It’s a new elite year at American AAdvantage, so in this post I’d like to provide an updated guide to American Airlines’ Loyalty Points program. For context, American made radical changes to its loyalty program in 2022, as the airline completely reimagined how elite status is earned, and eliminated the concept of elite qualifying miles and elite qualifying dollars.
With this program, earning AAdvantage elite status has been significantly simplified, and doesn’t just account for how much you fly with American, but also factors in how much you engage with American’s partners. You can earn top tier status exclusively through credit card spending, if you want to.
In this post I want to cover everything you need to know about the Loyalty Points program for 2026-2027.
In this post:
Note that with the Loyalty Points program, status is earned between the beginning of March of a particular year and the end of February of the following year, and is then valid through March 31 of the year after that. That means for the current program year:
- You can earn elite status between March 1, 2026, and February 28, 2027
- The status that you earn during this program year will be valid through March 31, 2028
You may be wondering what’s considered “qualifying” for the purposes of Loyalty Points. Yes, spending $200,000 on a credit card would earn you Executive Platinum status, but buying 200,000 AAdvantage miles wouldn’t earn you Executive Platinum status. So let’s go over those details.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
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