to taking advantage of airline shopping portals. These are just a few ways to rack up miles quickly. But, let’s say you’re just a few thousand miles short of booking that dream award ticket. You just found award space and don’t have enough miles or points. How can you get miles ASAP? Many airlines give frequent flyers the option of buying miles or points outright.

Whether you’re an experienced traveler looking to top off your account ahead of your next vacation or a newcomer eager to get started with frequent flyer programs, buying airline miles or points can be a smart move. However, more often than not, you will be overpaying when purchasing miles or points outright. Understanding when purchasing miles is beneficial and when it might not be the best decision is crucial.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of buying airline miles and points. We’ll highlight the best times to buy, how to take advantage of special promotions, and how to get the most value when you buy points and miles.

Here’s everything you need to know about buying airline miles or points.

This post was last update on September 7, 2024

Airlines That Let You Buy Points and Miles: What You Need to Know

There are over 5,000 airlines registered with ICAO, the international authority for air transportation, but the number of airlines that allow you to buy miles is relatively small. This might be a surprise, especially considering the popularity of frequent flyer programs.

Many of the airlines that don’t offer the option to purchase miles are smaller carriers with very basic loyalty programs. However, even some major airlines, like Japan Airlines (JAL) and ITA Airways, currently do not allow their members to buy miles or points.

Fortunately, these airlines are exceptions rather than the norm. Most of the world’s major carriers provide the option to top off your frequent flyer account by purchasing additional miles or points.

To determine whether or not your preferred airline lets you buy points or miles, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the airlines that give frequent flyers this option.

Here are the airlines that let you buy miles or points in 2024:

List of Airlines That Let You Buy Points or Miles

Some airlines offer the option to purchase additional miles directly when booking an award ticket. It’s important to note that this isn’t the same as outright buying miles or points. When you buy miles at points at the time of booking you’re essentially paying for the difference between the cost of the award ticket and the miles currently in your account.

Since this option functions differently from standard mile purchases, these airlines are not included in our comprehensive list of carriers that allow you to buy miles or points.

Now that you know which airlines let you buy miles, check out this post to see which hotels let you buy points.

Why Would You Buy Points or Miles?

There are several reasons why a frequent flyer might choose to buy miles or points. One of the most common scenarios is when you’re just shy of the miles needed to book an award ticket. In these cases, purchasing a small number of miles to top off your account can be a smart decision.

Sometimes, the value you will get from an award ticket is so high that buying miles outright might be more cost-effective than accumulating them through flights or credit card spend. However, this is rarely going to be the case.

Seasoned frequent flyers often take advantage of promotional offers to maximize the value of their mileage and points purchases. Airlines occasionally run promotions where you can buy miles or points with bonuses of 50%, 75%, 100%, or even 200%, making these promotions quite lucrative.

So, when is the best time to buy airline miles or points? Should you ever buy points or miles?

Should You Ever Buy Points or Miles?

The short answer is: it depends on your specific situation. If you’re only a few thousand miles short of booking your dream award flight, topping off your account by purchasing miles is not a bad move. If you’re still far from the required miles—say, 50% or more—it usually doesn’t make sense to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to buy the remaining points or miles.

Take this example of a business class flight on American Airlines from Boston to London Heathrow (LHR). The current one-way price of a business class ticket is $1,783. That might be a bit steep so, you consider using your AAdvantage miles. You currently have 75,000 AAdvantage miles. In some cases, this is enough miles for a one-way ticket across the Atlantic.

In this case, that same flight available for $1,783 requires 108,000 AAdvantage miles. So, you would need to purchase 33,000 AAdvantage miles. Even with the current promotion, 33,000 AAdvantage miles will cost you $1,055.39. That’s still less than the current cash fare but, we haven’t taken into consideration the value of the 75,000 miles you already have.

With a current average valuation of 1.5 cents per AAdvantage mile, the 75,000 miles you already have are worth $1,125. When you add up the value of the miles you already have in your account with the cost to buy the miles you need to book this flight, you would be spending $2,180. That’s almost $300 more than the cash fare.

In that example, the maximum number of miles you could purchase before you would be overpaying for that flight is just 4,000 miles. Ultimately, that flight is a poor use of AAdvantage miles. It also shows that just little value you could potentially get when buying miles outright.

Let’s say you don’t have a specific flight in mind and just want to top off your account. This is not the worst strategy when you consider the promotions airlines run throughout the year. So, when is the best time to buy points or miles?

The ideal time to buy airline miles or points is during promotional periods. These promotions can offer significant value, with some providing a 100% bonus on miles purchased. More commonly, you’ll find promotions offering bonuses of 50% to 75%.

