It’s normal for airlines to make minor tweaks to their loyalty programs every year. American Airlines has just announced some updates to the AAdvantage program for 2025. I’d say the changes are minor but positive. This is a case where a lack of news is good news.
In this post:
AAdvantage elite tiers will remain the same in 2025
American AAdvantage won’t be changing its status thresholds for the 2025 program year, which can be unlocked via Loyalty Points:
- AAdvantage Gold status will continue to require 40,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum status will continue to require 75,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro status will continue to require 125,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum status will continue to require 200,000 Loyalty Points
On top of that, the thresholds for Loyalty Point Rewards won’t be changing, so you’ll continue to be rewarded anywhere from 15,000 Loyalty Points to 5,000,000 Loyalty Points.
As a reminder, American’s elite status year doesn’t follow the traditional calendar year. You can earn elite status between March 1 and February 28 of the following year, and then status is valid through March 31 of the year after that.
I’d consider the lack of change here to be good news, given that United MileagePlus is increasing elite requirements in 2025. Then again, United is also doing a bit better than American financially.
American will let members redeem miles for food & drinks
Starting in 2025, American will allow AAdvantage members to redeem miles for food and beverage purchases on eligible flights. This is unlikely to be represent a good value for American loyalists, though for someone who only flies American occasionally, it’s a reward that will be attainable, and I’m sure it will be popular. Hopefully American also finally improves its selection of buy on board options, as that’s long overdue.
Over the last several months, American has rolled out several more ways to redeem AAdvantage miles, ranging from redeeming for inflight Wi-Fi sessions, to redeeming for Flagship First Dining, Flagship Lounge, and Admirals Club passes.
American will offer more time to use systemwide upgrades
AAdvantage members can select systemwide upgrades as part of the Loyalty Point Rewards program. Currently the upgrades are valid for one year from the date of issue. As of March 1, 2025, members will have more time to use systemwide upgrades, as they’ll be valid through the end of the status membership year. So if you earn status in 2025, your systemwide upgrades would be valid through March 31, 2027.
That’s a huge improvement, and it means that some members will have well over a year to redeem these. That’s valuable, since it eliminates the incentive to wait with choosing your Loyalty Point Rewards.
American will add new lifetime elite status thresholds
I covered the details in a separate post, but the AAdvantage lifetime elite status program is improving in 2025. Currently you can earn lifetime AAdvantage Gold status when passing one million miles, and lifetime AAdvantage Platinum status when passing two million miles.
As of March 1, 2025, there will be new lifetime status thresholds. Specifically, American will offer lifetime AAdvantage Platinum Pro status when passing four million miles, and lifetime AAdvantage Executive Platinum status when passing five million miles.
Bottom line
American AAdvantage has announced its 2025 program changes. The best news is that there are no negative changes, and that elite thresholds are remaining the same. All the updates are positive, from systemwide upgrades having longer validity, to being able to redeem AAdvantage miles for inflight food and drinks purchases, to improvements to the million miler program. Well done, American!
What do you make of American AAdvantage’s 2025 updates?
Time to move on, Oct 2024 rt ticket from Philly to Naples It was 150k mile for Business. Now it’s 690k. DL is still 93.5k rt Dulles to London. As I said, time to return to Delta!
WOW...JUST WOW...Fly 5-Million Miles and we'll "give you EP..." WTH?!?! Sure I want to compete for upgrades with a bunch of credit card spenders who fly fly less than half of what an ACTUAL EP flies clogging up the upgrade list or when they have enough miles to travel to Hawaii or Europe.
That is why I said "Buh-Bye" after receiving AA's CK. I'll work on my 4 Million miles to attain GS with UA. Way to go AA in pi$$ing off actual fliers.
Lifetime platinum pro should be at 3 M, and EP at 4 M miles.
