SimplyMiles Will Separate Display Of Redeemable AAdvantage Miles From Loyalty Points

by Gary Leff

SimplyMiles is an American Airlines-Mastercard site that has offers for making purchases with a variety of merchants. You earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles for transactions made using a Mastercard that’s been linked to the site.

They host numerous ‘Mastercard Offers,’ sort of like Amex Offers. But Mastercard doesn’t have the direct consumer relationship that Amex has with its closed loop. Instead, this is aimed at American AAdvantage customers, and you’re rewarded with American AAdvantage miles.

What’s nice is that these miles are in addition to any miles you earn paying with the linked credit card, any miles earned from going through a shopping portal site, and sometimes even in addition to rewards earned through other card-linked offer networks.

  • You earn redeemable miles for your award travel
  • And also ‘loyalty point’ credit towards American AAdvantage status

Only things seemed to be getting a bit more confusing? You have earned the same number of redeemable miles as loyalty points on every transaction. A few weeks ago we started to see redeemable miles and loyalty points listed separately on the website.

I asked American about this, worried this might mean not all offers would earn loyalty points towards status? Starting next week redeemable miles and Loyalty Points will consistently show up separately. However, an American Airlines spokesperson explains,

Unless the offer explicitly mentions bonus mileage earn, the member is entitled to earning 1 Loyalty Point for 1 base mile earned on SimplyMiles. Additionally, starting next week, new offers on the SimplyMiles website will clearly show both miles and Loyalty Points

Going forward SimplyMiles offers will show up showing the number of AAdvantage miles earned and the number of Loyalty Points earned. And they’ll generally be the same!

Of course occasional bonuses on top of what’s available with individual offers are separate, and may not earn Loyalty Points. Right before SimplyMiles and other activity counted towards status with American they offered the deal of a lifetime.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I’m still waiting for my loyalty points to show up. My AAdvantage miles show, but loyalty is still at zero despite having nearly $10k in charges since March 1. It is bad enough that they went to the arbitrary March 1 reset date instead of rolling miles or giving credit for miles that did not take you to the next level. Now delaying loyalty miles for six+ weeks is maddening.

  3. Simplymiles also started adding terms to some offers that say you need to relink the offer after 45 days, or relink it after used once in order to use it again. Fun stuff.
    In general, the program has so many issues that in my opinion it is unreliable. I have linked credit cards that magically disappear and then reappear. Customer service that says the issue is fixed, but it isn’t.

  4. I cant’ imagine why American Airlines can’t show loyalty points already- it is not like they are manually going through all of our charges by hand!! It is 6 weeks+. How would I book a trip if I needed those miles/points I spent almost 2 months ago? Not a great way to promote loyalty- pun intended

  5. Another attempt to reduce the value of this program. They continue to play games (not just AA) with shopping deals and portals. My favorite is when you search for a store on an airline or other related portal and it will say something like “4 miles to $” but when you look at the fine print the 4-mile rate is only good on one obscure type of product and everything else is 1 mile per $. It wreaks havoc on comparison sites like Cashback Rebates and others and they know it does.

    Maybe AA is still bitter about that conservation website deal 🙂

  6. For people with the Freedom Flex, I noticed a few restaurant offers that should stack with this quarter’s 7x dining and 5x Amazon.

  7. Burt: The 45 Days/Relink thing has been on Simply Miles for AT LEAST 5 years now. Pay attention.

    Now, it’s extra confusing that SM is no longer straightforward,I don’t like the redesign.

    I also don’t care for the new AAdvantage Dining redesign AT ALL.

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