While the “big three” US airlines have revenue based frequent flyer programs nowadays, that typically applies primarily when traveling with that airline, and not when traveling with partner airlines. For travel on partner airlines, mileage earning is still largely awarded based on a percentage of distance flown. Well, that will be changing shortly for American AAdvantage.
In this post:
American’s revenue based earning on British Airways & Iberia
As of October 18, 2023, American AAdvantage will start awarding redeemable miles and Loyalty Points differently when traveling on flights marketed by both British Airways and Iberia. Specifically, AAdvantage members will earn 5x miles per dollar spent on British Airways and Iberia flights, plus there are elite bonuses:
- AAdvantage Gold members get a 40% mileage bonus, for a total of 7x miles
- AAdvantage Platinum members get a 60% mileage bonus, for a total of 8x miles
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro members get an 80% mileage bonus, for a total of 9x miles
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum members get a 120% mileage bonus, for a total of 11x miles
Miles will be awarded for ticket price, including base fares and carrier imposed surcharges. Government imposed taxes and fees will be excluded.
As a point of comparison, below is what AAdvantage mileage earning rates are like on British Airways through October 17, 2023.
Note that this move will be reciprocal, and British Airways Executive Club and Iberia Plus will also start awarding Avios for travel on American based on how much you spend, rather than based on how far you fly. However, they still award elite status based on a different metric.
What’s motivating this change to mileage earning now?
The timing of this change is no coincidence. As of October 18, 2023, British Airways Executive Club will begin awarding Avios based on revenue rather than distance flown, and Iberia Plus has already made this change.
American and British Airways have a close partnership, as the airlines have a transatlantic joint venture. Presumably airlines would like to award miles on partners based on revenue rather than distance flown, but this has been a technology issue.
With British Airways and Iberia also both making the change, technology is no longer a limitation, which is why we’re seeing this change now.
For most consumers, this probably won’t be good news. Airlines aren’t switching to revenue based frequent flyer programs because they want to be more generous. For savvy consumers, the opportunity to earn miles based on distance flown has been a great arbitrage opportunity. It has been a way to potentially earn more AAdvantage miles or Loyalty Points than you’d earn if booking the same itinerary with American.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar changes with other AAdvantage airline partners in the future. However, I imagine it could take some time before the technology catches that enables this on a more widespread basis.
Bottom line
As of October 2023, American AAdvantage will start awarding miles and Loyalty Points for travel on British Airways and Iberia differently. Rather than awarding them as a percentage of distance flown, they’ll be awarded based on how much you paid for your ticket, in the same way it currently works when flying with American.
What do you make of these changes to AAdvantage partner mileage earning?
I guess will now be booking using the AY codeshare. No doubt that will change soon given AY is moving to Avios.
Seems like great news. I wish they’d also do the same for Alaska Airlines as well.
I’ve had several $300-$500 tickets this year on BA from LCY-EDI where I only earned like 1200 points based on distance method, whereas I’d earn ~3,300 - 5,500 under the revenue scheme. Same for a few flights I’ve taken on Alaska metal from ANC/FAI to SEA where the distance method has screwed me.
I have a business class ticket in November on BA (phx-lhr-gva and return). It looks like I'm losing nearly 7500 LPs due to the change.
Oh well.
When JetBlue and American were partners, AAdvantage earning on JetBlue flights was revenue based.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/partner-airlines/jetblue.jsp
So if I recall BA announcement it changes to revenue based on tickets purchased after that October deadline.
If one assumes the AA change isn’t coincidental then should one predict the AA change would also occur for tickets purchased after the October deadline?
You are absolutely correct. They are able to get the revenue because of the JV. Other airlines are not allowed to share revenue data and hence it would not be possible to move to a revenue based model across all partner airlines.
Cut the BS. You just want to fly from HNL-LAX-MAD for $472 on February 27th to secure EXP. Your precious mile run days are outnumbered. What value do you create to American Airlines and the shareholders ? You need to spend money on AA metal ; not do acrobatics.
The only reason they can share revenue info is because of the JV. If they did it without the JV they’d be guilty of anti-trust laws and potentially price fixing
If I’m already booked on BA J (AA EXP) for December, will my flight earn on rev or distance? In other words, is this change based on when the flight was booked or is flown? Obviously I prefer the rev based LP
It’s live on AA.com as we speak…
I wonder how bulk fare tickets will be handled then. I have a J ticket on BA end of October without fare data since it’s a bulk ticket. Ugh
AA uses a distance-based method for bulk/opaque fares (including some AAVacations packages).
that will be interesting cause it is against European Privacy laws. why is British Airways allowed to share the value of my ticket with american if I do not allow it? perhaps we should take it to court in Germany. They should not be allowed to share any data.
