[Final Day To Select 2023 Rewards!] American’s 2024 Loyalty Program Won’t Mess With A Good Thing, But There Is One Negative Change; Should You Swipe Your Way To American Elite Status In 2024?

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Update, 4/5: Don’t forget to select your 2023 rewards by today!

Update, 3/1: The 2024 Loyalty points year starts today with new rewards that make it easier than ever to qualify for status. I still don’t fully understand why the program can’t work on a calendar year basis, but kudos to American for creating real innovation in earning elite status and rewards!

Originally posted on 1/9/24:

A game-changer for elite status

In 2022, American changed the elite status game by counting all credit card spending toward earning elite status.

Last year they did it again by allowing loyalty choice rewards to be earned without needing to ever pay for or step onto an American flight, by dropping the 30 flight requirement for those rewards.

2024 changes

The good news is that not much is changing for 2024. The new program will once again run from March 1st to February 28th.

The same requirements for elite status will carry over from last year.

One positive change is that you’ll be able to select bonus loyalty points as a loyalty choice rewards. You can select 1K bonus loyalty points when you hit 15K loyalty points, 5K bonus loyalty points when you hit 175K loyalty points, and 15K or 30K bonus loyalty points when you hit 250K loyalty points.

One negative change is that the option to select a 15% award rebate on up to 2 round-trip award tickets on any airline when you hit 175K loyalty points will be removed. American says that less than 1% of members that hit 175K loyalty points selected this reward. It’s too bad that it’s being removed though, as it offered the ability for quite a return on an expensive award. You can still select this award in the existing program until 3/30/24 and it will be valid for 1 year from the date of selection.

American notes that you will soon be able to upgrade awards on select partner airlines with AA miles, earn miles on upgrades, and more.

The airline also notes that starting 3/1, exclusively AAdvantage members will be able to take advantage of free same-day standby and 24 hour fare holds.

Later this year, Members will also enjoy 6 additional months to use trip credit when canceling travel online. Only members will be able to buy a club pass or flagship lounge pass. AAdvantage members also board before non-members.

Plus, starting later this month, members will be able to cancel domestic basic economy tickets and convert the funds into trip credit after a $99 fee is deducted from the trip value.

Spend your way to status?

For big spenders or business owners, you can spend your way to elite benefits. But should you?

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.

As just announced for the end of the 2023 program, all spending done in February 2024 will count towards 2024 status, even if it’s done after your February statement date closes and the same goes for February 2025.

In other words, if your statement closes on February 15th, spending from February 16th-29th will count towards 2024 status (expiring 3/31/25), and spending from March 1st and on will count towards 2025 status (expiring 3/31/26).

Personally, I’m not a fan of this change, as it gives less time to double dip on alternating status years as you now only have March to do spending if you want to qualify for status every other year without a gap in status. But it does make things less confusing for people who don’t know when their statement close date is.

Status requirements and benefits

• If you want Gold status, you’ll need to spend $39,000 on AA cards between 3/1/24-2/28/25 and the status will last through 3/31/26. Together with 1K bonus loyalty points at the $15K level choice reward, you’ll have 40K loyalty points. Or you can spend less if you earn loyalty points from flying and other sources.
  • 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 checkin.
• If you want Platinum status, you’ll need to spend $74,000 on AA cards ($64,000 if you have Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard, which earns 10,000 bonus loyalty points after hitting 50K loyalty points) between 3/1/24-2/28/25 and the status will last through 3/31/26. Together with 1K bonus loyalty points at the $15K level choice reward, you’ll have 75K loyalty points.
  • 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.
• If you want Platinum Pro status, you’ll need to spend $124,000 on AA cards ($104,000 if you have Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard, which earns 20,000 bonus loyalty points after hitting 50K+90K loyalty points) between 3/1/24-2/28/25 and the status will last through 3/31/26. Together with 1K bonus loyalty points at the $15K level choice reward, you’ll have 125K loyalty points.  
  • 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.
• If you’re gunning for top-tier Executive Platinum status, you’ll need to spend $199,000 on AA cards ($179,000 if you have Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard, which earns 20,000 bonus loyalty points after hitting 50K+90K loyalty points) between 3/1/24-2/28/25 and the status will last through 3/31/26. Together with 1K bonus loyalty points at the $15K level choice reward, you’ll have 200K loyalty points. If you select 5K bonus loyalty points at the $175K level choice reward the spending requirement will be further reduced, though there are better rewards at that level.  Of course, if you’re earning loyalty points from flying or other methods, that requirement will be reduced.

