American Airlines is rolling out a new program called “Enhance With Miles,” which gives elite members the opportunity to gift elite status for a day… at a cost, and with quite a few catches.
In this post:
Basics of American’s “Enhance with Miles” concept
Nowadays American AAdvantage elite status is earned based on how many Loyalty Points you accrue during a program year (the year goes from the beginning of March until the end of February of the following year). As a reminder, here are the current elite requirements:
- AAdvantage Gold status requires 40,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum status requires 75,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro status requires 125,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum status requires 200,000 Loyalty Points
American Airlines is rolling out a new program named “Enhance with Miles,” whereby you can redeem miles for special status perks as you pass the above Loyalty Points thresholds. Note that this is totally separate from the Loyalty Point Rewards program, whereby you can select perks at no additional cost when passing various Loyalty Points thresholds (ranging from 15,000 Loyalty Points to 5,000,000 Loyalty Points).
So, how does the Enhance with Miles concept work?
- When you pass 40,000 Loyalty Points, you can redeem AAdvantage miles to gift someone else AAdvantage Gold status for a day, or you can redeem AAdvantage miles to give yourself AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for a day
- When you pass 75,000 Loyalty Points, you can redeem AAdvantage miles to gift someone else AAdvantage Platinum status for a day, or you can redeem AAdvantage miles to give yourself AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for a day
- When you pass 125,000 Loyalty Points, you can redeem AAdvantage miles to gift someone else AAdvantage Platinum Pro status for a day, or you can redeem AAdvantage miles to give yourself AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for a day
- When you pass 200,000 Loyalty Points, you can redeem AAdvantage miles to gift someone else AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for a day
American isn’t sharing how many miles are required to redeem for these rewards, but rather you’ll see these options in your account as you pass the thresholds. Presumably it requires more miles for an AAdvantage Gold member to gift themselves Executive Platinum status for a day, than what’s required to gift someone else AAdvantage Gold status for a day.
As you’d expect, there are some terms associated with this:
- You can take advantage of this up to two times at each threshold
- The status for a day perk must be purchased at least seven days before travel
- Those who don’t have access to Main Cabin Extra seats will receive four Main Cabin Extra seat coupons, which expire two days after the selected date, and must be applied to future travel before then
- Members who receive status for a day can’t purchase a discounted Admirals Club membership based on the higher elite tier
- The status for a day perks are only valid for flights operated by American, and not for travel on partner airlines
- If you pre-paid for any preferred seating or similar perks, you can’t get a refund for those
- Any complimentary elite upgrades will only clear based on the higher elite tier on the day of travel, and not based on the typical elite window
- Status for a day perks can be applied to all tickets, including tickets purchased with cash or miles, or even employee travel
My take on American’s elite status for a day concept
As I’ve often said in the past, I think the ability to share elite status perks with friends and family is such an underrated benefit. For example, World of Hyatt’s Guest of Honor benefit allows Globalist members to gift their status perks to others when redeeming points. On the airline front, Air Canada Aeroplan offers Status Pass, whereby you can select the ability to gift elite perks as part of your suite of elite benefits.
American AAdvantage is the first US airline to introduce something like this. While I’m happy to see a perk like this introduced, the reality is that you do have to redeem miles, so this isn’t something offered on a complimentary basis as part of elite benefits.
Am I the only one who finds the execution of all of this to be a little complicated, and almost set people up for disappointment? For one, it’s kind of confusing to figure out how and when the perks apply through this.
Furthermore, if someone redeems miles for elite status for the day, are they potentially setting themselves up for disappointment? For example, say a Platinum Pro member redeems miles to get Executive Platinum status for a day.
What are they really getting? Incrementally higher upgrade priority for a day, but only on the day of travel? Wouldn’t they be better off redeeming those miles to try to score a confirmed upgrade?
I guess I just see the value here as being rather niche. So many people struggle to even understand the Loyalty Points system, and this is even more complicated. It probably sounds great to be Executive Platinum for a day, but due to how this is executed, you’re not really reaping all the rewards.
Bottom line
American AAdvantage has introduced the Enhance with Miles concept, whereby you can redeem miles for select experiences when passing certain Loyalty Points threshold. The way this works, you can either redeem miles to gift someone else your elite status for a day, or you can redeem miles to elevate your status to Executive Platinum for a day.
Of course the big question is how many miles are required for this, since that will determine the value. I’m curious how many people take advantage of this, and if they end up being pleased with their purchase.
What do you make of American’s new elite status for a day concept?
I'm an EXP and playing by the rules with American's new "loyalty" program. I booked an overpriced hotel through the AAHotels site, with a check out date of 3/2/23 so that the Loyalty points would be credited to THIS year's account. Instead they credited them to LAST year, which I did not need, and here's the kicker. They refuse to correct their own system error! For someone that's been EXP for over 10 years. I'm...