What's the source of this update? There is just one single tweet?
Would post-Brexit UK be held to EU privacy rules?
IAG is a Spanish company, so absolutely subject to EU law
Any airline involved in a ticket can already see the fare and other details. It's not a secret.
Uhhh. . .
If they don't share any data, how will AA know that you booked and flew on BA and, therefore, know to award you AAdvantage miles?
This is great for EXP or CKs paying for J. I now can buy my J tickets and get better service/food on Japan Airlines and earn the same level of LP and Miles, without having to compromise to fly exclusively on AA metal with inferior products.
Not sure why it's helpful. If those are longhaul flights you're buying, sure you'll get the same miles and LPs as if you were flying AA but fewer of both than you did under the old system which was based on distance and class of service.
JL-coded flights aren't changing (at least not now).
It's great news for EP/CK members buying expensive, short f;ights (e.g., LHR-JFK in full J). It's terrible news for EP/CK members buying cheaper long flights (e.g., discounted J, ATW, etc.)
This is correct, although the Asian carriers are not part of this scheme and so the real long haul flights will still earn based on distance and class of service.
This is especially bad as often a BA business class flight has about half the ticket price in carrier fees. So a BA J ticket might be $1000 plus $900 tax/fees each way to Europe.
Carrier fees (not taxes) are included in the calculation along with the "fare"
Carrier fees/charges (e.g fuel surcharges, 'YQ' etc) count as revenue. It's the govt taxes/fees that don't. This isn't a concern.
"Miles will be awarded for ticket price, including base fares and carrier imposed surcharges. Government imposed taxes and fees will be excluded."
Most of that $900 are carrier fees, not government. AA does the same.
AS, UA, and DL soon to follow... It's always a race to the bottom in the aviation industry, rarely is there ever a change that benefits customers rather than shareholders. I say this as an airline employee... I can only imagine how frustrated and disrespected some frequent flyers rightfully feel. But, this is the United States, so unless you embrace capitalism, and making the rich richer, you'll be shamed because the rest of us don't matter as much, right?
Great news. No more cheaters and scammers.
Explain?
Eyeroll. How in the world were people creditting flights according to the published policies "cheaters and scammers"?
The whole respect our privacy so credit me for 7,000 miles is foolish . I’m not telling you how much I paid.
Everything should be revenue based.
They feel cheated because they think people less well off than them shouldn't have access to the same privileges... It's classism 101.
This is how CKs are treated; spend money on American and fly AA metal. This will negatively affect frequent fliers who spend money across many airlines because they will no longer be getting PP or EXP status with American by flying with OW partners . If you want elite status with American then fly on American. Maybe you’d prefer to enroll in QR or BA ff programs.
I can just get two credit cards, Citi Exec AA and Barclays Silver AA, then spend $90K on the silver card and get Plat Pro status. Never stepping foot in any AA airplane. I don't think they really care about flying their metal at all. So cost of two cards ($794) and MSing $90K ($1,071) = $1,865, I get full Admirals Club membership, 90K RDM worth at least $1,250, and Platinum Pro/Emerald Status. In addition...
I can just get two credit cards, Citi Exec AA and Barclays Silver AA, then spend $90K on the silver card and get Plat Pro status. Never stepping foot in any AA airplane. I don't think they really care about flying their metal at all. So cost of two cards ($794) and MSing $90K ($1,071) = $1,865, I get full Admirals Club membership, 90K RDM worth at least $1,250, and Platinum Pro/Emerald Status. In addition to this I get $120 in Avis credits, $120 dining credits, $50 Inflight Wifi, and $25 per flight day on any inflight purchases from the credit cards.
In light of that, I really don't think AA cares on iota about a person spending one min putting their butt in an AA aircraft seat and getting status.
I think this may not be possible with all tickets, as I believe there may be some antitrust constraints on whether airlines can share all that data with each other? It should be fine with BA and IB since they have a JV, but maybe not with all partners.
Interestingly Delta did something similar for certain KLM tickets for a while (confusingly only for certain tickets that fell within the JV scope) but eventually went to a distance-based system.
Every airline involved in a ticket can see the fare and other details.
This is great news for EXPs who fly on paid J tickets.
It's great news for EP/CK members buying expensive, short f;ights (e.g., LHR-JFK in full J). It's terrible news for EP/CK members buying cheaper long flights (e.g., discounted J, ATW, etc.)
BA Tier Points (for now) are still distance & class based instead of revenue based.
“As of October 18, 2023, British Airways Executive Club will begin awarding Adios based on revenue rather than distance flown…”
He said tier points, not Avios. Those are two different things
But they're not saying "adios" to Tier Points (the elite status metric) so those are not changing, at least, not yet.