American Airlines Elite Changes: Loyalty Points, New Membership Year & Status Extended

Update 3/2/22: The introduction of Loyalty Points is now live.

As rumored American Airlines has announced a number of changes to the AAdvantage loyalty program. The changes are as follows:

  • Introduction of Loyalty Points. This will replace Elite Qualifying Miles, Elite Qualifying Dollars and Elite Qualifying Segments.
  • Changes to qualifying & status years. Status will no longer be earned on a calendar year and will instead be earned from March through the following February. Status will be valid through March 31 of each year. For 2022 qualifying activity in January and February will count towards 2022 and 2023.
  • Loyalty status extended until March 31, 2022.

Loyalty Points

Loyalty Points will be used to determine your elite status with the following requirements for each tier:

  • Gold: 30,000 Loyalty Points
  • Platinum: 75,000 Loyalty Points
  • Platinum Pro: 125,000 Loyalty Points
  • Executive Platinum: 200,000 Loyalty Points

This goes into effect for the 2022 status year. One eligible AAdvantage mile is equal to 1 Loyalty Point. Some important exclusions for credit cards:

  • Welcome bonuses do not count towards Loyalty Points
  • Category bonuses count towards Loyalty Points, but only at the base rate of 1 Loyalty Point per $1 spent (for example if you spend $100 on a category that earns 3x points you’ll earn 100 Loyalty Points instead of 300)

Our Verdict

I like when loyalty programs simplify the earning and redeeming structures to make them easier to understand. I think this new program favors credit card spend over traditional flying and whether this is a good or bad thing will likely depend on the type of customer you are. The main thing is that there is no award devaluation at this time, although I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens later down the line and American Airlines wanted fresh air for these changes.

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guy bucktastik
guy bucktastik (@guest_1343532)
March 5, 2022 21:54

Has anybody who got bAAned started colleting AA miles again?

Jon
Jon (@guest_1282223)
November 12, 2021 13:22

Looks like there’s a fast track for those on corporate accounts. In reading the terms it looks like one flight just has to credit to a businessextra account, but its not entirely clear https://www.exploreamerican.com/globalsales/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FastTracktoLoyaltyStatus_Flyer.pdf

A M
A M (@guest_1273775)
October 27, 2021 18:28

Received 2 free one day passes for their Admiral lounge.. is this normal? first time for me..

‘Open for your passes to the Admirals Club® lounge from Citi® / AAdvantage®’

‘As a valued Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® cardmember, you have been awarded 2 One-Day Passes to the Admirals Club® lounge to make your next trip more enjoyable.

Find your passes in your AAdvantage® wallet. The passes are valid for entry at any of the nearly 50 Admirals Club® locations worldwide through 10/27/2022.’

Logan Jung
Logan Jung (@guest_1273409)
October 27, 2021 10:29

So what status is worth MS’ing towards?

Mike A
Mike A (@guest_1273508)
October 27, 2021 12:38

Possibly Platinum (75K LP). That’s where you get free MCE (extra legroom seats) at booking, plus OW Sapphire status. Gold (and OW Ruby) benefits are too watered down…and Platinum Pro (PP) and above probably don’t add enough unless you’re a pretty frequent flyer. Keep in mind the biggest benefits of PP and EP don’t materialize unless you take at least 30 AA/OW flights per year (so again, not worth it unless you’re an actual frequent flyer).

b
b (@guest_1273593)
October 27, 2021 14:15

You need Plat Pro to even be eligible for upgrades to F. That’s $125k spend. I would need a major CL increase from Barclays.

Mike A
Mike A (@guest_1273739)
October 27, 2021 17:16
  b

And, even if you were to clear the upgrade list, domestic F is hardly anything to write home about. I find it only marginally better than MCE, though I’m a fairly skinny person.

b
b (@guest_1273751)
October 27, 2021 17:51

F is the only place you can get a drink on AA right now? Which is a big deal when flying during Covid.

Other Kevin
Other Kevin (@guest_1273888)
October 27, 2021 21:24
  b

AA’a arbitrary withholding of alcohol in the main cabin is a reason to fly with other airlines, not a reason to work harder to earn status with them. Granted there are plenty of more significant reasons to avoid them, such as poor reliability.

