I’ve been trying to scrape up enough American AAdvantage miles to take the family to Europe at some point in the next year, so my ears perked up when I heard that American is changing things up with their loyalty program.
However, after glancing through the airline’s explanation of the changes, it seems that this is mostly an overhaul of how people earn and maintain status with American. Since I’m just focused on earning and spending points, I don’t think it will affect me much.
The overhaul introduces something called “Loyalty Points,” which will replace the airlines old complicated system of “Elite Qualifying Miles,” “Elite Qualifying Dollars” and “Elite Qualifying Segments.” Basically, almost every time you earn an AA mile, you also get a Loyalty Point. You’ll even get Loyalty Points for flying Basic Economy, which is good.
The exception is that when you earn a bonus for signing up for a credit card, the miles you get in that one instance don’t come with Loyalty Points. So you can’t get yourself a Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum membership through credit card bonuses alone.
This morning, I quickly logged into my AAdvantage account and my husband’s and saw that everything looks normal. We still have all our miles. So, I’m not too concerned about this change. You?
The Miles Mom 