The day has arrived: American has changed the AAdvantage program. Literally everything has changed. This is a short article hitting the highlights, I’ll do a deeper dive as I have more time.
American Airlines 787-8 touching down at DFW
Earning status
There are no longer Elite-Qualifying Points. Status will be earned only by Elite-Qualifying Miles and Elite-Qualifying Segments.
You will still earn 1 Elite-Qualifying Segment for each segment.
You will earn Elite-Qualifying Miles based on the following matrix:
On American-marketed flights:
- 3 EQMs/mile – Full-fare First or Business
- 2 EQMs/mile – Discount First or Business
- 1.5 EQMs/mile – Full-fare Main Cabin
- 1 EQM/mile – Discount Main Cabin
The status earning thresholds will stay the same:
- Gold: 25000 EQM / 30 EQS
- Platinum: 50000 EQM / 60 EQS
- Executive Platinum: 100000 EQM / 120 EQS
Earning Redeemable Miles
American said they wanted to innovate with their new AAdvantage program. American has decided that “innovate” means “copy and pasting the same thing as their archrivals Delta and United in a fashion that doesn’t at all cry collusion”
Here are the new calculations for how you will earn “miles”
- 5 miles/U.S. dollar – AAdvantage member
- 7 miles/U.S. dollar – Gold
- 8 miles/U.S. dollar – Platinum
- 11 miles/U.S. dollar – Executive Platinum
You’re reading that correctly: redeemable “miles” no longer have anything to do with a unit of measurement.
More to come soon, stay tuned for more in-depth analysis and my personal thoughts.
The new EQM earning looks good to me. It never made sense that buying a J ticket earned the same EQM as a discount coach ticket, and EQPs were convoluted and a complete mess. The rest, however, ugh…