American Airlines Changes How Credit Card Spend Counts Towards Status
American Airlines counts points earned from most activity towards status. Your flying, online shopping, car rentals and gas purchases count towards status.
This makes sense for the airline because miles sold to partners are high margin – far higher margin than selling tickets to fly on airplanes. And it makes sense because it encourages more spend on their co-brand credit cards.
A majority of miles are earned via credit card, and American’s U.S. co-brands earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent, a lot of status is being generated by credit card. This means that customers with status aren’t necessarily experienced flyers anymore.
Since credit card spending is so important for driving elite status, American Airlines is letting customers know that they’ve changed how that spend is counted towards status.
- American’s status year now runs March through February. That means you aren’t making a year end push for status. You have until the end of February to earn status for next year (March 2024 – February 2025). A lot of members forget this.
- But say that your credit card statement closed February 5, and wouldn’t close again until March 5. Normally you’d expect then that spending done on the card February 6 though the end of February will actually count towards the following year‘s status, since it’ll post in the following year.
- Instead American has changed this. And the date of your charge is the date that it’ll count for status. So spending in February will count for status in the current member year. Spending in March will count for status the next member year. That’s regardless of when your statement closes.
With a few months left in the status qualification year, we wanted to make you aware of a change we’ve made to reaching status with your AAdvantage® credit card.
What has changed?
The Loyalty Points you earn on AAdvantage® credit card* purchases between March 1 and the end of February of the following year count toward the current status qualification year.
This means you can earn Loyalty Points through February 29, 2024, instead of your last statement close date of the qualification year.
What will this look like?
As an example, if your monthly AAdvantage® credit card statement closes on March 5 (which includes purchases posted to your credit card account between February 6 and March 5), all the Loyalty Points earned from purchases made between February 6 through 29 will count toward 2024 status. All Loyalty Points earned between March 1 and 5 count toward the 2025 qualification year.
It may take up to 8 – 10 weeks after March 5 to post to your account, in this example.
American Airlines status requires:
- Gold: 40,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum: 75,000 Loyalty Points
- Platinum Pro: 125,000 Loyalty Points
- Executive Platinum: 200,000 Loyalty Points
You may be like me, and you’ve already requalified for Executive Platinum status. I expect to end the year at the 400,000 Loyalty Point level, double the number of points required for Executive Platinum.
My bet is that I will want to avoid spending on the card in February, because it won’t help me earn status or reach the next Choice Benefit level. I might have wanted to spend on an American Airlines card after my statement closes in February because it would have given me a head start on status for next year. Now it won’t. I want to wait until March to spend on an American card, rather than wasting the spend.
But if you are using those last few weeks in February to hit your status with American AAdvantage, then this is a great change for you.
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