[Final Weeks For Award Chart And Earning 2022 Loyalty Points] American’s 2023 Mileage, Elite Status, And Award Chart Changes: The Good, The Bad, And The Unknown

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Update, 2/15/23: Reminder that there are potentially just 2 weeks left for American’s award chart, as the airline previously told DansDeals it will go fully dynamic for award pricing on American flights in March. Gary Leff flags a 2/3/23 memo confirming that this will happen in multiple phases “over the next several weeks.” It’s still unclear how exactly that will affect partner award bookings on American and the airline had no comment for DansDeals on that issue.

If you are aiming for earning status from loyalty points earned since last year, you need to complete that by 2/28. However you may be better off next status year starting on 3/1 with more valuable loyalty point rewards that will no longer require American flight segments as they do this status year.

Originally posted on 12/15/22:

Game changer in loyalty

Last year, American announced that they would change the elite status loyalty game for good, by ditching the flying requirements to earn status.

It was reflective of the reality that airlines today make more (or in some cases all of their) profit selling miles to partners like credit card banks, than they do flying airplanes. In other words, they fly airplanes as a method to support their credit card programs in order to tempt people with award travel. Banks in turn hope that you’ll use their credit cards and fall into a debt trap with interest payments. However if you’re disciplined to spend within your means, the credit card game can be quite lucrative.

Overall, the airline is pleased with the experiment. They have gained elite members and cardholders in markets like NYC that they didn’t have before, thanks to making elite status earning possible solely through credit card spending.

Award chart changes

The airline tells DansDeals that award tickets for American flights will go fully dynamic, with the elimination of mileage sAAver and AAnytime awards and award charts. All awards on American going forward will be web specials. However American says that unlike their competitors, they will be the only major US airline that will continue to maintain an award chart for their own flights, which will show the range of potential pricing for award tickets. They say that their members value the guidance of an award chart to help make award opportunities easier to understand. Those charts will launch in March 2023, so we’ll have to wait and see how this will turn out.

American also tells DansDeals that they will maintain their static award chart for partner flights, something that their competition also no longer offers.

It’s unclear what this will mean for using partner miles, like BA Avios, for American flights. Currently, BA can only book American saver award space, but if that goes away, it’s unclear what inventory they will have access to book. Then again, Delta doesn’t have any saver awards, but they provide hidden saver award inventory that is only bookable by their partner airlines, so perhaps American will copy that approach. United doesn’t have an award chart, but they continue to offer saver award space which is bookable with United and partner miles. American tells DansDeals that those details are still being hammered out for now.

It’s a pity that American’s saver award chart is going away, but it’s good that they are committed to maintaining award charts and not following Delta down their Skypesos path.

Basic economy downgrade

American is taking the axe to basic economy earnings.

Currently, American’s basic economy is the least punitive level around, with regular mileage earning and elites allowed to select seats and get upgraded. The only difference is that basic economy ticket can’t be changed.

However as of 3/1/23, earnings on basic economy tickets will go down from 5 base points per dollar to just 2 base points per dollar.

Elites will still get a 40% Gold, 60% Platinum, 80% Platinum Pro, or 120% Executive Platinum bonus, but that will be a bonus based on 2 points per dollar spend instead of 5 points per dollar spent.

Uncapped earnings

American is matching Delta in removing the cap of 75K miles that can be earned on a ticket, with mileage earnings now uncapped for very expensive flights. I’d expect United to match this as well.

Elite status changes

American’s qualification year runs through the end of February, so changes will begin on 3/1/23.

In a page out of JetBlue’s changes announced last week, there will be rewards for both elite and non-elite members hitting loyalty point thresholds.

Currently you need to fly on 30 flight segments to earn those rewards, but as of next year, that requirement goes away and the only thing that will matter are loyalty points.

You can earn loyalty points from American, OneWorld, and JetBlue flights, credit card spending (but not credit card signup bonuses or bonus points on purchases), stays at partner hotels when crediting the points to American, AAdvantage Dining, SimplyMiles, eShopping, American Airlines Vacations, staying in hotel partners, rental car partners, American Airlines Cruises, and select other sources of American miles.

Buying or transferring miles do not count as loyalty points.

For 2023, you’ll need to earn 40K loyalty points for Gold, 75K for Platinum, 125K for Platinum Pro, and 200K for Executive Platinum. The only change from the current year is Gold, which goes up from 30K to 40K points. That’s in contrast to other airlines which massively increased the status level requirements across the board.

New Loyalty Point Rewards to choose from

Here is how things will work for the 2023 year, which can be earned from 3/1/23-2/29/24:

• At 15K loyalty points you will obtain group 5 boarding and can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • Group 4 boarding for a trip
  • 5 preferred seat coupons
• At 40K loyalty points you will obtain Gold status. Benefits include OneWorld Ruby status, JetBlue benefits, 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, preferred seats at booking, and main cabin extra seating at checkin.
• 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 75K loyalty points you will obtain Platinum status. Benefits include OneWorld Sapphire status, JetBlue benefits, 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.
• At 100K loyalty points you will earn Avis President’s Club status and a 30% loyalty point bonus with AA Vacations, eShopping, SimplyMiles, AA dining, and AA hotels.
• At 125K loyalty points you will obtain Platinum Pro status. Benefits include OneWorld Emerald status, JetBlue benefits, 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 for you and a companion on Alaska, and main cabin extra seating at booking.
• At 175K loyalty points you can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 2 systemwide upgrades
  • 20K bonus miles or 25K bonus miles for AA cardholders
  • 15% award rebate
  • 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 200K loyalty points you will obtain Executive Platinum status. Benefits include OneWorld Emerald status, JetBlue benefits, 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 for you and a companion on Alaska, upgrades on award tickets for you and a companion, guaranteed availability in coach, free drink and snack in coach, expanded award space, and main cabin extra seating at booking.
• 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 this 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.
  • 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

• At 400K, 550K, and 750K loyalty points you can select two of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 1 systemwide upgrade
  • 25K bonus miles
  • 2 Flagship Lounge visits
  • 1 Flagship First Dining pass
  • 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
  • 1 gift of AAdvantage Platinum status
  • 40K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
• At 1M loyalty points you can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 4 systemwide upgrades
  • Up to 100K miles back on award redemptions
  • Carbon offset
  • 1 gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status
  • 150K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
• At 3M loyalty points you can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 6 systemwide upgrades
  • Up to 300K miles back on award redemptions
  • Carbon offset
  • 1 gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status
  • 350K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience
• At 5M loyalty points you can select one of these Loyalty Point Rewards:
  • 10 systemwide upgrades
  • Up to 500K miles back on award redemptions
  • Carbon offset
  • 1 gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status
  • 550K miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience

The reward choices for non-elite members aren’t as lucrative as JetBlue’s, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.

Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members will need to earn more loyalty points to get rewards choices than in the past, but the 30 flight segment is being eliminated. In other words, American is rewarding their credit card spenders even more, while being less generous to people actually flying on American.

You can choose rewards up until March 30 of the following year.

You’ll earn 1 loyalty point per dollar spent on most Citi, Barclays, and other AA credit cards. That includes cards like:

What do you think of these changes? Will you go for American elite status in 2023?