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Starting in 2022, you no longer need to keep track of earning American Airlines elite status progress with Elite Qualifying Miles, Elite Qualifying Dollars, and Elite Qualifying Segments. Instead, American Airlines introduced Loyalty Points that you can simply earn towards status.
In this post, I want to go over some details about American Airlines’ elite AAdvantage status and offer some ways that you can do to earn AAdvantage status with lots of Loyalty Points.
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How does American Airlines Loyalty Points status work?
First of all, it is essential to understand how the new American Airlines Loyalty Points towards status works.
The way Loyalty Points work with American Airlines is pretty straightforward.
- One (1) eligible AAdvantage mile earns you one (1) Loyalty Point towards status with American Airlines.
- You can earn Loyalty Points whenever you fly, use an American Airlines co-brand credit card for purchases, or earn miles through AAdvantage partners such as eShopping, Dining, SimpyMiles, Retailers, Vacation Packages, Hotels, Rental Cars, and Cruises.
How many Loyalty Points do you need to earn status with American Airlines?
I really love the new AA’s Loyalty Points status metric. It can’t get really simpler than this:
- AAdvantage Gold requires 30,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum requires 75,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro requires 125,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum requires 200,000 Loyalty Points
What are the benefits of each American Airlines status?
Below are the benefits you receive when you reach elite status with American Airlines:
Advantage Gold
- Complimentary upgrades on flights 500 miles or less
- 24-hour upgrade window
- 40% status mileage bonus
- Complimentary Main Cabin Extra Seats at check-in
- Complimentary Preferred Seats
- 1 free checked bag
- oneworld Ruby status
AAdvantage Platinum
- Complimentary upgrades on flights 500 miles or less
- 48-hour upgrade window
- 60% status mileage bonus
- Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred Seats
- 2 free checked bags
- oneworld Sapphire
AAdvantage Platinum Pro
- 1 elite choice reward
- Complimentary upgrades on American and Alaska Airlines
- 72-hour upgrade window
- 80% status mileage bonus
- Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred Seats
- 3 free checked bags
- oneworld Emerald
AAdvantage Executive Platinum
- 2 elite choice rewards
- Complimentary upgrades on American and Alaska Airlines
- 100-hour upgrade window
- 120% status mileage bonus
- Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred Seats
- 3 free checked bags
- oneworld Emerald
American Airlines Loyalty Choice Rewards
When you went through the benefits mentioned above, you likely noticed the terms elite choice rewards. This is another benefit that American Airlines introduced, which reminds me of the Hyatt Milestone Reward or Marriott Annual Gift Choice Benefit.
Starting March 2022, if you qualify for AAdvantage Platinum Pro or higher and fly a minimum of 30 flights, you will unlock Loyalty Choice Rewards divided into five (5) levels:
- Level 1 requires 125,000 Loyalty Points
- Level 2 requires 200,000 Loyalty Points
- Level 3 requires 350,000 Loyalty Points
- Level 4 requires 550,000 Loyalty Points
- Level 5 requires 750,000 Loyalty Points
Loyalty Choice Rewards include the following:
- Admiral Club day-pass
- AAdvantage bonus miles
- Systemwide upgrades
Earning American Airlines Status With Loyalty Points
Below are the ways that you can earn American Airlines status with Loyalty Points:
Flying With American Airlines
Whenever you fly on American Airlines and American Eagle, you will earn Loyalty Points based on the dollars you spend.
The Loyalty Points you earn are also based on your status levels:
- AAdvantage Member earns 5 Loyalty Points per dollar.
- AAdvantage Gold earns 7 Loyalty Points per dollar.
- AAdvantage Platinum earns 8 Loyalty Points per dollar.
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro earns 9 Loyalty Points per dollar.
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum earns 11 Loyalty Points per dollar.
For example, if you spend $1,000 on the AA airfare (base fare + carrier-imposed fees) and are an AAdvantage member, you will receive 5,000 Loyalty Points (5×1,000).
Flying With oneworld & Other AA’s Airline Partners
You will be able to earn Loyalty Points whenever you fly with oneworld and other airline partners. Remember that you will need to provide your AA frequent flyer number on these non-AA airlines reservations to earn AA miles and Loyalty Points.
oneworld airline partners include:
- Alaska Airlines
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Finnair
- Iberia
- Japan Airlines
- Malaysia Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar Airways
- Royal Air Maroc
- Royal Jordanian Airlines
AA’s other airline partners include:
- Air Tahiti Nui
- Cape Air
- China Southern Airlines
- Etihad Airways
- Fiji Airways
- GOL Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JetBlue
- Silver Airways
Using American Airlines Credit Cards
If you have an American Airlines AAdvantage credit card, you can earn Loyalty Points too from purchases. However, it is crucial to note that you can earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent, not per AA miles you earn per dollar spent.
For example, Citi American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp Card earns 2 AA miles per dollar spent at grocery stores. If you spend $100 on eligible grocery items, you will earn 200 AA miles, but only 100 Loyalty Points can be earned.