Whether or not you should buy airline miles or points depends on your specific situation. But, in most cases, you will be overpaying when buying miles outright.

Below, we’ve compiled a list of current promotions that offer bonuses on miles or points purchases.

Current Miles and Points Promotions

How Do I Know If I am Getting a Good Deal When Buying Miles?

Generally, buying airline miles or points isn’t the best idea. While there are scenarios, particularly during promotions, where purchasing miles can offer significant value, it’s important to approach these opportunities with caution. Outside of promotional periods, airlines typically sell miles or points at a hefty markup.

To determine if buying miles makes sense, the first step is to calculate the cost per mile or point.

As an example, consider a recent LifeMiles promotion that offered a 150% bonus (and in some cases, a 160% bonus) on purchased miles. To qualify for the 150% bonus, you needed to buy at least 21,000 LifeMiles.

Let’s say you decide to purchase 200,000 LifeMiles. With the promotion, you’d receive an additional 300,000 bonus miles, bringing your total to 500,000 miles. The cost for these 500,000 miles would be $6,600.

To find the cost per mile, divide $6,600 by 500,000 miles, resulting in a cost of 1.32 cents per mile. But what does this mean in terms of value?

The next step is to compare this cost to the average value of LifeMiles. According to AwardWallet’s latest valuations, based on actual award travel bookings, LifeMiles are currently valued at 2.91 cents per mile. In this scenario, purchasing LifeMiles during the promotion could be a smart move, as the cost per mile (1.32 cents) is significantly lower than the average value (2.91 cents).

Now, let’s consider a situation where buying miles may not be a good idea.

In this example, let’s say you want to buy 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. American Airlines is currently offering a promotion that gives a 15% discount on the typical cost. In this scenario, 25,000 AAdvantage miles would cost $799.54 (down from $899.47).

This equates to a cost of 3.11 cents per mile. When compared to the estimated value of an AAdvantage mile, which is around 1.5 to 1.7 cents, you’d be paying 1.41 cents more per mile. In this case, even with a 15% discount, it wouldn’t make much sense to purchase AAdvantage miles.

Double Dipping on Points or Miles Purchases

In a few cases, you can maximize your rewards by double-dipping when purchasing airline miles or points. Certain credit cards, particularly co-branded ones issued by airlines, offer bonus miles for purchases made directly with the airline. Even if you don’t have an airline-specific card, you can still earn extra points or miles when using your everyday credit card.

Here’s an example of how you can double dip when buying AAdvantage miles:

Earn 4x AAdvantage Miles When You Buy Miles:

• Use your Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® to earn 4x AAdvantage miles on eligible American Airlines purchases.
• Buy 100,000 AAdvantage miles for $3,010 and earn an additional 12,040 AAdvantage miles.

When Double Dipping Doesn’t Work:

Unfortunately, most airlines and credit cards do not allow for double-dipping due to how they sell and process miles or points purchases. For example, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines sell their miles through a third-party platform, Points.com.

As a result, even if you use a co-branded credit card issued by one of these airlines, the purchase won’t register as a direct airline transaction. Instead, it will be classified as a purchase made with Points.com, meaning you’ll only earn the standard 1x point or mile per dollar spent.

To avoid any unwanted surprises, it’s important to check the fine print of your travel rewards credit card before assuming you’ll earn bonus points when buying airline miles. For instance, travel rewards cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® don’t categorize buying points or miles as eligible for travel-related bonuses.

Though the popular rental platform Airbnb doesn’t have a loyalty program of its own, there are still a few ways to earn points or miles when booking an Airbnb. Check out this post to learn more.

Will Buying Airline Miles Help You Earn Elite Status?

The short answer is no—purchased points or miles do not count toward elite status. However, if you use an airline’s co-branded credit card, you may earn towards elite status requirements with every purchase you make. That said, the miles you buy won’t directly impact your progress toward elite status unless you’re using a credit card that specifically earns status-qualifying points or miles.

The Bottom Line

Buying miles or points can be quite enticing. If you’re only a few miles shy of your dream award redemption, purchasing miles may be a quick way to get you there. It’s important to keep in mind that buying miles is usually not cost-effective unless you’re taking advantage of a lucrative bonus.

Knowing whether or not it’s a good idea to buy miles or points comes down to understanding the value of the miles you’re buying. In many cases when buying miles, you will find that the cost per mile is extremely inflated compared to the actual value.

While buying airline miles or points can occasionally offer solid value, it’s crucial to do your homework before making any big purchases.

Do you buy miles or points? What’s the most value you have received when buying miles?

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