I’m always looking for more ways to earn American Airlines miles for award flights and Loyalty Points toward elite status. Luckily, American AAdvantage has a dining rewards program called AAdvantage Dining that lets you earn miles and Loyalty Points on eligible purchases at participating restaurants, bars and clubs. Here’s what you need to know about the AAdvantage Dining program.
How does AAdvantage Dining work?
The AAdvantage Dining program is a dining rewards program managed by Rewards Network. To get started, head to the AAdvantage Dining homepage, click the “Sign in/Join now” button and log into your American Airlines AAdvantage account. You’ll need to fill out some additional information when you join, and you’ll want to link at least one payment card (ideally the one you use when dining out).
AAdvantage Dining knows when you make an eligible purchase at a participating bar, restaurant or club via the card or cards you link. You’ll only earn miles and Loyalty Points through the AAdvantage Dining program when you use a linked card for an eligible purchase at a participating venue. So, you’ll want to link the card or cards you plan to use when checking out at participating venues.
The search function allows you to see the restaurants, bars and clubs participating in AAdvantage Dining. Within the search function, you can see venues in a specific city and filter by meal service, price and more. For example, here are inexpensive takeout options near Boston that participate in AAdvantage Dining.
However, read the details for the restaurant, bar or club before you decide to visit. For example, this restaurant doesn’t offer miles on Fridays and only awards miles on up to $2,000 of spending per month.
Related: Can you earn rewards with a dining rewards program and a credit card at the same time?
AAdvantage Dining earning rates
How many miles and Loyalty Points you’ll earn through AAdvantage Dining depends on whether you opt into emails and how frequently you use the American Airlines dining program. Specifically, here’s how the AAdvantage Dining earning rates break down:
| AAdvantage Dining tier | Earning rate at this tier | What’s required to be at this tier |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 1 mile and 1 Loyalty Point per dollar | Be an AAdvantage Dining program member |
| Select | 3 miles and 3 Loyalty Points per dollar | Be an AAdvantage Dining program member and opt in to email communication |
| VIP | 5 miles and 5 Loyalty Points per dollar | Be an AAdvantage Dining program member, opt in to email communication and have completed 11 qualified transactions in the current or previous calendar year |
As you can see, it pays to opt in for email communication from AAdvantage Dining if you plan to earn miles and Loyalty Points through the program.
You can occasionally earn bonus miles — but usually not Loyalty Points — through AAdvantage Dining promotions. For example, as I was writing this guide, AAdvantage Dining was offering a reservation completion bonus of 50 bonus miles when you book a reservation through AAdvantage Dining and then pay for the meal associated with the reservation using a card you’ve linked to the program.
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Likewise, AAdvantage Dining frequently offers a new member bonus. So, it’s worth ensuring there’s an active bonus when you join and that you can use it. As I wrote this guide, the new member bonus was 500 bonus miles for members who joined the AAdvantage Dining program, opted into email communications and linked a payment card to their profile within a set time period. These members would then need to spend at least $25 in one dining experience (including tax and tip) within 30 days of joining the program (or activating the welcome bonus if joining via SimplyMiles) and remain opted into email communications to earn the bonus miles.
Related: Can I earn points and miles from 2 dining rewards programs simultaneously?
Best cards to use with AAdvantage Dining
You can enroll almost any credit or debit card in the AAdvantage Dining program, but it doesn’t support Diner’s Club and internationally issued JBL cards. However, enrolling the card or cards you normally use for dining purchases is best.
I use my Citi Prestige® Card (which is no longer open to new applications) for most dining purchases. Other popular dining rewards cards include the American Express® Gold Card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) and the Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card.
The information for the Citi Prestige has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
However, if you’re primarily interested in earning AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points, you may want to enroll one or more American Airlines credit cards in the AAdvantage Dining program. Here’s a look at the earning rates, welcome offers and annual fees on some currently available AAdvantage cards:
| Card | Welcome offer | Earning rates | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® | Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $7,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. | 10 miles per dollar spent on eligible hotels booked through aadvantagehotels.com and on eligible car rentals booked through aadvantagecars.com
4 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases 1 mile per dollar spent on other purchases |
$595 (see rates and fees) |
| Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® | Earn 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $2,500 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. | 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants, at gas stations and on eligible American Airlines purchases
1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases |
$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $99 |
| AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Red Mastercard® | Earn 60,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days. | 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases |
$99 |
| American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® | Earn 15,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $500 on purchases within the first three months of account opening. | 2 miles per dollar spent at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services, and on eligible American Airlines purchases
1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases |
No annual fee |
| Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® | Earn 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles after spending $5,000 on purchases within the first five months of account opening. | 2 miles per dollar spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and purchases at telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rental merchants and gas stations
1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases |
$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $99 (see rates and fees) |
The information for the AAdvantage Platinum Select, AAdvantage Aviator Red and AAdvantage MileUp cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
You can only enroll each payment card in one dining rewards program at a time. This isn’t an issue if you’re only using the AAdvantage Dining program. However, if you occasionally use other dining rewards programs — such as Hilton Honors Dining or Choice Privileges Eat & Earn — consider enrolling a different card in each program (and then keeping track of which card is enrolled in which program).
Related: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Amex Gold: Which mid-tier favorite is right for you?
Bottom line
The AAdvantage Dining program is an easy way to earn extra miles and Loyalty Points when dining out. I enrolled all the rewards credit cards I might use when paying for meals in the AAdvantage Dining program. Since I don’t choose restaurants based on whether they participate in AAdvantage Dining, it’s a pleasant surprise when I earn some miles and Loyalty Points through the program. However, especially if you live or work in a city with many participating restaurants, it may be worth trying out restaurants participating in AAdvantage Dining.
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