Executive Platinum benefits include:

• OneWorld Emerald status
• Alaska benefits, such as priority access, preferred seating, 3 free bags, same-day flight switch, upgrades for you and a companion, lounge access, and more.
• 120% bonus loyalty points on flights
• Three 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
• Guaranteed availability in coach
• Free drink and snack in coach
• Main cabin extra seating at booking.

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
• 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 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
• 15% award rebate for up to 2 passengers flying round-trip anywhere on any airline with AA miles. (This option is discontinued after the 2023 program)
• 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.

Cost for spending towards top-tier status

Scenario 1: Spend $199K for Executive Platinum status and 1 loyalty point reward choice:

Let’s say that a business has a $195,442.95 federal tax liability. The business owner can pay those taxes on an AA card for a fee of $3,557.06 (which may be tax deductible, ask your accountant). In total, they will have spent $199K and earned 199,000 AA miles, 200,000 loyalty points, Executive Platinum status through 3/31/26, and a loyalty point reward such as 25K miles or 2 systemwide upgrades.

Is that worthwhile? AA points are still quite valuable, in no small part due to their partner award chart, which has bargains on airlines like Etihad, Cathay Pacific, JAL, Qantas, Qatar, and more. I recently flew JAL first class from Cleveland to Osaka via JFK and Tokyo for 80K AA miles+$5.60. The ticket would have cost $14,000 cash, meaning the redemption had a value of 11.2 cents per mile.

But let’s say AA miles are worth 1.4 cents on average. If you earned 224,000 miles after the loyalty point reward, you’d have $3,136 worth of AA miles. You’ll have effectively paid $421.06 for the Executive Platinum status.

Scenario 2: Spend $249K for Executive Platinum status and 3 loyalty point reward choices:

Or if you have a business that has a $244,549.20 federal tax liability. The business owner can pay those taxes on an AA card for a fee of $4,450.80 (which may be tax deductible, ask your accountant). In total they will have spent $249,000 and earned 249,000 AA miles, 250,000 loyalty points, Executive Platinum status through 3/31/26, and 3 loyalty point rewards. You could claim 85K miles or 6 systemwide upgrades for example.

If we say AA miles are worth 1.4 cents on average and you earned 334,000 miles after the loyalty point rewards, you’ll have $4,676 worth of AA miles. You’ll have effectively paid negative $225.20 for the Executive Platinum status.

Of course, those numbers will change depending on what you actually redeem the AA miles for.

Scenario 3: Executive cardholder spending $179K for Executive Platinum status and 1 loyalty point reward choice:

That math changes if you have a Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard and have a business that has a $175,800.43 federal tax liability. The business owner can pay those taxes on an AA card for a fee of $3,199.57 (which may be tax deductible, ask your accountant). In total, they will have spent $179,000 and earned 179,000 AA miles, 200,000 loyalty points, Executive Platinum status through 3/31/26, and a loyalty point reward such as 25K miles, 2 systemwide upgrades, or a 15% award rebate.

If you earned 204,000 miles after the loyalty point reward, you’d have $2,856 worth of AA miles. You’ll have effectively paid $343.57 for the Executive Platinum status. Plus you only need to spend $179K instead of $199K.

Scenario 4: Executive cardholder spending $229K for Executive Platinum status and 3 loyalty point reward choices:

Or if you have a Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Consumer Mastercard and a business that has a $224,906.70 federal tax liability. The business owner can pay those taxes on an AA card for a fee of $4,093.30 (which may be tax deductible, ask your accountant). In total they will have spent $229,000 and earned 229,000 AA miles, 250,000 loyalty points, Executive Platinum status through 3/31/26, and 3 loyalty point rewards. You could claim 85K miles or 6 systemwide upgrades for example.

If we say AA miles are worth 1.4 cents on average and you earned 314,000 miles after the loyalty point rewards, you’ll have $4,396 worth of AA miles. You’ll have effectively paid negative $302.70 for the Executive Platinum status.

Of course, those numbers will change depending on what you actually redeem the AA miles for.

Opportunity cost

As always, you also have to look at the opportunity cost of doing something like this.

• If you spend $249,000 on a Citi Double Cash Card you will have 498,000 Citi ThankYou points, redeemable for $4,980 cash or transferrable to miles with a Citi Premier® Card .
• If you spend $249,000 on a Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card X Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card X Business Card, or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card card, you will have 498,000 Capital One points, good for $4,980 of travel or transferrable to miles.

Looking at the opportunity cost, you are trading 498,000 ThankYou or Capital One points for 334,000 AA miles and Executive Platinum status. Most people would be better off with the extra points, but that might be a good tradeoff for people who highly value AA miles as they are otherwise hard to get, and/or people who would get a lot of value from the elite status.

AA deserves credit for making it at least somewhat compelling to spend money on their credit cards over more flexible hybrid or cash back cards.

Will you spend your way to elite status?