American Airlines Will Soon Revamp Its Loyalty Points Program

American Airlines made headlines last year when it unveiled a new, simplified elite status program, Loyalty Points.

Now, just a year later, it’s already making adjustments — some good and some not so good.

Here are all the details you’ll want to know about.

American Airlines Introduces New Loyalty Point Rewards

Let’s start with the good news. Currently, American Airlines has 4 main levels of elite status, each requiring a different number of Loyalty Points. Additionally, members could earn Loyalty Choice Rewards beginning at 125,000 Loyalty Points and 30 segments of flying.

Now, American Airlines will simplify the program even more and add 11 new reward tiers, offering different perks at each level. The 30-segment minimum will be dropped.

Beginning March 1, 2023, AAdvantage members can start earning perks as soon as they earn 15,000 Loyalty Points. Perks and elite status are earned at different levels all the way up to 5 million Loyalty Points.

Here’s a quick look at the new Loyalty Point Rewards tiers:

• 15,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 1) Group 5 boarding for the membership year, Priority privileges and Group 4 boarding for 1 trip, 5 Preferred Seat coupons
• 40,000 Loyalty Points: AAdvantage Gold status
• 60,000 Loyalty Points: Avis Preferred Plus status, 20% Loyalty Point bonus
• 75,000 Loyalty Points: AAdvantage Platinum status
• 100,000 Loyalty Points: Avis President’s Club status, 30% Loyalty Point bonus
• 125,000 Loyalty Points: AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
• 175,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 1) 2 systemwide upgrades, 20,000-25,000 bonus miles, 6 Admirals Club 1-day passes, carbon offset, $250 non-profit donation, 15% award rebate, 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status, 35,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience
• 200,000 Loyalty Points: AAdvantage Executive Platinum status
• 250,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 2) 2 systemwide upgrades, 20,000-30,000 bonus miles, 6 Admirals Club 1-day passes, Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices), $200-$250 trip credit, carbon offset, $250 non-profit donation, 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status, Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices), 1-2 Flagship Lounge single-visit passes, or 35,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience
• 400,000 Loyalty Points, 550,000 Loyalty Points, and 750,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 2 at each level) 1 systemwide upgrade, 25,000 bonus miles, Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices), $200-$250 trip credit, carbon offset, gift of AAdvantage Platinum status, Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices), 2 Flagship Lounge single-visit passes, 1 Flagship First Dining visitor’s pass, or 40,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience
• 1,000,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 1) 4 systemwide upgrades, carbon offset, gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status, up to 100,000 miles back on award redemptions, or 150,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience
• 3,000,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 1) 6 systemwide upgrades, carbon offset, gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, up to 300,000 miles back on award redemptions, or 350,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience
• 5,000,000 Loyalty Points: (Choice of 1) 10 systemwide upgrades, carbon offset, gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, up to 500,000 miles back on award redemptions, or 550,000 miles toward a Mastercard Priceless experience

Bottom Line: The American Airlines Loyalty Points program will be refreshed beginning March 1, 2023. The threshold to reach Gold status will be raised to 40,000 Loyalty Points and 11 new reward tiers will be added so members can earn additional perks along the way to earning status.

Additional Changes to American Airlines Loyalty Points Program

A couple of additional changes to the American Airlines Loyalty Points program will also go into effect on March 1, 2023.

• To achieve AAdvantage Gold status, you’ll now need to earn 40,000 points, a 10,000-point increase from the previous threshold for this status level.
• Basic Economy tickets that are purchased on or after January 1, 2023, for travel on or after March 31, 2023, will only earn 2 miles per dollar. This is a significant drop from the 5 miles per dollar Basic Economy tickets currently earn.
• There will be no limit to the number of miles you can earn on a single ticket.
• There will be a new dynamic but simplified award chart introduced.
• American Airlines co-branded credit card holders will be able to redeem miles for Mastercard Priceless experiences.

Final Thoughts

Just about a year after its introduction, American Airlines is making changes to the Loyalty Points program. The bad news is it will take more Loyalty Points to earn the base-level Gold elite status and Basic Economy tickets will only earn 2 points per dollar versus the 5 points per dollar they now earn.

The other potentially bad news is the introduction of a new dynamic award chart. We don’t know what this will look like yet, but “dynamic” is rarely good news when it comes to airline award charts.

On the plus side, there will be 11 new reward tiers available so members can earn additional perks and bonuses along with earning elite status.