Buying Airline Miles and Points: When It Makes Sense (and When It Doesn’t)

There are countless ways to earn airline miles and points — credit card welcome offers, airline shopping portals, dining programs, and category-bonus spend, to name a few. But what happens when you’ve found the perfect award redemption and you’re sitting just a few thousand miles short? When the clock is ticking, many airlines let frequent flyers buy miles or points outright to close the gap.

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler topping off a balance ahead of a big redemption or a newcomer just getting started with frequent flyer programs, buying airline miles can be a smart move. More often than not, though, you’ll be overpaying when you purchase miles or points at standard pricing.

Buying miles only really pencils out in narrow scenarios — typically during a strong promotion, and only when you have a specific, high-value redemption in mind.

Update note: This post was last updated in April 2026.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the ins and outs of buying airline miles and points including when it makes sense, when it doesn’t, how to spot a worthwhile promotion, and how to get the most value out of every dollar you spend on miles.

Should You Ever Buy Points or Miles?

Yes — but only when the math works in your favor and you have a specific redemption in mind.

The honest answer is that it depends on your situation. If you’re only a few thousand miles short of booking an award flight, topping off your account by purchasing miles can be a reasonable way to bridge the shortfall. If you’re still far from the required amount — say, 50% or more of what you need — it usually doesn’t make sense to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars buying miles when paying cash or transferring flexible points may be cheaper.

Key takeaway: Buying miles only works when the all-in cost (miles you already have + miles you buy) is meaningfully lower than the cash fare for the same flight.

Which Airlines Let You Buy Miles or Points?

Most major airlines let you purchase miles or points outright, but a surprising number still don’t.

There are over 5,000 airlines registered with ICAO, but the list of those that allow you to buy miles is comparatively small. Most carriers that don’t offer the option are smaller regional airlines with limited route networks. That said, even some major airlines  (e.g., Japan Airlines) currently don’t allow members to buy miles or points.

Fortunately, those airlines are the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of major carriers let members top off an account by purchasing miles or points directly.

Airlines That Let You Buy Points or Miles

Note: Some airlines allow “top-off” miles to be purchased at checkout when booking an award. That’s different from buying miles outright and isn’t included in the table above.

How Do You Know If You’re Getting a Good Deal?

The core metric is cost per mile (or point). To know whether a purchase is worth it, you’ll want to compare your cost per mile against a realistic valuation.

Outside of promotions, buying airline miles or points is rarely a great deal. To evaluate any offer, start by calculating your true cost per mile or point.

As an example, consider a past 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 purchased 200,000 LifeMiles. With the bonus, you’d receive an additional 300,000 miles, for a total of 500,000 miles. The total cost was $6,600, which works out to 1.32 cents per mile.

That’s a significant amount of money — but does spending nearly $7,000 during that promotion actually make sense? To answer that, you’ll need to compare your cost per mile against a reputable valuation.

According to AwardWallet’s latest valuations, which are based on real award travel bookings, LifeMiles are worth approximately 2.91 cents per mile. In this scenario, buying during the promotion could be reasonable because the cost per mile is well below the typical redemption value.

In that case, even with a discount built into the promotional pricing, it usually wouldn’t make sense to buy AAdvantage miles outright.

Current Miles and Points Promotions

If you’re going to buy miles, promotions are where the math can actually start to work.

Here are some current promotions in which you’ll receive bonus miles or points on purchases:

Double Dipping When You Buy Points or Miles

Sometimes you can earn additional rewards on the purchase itself, but many miles and points purchases are processed by third parties — which limits your double-dip opportunities.

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.
• Buying 100,000 AAdvantage miles for $3,010 would earn an additional 12,040 AAdvantage miles on top of the purchase.

When Double Dipping Doesn’t Work: Many airlines route their mile purchases through Points.com or similar platforms, which typically code as third-party merchants rather than direct airline purchases. This means that the airline category bonus on your credit card doesn’t apply.

Will Buying Airline Miles Help You Earn Elite Status?

No — purchased miles do not count toward elite status in any major frequent flyer program.

That said, certain co-branded credit cards may let you earn status-qualifying progress through credit card spend, depending on the program and the specific card product.

The Bottom Line

Buying miles can be a useful tool, but only when you’ve done the math and the promotion is genuinely strong. If you’re a few thousand miles short of a specific redemption, buying miles can be a fast way to close the gap. In most cases, though, standard pricing is inflated and not cost-effective compared to other ways of earning miles.

Do you buy miles or points? What’s the best value you’ve gotten when buying miles?