As I’m sure many of you did, I received an email from American today offering up to 20,000 bonus AAdvantage miles for flying Qantas-operated flights to Australia. Flights booked as American Airlines codeshares apply.

Registration is required using offer code QF20K at this link and the travel period is from April 19 through June 30, 2012. Sadly, tickets purchased prior to today’s announcement for travel during the promo period are excluded from this offer. Bonus miles accrued for roundtrip travel are as follows:

Economy fare buckets N and Q are excluded from this promotion.

Both American and United came out with new bonus mile offers today. Well… the United one wasn’t officially announced, but the registration page is up. More on that in a moment.

American Airlines is offering double AAdvantage miles (redeemable, not elite) on a batch of select Alaska Airlines flights. Registration is required and the travel window is from today, April 16, to June 30, 2012. The promotion code is ASD12 and double miles can be accrued in the following nonstop markets:

Burbank (BUR) – Portland (PDX)

Honolulu (HNL) – Oakland (OAK)

Honolulu (HNL) – San Jose (SJC)

Kansas City (MCI) – Seattle (SEA)

Los Angeles (LAX) – Mammoth Lakes (XXX)

Oakland (OAK) – Portland (PDX)

Ontario (ONT) – Portland (PDX)

Portland (PDX) – San Francisco (SFO)

With a hat tip to Wandering Aramean, United Airlines appears to be offering bonus MileagePlus miles (both redeemable and Premier Qualifying Miles) for trips between Boston and Tokyo Narita. It’s based on the fare purchased and offers either a 25% or 50% bonus as follows:

Ticketing and travel for this promotion is from April 1 to August 31, 2012. As Seth noted, the terms are a bit tricky. As United doesn’t have a nonstop in the market, the language of the offer reads, “Itineraries with connecting flights into or out of Boston and Narita are eligible for this promotion; however the bonus award miles only apply for segments between Boston and Narita.”

The boldface is my emphasis and appears to mean that so long as you’re on some type of ticket between Boston and Narita – no matter the connection point – you’ll receive the bonus. Your mileage may vary, as always. The promo code on the United registration page is TB3M67.

Related post: New American and United bonus mile opportunities

The 100,000 Avios offer is back for the British Airways Visa Signature credit card from Chase. This iteration of the offer requires a bit more spend on the card to get the full bonus than the last one, but it’s not as high as some other cards out there. Here’s the short list of terms and benefits:

• Earn a 50,000 Avios bonus after your first purchase.
• Earn an additional 25,000 bonus after making $10,000 in purchases during your first year of card membership.
• Get another 25,000 Avios if you hit $20,000 in purchases during that first year.
• Every year you spend $30,000 or more, earn a “Travel Together Ticket” (companion certificate) on British Airways good for two years.
• It’s smart-chip embedded allowing for easy purchases in some European countries.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• Earn 2.5 Avios for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases.
• Earn 1.25 Avios for every $1 spend on all other purchases.

The standard variable APR for this card is 15.24% and the annual fee is $95/year. It’s interesting they haven’t matched competing cards out there by waiving the first year’s fee.

While British Airways charges significantly high fuel surcharges on award travel – as well as taxes, especially to the U.K. – there is value in adding this card to your wallet if you’re an American Airlines traveler primarily flying domestically within the United States.

The redemption rates for Avios are distance-based and for West coasters like me, a Los Angeles to Hawaii award in coach would cost 25,000 Avios on American. So, after a simple purchase with the card, you have enough for a trip for two to Hawaii. Finding the award space, of course, can be a challenge, but with some planning and flexibility it’s totally doable.

You can read the full fine print and sign up for this card here.

Related Post: American Airlines Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage Visa Signature credit card.

I receive a small commission if you get approved for a card by using the links in this post. I remain grateful for any who do and I only dedicate posts to cards I feel have value. Additional travel credit cards can be found here.

There have been quite a few new bonus mile opportunities released by both American and United that I’m just now catching up on. Here’s a summary of some of them:

American Airlines

• BOS-NRT: In celebration of the new nonstop service on Japan Airlines between Boston and Tokyo Narita, earn double redeemable miles every time you fly the route on a new Boeing 787. This offer is valid for travel on purchased, published Business Class and select Economy Class fares from April 22, 2012 through June 30, 2012. The Business Class fares must be booked in J, R, D or I; Economy Class fares booked in Y, W, B, H, K, M, L, V or S on American Airlines marketed flights; Business Class fares booked in J, C, D, X or I; Economy Class fares booked in Y, W, B, E, H, K, M, L, V or S on Japan Airlines operated flights. Offer code is BOSTY. Register here.
• DFW-BOS: Book a roundtrip ticket and fly on American Airlines between Dallas/Fort Worth and Boston between April 3, 2012 and June 30, 2012 and you’ll earn double elite status qualifying miles. Reservations containing open jaws are eligible. Reservation must be booked on or after April 3, 2012, to be eligible. Offer code is BOSEQ. Register here.
• LifeLock Identity Theft Protection: This offer seems to come and go from time to time and the current iteration offers up to 5,500 AAdvantage miles, plus a 10% discount. For the LifeLock basic package you earn 2,500 miles for the first year (must be active with LifeLock for 31 days to get the miles) and an additional 1,250 at the beginning of year two and three of service. For the LifeLock Ultimate package, earn 3,000 miles, plus the same 1,250 at the beginning of year two and three. Register here.