I'm an EXP and playing by the rules with American's new "loyalty" program. I booked an overpriced hotel through the AAHotels site, with a check out date of 3/2/23 so that the Loyalty points would be credited to THIS year's account. Instead they credited them to LAST year, which I did not need, and here's the kicker. They refuse to correct their own system error! For someone that's been EXP for over 10 years. I'm not asking for money, just for them to put the 29K LP into the correct year. No skin off anyone's back, but they refuse to do it. I have all my documentation to show the check out in this status year, but now they won't even respond back to me when I tell them it is still incorrect. So much for loyalty!!
Shame them on twitter to get a response.
another ridiculous thing done by AA, worthless and very complicated ! at the end you get nothing valuable since it will not be available !
Based on my experience with airline IT generally, I would not trust that the status for a day will operate as promised. There will be no recourse if it doesn't, and likely the data will remain opaque.
But it may be great for AA if they can liquidate miles at zero cost to them.
Bingo! That's what it's all about. Every mile they can liquidate using online shopping, status for a day, etc, is one less mile on the debit ledger, and one less mile available to purchase award seats that could be sold for cash, last minute, at full fare.
They're in business to make cash money. That's the point of being in business.
I can't wait to spend miles to make myself Elite for the day and STILL not get an upgrade!
Shame on AA greed. You work so hard all year to obtain Executive Platinum and someone else who doses not have status but uses m miles for Executive Platinum gets the same perks. Not fair!
Complicated and not very valuable. I’m still angry that they stole our complimentary upgrades last year and turned them into useless points not miles in a year when no-one travelled. Also they downgraded platinum for life members by adding another tier!
Boring AA. Get real!
Who tf wants a PhD in AAdvantage promotion rules?
Hard pass.
AA REALLY needs to purge the ranks, and soon. On a flight last month from Tucson to DFW there were THIRTEEN Concierge Key members. Group 1 often has 3-4 DOZEN people who all think they are more special than the other Group 1 boarder. The gate agents NEVER give enough time to even get in line, much less board, between groups. It's not special if everyone is "special".
Flying commercial, particularly short-haul or domestic, is very ordinary. Business makes it almost bearable, first comes even closer, but it's still not great on the ground.
How very exciting to not clear an upgrade list from higher up that before! All while pissing off Platinum Plus people who weren’t going to clear anyway.
maybe "status for a trip" would make more sense? person would be considered whatever elite for a particular trip.
This would bring more meaningful advance upgrade options and also cover trips going overnight (most international do)
The terms and conditions for Squid Game were more lenient than this program.
This is really dumb. Agree with your take- what are they getting? Far better off using miles to try and secure an upgrade. This is about as dumb as group 4 boarding for one flight.
I'm hoping it's a percentage of the difference in Loyalty Points from where the recipient is to the level they're being bumped up to. Giving someone else with no status Gold being a percentage of 40k, for example. Or if you have Gold bumping yourself to Exec Plat is a percentage of 160k. 10% of the difference is the maximum I'd consider; around 5% would be better...it's just one day.
Whether it'll be worth it...
I'm hoping it's a percentage of the difference in Loyalty Points from where the recipient is to the level they're being bumped up to. Giving someone else with no status Gold being a percentage of 40k, for example. Or if you have Gold bumping yourself to Exec Plat is a percentage of 160k. 10% of the difference is the maximum I'd consider; around 5% would be better...it's just one day.
Whether it'll be worth it would be situational, both actual travel needs and actual airfare cost. I can see this being of use reasonably often for domestic transcons. Transoceanic, not so much...unless you buy the lowest price ticket, maybe.
People deep into points & miles would be able to game it. Others will use it as a fun perk. "Hey, Sibling, I arranged better seats and early boarding for your trip to the reunion!"
Seems excessively complicated.
Totally worthless. Upgrades are non-existent. Just buy a MCE seat and be done with it. The status game is way overrated.
What really needs to end is companion upgrades. They are discriminatory. If you get the upgrade and want to switch seats with your companion then that is up to you.
My first thought here was using it to get my partner status if she's traveling with our kids without me (this is infrequent but happens once a year). Getting the earlier boarding and the main cabin extra seats would be worth it. However, the execution and timing matters... if I gift her status on the day of travel does she get the MCE coupons before then so she can reserve those seats? Otherwise it's kind of a crap shoot if they are available?
Its lousy by design. You get 4 MCE seat coupons, but they are only good for the day of your status, plus two more days. You cannot select seats before that date comes, and you cannot use the coupons for any flight after the 2 days expire. So it's not even good for most round trip flights. And yes, on the day of travel, those MCE seats will be long gone for anyone gold or higher, or non-status members on full flights.
Would this not be a way of providing Flagship lounge access on qualifying Y class international itineraries?
Eh no. I almost had a headache reading the terms and conditions. Also, AA needs to stop devaluing the Executive Platinum status, nowadays anyone can be an Executive Platinum for the day... so if there are seats available for upgrade, a Gold with Executive Platinum for the day will have higher upgrade priority than a Platinum Pro? Thats ridiculous.
Do you know if the ticket would earn miles and loyalty points according to the status level for a day or the traveler's original status level?
The prices better be extremely low. If they are, I could see myself possibly using this to get a family member a checked bag, preferred seating, and priority boarding without having to pay for them separately.