Just a few years ago earning elite status on American Airlines was incredibly easy to understand. At that time there were only three levels, Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum. You earned each at 25,000 miles, 50,000 miles and 100,000 miles, respectively. Also, back then you earned 1 mile per mile flown no matter how much you paid for your ticket. So, if you flew those miles in First Class or Economy Class it didn’t matter. Back then American treated each mile flown the same.
Then, in mid-2016 American Airlines made some significant changes to the Elite Status requirements for the 2017 qualifying year. With those changes, American followed Delta and United to introduce a spending requirement to earn elite status. This new requirement, dubbed Elite Qualifying Dollars or EQDs, meant customers had to spend a certain amount of money with the airline to earn certain elite status.
The idea of the spending requirement is simple. American wanted to reward those who spend $1,000s of dollars on paid Business and First Class fares more than those who spend $100s on discount economy fares (read: Mileage Runners). Effectively, the spending requirement makes it difficult for discount travelers to earn top-tier status.
What Exactly Are American Airlines Elite Qualifying Dollars?
In theory, American Airlines Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) are the number of dollars you spend on airfare each year with American. EQDs is calculated and earned based on the price paid for each ticket. However, EQDs does not include any additional taxes and fees paid. Thankfully, American makes it easy to see exactly how many EQDs you can expect to earn from each flight at booking.
I realize all of this might not exactly make sense. So, I’ve pulled up an example flight from new York to Chicago in Economy.
After searching for and selecting a flight I reach a page with the above information. This breakdown from American tells me exactly what I can expect to earn from this flight. In this example, from New York to Chicago, I can expect to earn $311 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs). If I click on “Show AAdvantage Earnings” I get a bit more detail. However, with a one-way economy flight the added detail isn’t that valuable.
With that information expanded, I can see that I’ll earn $311 EQDs, 733 Elite Qualifying Miles, and 1 Elite Qualifying Segment. Finally, for the above ticket American is currently charging $348.30 to go from New York to Chicago.
So, to earn $311 Elite Qualifying Dollars my out of pocket cost for the ticket is actually $348.30. When buying a Main Cabin fare, I can usually expect to earn EQDs at this rate. Basically, I estimate that I’ll earn EQD at a rate of 90% of the total ticket cost. This percentage will decrease as ticket fees increase, but let’s assume 90% for now.
What Are American Airlines Elite Qualifying Dollars Important?
Elite Qualifying Dollars are important because you can’t earn elite status without them. If you look at the requirements for each level of elite status (Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, and Executive Platinum) each level requires a certain amount of EQDs plus either a certain number of Elite Qualifying Miles or Elite Qualifying Segments.
This is important as EQDs could limit your ability to earn Elite Status if you don’t pay attention to them. For example, if you were to earn 100,000 EQM, but only earn $6,500 EQDs you would only qualify for Platinum elite status. The same is true if you earned over 100 EQS, but only spent $7,000, you’d still only reach Platinum elite status opposed to Platinum Pro.
So, if you want to earn Elite Status with American Airlines, you have to worry about Elite Qualifying Dollars. The below chart from American gives a clearer picture of the number of EQDs required for each level of elite status.
As you can see, if you wish to earn AAdvantage Executive Platinum, you have to earn at least $15,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars plus either 120 Elite Qualifying Segments or 100,000 Elite Qualifying Miles.
Elite Qualifying Dollars Aren’t Exactly What They Seem…
At the beginning of this post, when explaining what EQDs are, I said “in theory.” I said this because paying for flights with American isn’t the only way to earn EQDs. You can also earn EQDs when flying with OneWorld partner airlines and in some cases doing so can be extremely rewarding.
See, when flying with many OneWorld partner airlines you’ll earn EQDs as a percentage of miles flown rather than based on the cost of the ticket. Additionally, that percentage per mile flown increases if you buy a ticket in Premium Economy, Business Class, or First Class. Let’s look at “details for earning miles” when traveling with British Airways.
As you’ll notice above, when flying in First Class on British Airways, you’ll actually earn EQDs at a rate of 30% per mile flown. If flying in business class you’ll earn EQDs at a rate of 25% per mile flown. As you can see, you earn more EQDs when flying in a Premium Cabin when compared to purchasing a discounted Economy Class ticket.
The same is true when traveling with many other OneWorld or Partner airlines. A complete list of OneWorld and Partner airlines can be found here. When you reach that page you’ll find a listing of airlines. Click in to each one to see charts similar to the one above to calculate the expected EQDs you’ll earn from a particular flight. Likewise, you can use the WebFlyer Mileage Calculator tool to calculate distances flown between airports.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully the above guide helps introduce you to the American Airlines Elite Qualifying Dollar requirement. The new EQD requirement is a bit frustrating as it potentially limits the amount of status you can earn when booking discount tickets. Likewise, it especially limits the ability to earn elite status for those who travel for work and must book discounted tickets.
However, as with other aspects of loyalty programs there are ways to maximize your EQD earnings. So, if you find yourself limited by the EQD requirement, I recommend looking at the partner accrual charts first. In those charts you’ll find some opportunities to earn EQD far quicker than you will flying only with American. The best part, typically, it also means you get to sit in a much nicer seat for just a little more money!
