I booked a cruise with American Airways Cruises

E book a cruise by way of an airline? Sounds bananas, proper? A minimum of, it did to me — till I did it.

For a latest crusing, I booked a cabin by way of American Airways Cruises, a reserving channel that earned me AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Factors for my cruise.

For those who’re an American Airways loyalist, this is how you need to use your cruise buy to earn factors and miles towards free journey and elite standing.

Why I booked by way of American Airways Cruises

I stay within the Charlotte space, an American Airways hub, which suggests most of my flights are by way of American. As such, I focus my factors and miles technique on what I can earn as a member of American Airways’ AAdvantage loyalty program.

I am additionally an AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard holder. I take advantage of it to pay for many of my American Airways flights, offering me with extra methods to attain standing with American Airways. It was my first journey bank card, and it has been in my pockets for over 25 years.

(Nevertheless, starting in 2026, Citi will turn out to be the unique issuer of American Airways’ AAdvantage cobranded bank card portfolio. You will not have the ability to join the Aviator Mastercard anymore, however you’ll be able to choose the Citi® / AAdvantage® Government World Elite Mastercard® (see charges and charges) or the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Choose® World Elite Mastercard®.)

The data for the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Choose World Elite Mastercard has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.

With my AAdvantage Aviator card, I take pleasure in advantages like a free checked bag for me and as much as 4 individuals touring on my reservation, most popular boarding on American-operated flights and a yearly $25 credit score for inflight Wi-Fi purchases. I am additionally a fan of the modest $99 annual price.

I normally e-book my cruises instantly by way of the cruise line’s web site, however I puzzled if I had a greater choice for incomes factors and miles on my cruise buy. That is after I found American Airways Cruises, the airline’s branded cruise reserving portal.

It options cruise affords from 30-plus cruise traces, together with Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Celeb Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Viking and Oceania Cruises, amongst others. Anybody can enroll and e-book by way of the platform, incomes each AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Factors on their cruise reserving.

After I booked my cruise, American Airways Cruises was providing a particular promotion for AAdvantage bank card holders (extra particulars beneath). This was the final push I wanted to e-book my cruise by way of American Airways’ cruise reserving platform.

Find out how to earn miles by way of American Airways Cruises

I used to be already an AAdvantage member, so I did not want to join the loyalty program. (For those who’re at the start of the mileage-accrual journey, it is simple to enroll by way of American’s web site.)

AAdvantage members will earn 1 mile per greenback spent on cruises booked by way of American Airways Cruises, plus 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent. (What is the distinction? You employ AAdvantage miles to pay for award flights, however you want Loyalty Factors to attain elite standing within the American Airways AAdvantage loyalty program.)

AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard holders will earn an extra 1 mile per greenback spent on cruises, plus 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent (from Mastercard, not AA Cruises). Word that these with the Citi / AAdvantage Platinum Choose card of their pockets may also earn 1 mile per greenback spent and 1 Loyalty Level towards standing for each greenback spent.

American Airways was operating a promotion for AAdvantage bank card holders after I booked my cruise, incomes me 2 miles per greenback spent on the acquisition of my cruise. It was a “limited-time provide” after I booked my cruise in January. Nevertheless, on the time of writing, the provide was nonetheless displaying on a banner on the prime of the American Airways Cruises homepage. (Simply click on on the promotional banner to get began.)

Your award miles will submit to your AAdvantage account six to eight weeks after your cruise concludes.

AAdvantage members can solely earn miles from their American Airways Cruises bookings; they cannot use award miles to buy a cruise.

Associated: Find out how to e-book a cruise utilizing factors and miles

Find out how to e-book a cruise by way of American Airways Cruises

As soon as you’ve got created an American Airways account and logged in on American’s web site, click on the “Plan journey” tab, which is able to drop down a listing of journey choices, together with “Cruises.” This can open a brand new window for American’s cruise reserving web site. Alternatively, you’ll be able to go on to the AA Cruises web site.

When you’re on the principle web page of the AA Cruises web site, use the “Cruise Search” field to filter outcomes to your desired journey (vacation spot, cruise size, departure date, cruise line, ship and departure port). Moreover, a scrolling carousel by the Cruise Search field highlights cruise line-specific gross sales and promotions.

