American Airlines has just announced a variety of changes to its AAdvantage program for 2024, and they’re… mostly positive?! These changes deliver value to all levels of AAdvantage members, and there’s nothing substantive here that’s negative, as I see it. This sure is a pleasant surprise…
Let’s go over the details, in no particular order, and I’ll share my take on the changes in each section.
I apologize for getting to this a bit late. American seems to no longer be proactively sharing details of any changes with me (that’s of course the carrier’s prerogative, I’m just not exactly sure who I pissed off, especially given the people the airline is choosing to share information with…).
American makes awesome upgrade benefit changes
In the near future, American is rolling out three new features for upgrades, which I’m sure members will appreciate:
- When you pay cash for an upgrade, you’ll be able to earn miles and Loyalty Points for those purchases, which isn’t currently possible
- It will be possible to request systemwide upgrades online, rather than having to call AAdvantage to request that
- American will allow AAdvantage members to redeem miles for upgrades on more partner airlines
All three of those changes are awesome. With American so aggressively selling upgrades (including to elite members on the upgrade list), many of us have been hoping American would finally award miles for those purchases. It’s my understanding that this has been a technology limitation up until now.
Furthermore, the ability to request systemwide upgrades online is long overdue, so I’m sure many AAdvantage members will appreciate that change.
While it’s always nice to have flexibility to upgrade on more airlines, I’d recommend managing your expectations when it comes to the value of that. It will likely require a very high minimum booking class, and/or a lot of miles.
American limits certain features to AAdvantage members
American is clearly trying to get more people to sign-up for the AAdvantage program, so the airline is making certain perks available exclusively to AAdvantage members. Specifically, the airline will be restricting the following perks to AAdvantage members (while they’re currently available to everyone):
- Same-day standby
- Complimentary 24-hour ticket holds
- The ability to purchase passes to the Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge
This shouldn’t be a big deal at all, given that signing up for AAdvantage is free and easy. But it’s a smart change on American’s part, since this will definitely cause more people to register for the program. It’s similar to American’s initiative of offering Group 6 boarding to all AAdvantage members.
American adjusts Trip Credit expiry
Nowadays most American fares come with quite a bit of flexibility, as you can cancel most fare types and receive a Trip Credit, which you can use toward a future ticket on American within 12 months of the original date of issue.
With an upcoming change, Trip Credits will only be valid for AAdvantage members for 12 months, while non-AAdvantage members will only get six months of validity for Trip Credits. Obviously this creates a huge incentive to join AAdvantage, since you’ll have more flexibility with the credits that you earn. I don’t mind this change, since there’s not a big barrier to joining the AAdvantage program.
American adds flexibility to basic economy tickets
Starting later in January 2024, you’ll be able to cancel non-refundable basic economy tickets on aa.com and receive a partial Trip Credit in exchange for a $99 fee. This will be possible only for domestic trips, if your travel hasn’t yet started, and if you booked directly through American (third party bookings won’t qualify).
This is an awesome change, and is clearly intended to incentivize people to book direct. While the fee is significant, that’s better than the previous policy of basic economy tickets not having any residual value.
American adds new Loyalty Point Rewards
American’s Loyalty Point Rewards program lets you select perks for passing a variety of thresholds. Starting with the new qualification year (as of March 1, 2024), you’ll be able to choose Loyalty Points toward AAdvantage status as a rewards choice. Specifically, you’ll be able to select Loyalty Point Rewards at the following levels:
- At 15,000 Loyalty Points, you’ll be able to select 1,000 Loyalty Points as a reward
- At 175,000 Loyalty Points, you’ll be able to select 5,000 Loyalty Points as a reward
- At 250,000 Loyalty Points, you’ll be able to select 15,000 Loyalty Points as a reward (and you can do this up to twice, since you can make two selections at that level)
More choices are always a good thing, and given the limited value many members currently receive at the 15,000-point threshold, I think many people will select 1,000 bonus Loyalty Points there.
American adds Flagship First Dining option
American offers Flagship First Dining, which are special facilities located inside Flagship Lounges with a restaurant style dining experience (at DFW and MIA). In the near future, it’ll be possible for AAdvantage Platinum Pro members and above to redeem AAdvantage miles for this experience.
American hasn’t yet announced how many AAdvantage miles this will cost, and I wouldn’t expect it to be a great deal. However, it’s not surprising to see American trying to find new ways to use these facilities, given the carrier’s plan to eliminate international first class as of this year.
Bottom line
American is making several changes to the AAdvantage program as of 2024. The only slightly negative change is that you’ll have to sign-up for AAdvantage to use certain perks. Everything else is good news, from being able to redeem systemwide upgrades online, to earning miles on paid upgrades.
While Delta has made very negative changes to its SkyMiles program as of 2024, it’s interesting to see other airlines largely making neutral or positive changes. I think it reflects that airlines aren’t in quite the position they were in 12-18 months ago.
What do you make of these AAdvantage changes for 2024?
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