AAdvantage Updates: Economy to Business Upgrades Ending, Plus Other Changes

American Airlines has shared details of several mid-year updates to its AAdvantage loyalty program, the highlight (or rather, lowlight) being that elite members will no longer be entitled to a complimentary upgrade from economy to business class on domestic flights operated by aircraft with 3 cabins.

Let’s dig into this change and the other updates you should know about.

AA Eliminates Complimentary Elite Upgrades From Coach to Business on 3-Cabin Domestic Flights

Currently, flyers with AAdvantage elite status are eligible for complimentary upgrades from economy to the business class cabin on routes operated by aircraft with 3 cabins. This allows them to skip right over premium economy and go to the very front of the plane if their upgrade clears.

On August 25, 2026, however, that’s changing. Elite members whose complimentary upgrade clears will find themselves in the premium economy cabin, not the business class cabin. This applies mainly to premium transcontinental routes and some to Hawaii, including:

• Boston (BOS) to Los Angeles (LAX)
• Chicago (ORD) to Honolulu (HNL) and Maui (OGG)
• Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Honolulu (HNL), Kona (KOA), and Maui (OGG)
• New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO)
• Phoenix (PHX) to Honolulu (HNL)

More routes may be added to this list in the future.

Note that American Airlines AAdvantage elite members will still be eligible for an upgrade to the business or domestic first class cabin if they originally purchased a premium economy ticket, purchased an Instant Upgrade to the premium economy cabin, or the aircraft doesn’t have a premium economy cabin.

Upgrades already processed for flights on or after August 25 will be honored. However, if you’re still waiting for an upgrade for a flight departing on or after August 25, you should prepare for things to potentially get messy as AA makes internal changes to this new policy.

The mechanism by which complimentary upgrades are distributed isn’t changing. Requests will be made automatically after booking and will be processed at the normal windows for each elite tier:

• Up to 120 hours before departure for ConciergeKey members
• Up to 100 hours before departure for Executive Platinum members
• Up to 72 hours before departure for Platinum Pro members
• Up to 48 hours before departure for Platinum members
• Up to 24 hours before departure for Gold members

Finally, note that this new policy only applies to complimentary upgrades. Those with systemwide upgrades will still be able to move from economy to business class, from business to first class, or from premium economy to business or domestic first. This is great news for elite members with systemwide upgrades in their accounts.

New Loyalty Point Rewards

American Airlines awards elite members a choice of benefits after achieving certain Loyalty Points thresholds. These new options are mostly additive to the existing benefits that are available at each level.

15,000 Loyalty Points

• Choose 2 food and beverage coupons, applicable on flights where service is offered
• Later this year, you can choose a 12-month New York Times subscription to Games, Cooking, or The Athletic

60,000 Loyalty Points

• Earn a maximum of 25,000 bonus Loyalty Points at an elevated rate of 25% for 6 months after registering for the promotion with certain partners, including American Airlines Vacations, AAdvantage Hotels, AAdvantage Cruises, and more.

175,000 Loyalty Points

Choose from:

• A $250 credit toward an American Airlines Vacations package
• 1 AAdvantage Exchange gift
• Later this year, you can choose a 12-month New York Times All-Access subscription, including News, Games, Cooking, Wirecutter, and The Athletic

250,000 Loyalty Points

Choose from:

• A $500 credit toward an American Airlines Vacations package
• 1 AAdvantage Exchange gift
• 1 AAdvantage Exchange premium gift (requires 2 choices)
• Later this year, you can choose a 12-month New York Times All-Access subscription

400,000/550,000/750,000 Loyalty Points

Choose from:

• A $500 credit toward an American Airlines Vacations package
• 1 AAdvantage Exchange gift
• 1 AAdvantage Exchange premium gift (requires 2 choices)
• Later this year, you can choose a 12-month New York Times All-Access subscription

Finally, note that American has eliminated the 30% Loyalty Point bonus at the 100,000 Loyalty Point level and all Bang & Olufsen reward options.

Other AAdvantage Updates

But wait, there’s more. American is tweaking other aspects of the AAdvantage program.

The airline is (finally) introducing the ability to book domestic flights (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), with a combination of cash and miles. AA says more routes will soon accommodate cash-and-miles bookings.

Next, on domestic flights, members will receive 7 passes to stream FOX One, valid for 24 hours each, as soon as they connect to the inflight Wi-Fi. This permits streaming of live sports from the NFL and the MLB, Fox series, and news programming.

Finally, Million Miler members will soon be able to choose from a variety of rewards, including Loyalty Points, gifted elite status, systemwide upgrades, bonus redeemable miles, and more. These will be available at each million-mile threshold, though the list of options (which has not yet been revealed) will vary depending on the milestone reached.

Final Thoughts

Among the many updates to the AAdvantage program, the most important news is that American Airlines will no longer grant complimentary upgrades from economy to business class on domestic flights operated by 3-cabin aircraft. This means economy passengers who score an upgrade will be sitting in premium economy as of August 25.

However, we’re happy to see the airline keep the systemwide upgrade process the same, as those still provide a way for eligible passengers to bypass premium economy and go directly from economy to business class.