Attention American Airlines AAdvantage members: New perks for earning Loyalty Points are now live.
As TPG reported in January, fresh reward options are available for those who’ve earned status this year with the AAdvantage loyalty program.
American Airlines added the ability to redeem Loyalty Point Rewards for additional Loyalty Points toward AAdvantage status. Since I already hit the 15,000 threshold this year, I was able to put more Loyalty Points toward my 2025 qualification status.
As a reminder, you can choose 1,000 bonus Loyalty Points at the 15,000 Loyalty Point Rewards level, 5,000 bonus Loyalty Points at the 175,000 Loyalty Point Rewards threshold and 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points at the 250,000 Loyalty Point Rewards threshold.
How to claim your 1,000 Loyalty Points
Log into your AAdvantage account and click on your name. A drop-down menu will then appear — click on the “Account” option. Your choices should be under the “Rewards Hub”; click on “Rewards” to see what you’ve already earned for the year. As you can see in the screenshot below, I was able to select the 1,000 Loyalty Points as a new option.
Once you select “Reward Details,” a pop-up box offering the choice to get 1,000 Loyalty Points should appear.
Once you click “Submit choice,” another pop-up box opens to confirm your choice.
Not long after, the 1,000 Loyalty Points showed up in my account.
While it’s not earth-shattering, I consider this a good option since the other Loyalty Point Rewards are pretty lackluster, especially if you already have status with American Airlines. As an AAdvantage Executive Platinum member, I already get priority boarding and preferred seats on American Airlines and Oneworld flights, so those choices went unused by me last year. Those benefits were duplicative of or even inferior to the perks you get as a top-tier elite, so this is a nice change for those with status. This is a big improvement, in my opinion.
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Related: I’m an American Airlines AAdvantage Executive Platinum — here are 5 reasons why I’m thrilled with the loyalty program’s latest changes
Once you earn 175,000 Loyalty Points, you can also now pick 5,000 additional Loyalty Points. That’s in addition to the previous choices, which included two systemwide upgrades or 25,000 AAdvantage bonus miles.
At the 250,000 Loyalty Points threshold, you can pick 15,000 additional Loyalty Points as a reward. That comes on top of previous options like two more systemwide upgrades or up to 30,000 bonus miles.
I do appreciate more choices.
My AAdvantage strategy in 2024
Right now, I’m playing catch up with my elite status on American Airlines.
The new status year runs from March 1, 2024, through Feb. 28, 2025, and thankfully, the carrier didn’t make it harder to earn status this year, even top-tier Executive Platinum status.
Here are the current requirements:
- Gold: 40,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum: 75,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum Pro: 125,000 Loyalty Points
- Executive Platinum: 200,000 Loyalty Points
I’m woefully behind on earning Executive Platinum status again for next year, so this tiny little boost will help … at least, a little. I’m also shifting a lot of my spending for the remainder of the year to my AAdvantage credit cards.
My Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees) awards 10,000 Loyalty Points after you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year and another bonus of 10,000 Loyalty Points after you reach 90,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year. That should be easy to do without even spending on the card.
Meantime, I’m putting a lot of my spend on my other AAdvantage card.
I also have the AAdvantage® Aviator® Silver Mastercard®. With that card, I can earn up to 15,000 Loyalty Points just for spending on that card. I’ll earn 5,000 Loyalty Points when I spend $20,000 and can earn another 5,000 Loyalty Points for spending $40,000 and another 5,000 Loyalty Points once I hit $50,000 in spend.
I’m not sure I can spend that much this year, but I can try.
The information for the AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
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