AA EP has become virtually worthless to us. We are 48hrs out from our next flight with F6 and no sign of clearing the upg but they still are selling it for $73 in the app. Those days are gone. We burned 2 EVIPs (we have no other use for them) on $149 tickets ORD CLT MIA (nonstop not available but at least CLT MIA is a 777]. No meal on either flight which is...
AA EP has become virtually worthless to us. We are 48hrs out from our next flight with F6 and no sign of clearing the upg but they still are selling it for $73 in the app. Those days are gone. We burned 2 EVIPs (we have no other use for them) on $149 tickets ORD CLT MIA (nonstop not available but at least CLT MIA is a 777]. No meal on either flight which is fine as dinner in CLT CL will be much better. Flying BA F MIA LHR DUS and then will be GGL on BA. For our travel patterns, this will be a much more beneficial status. Looking forward to exploring all the “new” perks of a different loyalty program, especially the Concorde Room! Bring on the haters but it’s still WAY nicer than Galleries First. Cheers!
AA is going to start bringing in actual food for the flight? My dog wouldn't eat the box "food" in first class.
Thank you AA for allowing me to shop my travel now with the LT EXP. What BS that that requires 5M, but thankfully I am closer to 6M so it doesn't matter. Too Bad they don't offer a LT CK option like United does with GS (at 4M).
I bet we see another "devaluation" in LPs/miles earned for partners like AAdvantage Hotels, the shopping portal, SimplyMiles, etc. These were insanely lucrative the first year, less so this year, and I bet the trend continues downwards. No point to award so many miles/LPs when you already have people "hooked" on the gamified way of it all.
A related observation: AA Shopping had MUCH weaker offers than Rakuten around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. In the...
I bet we see another "devaluation" in LPs/miles earned for partners like AAdvantage Hotels, the shopping portal, SimplyMiles, etc. These were insanely lucrative the first year, less so this year, and I bet the trend continues downwards. No point to award so many miles/LPs when you already have people "hooked" on the gamified way of it all.
A related observation: AA Shopping had MUCH weaker offers than Rakuten around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. In the past, they used to be much more comparable
Indeed. Simply Miles has not had anything worth pursuing in quite some time. I still defer to the AA portal when all else is equal (or close), but the rates are not as good as in 2023. Honestly, Capital One Offers and Capital One Shopping have gotten more of my tracking clicks because the rates and targeted offers are so good. And AA hotels has a hard time competing with the AS rates on Rocketmiles,...
Indeed. Simply Miles has not had anything worth pursuing in quite some time. I still defer to the AA portal when all else is equal (or close), but the rates are not as good as in 2023. Honestly, Capital One Offers and Capital One Shopping have gotten more of my tracking clicks because the rates and targeted offers are so good. And AA hotels has a hard time competing with the AS rates on Rocketmiles, which are quite good right now. In 2025, the ability to earn AS status in a similar way through spending might cause AA to up their game. Competition helps us all.
No mention here that there will be new LP Rewards - like Hyatt match.
Did AA restart the BoB food? Only item they have now is the cheese and grapes on flights greater than 1400 miles. No food like they had before. Maybe they will restart salads and sandwiches.
Other than changes to LT miles these are minimal changes. I agree AA needs to step up it's BOB but I wouldn't hold my breath.
This is great. SWUs remain worthless for longer.
Sad to see that 1mm is lifetime gold vs the tiers you get with Delta and United. It's a huge disincentive to me from a long term perspective.
The fact is that there's an opportunity cost to using AA credit cards, the AA shopping portal, and the AA hotel portal relative to competitors. AA only crediting in-the-air miles towards lifetime tier status pushes my spending away from AA revenue channels. AA has made a choice and I have made a choice. It's that simple.
I'm in a similar boat - given the choice between chasing LT status with AA or BA, the latter makes far more sense than the former since I tend to pay up front for premium cabin space.
To be fair, neither DL nor UA currently gives lifetime credit for anything but in-the-air miles (though DL at least has a fairly lossy channel for turning credit card spend into in-the-air miles, as they give MM credit for award flights).