United Airlines

• IAD-DUB: Earn double redeemable miles from June 7, 2012 through September 30, 2012, when you register before travel, then fly between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Dublin, Ireland. Ticketing dates: March 26, 2012 through September 30, 2012. Registration and full terms are here.
• EWR-EZE: Earn double redeemable miles from April 9, 2012 through July 31, 2012, when you register before travel, then fly between New York/Newark and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ticketing dates: March 20, 2012 through July 31, 2012. Registration and full terms are here.
• IAD-MAN: Earn double redeemable miles from May 1, 2012 through September 30, 2012, when you register before travel, then fly between Washington, D.C. (IAD) and Manchester, England on United. Ticketing dates: March 26, 2012 through September 30, 2012. Registration and full terms here.
• Copa Airlines or Copa Airlines Colombia: Earn a one-time bonus of 2,000 MileagePlus redeemable miles on any flight operated by Copa or Copa Columbia. Offer valid for travel between March 19 and May 19, 2012. Eligible classes of service are C, D, Y, B, M, H, Q, K, V, U, S, W, E, L, T and N. Registration and full terms here.

In case you haven’t already read about the new Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage Visa Signature card from other bloggers, here’s the scoop. This card has now become more competitive in terms of ancillary benefits compared to previous iterations and those cards of competing airlines, such as the Chase United Airlines Explorer card.

Here are the details:

• Earn 30,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after $1,000 in purchases within the first three months of membership.
• Free first checked bag for you and up to four traveling companions.
• Priority Boarding privileges and 25% off in-flight food, beverages and headsets.
• Earn a $100 American Airlines flight discount every year if you spend $30,000 or more each year on your card.
• Receive double AAdvantage miles on eligible American Airlines purchases.
• Earn 10% of your redeemed AAdvantage miles back, up to 10,000 miles per year.
• There’s no mileage cap on the amount of miles earned when using the card.

The standard variable APR for this card is 15.24%, similar to the previous Citi/AAdvantage Visa Signature card, and the annual fee is $95/year after the first year of free membership.

Fellow blogger AAdvantage Geek reached out to his contacts at American and found out current Citi AAdvantage cardholders will qualify for these new perks effective today – except the 30,000 mileage bonus as an existing cardholder – if they hold the following cards:

While the 30K mileage bonus isn’t as phenomenal as previous offers, the other new benefits are generous if you meet the criteria.

You can read the full fine print and sign up for this card here.

I receive a small commission if you get approved for a card by using the links in this post. I remain grateful for any who do and can confirm that I myself have a Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Visa Signature card. I’m quite pleased with it and the bonus miles I received helped me redeem miles for a First Class trip to Hong Kong.

This morning I received an email – as I’m sure many of you did – announcing the return of American’s AAdvantage Elite Rewards for 2012. As it was in the past, it’s based on your elite qualifying point total on December 31, 2012, so those who purchase lower-bucket fares will have a significantly more difficult time hitting the required target within their status level.

As a reminder, here’s a list of what each class of service ticketed earns in terms of elite qualifying points.

This program is particularly great if you already accrue more points than required to re-qualify for your status level each year and are just shy of the next level. As it’s based on your status at the end of the 2012, if you just roll over to the next level during the year, it will certainly be difficult to hit the next status’ threshold.

Registration is required using promo code ELTA2 prior to December 15, 2012 and members who successfully achieve the stated goal will receive an email in January 2013 with a link to select the reward(s).

Today I received an email from American Airlines offering the opportunity to continue my AAdvantage Platinum status through the end of next February for a modest fee.

Last year I took the Platinum elite challenge with American in part to re-experience a carrier I hadn’t flown since 1998, and also to rack up some miles that I ended up redeeming for a fantastic Cathay Pacific First Class experience. I thoroughly enjoyed my travels with AA, but decided at the end of last year that I need to focus 100% of my 2012 travel with United Airlines since I’m so close to million-miler status. As such, I’ll be dropping down to Gold come March 1.

That said, the offer of $769 is reasonable, in my opinion, if I truly had intentions of continuing flying with American and/or oneworld alliance members this year. It’s definitely more reasonable than the price one of Matthew’s readers who is shy 10,000 elite qualifying miles was being asked to pay to retain Premier Executive status (soon to be named Premier Gold) with United – $1,691!

Would $769 be beyond your tolerance to buy status back?

Via Live from a Lounge & The Points Guy, it appears American Airlines sent out a targeted promotion to many AAdvantage members yesterday offering both accelerated elite status to Platinum or Executive Platinum and double redeemable award miles. There is a very active Flyertalk thread discussing this promotion, as well.

