New American AAdvantage Program Details

Thanks, Lucky! Stay tuned to your following in-depth analyses.

I recently got executive platinum through getting 100 segments on American. Now the requirement is 120 segments for it, if I already got the required amount of segments will I have to get 120 segments now or will that be the case next year?
Thanks

@ Patrick -- This only applies for status next year.

This is good news. I had expected a 4th tier with 125k points and that is typically a stretch for me. Let's see what 2016 holds...

Was there any talk about million milers?

Fantastic to hear, makes it easier to switch all my business travel next year from United to American. Time to start getting as many American CC bonuses as possible and build a base!

Do you have any idea if AA will keep partners like Air Tahiti Nui? Thanks

@ David -- Yep, American's current million miler program will stick around, so US Airways elites will be granted lifetime status based on that. Existing million miler balances will be combined.

@ Maury -- There are no plans to switch AAdvantage partners. Think of the AAdvantage program as more or less staying the same.

yay! Good for AA flyers.
I expect though that they just want don't want people to be upset before the merger even starts (with the inevitable system issues and computer malfunctions). once the merger is farther along they might gut their program.

Mornin' Lucky

Great news indeed.

One question - I'm flying a split ITIN next week (AA, US, AA.) Naturally that middle segment on US is the longest - PHX - CLT. I am an AA PLT.

What can I do to get an upgrade on that flight? Is the "3 day policy" stated above in place yet or is that not until 2015?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

(only 30K miles until Lifetime PLT! )

Hi, Lucky. I take it I should book my 30k US Airways r/t to Paris tickets before the combination?

@ Dan -- That policy only applies in the second quarter of 2015 when the programs integrate. For now you'll still only be able to get upgrades on the other carrier day of, as explained here:
https://onemileatatime.com/reward-programs/airline-rewards/aadvantage/

Let me know if you have any other questions!

so we can still fly Etihad from NRT to Maldives for 45k in F, yes?

@ Owen -- American has off peak awards as well, though yes, I'd expect the exact ones US Airways offers to disappear when the program does.

@ Lantean -- Yep!

I have a question for you -- how does it work for the AAdvantage miles we have in our account already? I've accrued 70K miles in the last 6 years, but haven't been awarded status yet...to my knowledge.

@ KLV -- There's a difference between redeemable miles and elite qualifying miles. Redeemable miles don't count towards status, so you'll want to look at your elite qualifying miles total (that amount is reset every year).

A question about eqm's from credit cards. I am currently AA EXP.

So far in 2014, I have earned 10,000 EQM'S from the Citi exec card for spending $40,000. These miles have already posted to my Aadvantage account.

I have been crediting all of my US flights to AA and I have not earned any Dividend miles this year (or ever for that matter) through flying.

I have also earned 10,000 EQM's on US this year through the US Airways Card from Barclays for meeting their spending threshold.

My question is, can I assume that I have a total of 20,000 EQM'S towards my 2015 status?

Ah, interesting. Thanks for the quick reply!

@ Lovenola -- Correct, that's for your 2014 status which counts towards your status in the 2015 program year. So if you get another 5,000 EQMs between the two airlines you'd have Silver status in the second quarter of next year.

Good for AA --

Hopefully they gather more loyal AA elites this way.... and when the economy goes down hill, hopefully AA elites will sustain AA through the bad times.

I feel like AA Golds are hurt the most. Without the option to buy upgrades for the sub-500 mile flights, I don't see them clearing often. I always thought this was one of the best uses because a ~180 BOS-NYC flight can easily result in 2 hours on the plane.

If you don't think a devaluation is coming, you're just seeing what you want to see. It's good news, sure, that it's not happening as of the program combination. But AA charges *significantly* fewer miles than Delta and United in just about every market. That type of imbalance can't hold.

@ Justin -- Right, as I said in the post I'm sure we'll see more changes eventually, but not in the immediate future (I'd say in the next year or so).

@ Jon -- Well they certainly can't win with everyone when it comes to the domestic upgrade system. Some swear by sticker upgrades, others swear by complimentary upgrades. And there are people strongly opposed on both sides. So I think they took about as good of a "hybrid" model between the two as they could have.

I wonder if US Airways will stop charging their elites for "preferred" seats?

@ Brian -- Heh, short time I don't think there are any changes when it comes to that.

Hi Lucky-- I am looking to plan an award in F for next year (via Cathay Pacific) JFK-HKG-DPS with DM where I would get a stopover in HKG. That would cost me 160K DM whereas if I wait to post merger it would be 135K AA assuming no devaluations. Since it DM will become AA... I assume they will no longer do stopovers that USAirways currently allows (stopover in carrier hub city)?

@ Ray -- Correct, my expectation would be that AAdvantage award rules continue to be in place with the new program. Keep in mind however that American charges 22,500 miles for a one-way business class ticket within Asia, so you'd only pay 157,500 American miles for the same award, with the stopover in Hong Kong (it would basically be three one way awards).

Hi Lucky!

