American Buy, Gift or Transfer Miles: choose which balance you are changing
For individual AAdvantage members, Buy Miles purchases miles for yourself. Gift Miles purchases new miles for another member without reducing your mileage balance. Transfer Miles instead moves miles you already hold to another member's account.
Transactions cannot be refunded, reversed or exchanged. Sending transferred miles back requires a new transfer initiated by the recipient, within the applicable limits; the transfer fee is nonrefundable. Bought, gifted and transferred miles do not qualify for AAdvantage status or Million Miler. Purchased miles usually post immediately, but allow four hours.
Important unknowns
- The source does not establish the outcome of an individual request. Confirm current instructions with the airline; the effective date of these provisions is not established.
What to do next
- Identify the account and the action
Write down whose account needs the miles and whether you intend to spend money or reduce an existing mileage balance. Match that intention to the named program before reviewing a transaction. The person receiving the miles and the person arranging the purchase should agree on which action is intended.
Check the recipient's membership details directly with them. Do not use a similar name or an old account number from memory. If you are funding a particular redemption, review the proposed travel and its actual availability separately before committing to a transaction that changes either balance.
- Review the final transaction
Compare the displayed miles, recipient, total payment and any charge with your plan. Record the current balances privately so you can reconcile the result afterward. This guide does not supply a mileage price or assign a personal value to the miles; use the actual offer when deciding whether the transaction serves your purpose.
Keep the confirmation until you can identify the resulting account entry. If something appears wrong, explain which program you used and which balance or recipient differs from the intended result. Avoid making another transfer simply to make the numbers look right before the first transaction has been understood.
- Keep the scope clear
These are individual-member choices, not business-account pooling or a ticket-transfer process. No annual limit, promotional offer, award space or permission to book travel for someone else is established here. A mileage transaction also does not determine how a future ticket will be priced or whether that separate booking can be completed.