Chad Dankbutt
Chad Dankbutt (@guest_1342314)
March 3, 2022 16:46

Agreed. Most domestic F flights are such mediocre garbage I hardly care. Emergency exit seats on some planes offer better legroom

Kevin
Kevin (@guest_1341884)
March 2, 2022 23:27
  b

This was true at the time but now Gold & Plat receive complimentary upgrades on all flights without the use of “stickers” (though on routes that are remotely busy they will still likely not see them since they are lower priority than PP and EXP)

Chad Dankbutt
Chad Dankbutt (@guest_1342328)
March 3, 2022 17:01

Hardly anything. Consider the opportunity cost and there’s almost something better.

sdsearch
sdsearch (@guest_1273404)
October 27, 2021 10:26

They haven’t announced yet how the accumulation of 500-mile upgrades is going to change. Up to now, you would get 4 of them for every 12500 EQMs earned in a year. If EQMs as such are going away, this will likely change, but we don’t yet know how.

(500-mile upgrades are needed by lower-level AA elites for domestic upgrades. EXPs don’t need to them to get upgrades.)

sdsearch
sdsearch (@guest_1342722)
March 4, 2022 10:33

Update: As mentioned in a link found here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/recap-emirates-increases-fuel-surcharges-hmbradley-breach-more/ as well as many other places, AA is ending 500-mile manually-requested upgrades (changing to automatically-requested upgrades like other airlines have long done).

Michael Kaplan
Michael Kaplan (@guest_1273345)
October 27, 2021 09:13

I am currently EP. If I take a 1000 mile trip, how many loyalty points do I earn? Is it based on the miles or cost of the ticket? I thought I read that 1 AAdvtantage mile = 1 point, but the estimator on the AA site references ticket cost and not miles.

Other Kevin
Other Kevin (@guest_1273886)
October 27, 2021 21:19

11 points per dollar spent on the ticket, less taxes. Whatever you earn in AA miles today is what you’d earn in “loyalty points” next year, the earning rate is identical for flights.

Ak
Ak (@guest_1273314)
October 27, 2021 08:38

Curios to find out what happens with the miles earned through Bask Bank. Would they count toward status? Cannot find an answer in their write up.

Curtis
Curtis (@guest_1306805)
December 30, 2021 16:53
  Ak

AA confirmed that Bask Bank miles don’t count.

Baron
Baron (@guest_1273162)
October 26, 2021 21:53

I have to admit, I’m confused by the new earnings structure, I find the current format simple and easy to understand.
I always thought Concierge Key required somewhere in the neighborhood of $50K in spending on AA flights. So I wonder what the requirements will be to earn or keep CK? $200K is a pittance under the new earnings structure lol.
Maybe a lot of business owners and business travelers will spend that amount on AA and AA tangential businesses but that is quite a high bar for most.
Perhaps CK will require $1M in spend, in US dollars too lol.
Best wishes to all in retaining or earning their statuses!

Other Kevin
Other Kevin (@guest_1273353)
October 27, 2021 09:23

$200K is the bar to earn Executive Platinum status solely on credit card spend, and all of that money could be spent with Delta for all they care. As this new program has little to do with flying, the measure for CK likely hasn’t changed much since it too wasn’t directly corelated to your elite earnings (i.e., $50k in EQDs didn’t necessarily mean you spent all or even most of that on AA operated flights, which was essential for being given CK status based on your flight spending).

As others have said this new program is a credit card loyalty program that just happens to be attached to an airline, things having to do with being a big spender on AA metal probably won’t change much in the near future.

Marriott
Marriott (@guest_1273156)
October 26, 2021 21:37

Just curious, when are you going to write about the upcoming Bonvoy dynamic pricing? I’ve been waiting for the outrage show in the comment section the whole day 🙂

TB
TB (@guest_1273648)
October 27, 2021 15:19

Don’t encourage Vy.

Lightspeed
Lightspeed (@guest_1273137)
October 26, 2021 20:53

Barclay’s quietly added another perk to the Aviator Silver in anticipation of this change; it sort of works like the old EQM bonus.

You get 5k bonus Loyalty Points for $20k total spend, another 5k for $40k total spend, and another 5k for $50k total.

Citi hasn’t announced anything yet. No changes to the Aviator Red or Aviator Blue.

Lightspeed
Lightspeed (@guest_1273146)
October 26, 2021 21:08

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Citi will give you 10k Loyalty Points for $40k spend on the AAdvantage Executive.

Miles
Miles (@guest_1273157)
October 26, 2021 21:39

Isn’t this just a temporary feature tho?

CongestionCharge
CongestionCharge (@guest_1273200)
October 26, 2021 23:09

So you just have to spend $60k to earn platinum?

Lightspeed
Lightspeed (@guest_1273989)
October 28, 2021 00:32

Correct, with the Aviator Silver only. Citi Executive requires $65k; Aviator Red, Citi Platinum Select, and most everything else needs $75k.

Bear in mind this is worst case with no flights. You get more than 1 LP per dollar for AA Dining and likely the AA credit card mall.