After a previous post on American Air top use of AAdvantage miles and basic information regarding award tickets, I thought it would be best to inform my readers of American Airlines travel zones. Each airline defines regions of the world different for miles consumption. It is very important to understand what zones one is traveling to/from in order to calculate the number of miles needed for travel. American Airlines has strict rules for award travel, especially for connections. For example one cannot travel to Asia via Europe. Otherwise the award cost would be the price of two awards. One from North America to Europe and another from Europe to Asia.
American Airline has 9 zones. The zones and countries of each zone are listed below.
North America
U.S. (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, The Bahamas and the Caribbean.
Europe
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia
Central/South America Zone 1
Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela
South America Zone 2
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile (excluding Easter Island), Paraguay, Uruguay
Africa
As of April 2020, Morocco is considered “europe” for award travel”
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Melilla, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Reunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Indian Sub Continent/Middle East
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan
Asia 1
Japan, Korea, Mongolia
Asia 2
Bhutan, Brunei, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
South Pacific
Australia, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Tonga, Western Samoa
American Airlines Award Travel Rules
Traveling between zones and within zones will cost different amount of miles depending on the zone one is traveling within or between. If planning to travel on AA Metal check out AA awards. If traveling on a mixture of AA planes and their partners or only their partner, check out AA’s Partner Award Chart. The cheapest zones to travel within economy class are Asia 1, Europe, and Africa, Central American, and South America where a one-way trip only costs 10K miles.
Travel within Africa is an extremely good deal. Airfare can be extremely high in this region, yet it’s all one zone for AA! In addition, Business class travel within Africa is among the cheapest at only 17.5K each way! Or for even a better deal, travel completely within Argentina, Brazil, Chile, or Peru and only use 6K miles each way! And we all know Brazil is a HUGE country, resulting in a great use of miles based on distance traveled!
There are a lot of perks to the AAdvantage program. One just must really examine it to ensure miles are used effectively and to each person’s AAdvantage!