[Updated 2/10/12: Per AAdvantageGeek and the comments below, AA will not honor this promotion if you did not receive the targeted email.]

Participating travel must occur between February 8 to May 31, 2012, and registration is required using code HVCAA. Several FTers and TPG readers have already commented they’ve received a confirmation email, so unlike many of United’s targeted promotions that never seem to do anything after registration if you weren’t a recipient, this one might play out differently. Your mileage may vary, as always.

The promo requires 10,000 base miles flown to achieve Platinum status through February 28, 2013, or 25,000 base miles to achieve Executive Platinum status.

The extended window they’re offering is incredibly generous, so to me, elite ranks on American this year will be even more inflated for those able to participate in this offer after the recent systemwide DEQM promotion that just ended January 31, 2012.

I don’t have a link to the terms & conditions, so at this point assume that butt-in-seat miles are required [Update: butt-in-seat is confirmed] and I’m unclear whether this is stackable with the current LAX/SFO-ORD/DFW DEQM valid through the end of next month.

I’ll update this post as more details become available.

This second installment of “Award Seat Analysis” looks at the premium Los Angeles to New York JFK nonstop market and I’ve researched availability from American Airlines and United Airlines in April 2012.

I specifically searched for award seats at the minimum amount of miles required, namely MileSAAver awards on American and Saver awards on United. Any available seat is open for premium redemptions requiring double the miles and is therefore outside the scope of my research. The data below was captured on Monday, January 2, 2012 using ExpertFlyer.

American offers 10 flights per day on peak days using three-cabin 767-200 aircraft (10/30/128), while United offers 6 flights using three-cabin 757-200 aircraft (12/26/72). First, here are total award seats available for the month of April.

Even though American offers more flights and a slightly larger Business cabin, I was very surprised to see how many MileSAAver seats they opened up – far more than I would have guessed. First was similar given the cabin’s size. I was equally surprised to see the lack of economy seats on American for the LAX-JFK segment. Those 61 seats are available on only four calendar days the entire month, whereas United offers seats 18 days during the month. Graphically, the difference between carriers is more stunning.

I also like to take a deeper look into premium cabin awards where at least two seats are available on the same flight, as well as the total number of days with availability. American is incredibly generous on the LAX-JFK route, whereas you’d be hard pressed to book an award on United.

Mimicking the LAX-JFK route, American is also incredibly generous on the reverse with ample availability. I noted many peak travel days and times had excellent availability, so all these seats weren’t just on the redeyes.

Winner: American Airlines (with a nod to United). American obviously takes top prize for First and Business Class availability, but I have to wag my finger at them for coach availability on the LAX-JFK sector. That just doesn’t make sense to me unless they truly have such enormous one-way demand. As such, I have to give United a win for economy, especially given their significantly smaller cabin.

Back in September, American Airlines launched a Facebook contest whereby you went on a “scavenger hunt” by viewing the carrier’s new commercials and answering a few questions. Top prizes included 200,000 AAdvantage miles and one-year of free WiFi access.

Just by watching and answering the questions they promised a token 100 miles per commercial and I received my email confirmation with my bonus code and a link to redeem it for the miles I accrued. I honestly only watched one in the series, so got a token 100 miles. Still, though… it was a painless way to get a few extra miles and they extend the expiration date on my existing mileage balance.

Check your email if you also participated for your bonus code(s).

In August and September this year, United Airlines held a special event promoting their new Chase Explorer credit card in various cities where they gave away prizes and oodles of Mileage Plus miles. American Airlines is now also holding an event in Los Angeles tomorrow through Thursday similarly plugging their Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard.

It’s being held at The Grove and sounds as if it’ll be set up as a mock Admirals Club location where you can, “enjoy complimentary access to travel beauty tips (what is that exactly?), massages, WiFi, beverages, snacks and givaways.” The giveaways are mentioned as “ranging from a tablet computer to American Airlines Aadvantage miles.” It doesn’t sound like it’ll be quite as lucrative as United’s event, but if you’re in town and nearby it might not hurt to check it out.

[Edited 6:30pm PST 10/11/11 to add: According to a couple of sources, this event appears to be a bust in terms of giveaways. Your mileage may vary.]

The Grove’s address is 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Phone: (323) 900-8080.

Event times are:

Tuesday October 11^th: 11:30am – 5:00pm

Wednesday October 12^th: 11:30am – 7:30pm

Thursday October 13^th: 11:30am – 7:30pm

The card itself carries a hefty $450 annual fee and a 15.24% variable interest rate, but includes the following benefits:

• Admirals Club membership
• 25,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after at least $1,000 in spend in the first four months
• 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles after $40,000 in spend each year
• Priority Access privileges (priority check-in, security screening line and boarding)
• Two miles per dollar spent on American Airlines purchases, one mile for everything else
• Waived domestic baggage fee charge for one bag
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases

Special thanks to reader Eucen who tweeted me the event info last night.