Rohan from Upgrd.com here, I've been following your blog recently and now I'm going to be more diligent about commenting, but great post! I did a status match from UA Gold to AA platinum this year, and I read the changes this morning and was thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive news. Although they won't impact me too much as someone who likely will only attain Gold with AA this year, it is still nice to know that the rules will be pretty friendly for 2015.

Happy to hear you feel the same way!

I believe that all requirements for EP should go up. Segments, miles and points.

I guess there is very little incentive to re-qualify for US Platinum this year if I will get grouped back with Gold (AA Platinum) next year.

I qualify on segments and could have hit the old 100 segment mark for AA EP this year but US requires 120 segments since I credit to them.

Is it possible to earn status via credit card spend solely?

Nice. As an EXP, I will be matching to United and shifting my $70k a year transpac business next year to earn 11x rather than the paltry 2.25x I currently get.

@ GetToThePoints -- Nope, you can earn at most 10K EQMs per card.

But you should be able to earn
Gold after earning 5k EQMs from flying and spending $40k on the AA Exec and $25k on the DM MC, correct?

@ ncSam -- That's correct.

Ben -

Thanks for your post on this subject - know it was long-awaited and anticipated.

So if I'm under standing AA and you correctly, if I currently have 90k EQM's with US and 10k EQM's with AA to date, I'll be Exec Plat on AA once the programs combine second quarter (some time after 4/15), correct? If that's the case, would it be fair to assume that the EP status would good thru the balance of 2015? Trying to decide if it's worth doing a mileage run on US to CP requalify for all of 2015 or skip that be happy with EP status after the programs combine.

@ Rob -- That's correct, and status would be valid through February 2016.

Lucky: In the past I flew a lot with USAir and its predecessors and accrued a lot of mileage. What I can't seem to find on my Dividend Miles statement is any indication of accrued mileage for "million miler" status. Do you know how we can find that info? I am hpeful that that old mileage will get transferred to my "million miler" account with American. Thanks.

@ Brian -- Your existing million miler balance will be transferred over. They won't retroactively apply all miles earned towards million miler status (in other words, purchased US Airways miles wouldn't count, or else everyone would be a million miler), but they'd instead use their old metric of only flown miles counting towards million miler.

@Lucky OMG THANK YOU! I forget that AA can be booked 1-way! Thus, waiting till post-merger I would actually save 2,500 Miles! Using 157.5K AA rather than 160k DM! But I would now probably try to book the HKG-DPS segment with avios (25K one-way for business). Thanks again for your insight! Much appreciated!

I will be BOTH AA ExecutivePlatinum and US Chairman’s at year end. As soon as I get Chairman’s, they will give me 2 Chairman’s upgrade certificates. Then in February I will get 2 more as Chairman’s usually do.

Now, you say,

“That means if you’ve already requalified for Chairman’s Preferred this year and have your two systemwide upgrades you can redeem those, and in addition to them will receive the eight system upgrades in the second quarter.”

So the million dollar question for me is: since I am both, will I get 8, or will I get 16 (basically 8 from US Airways Chairman’s plus 8 from AA ExecPlat)?

I would think that for someone who will effectively have over 225,000 EQM combined they would give more than 8…

If 16, this would mean next year I have *30* international business class upgrade seats to snag (6 GPUs, 2+2 Chairman’s, 2+2 Chairman’s, 8 SWUs, 8 SWUs). My friends may never sit in economy.

This is interesting as someone who has been considering switching loyalty to AA for a while now, but had been holding off for fear that AAdvantage was going to be trashed in the merger, making a switch pointless. And now...it sounds like the message is "we were too busy with other stuff to contemplate big changes, so we pushed that all down the road another year or two." So I still don't feel particularly comfortable switching, since by the time I build up enough AA miles for a big international trip they'll probably be just about ready to do that trashing of the program they're not yet ready to do.

@ Ben Hughes -- Hah. My guess is that if you merge your Dividend Miles account into your AAdvantage account you won't get an additional two SWUs, since your account won't technically be "upgraded" to Executive Platinum. Still a lot of upgrades!

@ Brian -- I believe you have to call US Airways to determine your million miler balance.

@ Bgriff -- At the end of the day I at least feel confident that AAdvantage will make "smart" decisions going forward. Of course long term the smart decision *may* be to have a revenue based program. Only time will tell. But at the end of the day I wouldn't expect any program to stay the same forever, especially in this environment. Long term loyalty is definitely less of a thing than before.

It's like the Seinfeld when George Costanza does the opposite. If Doug Parker wants to build a great (and profitable) airline, just do the opposite of what SMI, J. does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUvKE3bQlY

Lucky - I don't have status in any airline, but I was thinking of doing some mileage runs to try to fly 30,000 miles and get US Airways Chairman's via their trial program. If I receive Chairman's Preferred after the trial, do you know how long my EXP membership will be valid for? According to US Airways it would be good through February 29, 2016 so I'm not sure if this will change once the merge occurs.

Ben - thoughts on what will happen to US Platinums that have 100-119 segments in 2014? Not even for Chairman but over the 100 segment limit that AA requires in 2014 to get EP.

