Summary

• AAdvantage offers four status levels, each with unique benefits and progression based on Loyalty Points earned.
• Loyalty Point Rewards provide additional perks, starting at 15,000 points, including upgrades and bonus miles.
• Earning Loyalty Points includes flying, hotel stays, car rentals, and credit card spending, but not from certain activities like buying miles.

Like most frequent flyer programs, American Airlines' AAdvantage offers the chance to earn elite status. This is separate from mileage earning and offers benefits when traveling with American, oneworld members, and other partners. There are four different status levels, with progression between them based on the number of Loyalty Points earned during each year from flying, credit card spending, or other activities.

AAdvantage and oneworld tiers and benefits

The AAdvantage program has four tiers. These correspond to an equivalent tier within the oneworld alliance, offering defined benefits common on all oneworld airlines but not other AAdvantage miles partners, such as Etihad Airways. These tiers are:

• AAdvantage Gold – equivalent to oneworld Ruby – earned with 40,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum - equivalent to oneworld Sapphire - earned with 75,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Platinum Pro - equivalent to oneworld Emerald - earned with 125,000 Loyalty Points
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum - equivalent to oneworld Emerald - earned with 200,000 Loyalty Points

AAdvantage tier benefits

Each level brings increasing benefits when traveling with American Airlines or any oneworld airline. We'll discuss Loyalty Point Rewards in the next section. These allow members to choose from additional perks at different levels, such as upgrade certificates and more. All members get the following benefits:

AAdvantage Gold offers:

• Complimentary upgrades on North American American Airlines flights (lowest priority).
• One free checked bag.
• 40% status mileage bonus.
• Complimentary preferred seats.

AAdvantage Platinum benefits include those of Gold and also:

• Complimentary main cabin extra seats.
• Two free checked bags.
• 60% status mileage bonus.
• oneworld Sapphire status allows business class lounge access when flying with all other oneworld airlines (not on American Airlines, however).
• Complimentary upgrade on flights within North America (higher priority than Gold)

AAdvantage Platinum Pro is a new enhancement to Platinum. It adds the following to the benefits of Platinum:

• Complimentary upgrades on domestic Alaska Airlines flights
• Three free checked bags.
• 80% status mileage bonus.
• Complimentary upgrade on flights within North America (higher priority than Platinum)

Top-level AAdvantage Executive Platinum adds:

• 120% status mileage bonus.
• oneworld Emerald status allows first class lounge access with other airlines.
• Complimentary upgrade on flights within North America (higher priority than all above tiers, only below ConciergeKey)

There are other benefits from the oneworld equivalent status. These include lounge access on all flights with other oneworld partners regardless of class of travel (as described above). There are also tangible benefits:

• Additional luggage allowance.
• Priority luggage handling.
• Free seat reservation. This varies by airline and may include exit row seating for Emerald members.
• Use of business class check-in for Sapphire members and first class check-in for Emerald members.

Note that there were previously benefits for elite members when flying on JetBlue flights. This ended at the start of 2024.

Love learning about points and miles? Read more of our loyalty news and guides here.

Loyalty Points Rewards

Loyalty Point Rewards is a new system introduced in March 2023 that delivers benefits to frequent flyers. Offering a choice is a good move from AAdvantage to cater to different member requirements.

The new system expands on the previous Loyalty Choice Rewards system and offers rewards at certain loyalty point thresholds. The new benefits begin at 15,000 Loyalty Point Rewards, below the 40,000 needed to achieve the AAdvantage Gold. Further changes were made in 2024 to offer additional Loyalty Point boosts as one of the choices.

Loyalty Point Rewards offers benefits and rewards based on the total number of loyalty points earned in the year (from March 1st to the end of February). There is no minimum flying requirement to earn these - previously, there used to be minimum segment requirements, but these have been removed.

The following rewards are offered:

At 15,000 loyalty points:

• Group 5 boarding
• A choice of Group 4 boarding for one trip, five Preferred Seat coupons, or an additional 1,000 Loyalty Points.

At 40,000 loyalty points: Gold status

At 60,000 loyalty points:

• Avis Preferred Plus status
• A 20% loyalty point bonus with select partners (Including hotel and vacation bookings and with the shopping portal)

At 75,000 loyalty points: Platinum status

At 100,000 loyalty points:

• Avis President's Club status
• A 30% loyalty point bonus with select partners

At 125,000 loyalty points: Platinum Pro status

At 175,000 loyalty points: A choice of one of the following rewards:

• 5,000 Loyalty Points boost
• Two Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs). A SWU can be used to upgrade any American Airlines or British Airways flight by one cabin.
• 20,000 bonus miles
• Six Admirals Club one-day passes
• $200 American Airlines trip credit
• Carbon offsetting reward
• $250 donation to select nonprofit organizations
• A 15% rebate on award tickets
• Two gifts of AAdvantage Gold status to other members

At 200,000 loyalty points: Executive Platinum status

At 250,000 loyalty points: A choice of two rewards, including:

• 15,000 Loyalty Points
• Two Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs)
• 20,000 bonus miles
• Six Admirals Club one-day passes
• Admirals Club membership (this counts as two choices)
• $200 American Airlines trip credit
• Carbon offsetting reward
• $250 donation to select nonprofit organizations
• A 15% rebate on award tickets
• Two gifts of AAdvantage Gold status to other members
• One Flagship Lounge visit pass

At 400,000 loyalty points: A choice of two rewards, including:

• One Systemwide Upgrade (SWUs)
• 25,000 bonus miles
• Six Admirals Club one-day passes
• Admirals Club membership (this counts as two choices)
• $200 American Airlines trip credit
• Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status
• Two Flagship Lounge visit pass
• One Flagship First dining pass

At 550,000 loyalty points: A further choice of two of the same rewards as the 400,000 point level.

