While Other Airlines Keep Raising The Cost Of Status, American Won’t Change Elite Status Requirements In 2025, Will Add Million Miler Tiers

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Elite Status Requirement Changes

Delta and United seem to continue to raise elite status requirements annually, with United raising PQP requirements yet again for earning status in 2025.

After major blowback last year, Delta didn’t raise their elite status requirements as much as they wanted to, though they said they would still do so over time. Delta led the pack in announcing changes in September last year, but they have been sitting back for other airlines to make their move and have not yet announced their requirements to earn status in 2025.

American’s innovative loyalty points program changed how elite status is earned in 2022 and the good news is that it will remain mostly unchanged for earning status in 2025.

Million Miler Improvements

American will finally add lifetime million miler levels starting 3/1/25. Currently, you can earn lifetime Gold at 1 million miles and lifetime Platinum at 2 million miles. The airline will add lifetime Platinum Pro at 4 million miles and lifetime Executive Platinum at 5 million miles. If you already have that many lifetime million miler miles, you will get that status around 3/1/25.

Notably, those lifetime tiers are not competitive with Delta or United. Delta and United offer mid-tier status at 1 million miles, they offer Diamond or 1K status at 3 million miles, United offers Global Services at 4 million miles and Delta offers 360 at 5 million miles. United even allows you to nominate a household member to share your lifetime status.

However, American offered the ability to earn lifetime miles from all sources from 1981-2011 and in 2020, rather than just from flying, so it’s no surprise that their tiers are still not as rewarding. Currently, only miles earned from flying add to your million miler balance.

It’s nice to see AA finally add higher tiers, though it’s disappointing that there is still no path to lifetime Concierge Key, which is American’s secret top tier status that competes with United Global Services and Delta 360.

Systemwide Upgrade Improvements

Systemwide upgrades previously expired a year from issuance, which meant that it made sense to hold off on selecting them as a loyalty point reward until the last possible date.

Going forward, they will be valid until the end of the status membership year. That means if you select a systemwide upgrade loyalty point reward from the 2025 program, it will be valid through 3/31/27.

Best of all, if you already selected or will select a systemwide upgrade for the 2024 program, in early 2025 the expiration date will be extended to 3/31/26.

Early this year, American also finally added the ability to apply systemwide upgrades online.

Status requirements and benefits

Earning status is unchanged from last year.

You need to earn 40K loyalty points for Gold status, 75K for Platinum status, 125K for Platinum Pro status, or 200K for Executive Platinum status.

You’ll have to earn status between 3/1/25-2/28/26 and status will last through 3/31/27.

As you can select 1K loyalty points as a reward for earning 15K loyalty points, you effectively need to earn 39K loyalty points for Gold status, 74K for Platinum status, 124K for Platinum Pro status, or 199K for Executive Platinum status.

You can earn loyalty points from flights, base credit card spending, and other programs like SimplyMiles, AA dining, and AA vacation packages in equal proportion to miles earned.

American awards 5 miles per dollar spent on flights. Gold members earn 7 miles per dollar,  Platinum members earn 8, Platinum Pro members earn 9, and Executive Platinum earn 11 miles per dollar, so elites have a big leg up in requalifying for status.

