American Airlines AAdvantage

1.84 cents per point: the median of 14 cash-versus-award pairs read off aa.com on 2026-09-06, logged out, one search after another in the same session. Ten routes, two in each of five bands of nonstop block time (under 2h, 2h to 3h30, 3h30 to 5h, 5h to 7h, over 7h), all departing 2026-10-15 one way: JFK–LAX, JFK–SFO, ORD–LAX, DFW–SEA, DFW–ORD, JFK–MIA, DFW–AUS, MIA–TPA, JFK–LHR, DFW–MAD. For each route the flight sampled is the AA-operated nonstop with the lowest Main award price that day. The cash fare is the Main Cabin fare, not the headline price, which on most routes is Basic Economy; an award ticket is a Main Cabin product, so Main Cabin is the like-for-like comparison. Each pair is (cash fare minus award taxes) divided by award miles. JFK–LAX economy: 13,500 miles + $5.6 against $299 (Main) = 2.17c JFK–LAX business: 133,000 miles + $5.6 against $1,449 (Premium (Flagship Suite® seats)) = 1.09c JFK–SFO economy: 22,500 miles + $5.6 against $304 (Main) = 1.33c JFK–SFO business: 193,500 miles + $5.6 against $1,799 (Premium) = 0.93c ORD–LAX economy: 18,500 miles + $5.6 against $199 (Main) = 1.05c DFW–SEA economy: 10,000 miles + $5.6 against $280 (Main) = 2.74c DFW–ORD economy: 9,500 miles + $5.6 against $227 (Main) = 2.33c JFK–MIA economy: 22,000 miles + $5.6 against $274 (Main) = 1.22c DFW–AUS economy: 7,000 miles + $5.6 against $144 (Main) = 1.98c MIA–TPA economy: 7,000 miles + $5.6 against $444 (Main) = 6.26c JFK–LHR economy: 30,000 miles + $5.6 against $405 (Main) = 1.33c JFK–LHR business: 97,000 miles + $5.6 against $2,199 (Flagship® Business) = 2.26c DFW–MAD economy: 31,000 miles + $5.6 against $656 (Main) = 2.10c DFW–MAD business: 450,000 miles + $5.6 against $7,689 (Flagship® Business) = 1.71c Economy alone medians 2.04c and business alone 1.4c. Substituting the Basic Economy fare for Main Cabin across the same 14 rows would give 1.59c. Domestic First was captured on the six routes that sell it and is excluded, since First on a one-hour hop is not the business cabin the sample is about. American publishes no award chart, so there is no chart price to check these against — every figure here is a live price on a bookable date, and it will move.