Best Ways to Book American Airlines Premium Economy Class with Points and Miles

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American Airlines is one of the Big 3 airlines in the United States and a founding member of Oneworld Alliance. American operates thousands of daily flights to over 350 destinations in more than 60 countries, including many domestic routes from its hubs in Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK and LGA), Philadelphia (PHL), Phoenix (PHX) and Washington, D.C. (DCA).

On long-haul international routes as well as some transcontinental domestic routes, American Airlines offers a premium-economy product that includes amenities such as wider seats, increased legroom and an amenity kit. So, if you want a more comfortable experience on a long-haul flight, then it may be worth booking premium economy instead of economy.

Of course, American Airlines premium-economy tickets cost considerably more than tickets in the economy cabin. So, if you want to experience American’s premium-economy product for a low out-of-pocket cost, we recommend booking with points and miles.

In this article, we’re going to identify the best ways to book American Airlines premium-economy award flights with points and miles. Plus, we’ll also take a look at what you can expect when flying in American’s premium-economy cabin.

What to Expect in American Airlines Premium-Economy Class

American Airlines offers premium-economy service only on select aircraft types and select routes. The following table includes important information about all of the American Airlines aircraft types that offer premium-economy service, including the number of seats in the premium-economy cabin, seat pitch, seat width and seat configuration.

When you’re ticketed in American Airlines premium-economy class, you’ll receive priority treatment at the airport, including priority check-in, a priority security lane, priority boarding and priority baggage service when you land.

Seats in American Airlines premium-economy class are leather and fully adjustable, and they feature extendable footrests and headrests. You’ll also enjoy more legroom than in economy class. Each seat also includes power outlets and USB ports to make sure your devices stay charged throughout the duration of your flight.

Every premium-economy seat includes its own seatback in-flight entertainment system, which gives you access to a free library of movies, music, TV shows and more, including Apple TV+ and Apple Music.

On select flights to or from New York or Los Angeles, you’ll also receive an amenity kit (which is a perk found in business class on many airlines) that contains sustainably sourced skincare products from diverse beauty brands, such as Joanna Vargas and Relevant, as well as other travel essentials such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, earplugs, a sleep mask and a pair of socks.

If you plan on sleeping on your flight, you’ll be pleased to know that you’ll also receive premium bedding, including an Ostrich pillow lumbar pillow and crepe weave blanket.

American Airlines premium-economy passengers will be treated to chef-inspired dining. Premium-economy passengers cannot order their meals ahead of their flight unless they require a special meal (such as diabetic, gluten-intolerant, Hindu, kosher, low fat, low sodium, Muslim, non-lactose, vegetarian and vegan).

Of course, you’ll also receive complimentary beverages (both alcoholic and nonalcoholic), including complimentary wine, beer and spirits.

Best Programs Through Which You Can Book American Airlines Premium-Economy Class

Since American Airlines is a member of Oneworld Alliance, American Airlines premium-economy award flights can sometimes be booked through partner frequent flyer programs.

In the following sections, we’ll take a look at some of the best ways to book American Airlines premium-economy awards as well as discuss which credit card points can transfer to which frequent flyer programs.

American Airlines AAdvantage

In general, the best frequent flyer program to book American Airlines premium-economy award flights through is American’s own AAdvantage program. Through this program, you can often find premium-economy awards on long-haul domestic and international routes that offer high value per mile.

For example, we found a round-trip American Airlines premium-economy award itinerary between New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX) for 65,500 AAdvantage miles and about $11 in taxes and fees.

If you were to book that same flight itinerary with cash instead of miles through the American Airlines website, it would cost you $1,782.

So, factoring in the taxes and fees you’d have to pay for the award flight, this redemption would give you a value of about 2.7 cents per mile, which is good for a premium-economy award.

Since American Airlines is one of the most popular U.S. airlines, many U.S.-based travelers may already have a balance of AAdvantage miles. However, you can also transfer points from Citi ThankYou Rewards to American Airlines AAdvantage at a 1:1 ratio, which means it’s fairly easy to earn AAdvantage miles if you have a Citi rewards credit card.

Plus, there are several American Airlines co-branded credit cards that allow you to earn AAdvantage miles on everyday purchases, such as the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Legend Mastercard®. These cards also typically offer welcome bonuses, which allow you to earn a large sum of AAdvantage miles quickly.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Another Oneworld frequent flyer program through which you can often find American Airlines premium-economy award availability is Qantas Frequent Flyer. Unfortunately, these types of awards tend to offer less value through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program than through American Airlines AAdvantage.

For example, we found an American Airlines round-trip premium-economy award itinerary between New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX) for 100,600 Qantas points and about $12 in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the same flights with cash through the American Airlines website, they would cost you about $1,339.

So, accounting for the taxes and fees you’d have to pay for the award flight, this redemption would give you a value of about 1.3 cents per point, which isn’t very impressive for a premium-economy award.

However, the major advantage of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program is that it’s a 1:1 transfer partner of many of the major U.S. credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. Brex also allows you to transfer points to Qantas Frequent Flyer at a ratio of 1.5:1 (the same ratio for all of Brex’s airline transfer partners).

So, if you have a credit card from any of the aforementioned issuers, you can earn Qantas points fairly easily.

Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards

You can often find American Airlines premium-economy awards through Atmos Rewards, the joint frequent flyer program of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. However, most of the American Airlines premium-economy award availability through this program is on international routes.

For example, we found a round-trip American Airlines premium-economy award itinerary between New York (JFK) and London (LHR) for 60,000 Atmos Rewards points and about $390 in taxes and fees.

If you were to book the same flight with cash through the American Airlines website, it would cost you about $1,244.

So, accounting for the taxes and fees paid for the award flight, this redemption would yield the value of about 1.4 cents per point, which isn’t very impressive for a premium-economy award.

Currently, the only major U.S. credit card rewards program that allows 1:1 transfers to Atmos Rewards is Bilt Rewards. So, if you’re a Bilt Rewards member, it’s fairly easy to rack up points with the Atmos Rewards program. There are also several Atmos Rewards co-branded credit cards available that allow you to earn Atmos Rewards points on everyday purchases (such as the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Card and Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card).

The Bottom Line

Flying in premium-economy class on long-haul American Airlines flights can give you a more pleasant experience than economy class. American Airlines premium-economy class includes amenities such as leather seats, more legroom, an amenity kit containing self-care products and complimentary food and beverages. However, tickets in the premium-economy cabin often have a relatively high cash price compared to economy-class tickets.

If you want to experience American Airlines’s premium-economy product at a low out-of-pocket cost, you can book these flights with points and miles through certain frequent flyer programs. Generally, the best program to use is American’s own AAdvantage program. However, this program only allows transfers from a single U.S. credit card rewards program: Citi ThankYou Rewards.

American Airlines premium-economy awards can also be booked through the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. Unfortunately, while this program allows transfers from several major U.S. credit card rewards programs, these kinds of awards tend to offer far less value per point than they do through the AAdvantage program.

You can also sometimes find American Airlines premium-economy awards through the Atmos Rewards program (which only allows transfers from Bilt Rewards). However, American Airlines premium-economy award availability seems to be primarily available on international routes through this program. So, if you’re interested in flying internationally on American Airlines, you can often get good value on these awards through Atmos Rewards.