• Gold status benefits include OneWorld Ruby status, Alaska benefits, 40% bonus loyalty points on flights, a free checked bag, group 4 boarding, upgrades for you and a companion when available starting 24 hours before flights, upgrades on award tickets for you and a companion, preferred seats at booking, and main cabin extra seating at check-in. Gold members can also redeem 5K miles to receive or gift Gold status for a day, up to twice per year and can redeem 25K miles for a Hyatt category 1-4 free night certificate.
• Platinum status benefits include OneWorld Sapphire status, Alaska benefits, 60% bonus loyalty points on flights, 2 free checked bags, priority baggage handling, group 3 boarding, OneWorld business class lounge access when flying internationally, upgrades for you and a companion when available starting 48 hours before flights, and main cabin extra seating at booking. Platinum members can also redeem 8K miles to receive or gift Platinum status for a day, up to twice per year and can redeem 60K miles for a Hyatt category 1-7 free night certificate.
• Platinum Pro status benefits include OneWorld Emerald status, Alaska benefits, 80% bonus loyalty points on flights, 3 free 70 pound checked bags, priority baggage handling, group 2 boarding, free same day flight changes, OneWorld first class lounge access when flying internationally, upgrades for you and a companion when available starting 72 hours before flights, upgrades on award tickets for you and a companion, upgrades for you and a companion on Alaska, and main cabin extra seating at booking. Platinum Pro members can also redeem 12K miles to receive or gift Platinum Pro status for a day, up to twice per year.
• Executive Platinum status benefits include OneWorld Emerald status, Alaska benefits, 120% bonus loyalty points on flights, 3 free 70 pound checked bags, priority baggage handling, group 1 boarding, free same day flight changes, OneWorld first class lounge access when flying internationally, upgrades for you and a companion when available starting 100 hours before flights, upgrades on award tickets for you and a companion, upgrades for you and a companion on Alaska, guaranteed availability in coach, free drink and snack in coach, and main cabin extra seating at booking. Executive Platinum members can also redeem 20K miles to receive or gift Executive Platinum status for a day, up to twice per year.

Loyalty point rewards

• At 15K loyalty points you will obtain group 5 boarding and can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 1,000 bonus Loyalty Points
  • Group 4 boarding for a trip
  • 5 preferred seat coupons
  • A collectible luggage tag personalized with your name
• At 60K loyalty points you will earn Avis Preferred Plus status and a 20% loyalty point bonus with AA Vacations, eShopping, SimplyMiles, AA dining, and AA hotels.
• At 100K loyalty points you will earn Hyatt Discoverist status, Avis President’s Club status, and a 30% loyalty point bonus with AA Vacations, eShopping, SimplyMiles, AA dining, and AA hotels.

When you reach 175K loyalty points, you also get to select one loyalty point rewards from this list:

• 2 systemwide upgrades, good for a one-way upgrade on AA or BA flights from coach to business or from business to first class.
• 20K bonus miles or 25K bonus miles for AA cardholders
• 5K bonus loyalty points
• Hyatt Explorist status
• 6 Admirals Club day passes
• $200 trip credit or $250 trip credit for AA cardholders
• Carbon offset
• $250 donation to select nonprofits
• 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status
• 35K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience

At 250K loyalty points, you can select two of these Loyalty Point Rewards:

• 2 systemwide upgrades
  • You can select this twice and earn a total of 6 systemwide upgrades if you also select systemwide upgrades at the 175K level.
• 20K bonus miles or 30K bonus miles for AA cardholders
  • You can select this twice and earn a total of 85K miles if you also select miles at the 175K level.
• 15K bonus loyalty points
• 6 Admirals Club day passes
• 1 Flagship Lounge visit or 2 visits for AA cardholders
• Admirals Club membership (requires 2 rewards)
• Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 rewards)
• $200 trip credit or $250 trip credit for AA cardholders
• Carbon offset
• $250 donation to select nonprofits
• 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status
• 35K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience

You can select the same award choice multiple times, so after earning 250K loyalty points you can have 6 systemwide upgrades or 85K bonus miles.

Additional rewards are available for spending 400K (such as 2 systemwide upgrades or 50K miles), 550K (such as 2 systemwide upgrades or 50K miles), 750K (such as 2 systemwide upgrades or 50K miles), 1M (such as 4 systemwide upgrades or 100K award rebate or gift of Platinum Pro status), 3M (such as 6 systemwide upgrades or 300K award rebate or gift of Executive Platinum status), and 5M (such as 10 systemwide upgrades or 500K award rebate or gift of Executive Platinum status) points.

Will you try to earn AA elite status in 2025?