Looking to fly for free with American Airlines? If you have a stash of American Airlines AAdvantage miles, then you can turn around and redeem them for free American Airlines flights.

American Airlines is one of the largest global airlines and a founding member of Oneworld alliance, which makes it easy to use American miles to book through partner airlines including Alaska Airlines, British Airways and Japan Airlines. On its own, American flies to 350 destinations in 50 countries — and through Oneworld, passengers can fly to over 1,000 destinations worldwide. One of the best things about the airline is how easy it is to earn AAdvantage frequent flyer miles. If you're not a member, you can sign up for American's frequent flyer program, called AAdvantage, here.

Here are 32 ways to earn AAdvantage miles with the airline (even some pretty obscure ones) so you can maximize mileage earning opportunities. (Psst: You can figure out how many American miles you need to earn for your next trip with our Points Planning Tool).

Rack up miles or enjoy lounge privileges with our favorite American Airlines cards

Check out our nerdy picks for the best American Airlines credit cards and find the right card for you.

BROWSE CARDS

1. Earn credit card welcome bonuses

Credit card welcome bonuses offer one of the best ways to jump-start mileage earning. American Airlines is pretty good about offering high sign-up bonuses on its co-branded credit cards, with recent offers ranging from 10,000 to 75,000 miles. American Airlines credit cards are issued by two banks: Citibank and Barclays. All current offers are as follows:

American Airlines personal cards

AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® (annual fee: $99): Earn 60,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® (annual fee: $0 intro for the first year, then $99): Earn 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $2,500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (annual fee: $595): Earn 70,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $7,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® (annual fee: $0): Earn 15,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after making $500 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.

AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver Mastercard® (annual fee: $199): No longer accepting new applicants.

AAdvantage® Aviator® Blue Mastercard® (annual fee: $49): No longer accepting new applicants.

Citi® / AAdvantage® Gold World Elite™ Mastercard® (annual fee: $0 for the first year, then $50): No longer accepting new applicants.

American Airlines business cards

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® (annual fee: $0 intro for the first year, then $99): Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.

AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Business Mastercard® (annual fee: $95): N/A

The best option

If you want to earn the maximum number of American Airlines miles from a credit card application, the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® would be the card to go with given its high welcome bonus. Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening.

Although this is a business card, you don't necessarily need a formal registered business to open the card. Even if you have a hobby business in your name (maybe you sell things on eBay or Etsy), you can qualify. In the application field that asks for the name and address of the business, use your first and last name and your home address. In the Tax ID field, add your Social Security number.

Even if the revenue you’ve earned from your business is low, you'll still need to input your total annual income, including employment income. The total income figure will be considered as part of your entire application. The application will also ask for your name and home address, which can be the same as the information for your business. This is completely logical given that if you have a hobby business, you’re likely running it from home anyway.