At 750,000 loyalty points: A further choice of two of the same rewards as the 400,000 point level.

At 1 million loyalty points: One of the following rewards:

• Four Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs)
• Gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
• Award rebate of up to 100,000 miles

At 3 million loyalty points: One of the following rewards:

• Six Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs)
• Gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status
• Award rebate of up to 300,000 miles

At 5 million loyalty points: One of the following rewards:

• Ten Systemwide Upgrades (SWUs)
• Gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
• Award rebate of up to 500,000 miles

The Loyalty Points system

American Airlines and AAdvantage completely revised the membership system in 2022. Anyone flying before then will likely remember the old system of Elite Qualifying Dollars, Miles, and Segments. This has been replaced now by Loyalty Points. Status is based on the number of Loyalty Points earned. These can be earned through flying, spending on credit cards, and a few other methods.

It is essential to be aware of collection dates as well. AAdvantage status is based on the number of Loyalty Points collected within each year from March 1st to the end of the following February. Status is valid from the time that the points threshold is passed for the rest of that year and the next.

Earning Loyalty Points from flying

The most obvious way to earn Loyalty Points is by flying. These are awarded very simply at the same rate as AAdvantage miles. This includes the base miles, cabin bonuses, and tier bonuses. Whatever number of miles you earn from a flight, the Loyalty Points will now be the same. For more detailed information on earning miles, see our guide to earning AAdvantage miles. The following is a quick summary.

On American Airlines, British Airways, and Iberia flights, you will earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points based on the amount spent. Higher tier members earn more:

• Basic AAdvantage member: 5 miles / Loyalty Points per dollar
• AAdvantage Gold: 7 miles / Loyalty Points per dollar
• AAdvantage Platinum: 8 miles / Loyalty Points per dollar
• AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 9 miles / Loyalty Points per dollar
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 11 miles / Loyalty Points per dollar

These rates apply to all tickets except the lowest Basic Economy tickets with American Airlines. These tickets earn just 2 miles per dollar - plus the same percentage bonus for status members.

On partner airlines (apart from British Airways and Iberia), miles and Loyalty Points are awarded based on the distance flown and booking class of the ticket. There are also cabin bonuses and status bonuses. Earnings are different for each partner airline, and you can see detailed earning tables on the AAdvantage website.

Note also that AAdvantage is introducing changes to which tickets qualify for miles and Loyalty Points earned from May 2024. From this date, the booking source now matters for earning (as the first change this way in the industry).

Find out more about the changes to eligible booking sources

You will only receive AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points for bookings made directly with American Airlines, other eligible airlines, or preferred travel agencies. There are a few exceptions in place, including for AAdvantage Business members and bookings made as part of a contracted corporate agreement.

Earning Loyalty Points from non-flying activities

Earning status through spending on credit cards is one of the major changes from the shift to the Loyalty Points system. It is now possible to earn elite status just through credit card use.

All AAdvantage co-branded credit cards award Loyalty Points at a rate of one Loyalty Point per dollar spent. Any bonuses (including sign-up or spending category bonuses) do not equate to additional Loyalty Points.

There are other ways to earn Loyalty Points as well. The main ones include:

• Earning via hotel stays. Stays at many hotel chains can earn AAdvantage miles (usually instead of points in the hotel loyalty program). These are either a fixed amount per night or stay or based on the dollar amount spent. Base miles earned here (excluding any promotions or bonuses) earn Loyalty Points at a 1:1 ratio.

• Earning via car hire. Likewise, most major car rental companies offer the possibility of earning AAdvantage miles with rentals. The base miles here (excluding any promotions or bonuses) earn Loyalty Points at a 1:1 ratio.
• AAdvantage mile earning through the AAdvantage shopping portal. Rates vary for each company, but Loyalty Points are earned again at a 1:1 ratio.

Other things to know about Loyalty Points

Not all ways of earning miles also earn Loyalty Points. The most notable exception are purchases of AAdvantage miles or gifts and transfers of miles. These do not earn Loyalty Points. Also, you will not earn Loyalty Points from the government taxes and surcharges portion of any airfare; this can be a substantial part of the total fare.

Loyalty Points are also used to determine your priority in the queue for complimentary upgrades. This is simpler than the previous system and is important for those traveling domestically. All elite members now receive complimentary upgrades (the old 500-mile upgrade coupons system has been dropped), which means there is a lot more competition for places.

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Do you hold elite status with American Airlines' AAdvantage program? Let us know about your experience with the program in the comments section below.

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  AAdvantage

  Participating Airlines:

  American Airlines

  Owner:

  American Airlines

  Region:

  North America

  Countries:

  United States

  Established Date:

  1981-05-01