Below are American Airlines credit cards that earn Loyalty Points:
Citi
- Citi American Airlines AAdvantage MileUp Card
- Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite MasterCard
- Citi Business AAdvantage Platinum Select Mastercard
- Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MasterCard
- Citi AAdvantage Gold Card
Barclays
- Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Silver World Elite Mastercard
- Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard
- Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Blue World Elite Mastercard
- Barclays AAdvantage Aviator World Elite Business Mastercard
Shopping Online Via AAdvantage eShopping
American Airlines has its own shopping portal called AAdvantage eShopping. The concept is very much the same as a cashback shopping portal such as Rakuten if you are familiar with that. Instead of earning cashback from your online shopping, you will earn American Airlines miles instead, and those miles qualify for the Loyalty Points for American Airlines status.
From time to time, AAdvantage eShopping offers extra miles per dollar spent when you shop at over 950 online stores such as DELL, Best Buy, Macy’s, etc., to name a few.
Using Mastercard to Shop With American Airlines SimplyMiles
American Airlines introduced the SimplyMiles program a while now. It is a program that allows AAdvantage members to earn extra miles every day when they use a registered Mastercard to pay for purchases with participating brands in-store and online. Those miles earned are also eligible for Loyalty Points towards American Airlines status.
The way the program works is very straightforward:
- You must join the SimplyMiles with your American Airlines AAdvantage account first.
- After successful enrollment, add a Mastercard to your profile.
- Find all participating merchants or brands via the SimpleMiles portal and activate each offer before making your purchases.
- Shop online or in-store from the merchants or brands that you activated the offer, and make sure to use the Mastercard that was registered to make the purchase to earn AA miles for Loyalty Points.
Spending With AA Partner Retailers
American Airlines has partnerships with retailers that you can earn AA miles and Loyalty Points for AA status, such as:
Dining with AAdvantage Dining
You can also earn American Airlines Loyalty Points when you dine out at participating restaurants within the AAdvantage Dining program.
You earn AA miles for every dollar you spend at a participating restaurant. The way the program works is this:
- You join the AAdvantage Dining.
- Sometimes, AAdvantage Dining offers new members bonus too.
- After successful enrollment, add a credit card or a debit card to your dining profile.
- I recommend adding credit cards that earn you the most in rewards points for either the dining category or they currently have bonus points promotions.
- Search for a participating restaurant, bar, or club.
- Every time you dine there and use the registered payment card to pay for your dining bill, you will earn AA miles eligible for Loyalty Points towards American Airlines status.
Buying Vacation Packages
American Airlines has a dedicated site for American Airlines Vacations. You can book your vacation consisting of flight, hotel, and rental car all one in stop shopping. In return, you will earn miles per dollar spent via American Airlines Vacations bookings. Those earned miles are eligible for Loyalty Points for American Airlines status.
Booking Hotels
American Airlines partners with a handful of hotels. However, keep in mind that to earn miles through your hotel stays, you have to choose American Airlines AAdvantage miles as your earning preference and American Airlines as your preferred airline by providing your AAdvantage number. This means you will forgo your chances to earn any hotel’s reward points.
American Airlines partners with the following hotels:
- HYATT
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American Airlines has a unique partnership with Hyatt. You can earn both Hyatt points, and 1 AA mile per dollar spent with Hyatt. The maximum AA miles you can earn is 10,000 miles per year.
- MARRIOTT
- IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)
- WYNDHAM
- Rocketmiles
- PointsHound
- American Airlines Hotels
- More information on earning AA miles with hotels
Renting Cars
Similar to hotels mentioned above, American Airlines also partners with a handful of rental car companies:
- AVIS
- BUDGET
- PAYLESS
- ALAMO
- NATIONAL
- DOLLAR
- HERTZ
- THRIFTY
To earn AA miles through rental cars, you will have to change your earning preferences to American Airlines AAdvantage miles by providing your AAdvantage number. Most rental company charges extra to let you earn airline miles too, keep that in mind.
You can find more information on earning AA miles with rental cars here.
Taking Cruises
In addition to flights, hotels, and rental cars, American Airlines also allows you to book cruises and earn 1 mile per $1 spent, up to 10,000 AAdvantage miles. These miles qualify towards Loyalty Points for American Airlines status.
Earning with Miles for Opinions
If you have free time and want to fill out some surveys, you can earn American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points in exchange for your time.
You can learn more about the Miles for Opinions through the following link:
Transactions that Do NOT Earn Loyalty Points
Per American Airlines, the following do not earn American Airlines Loyalty Points:
- Bonus miles earned from special promotions
- Miles from Buy, Gift, Transfer transactions
- Government taxes, fees, and other charges associated with buying a ticket do not count toward earning AAdvantage miles and do not count toward earning Loyalty Points.
- Conversion of another program currency to AAdvantage miles
- For AAdvantage credit cards, “accelerators” or “multipliers” such as extra miles for purchases in specific categories, with specific merchants (such as American Airlines purchases) or purchases made abroad
- AAdvantage credit cards new account or welcome bonuses, spend bonuses, etc.
In addition, the following also do not earn American Airlines Loyalty Points:
- American Airlines credit card’s sign-up bonuses
- Miles earned with Bask Bank
When Do American Airlines Loyalty Points Reset?
Earning American Airlines elite status with Loyalty Points is no longer based on the traditional calendar year:
- In 2022, you have 14 months from January 2022 through February 2023 to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points.
- After 2022, you have 12 months from March through February to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points.
- Earned American Airlines status is valid for the rest of the year in which you’ve earned it, plus the following year and an additional three months after that.
- For example, if you earned American Airlines AAdvantage Executive Platinum in 2022, it will be valid until March 31, 2024. You will have to earn enough Loyalty Points in the 2024 year to re-qualify.
