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American Airlines has just added GOL Airlines—Brazil's largest domestic airline—to its AAdvantage Partner Airlines webpage, opening the door to earning and redeeming AAdvantage miles on GOL flights. After losing its partnership with LATAM May 1, this development is a step towards re-establishing AA's lost foothold on the South American travel market.
Earning AA Miles While Flying GOL
Starting May 7, 2020, AAdvantage members can earn miles while flying GOL-marketed flights, with a couple of stipulations:
- Eligible flights must be within Brazil, or between Brazil and North America, South America, or the Caribbean.
- You must purchase an eligible published fare ticket in an eligible booking code.
As with most partner-marketed flights, you'll earn AAdvantage miles based on a percentage of the total miles flown. This percentage is adjusted depending upon your booking class.
Since GOL operates an all-Boeing 737 fleet with no business-class product, the peak earning rate is for AAdvantage members flying Premium Economy with either a C or L booking code.
Additionally, if you're flying GOL Airlines on an AA-marketed itinerary, you'll earn both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points the same as if you were on an AA-operated flight.
Redeem AA Miles to Fly GOL
AAdvantage award redemptions for flights on GOL Airlines will follow the guidelines set in AA's partner award chart. Interestingly, AA lists all of Brazil under the ‘South America Region 2' designation except for the city of Manaus, which it lists as ‘South America Region 1'. Here are some examples of award pricing:
- Contiguous U.S. to Manaus (MAO) — 20,000 miles in economy
- Contiguous U.S. to Brasilia (BSB) — 30,000 miles in economy, 40,000 miles in premium economy
- Manaus (MAO) to São Paulo (GRU) — 12,500 miles in economy
- Rio de Janeiro (GIG) to Buenos Aires (EZE) — 10,000 miles in economy
AA does not currently list an award price for partner awards in premium economy between several of these regions. This may be updated as AA continues rolling out the partnership, but until then, it’s unknown whether it'll be bookable or how many miles it'll cost.
Additionally, award flights on GOL Airlines aren't bookable on AA's website. This means that for the time being, you'll have to call American Airlines to book these flights. If you have a membership, you can use ExpertFlyer to search award availability.
If you need to stock up on AAdvantage miles, the gem of the co-branded lineup is the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®. This card is offering a 65,000-mile sign-up bonus after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening..
- Free checked bags for you and up to 4 companions on domestic itineraries
- Priority boarding to help you win the race for overhead bin space
- A 25% discount on inflight food, beverage, and Wi-Fi purchases
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on cable and satellite providers
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent at gas stations
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on select telecommunications merchants
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on car rentals
- Earn 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
- Earn 1X mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
Other Redemption Options
GOL also partners with Etihad—which is a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Capital One Miles —and utilizes a distance-based award chart. Depending on your itinerary, this can present a much better value compared to AA's pricing. For example, an economy award between Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and São Paulo (GRU) costs 10,000 AAdvantage miles, but only 3,000 miles if booked through Etihad. In fact, the only times when it's cheaper to book with AA is when booking longer, connecting itineraries.
As far as other point options to Brazil, in addition to flying on the carrier’s own metal, you can book flights on Azul with United miles and flights on Aeromexico or LATAM with Delta miles. However, as both Delta and United have ditched their partner award charts, it's harder to predict their pricing.
Final Thoughts
This news comes right on the heels of AA ending its partnership with LATAM at the beginning of May—which was five months earlier than initially scheduled. Losing the partnership with LATAM meant losing AA's only South American partner, leaving little choice but to find another. With more than 750 daily flights to over 75 destinations, GOL seems like a solid replacement.
Would you use AA miles to fly GOL Airlines?
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Era esse tipo de matéria que estava procurandp. Como utilizar as milhas da AA no Brasil.
Muito obrigada
Glad to help!
Etihad is no more partner with Gol.
“Etihad Guest Members may redeem miles on GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A until 31 January 2021 for travel up to one year from the date of ticket issuance.”
Thanks for the heads up!
Very good news! After Latam left the AA alliance in South America, we now have another option to add miles to AA. we live in cordoba therefore we have direct access to some destinations in brazil.
it’s a good option now that latam is gone.
I am also very happy with the incorporation of american airlines to smiles.
Good partner for AA in South America.
Good news. Gol is very popular in Brazil.
Gol is by far my favorite Brazilian carrier
Great news! After Latam exit from AA alliance in South America we had need another option to add miles to AA. EZE-GIG it’s frequent fly for Argentines flyers.
Gol is not convenient than Gol, but is an alliance that can allow us to continue adding miles in one world. Good new!!
This is great! We bought tickets in Brazil after using miles to get there. Thanks for posting it.
It’s a good new, it could be better if we can earn EQM, EQS and EQD on GOL’s flights like Flying Blue do and Delta used to do.
G3 premium economy, staff and other miscellaneous are better than Latam, but Latam global presence is better.
I’m just hoping I get to redeem miles before they go bye-bye. I don’t see this ending well for them – bailout or not.
Glad to see them establish another partnership in South America.
Losing LATAM for AA is more devastating than adding GOL.
Glad to hear AA’s presence in South America will continue with a new partner.
Does this mean we can redeem Gol miles for AA flights as well?
Are GOL customers AA’s targeted customers?
This partnership could be quite useful. It will open up a lot more options now that Latam is gone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help with getting to Easter Island (Which is a bucket list destination for many people.) Gol’s premium economy doesn’t seem to be anything more than extra legroom, which is nice, but isn’t great for longer flights.
I have seen Easter Island mentioned a couple times around here, and I will confess that I don’t get it. It’s on bucket lists because of its remoteness and unexplained statutes? Or, am I missing something more on what seems to be a rather small island.
Good partner for AA given that LATAM isn’t.
This does not make up for losing LATAM, but with some creativity this does open up the possibility of an award-based trip around South America.
I’m not familiar with GOL and it’s too bad their partnership with LATAM ended. LATAM is a quality airline. I think they should have looked at Avianca for a solid partner. Avianca is a quality airline.
I wish it was to more countries than just Brazil. Great information to know though.