Earn Bonus American Airlines Points — for Buying or Selling Your Home

Planning on buying or selling a house? (Or maybe both?) You can earn a ton of free bonus American Airlines AAdvantage points.

Miles from Home is a program offering its members 2,000 redeemable AAdvantage miles for every $10,000 of the sales and/or purchase price of a home.

The program partners with several real estate companies:

• Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate
• Coldwell Banker
• Century 21
• ERA Real Estate
• Corcoran

Basically, you get in touch with Miles from Home (it’s free to sign up). They help pair you with a participating realtor.

Any Fine Print?

A few things I noted:

• AAdvantage miles are not available for properties purchased or sold in the following states:
  • Alaska
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • New Jersey
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
• The real estate program is not available in Iowa
• AAdvantage miles eligibility on real estate transactions:
  • requires registration with the program and use of a participating real estate firm
  • requires an initial introduction to the participating real estate agent/firm by a program specialist
  • is restricted to properties not currently under contract to buy and/or sell
  • is restricted to 1-to 4-family residential properties located in the US, its territories, and Canada
  •  is restricted only to new transactions

So keep those points in mind if the service interests you. If you already have a favorite realtor but they’re not a Miles From Home participant, you may have a decision to make.

“What if I’m Loyal to Another Airline?”

If you’re selling and/or buying a home (and want to use one of the featured real estate companies) why not rack up some free points?

I generally fly Delta and Southwest but would happily accept 50,000 free American Airlines miles for, say, a $250,000 transaction I planned to make anyway. And for people who live in areas where homes bear ridiculous price tags (like, you know, here in Southern California), score a free trip for that jillion-dollar price tag.

Final Approach

If you want to buy and/or sell your home, you might as well get something for free. (Especially as a reward for the hellish process known as “moving.” Gross.) Obviously, I’d prioritize getting the best price for my property over miles (if it came to that). But this is a nice option to earn some points for a substantial purchase.

Featured image: ©iStock.com/Ridofranz