The airline is opening up new ways to earn elite status by making it possible to earn Loyalty Points with purchases on AAdvantage credit cards and travel on qualifying airlines including members of the oneworld alliance and on JetBlue Airways..
Elite bonuses earned from flying on American will yield additional Loyalty Points. Achieving elite status will be more straight forward.
The newest tier in the AAdvantage program, Platinum Pro, will require , points, while reaching Executive Platinum will require , The new concept will launch in March You could also do 12 round-trips in Business, or four in First, but neither of those will get you over that segment minimum, so some of those will need to be rerouted LA-Chicago-New York, or Dallas-LAX-Tokyo if you want to get the full benefits of your status. Why am I doing all this math? However, if you're a credit-card user, they know these perks have a decent chance of turning you into a loyal airline passenger as well.
As a tall person who spends a lot of time flying Economy, I'd be pretty bummed to suddenly have to start paying in advance for extra-legroom seats after years of getting them for free. If it delivers strongly for American, we may well see similar programs crop up at airlines across the world. Recent Posts See All. That can make upgrading with miles a worse value than it seems. American Airlines is part of the Oneworld alliance, which means you can earn or redeem miles with a number of popular airlines around the globe.
As you take a closer look at the American Airlines AAdvantage program, consider the partners you could fly with depending on your chosen destination. Airlines that let you redeem miles on aa. Like other frequent flyer programs, the American AAdvantage program offers several elite status tiers with increasing benefits for frequent flyers. Under the new system, each qualifying AAdvantage mile earns one Loyalty Point. The following table shows the requirements youll have to meet to earn elite status with American Airlines in When you reach each level of elite status, youll qualify for a higher level of benefits and have the ability to earn more miles on American flights.
The following chart shows what you can expect from each tier of American Airlines AAdvantage status in Gold status is the first tier of elite status with American Airlines AAdvantage, and its the easiest to earn. With this tier of elite status, youll earn benefits like a free checked bag, complimentary preferred seating, a 40 percent elite mileage bonus and a hour upgrade window. Platinum status with the American AAdvantage program is the next threshold of status you can meet.
Youll get similar benefits to the Gold level, yet youll get two free checked bags, a 60 percent elite mileage bonus and upgrades within 48 hours instead of The Platinum Pro level of the American Airlines AAdvantage program keeps the same number of free checked bags and preferred seating as the Platinum level in , but starting in , it will offer an additional checked bag. Youll begin earning an 80 percent elite mileage bonus and enjoy a hour upgrade window when you fly.
Finally, those who fly with American Airlines the most can reach the Executive Platinum level. This tier of elite status gets you three free checked bags, preferred seating, a percent elite mileage bonus and upgrades within hours of departure. Youll also get complimentary auto-requested upgrades, free food and drink in the Main Cabin and the option to earn additional rewards after 30 flights in Head to the American Airlines website at aa.
Spoken like somebody who never had to earn a living on the road. Bill — Fair enough. But then again, the question remains as to how many more people will now join the club just based on spend. And if they are doing it based on spend alone, then who cares?
Maybe it just helps their annual vacation better, and it keeps them on AA instead of someone else. I really need to see how this shakes out. CC you get 1 point per dollar whereas flying you get at least 5 points per dollar. I mean, everyone has a lot of personal spend, and if they direct that to an AA partner card, AA is happy and they get rewarded with elite status that they may not use.
I am not an AA flyer, but I am happy that an airline finally wants to recognize my loyalty to their various lines of business. Rewarding the people who actually fly their airline more than those who patronize their ancillary lines of business would seem to be common sense.
To me it sounds like AA is fearful of losing there elite regular high dollar travelers, who now are conducting business locally or over Zoom. American Airlines: A credit card company that happens to fly airplanes. The same can be said for Delta and Southwest, too. The difference is that, even pre-covid, Delta and Southwest made money operating passenger operations, something American did not do. I do know that American has to figure out how to become a lot more profitable than it was pre-covid; as government funding for the airline industry ends, every airline is plotting their own path forward and it will be very much worth watching how AA is able to use its loyalty program to increase its profitability.
If one looked only at the raw numbers in some cherry-picked quarters, that statement appears to be true. But one minor really major fact gets conveniently ignored by those who are making those statements i.
An airline credit card has little to no value without the airline. But why let facts get in the way of a vendetta? I might also point out that the quarters in question were profitable for American on a GAAP basis even though the dollar amount of the profit closely matched the revenue generated from credit card activity, which is what spurred the vendetta-driven comment.
We might want to ask ourselves, does anyone really want to go back to those times? You can define cherrypicking however you want but multiple years of the past 10 even before covid is not cherrypicking. Loyalty programs exist because the airline industry is highly competitive, more so in the US than in most other parts of the world.
The statement below by cactusneedle is very accurate. Not only is the airline industry very competitive but so increasingly are loyalty programs, esp. Facts are really fun things to Tim Dunn.
Delta did make more money than AA in Plenty of professional analysts, not me, have come to the conclusion that AAL consistently does not make money on its passenger operations. They simply do not say that about other airlines. With this move, American is trying to find a balance between non-transportation and transportation revenue. Given that there are 3 US global airlines which have pretty similar models, there will be differences about which work better.
I know the difference. Tim, In reading a number of airline blogs, it sure reads like there are some people who want to see American liquidated. They also seem to have an irrational hatred of Doug Parker. What was the alternative? A bunch of year-old MDs still flying around? The one thing better overall airline profits have done is allow carriers to invest in newer aircraft, as United is doing.
Different airlines invest in themselves differently. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. American is buying used aircraft As and Es when it sees a good situation. So is United. The desire to compare airlines like kids compare new bicycles is really a bit silly. The members of the board of directors are the people who are charged with watching these things. They have real-world data.
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