When your search outcomes seem, you’ll be able to click on on the photograph to take a look at the ship, the itinerary, cabins, deck plans, critiques and onboard experiences. As soon as you’ve got chosen your cruise, click on “Choose” to start out the reserving course of.

Select the variety of company

At this stage, if you’re a member of the loyalty program with the cruise line you’ve got chosen, you will even have the choice to plug in your member quantity. This may unlock extra reductions, so it is a good suggestion to hitch the cruise line loyalty program in case you aren’t already a member.

You will additionally verify the variety of individuals in your reserving. If anybody in your group qualifies for a senior citizen or navy low cost, you’ll be able to point out that right here.

Decide the cabin kind

After you enter the variety of company, you will select the kind of cabin you’d desire (inside, ocean-view, balcony or suite). The web page may also present the bottom worth for the least costly cabin in every class.

You will subsequent see pricing for the totally different cabin varieties inside that umbrella class. For those who e-book a cruise for 2 passengers, a assure cabin will seem as an choice. Once you select a assure cabin, you let the cruise line choose its location and, in return, pay a cheaper price. So, in case you do need to choose your cabin location, you will possible must pay greater than the bottom fare listed for that common cabin class.

After you select the precise promotion/cruise fare pricing you favor, you will transfer to the “choose room” stage of the method. (You’ll not be given this selection in case you select a assure cabin.) Right here, you’ll be able to peruse the deck plans of the ship to resolve the place you want to your room to be positioned.

Associated: The final word information to selecting a cruise ship cabin

Present visitor data

After you’ve got chosen the variety of company and cabin kind, enter every cruise passenger’s particulars, resembling identify, date of start and nation of residence. You will even be given the choice to decide on your most popular eating time (early, late or versatile, relying on the cruise line).

Full your reserving

The final step offers a abstract of the cruise you’re reserving and your ultimate worth, which incorporates the cruise fare and port costs, plus taxes and charges damaged down individually. (I used to be not given the choice to prepay gratuities.)

As with many on-line reserving websites, you will even be given the choice to buy journey safety to your cruise. I all the time suggest buying a third-party journey insurance coverage plan.

Was reserving by way of American Airways Cruises value it?

The American Airways Cruises platform was straightforward to navigate, however was it the best choice for getting a great worth and incomes factors and miles for my trip reserving? In the end, sure.

I might have paid the identical cruise fare if I had booked instantly on Royal Caribbean’s web site, as American Airways Cruises affords the identical promotions because the cruise traces. Moreover, a fast name to my native journey agent confirmed that reserving by way of him would yield the identical outcomes from a value perspective (although journey brokers do present private help you may not obtain from customer support with a web based reserving platform).

Nevertheless, reserving by way of American Airways Cruises actually paid off, because it earned me factors and miles towards standing with American’s AAdvantage loyalty program.

I earned 1,237 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors on my American Airways Cruises reserving. In the meantime, I used my AAdvantage Aviator bank card, which, due to a promotion on the time of reserving, earned me 2 miles per greenback spent on my cruise buy. This netted me an extra 2,474 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors. All informed, I snagged 3,711 miles and a couple of,474 Loyalty Factors by way of my cruise buy.

Moreover, I booked my flights by way of American Airways utilizing my AAdvantage Aviator bank card, which earned me 474 miles and 190 Loyalty Factors (for the flights), plus 1,136 miles and 284 Loyalty Factors (for utilizing my American Airways cobranded bank card).

For the flights and the cruise, I earned a complete of 5,321 AAdvantage miles and a couple of,948 Loyalty Factors. Had I booked instantly by way of Royal Caribbean’s web site (and paid with my AAdvantage Aviator bank card), I might have missed out on an additional 1,237 miles and 1,237 Loyalty Factors.

Backside line

General, I used to be happy with the result of reserving by way of American Airways Cruises, and I undoubtedly plan so as to add airline cruise reserving platforms to my useful resource listing when researching future cruises.

Reserving my cruise by way of American Airways Cruises was a simple solution to earn factors and miles on a cruise I might have booked anyway. Additionally, buying my cruise and flights with my AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard and incomes extra factors and miles supplied much more worth.

The subsequent time you are planning a cruise, do not depend out your most popular airline. If it affords a cruise or trip reserving platform — you will discover comparable ones for Delta Air Strains, United Airways and Southwest Airways, amongst different carriers — you may have the ability to rack up a number of additional factors and miles towards standing.

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