A reader e-mailed a question about using AA miles:
I don't have miles with anyone because I never fly with one specific airline.
However, if i have AA miles, can I use them with their codeshare
partners?
Yes, American Airlines - along with most airlines - allows you to use your miles to book flights on partner airlines. You can even book award tickets using your miles that combine several different partner airlines on one ticket.
American Airline Partners
American Airlines is in the oneWorld alliance. So that gives you access to booking flights with your AA miles on the oneWorld airlines: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Malev, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and Dragon Air.
American Airlines also partners with: Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui, Alaska Airlines, Brussels
Airlines, El Al, Gulf Air, Hawaiian and Mexicana.
(please note that these partners are of course subject to change and I didn't include some that are current partners that will no longer be in the near future like Aer Lingus)
Types of American Airlines Partner Awards
American Airlines offers two types of partner awards. The first is the partner award that allows you to combine travel on any combination of American's partners - both oneWorld and their non-alliance partners. The amount of miles for different routes can be found on AA's all partner award chart.
The other partner option AA offers is their oneWorld award. These awards are for travel on any number of oneWorld carriers and the amount of miles you need depends on the number of miles in your itinerary (kind of like how some round the world tickets work). You can find out more details at AA's oneWorld award page.
Three tips on earning and burning miles with partners
1) You can credit all of your flights on all the airlines in an alliance to one frequent flyer program. So by concentrating your flying within one alliance and crediting them to one program you can maximize the number of miles in one account and get closer to a big award. It's also possible that you can earn elite status this way, which brings additional benefits including lucrative mileage bonuses.
For example, if you credit 50,000 qualifying miles to American Airlines in a year then all the rest of the flights that year and all of the flights the next year will earn you double miles (so flying 50,000 miles the next year would earn you 100,000 miles - enough to redeem a roundtrip business class ticket from the USA to Asia).
2) Use your miles for international premium cabin travel. The return on value of your miles is better with international premium cabin awards.
3) While sticking with one alliance is best for most people you should keep one frequent flyer account per alliance so that if you find yourself on a flight with an airline outside your primary alliance you will have a place to put the miles from the flight. Don't let miles go to waste.