Hi Lucky -- I'm sitting at about 65k EQM in US and 10k in AA. So, it sounds to me that I'll be upped to Ex Plat next year if I can accumulate another 25k in either or both programs. But how will this work? If I get 25k more in US, I'll start next year as a plat, and then at some point I'll just become Ex Plat?

@ Larry -- That's exactly correct. At some point in the second quarter you can link accounts and will then become Exec Plat.

Good for mileage earning for those buying less expensive fares versus Delta and United, but revenue-based earning now gives a heavy incentive for those buying the $6K+ business class ticket from JFK-LHR to fly Delta/United instead, for example... I'm not seeing how this is good for high-dollar value customers...

So once the program merged, all award booking will be AAdvantage rules?

No more US-Asia via Europe :-S

With complimentary upgrades for all elites on flights under 500 miles, would that be on award tickets as well? Or only revenue tickets?

Hi Lucky,

Is there any major differences between redeeming oneworld award with US/AA? Like fees charged, service line quality, etc.

And it seems on a one-to-one ratio, it would require slightly less miles to redeem for travel between the US and Asia, so in a way there's even an increased value, though I'd really miss the 100k RT Asia-Europe First Class.

Hi Lucky,

I am trying to book a round trip in first class PEK-ORD on US airways. However, no availability showing on US airways website after Apr2015. Is that because of the merger? How should I do?

Any detail on how stickers will be awarded to DM elites based on 2014 mileage? For example will Chairmen earn stickers? (Guessing not since EP do not). What if you earn CP for the first time during 2014? I will earn it in December and would hope my January to Nivember flights accumulate stickers from the transition as they would have under AA program.

@ Raymond -- Yep, correct.

@ David -- Only revenue tickets.

@ Norman -- Yes, lots of differences. See here:
https://onemileatatime.com/great-deals/award-sweet-spots/

@ Snaills -- Use the BA website to search award availability on their other partners, like JAL and Cathay Pacific:
https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-search-tool/

Then you'll have to call US Airways to book. US Airways' website will only show award space on American or US Airways metal, so other partners won't show there.

@ Lucky - in theory, I don't think they announced that award chart will NOT change so that still may be possible, right?

Either way, I do have to give AA/US credit for sending out emails about this promptly and having a very informative site about the transition.

@ Ivan Y -- Suzanne mentioned there were no immediate plans to change the award chart.

@ Segments -- Chairman's Preferred definitely don't earn stickers, just as Executive Platinum members don't. So if you enter the program as Executive Platinum I doubt you'd earn any. They're still trying to figure out how many stickers to give other members.

That will suck if newly minted Chairmen don't receive stickers for the time in 2014 that they weren't CP. It is salt in the wound as AA elites get free upgrades on US metal while still earning stickers for that same flight.

I agree with Jon that AA Golds are hurt the most on this. The only reason my upgrades would clear on many flights as a Gold is from the fact that Plats wouldn't bother requesting upgrades on shorter flights. Now that Plats are automatically upgraded without even requesting it, my success rate in getting upgraded will go from ~85% to 0% awefully quick.

Ugh.

@ Segments -- Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Chairman's Preferred/Executive Platinum members get complimentary upgrades, so I'm not sure I follow the "salt in the wound" argument?

I don't typically fly enough to earn CP status. This year is an anomaly. So while I would have free upgrades in 2015, I have no stickers to use for my companion nor for 2016 if/when I do not requalify. So I earn nothing on the way up and start at zero when I drop.

Meanwhile AA elites are double dipping. An AA Gold/Plt use no stickers to upgrade on US metal in 2014 yet those flights count towards their earn of new stickers. While I am required to buy stickers in 2014 to use on AA since I won't earn CP status until December 2014

[…] meanwhile, announced that there will be minimal changes to their awards program in 2015. This is great news, especially in light of all of the cuts that Delta and United have been making […]

I made million mile status two years ago (right before they changed the program), and I have lifetime gold status. Will that change with the new program?

@ Julia Hamway -- Nope, that should stay the same.

It's good that they are merging lifetime miles towards million miler status. It's not nice that US Airways lifetime miles go away if you're account is inactive for three years.

I was mid-tier elite on US Airways in the late 90s for several years. Adding those miles would get me over an AA million mile threshold. But when I tried to make sure my details were up to date, I found out that my US Airways account has been deleted. So it's more like 'lifetime and maintained miles'.

No award chart devaluation

The Award devaluation at AA has already taken place - in a big way. There are now 2
anytime award levels on many routes, based on destination and demand. This is new. In addition AA has taken away mile saver awards on many routes for J and F even when no seats have been sold. What is true - is newer members to award redemption - don't see or feel the pain. Those of us who have used miles over the years (I've cashed in over 13 million miles with several airlines - both domestic and international ) have seen major devaluation. AA did not have to announce devaluation - it's already happened.

Have you ever had or heard of success in applying swu's to aa metal flights but booked on us codeshare?