American Airlines’ AAdvantage program has just rolled out some status buy up offers, for those who are short of requalifying for status. As a reminder, with American AAdvantage’s Loyalty Points system, the carrier doesn’t use the calendar year for status qualification, but rather status is earned between the beginning of March and the end of…
Continue reading: Buy Up To American AAdvantage Elite Status For 2026: Offers Now Live
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
That redemption for miles is especially insane. I will probably drop from Ex Plat to Platinum Pro this year. Since I will still keep my Emerald status and access to One World international first class lounges so not worth the offer (if I get one).
Are you going to take that offer to go to PP?
I have never received any offers over the years.
I already have pending eShopping purchases that should get me over the threshold, so no.
Even booking a hotel stay through AAdvantage Hotels would get me the requisite LPs at a fraction of the cost (~$100 or so).
@Ben
You are being too kind in the article. What AA is offering here is the opportunity to pay full price for a flight that you then don't get to take. These prices map closely to what you would earn flying.
These offers are always atrocious. Please, never, ever do this, unless you literally need to burn money.
What does it say about a brand when the only way you can hit your targets for elite-level travelers, even when stations tied to credit card spend, is to let people buy their way in? All this proves is that AAdvantage is not a loyalty program, it’s a spend program.
Though, I will say this, at least AA is being honest about it. UA and, in particular DL, try to convince you it’s a loyalty program.
Well, there are those rare moments in life where chaos produces something positive. I was offered the buy up in early 2021 and with all the covid hysteria, the offer was incredibly reasonable so I took it. Since then, I agree that it's to be avoided. Just pay for the cash upgrade offers.
Mine is $775 or 77.5K miles to get to executive Platinum, yet I am only 2,900 points away from executive platinum. That's literally one night's stay at $150 hotel from the AA Hotel portal. And you get to enjoy the nice hotel for the night. So funny.
I think that's because you have to go to the website directly. I didn't get an offer until I went to the actual website. I don't think they should do the buyout because they can just go to a hotel around the corner for the night for less than $200 to get those miles. And enjoy it.
whatever became of those leaked "changes" a couple weeks ago when they announced no more miles or LPs on basic economy ? (the 20%/30% bonus LPs for 6 months each becoming ONLY 25% for 6 months total for the elite program)? The current AA pages are still 20% and 30% bonus LP's with certain partners, and if they're now accepting buyups, I can't imagine they'd put in the restrictions after people had bought up.
These offers, which they continue to send out to people 6 months after the qualificatin period ends, are always laughable. At minumum, the "offer" is an amount equivalent to how many dollars short you are from the tier in question. This is just an attempt to snag a few people who are too dumb to realize that 1) they could have just bought a flight, and 2) that the status upgade means almost nothing anymore. You can only dilute the benefits and reaise the price so much before the whole thing becomes a joke.
Apparently I got the world's best offer -- I'm at 130k lp and was offered $2295 to get to EXP. Unbelievable that I had far fewer LP that @lucky and a much better offer. Of course in 2024 I had about 600K LP so maybe they think I'm worth keeping? Not really... I don't have the job that makes me fly AA anymore...