American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® review

The Discover it® Miles is also a terrific starter travel card. It offers a boosted flat rate on all purchases plus a tough-to-beat welcome offer: Discover will match all miles earned at the end of your first year.

If you want to potentially save on interest, this card's intro APR offers on both purchases and qualifying balance transfers can help. While the estimated value per mile matches American Airlines, according to Bankrate's valuations, you can redeem miles for travel or cash back, a rare feature. For more flexible redemption options, the Discover it® Miles card might be a better fit.

As long as you are open to flying outside of American Airlines, then another co-branded airline card could offer better value. The Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express card rewards 2X miles per dollar at restaurants, 2X miles for Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other purchases. 

Unlike the AAdvantage MileUp card, this no-annual-fee card features some travel protections like insurance for car rental loss or damage and travel accidents. On top of that, your estimated value per mile could be higher based on Bankrate's valuations. 

However, if most of your spending is on groceries, you might rack up more rewards with the AAdvantage MileUp card.

The Bilt Mastercard® can work as a great supplement to the AAdvantage MileUp. Not only can you earn boosted rewards rates for dining and travel outside of American Airlines, you can transfer your points to one of travel partners, including American Airlines Preferred. With this card, you won't be tethered to American Airlines to earn rewards for travel but can still redeem points through the American Airlines AAdvantage rewards program. 

For those willing to pay an annual fee, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® costs $99 a year (waived for the first 12 months). You’ll earn 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases, and at restaurants and gas stations. You’ll also get travel perks like a free first checked bag, preferred boarding, no foreign transaction fees and 50,000 bonus miles after spending $2,500 within the first three months of account opening.

Infrequent travelers who prefer flying American Airlines could find this card valuable, especially if racking up rewards with no annual fee outweighs airline-specific perks. With this card in your pocket, you can focus on earning rewards to help pay for your next trip.    

If travel rewards are new to you, the AAdvantage MileUp can be a worthwhile starter card. Its low maintenance rewards structure includes a practical bonus category that most cardholders can take advantage of. You can always graduate later to a premium travel card where the higher rewards rate and luxury perks can justify the annual fee. 

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Based on this data, we determine a “chargeable” spend (which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards). This includes the following spending by category:

• Groceries: $5,200
• Dining out: $3,000
• Entertainment: $2,500
• Gas: $2,100
• Apparel and services: $1,700

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 23 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

The recommended credit score to qualify for the American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp card is good to excellent (670 FICO score or higher). 

You can carry more than one American Airlines card. However, you may have to wait a certain period of time before applying for a second card, and you may not qualify for the second card's sign-up bonus. Contact your card's issuer for more information and restrictions.