Guide to the American Airlines AAdvantage program

Put simply, the American Airlines AAdvantage program is a frequent flyer loyalty program. The more money you spend with American Airlines and its partners, the more miles you earn and, thanks to recent program changes, the more loyalty points you earn. Earning points helps you toward AAdvantage elite status.

Here are some reasons to love the American Airlines AAdvantage program:

• Generous award chart with some short flights available for as few as 7,500 miles
• No fuel surcharges on award flights except for those through certain Oneworld alliance carriers
• Extensive list of American Airlines AAdvantage partners, including Oneworld members and non-alliance carriers
• Multiple earning opportunities that don’t involve flying

However, no program is perfect Here are some of the drawbacks of the AAdvantage program:

• Earning miles is based more on how much you spend rather than how much you fly
• Miles expire if your account is inactive for two years
• Stopovers are not permitted on award flights (though you can book one-way flights to create an open jaw-type situation)
• There’s a fee to pool miles with family members or friends

Overall, the AAdvantage program offers a lot of bang for the buck, primarily because it offers reward flight options for relatively few miles. Recent changes to the program (more below) have also made earning status with the airline easier to achieve. Any frequent flyer knows that earning status – the higher the tier, the better – makes traveling more comfortable and, in some cases, less expensive.

Yes, the American Airlines loyalty program is completely free. More than that, being a member could ultimately lead to reward flights or other cost-savings.

Flying is plenty expensive already without having to pay to join a loyalty program, so if you have to fly a lot anyway, American Airlines will reward you with perks and reward miles to go toward flights and other redemptions the more you fly with them.

As you collect loyalty points you’ll move close to status tiers while simultaneously earning miles toward reward flights.

There are three ways to earn loyalty points, or (same thing) miles.

• Travel on status-qualifying airlines: This includes flights on American Airlines, Oneworld members and partnering carriers. Every time you spend money on airfare for these flights, for every $1 you spend, you’ll earn five miles; therefore, a $250 flight earns you 1,250 redeemable miles and 1,250 loyalty points as well. Furthermore, if you achieve an AAdvantage Elite status, you’ll get more miles than five for every $1 spent. (Tiers are discussed in further detail below.)
• Purchase things with your AAdvantage credit card: For almost every American Airlines credit card, one one eligible mile earned equals one loyalty point. Note that bonuses and accelerators don’t earn loyalty points; therefore, earning three miles per $1 spent on gas, for instance, with a co-branded card will still only earn you one loyalty point per $1 spent. By the way, the AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard isn’t quite so generous, earning one mile for every $2 spent. Some rewards credit cards, however, will give you two or more miles for every $1 you spend.
• Shopping programs: Members can also earn loyalty points by spending through programs such as eShopping, AAdvantage Dining and SimplyMiles.

As you accumulate more miles, you progress through four levels of elite status. You earn status based on the number of loyalty points you accrue during each 12-month period from March 1 to February 28.

The different AAdvantage status levels include:

Gold status (qualify with 30,000 loyalty points)

• 40% status mileage bonus on base flight miles earned when traveling on American Airlines or with a partner. What does this mean? It means that when you achieve Gold status and buy airfare, you’ll earn seven miles per $1 spent, a 40% bonus
• Complimentary upgrades on North American flights of 500 miles or less. It’s automatic; if there’s an upgrade available, you’ll get it without asking
• Complimentary preferred and Main Cabin Extra seats
• Priority lane access through the airport at check-in, security and boarding
• One free checked bag
• Same-day standby priority
• Access to Gold reservations agents
• Confers Ruby status with Oneworld alliance partners
• 24-hour upgrade window (if you want to make upgrades 24 hours before your flight, you can)

Platinum status (qualify with 75,000 loyalty points)

Gold status benefits, plus:

• 60% bonus on base flight miles earned when traveling on American Airlines or with a partner airline. This means, having Platinum status, when you purchase a ticket, you’ll earn eight miles per $1, a 60% bonus.
• Premium cabin upgrades on North American flights fewer than 500 miles, confirmed as early as 48 hours before traveling
• Two free checked bags plus priority handling
• Access to Platinum reservations agents
• Confers Sapphire status with Oneworld alliance partners
• 48-hour upgrade window

Platinum Pro (qualify with 125,000 loyalty points)

Gold and platinum benefits, plus:

• If you spend enough to become an AAdvantage Platinum Pro member, you’ll earn nine points per $1, an 80% bonus.
• Access to Loyalty Choice Rewards, including Admirals Club day-passes, system-wide upgrades, bonus miles and more
• Unlimited upgrades for North American flights with confirmation as early as 72 hours before traveling
• Three free checked bags plus priority handling
• Free same-day flight changes
• Access to Platinum Pro reservations agents
• Confers Emerald status with Oneworld alliance partners
• 72-hour upgrade window

Executive Platinum (qualify with 200,000 loyalty points)

Gold, platinum and platinum pro benefits, plus:

• 120% bonus on base flight miles earned when traveling on American Airlines or with a partner airline. You’re now earning 11 miles per $1 (a 120% bonus).
• Unlimited upgrades for North American flights with confirmation as early as 100 hours before traveling
• Complimentary food and drink when traveling in the main cabin
• Access to Executive Platinum desk with no reservation service fee

Once you hit a million miles traveled, you gain Million Miler status and gold status for life. So if you stop flying for a few years, no big deal, you’re still in the “club.” Those who make it to 2 million miles receive platinum status for life. Additional bonus miles and upgrades come with these levels as well.

Currently, the consensus among travel websites is that an AAdvantage mile is worth 1.4 cents. However, the value of your miles will vary significantly depending on how you use them.

American Airlines offers MileSAAver awards, which provide travel options with lower redemption requirements, starting at just 7,500 miles each way (plus any applicable taxes and carrier-imposed fees). MileSAAver awards have no blackout dates, but these awards may have limited availability. More common are the AAnytime awards which are always available and start as low as 20,000 miles for a level one ticket.

You may get the most value from your miles if you can book a MileSAAver award in business or first class to an international destination. That redemption value will be significantly greater than choosing a domestic flight in economy at the AAnytime award rate; however, depending on your destination and travel dates, this option could still be considered a great deal. For example, a first class ticket to the Caribbean, Mexico or Central America could cost as little as 50,000 miles. First class tickets to South America start at just a bit more, 55,000 miles, and Europe, 85,000 miles.

You can get even more value out of your award travel if you have an AA co-branded credit card. These cards provide access to reduced mileage awards. They also allow cardholders to save up to 7,500 miles when redeeming for certain domestic flights. Eligible destinations change each month.

AAdvantage also allows members to redeem miles for merchandise such as newspapers and gift cards or lounge access through the Admirals Club. Miles can also be transferred to hotel and car rental programs for redemption or donated to charity. However, all these options usually result in lower value than redeeming miles for flights.

As you rack up your AAdvantage miles, redeeming them can mean free flights (or at least lower cost flights) to nearly 1,100 destinations around the world. You can redeem your miles to bring the price down of vacation packages, car rentals and hotel rooms. You can redeem them for online shopping purchases. You also redeem points for newspaper subscriptions – or to purchase or renew your membership in the Admirals Club lounge (there are 50 of them in airports around the country and more than 60 partner lounges around the world).

Where the American Airlines AAdvantage program really shines, however, is in the world of upgrades. If you fly all the time, you know about upgrades. You have to generally pay for upgrades with airlines. That is, if you want more legroom, or you want to sit in a certain part of coach, you’re going to pay for it. This can be irksome for the passenger who just wants a little extra legroom or a slightly better seat, but on the other hand, if 20 people want to be in the front section of coach, so they can get out of the plane faster, you can kind of see – from a business standpoint – why airlines figure they might as well monetize that. Still, you can see why some people get discouraged with travel.

If you’ve been racking up Loyalty Points with the American Airlines AAdvantage program, upgrades are complimentary in certain situations, and that’s a big selling point.

You also may wind up with free checked bags and priority boarding.

Additionally, if you’re an elite member and on a flight that’s 500 miles or less, you’ll receive a complimentary cabin upgrade.

In a nutshell, flying can be fun, but it can also be a headache, especially for those who do it all the time, where the novelty has kind of worn off, and you’re starting to add up the price of flying along with the frustration of getting saddled with the worst seats. The American Airlines AAdvantage program does what it can to help make flying fun again.

Yes, it absolutely is, if you fly American Airlines often.

If your loyalty lies with Delta or United, it may not be as beneficial, but as it’s free to join, signing up can’t hurt.

One thing is for sure, though. If you are a frequent flier on American Airlines, and you somehow don’t sign up for its loyalty program, you’re going to, in the long run, pay more for your flights. You may not care about seat upgrades, but you surely would like some free checked baggage and the chance to lower the cost of your flights.