For the past several weeks, as frequent fliers sit grounded at home, many of us have been wondering what will happen to their beloved frequent flyer programs in 2020. Until a week ago, that question remained largely unanswered. There was of course plenty of speculation about what airlines would do based on past events, but largely no one knew exactly what airlines were planning. Several people reached out directly to various airlines and all received similar answers. That is, airlines were evaluating the developing situation and will provide an update when available.
Not surprisingly, customer service centric Delta was the first to make an announcement last Sunday which set the stage for other domestic carriers. Specifically, Delta announced that the airline would extend elite status until early 2020 and that any 2020 qualifying activity would now count toward elite status earned in 2021.
Just a few hours later United followed Delta’s lead with a few changes of their own. Similar to Delta, United also announced an extension of elite status into 2021. However, instead of a roll-over concept, United opted to reduce their elite status requirements in 2020.
So, with two of the three domestic international carriers out of the way, that left the door open for American to announce their plans for the AAdvantage program in 2020. Those plans came a full 8 days later
American Airlines Extend Elite Status Through January 2022
As expected, American decided to follow Delta and United by extending AAdvantage elite status through early 2022. For airlines, a benefit year is typically 13 months (from Jan 1 to Jan 31 the following year). So, airline have been simply pushing the elite status expiration date by a full 12 months, into January 2022 for status earned in 2019.
With this change, AAdvantage members do not have to fly at all in 2020 to keep their current elite status. Instead, their status will simply roll into 2021 as if 2020 never happened. I’m sure a lot of people wish 2020 didn’t happen…
What About Miles And Upgrades?
Per the press release from American, there are no changes to the expiration date of award miles. So, going forward, AAdvantage award miles will still expired after 18-months of inactivity. So, if you haven’t flown or earned miles in a while you will need to keep your current milage expiration date in mind. However, it’s important to remember that credit card spend, AAdvantage dining, AAdvantage shopping, etc. all count as ‘activity’ that will extend your mileage expiration date.
In the case of Systemwide Upgrades, SWUs earned in 2019 now won’t expire until July 2021. That represents a 6-month extension for SWUs. This obviously isn’t as generous as the 12-month elite status extension, but it’s better than nothing. Also, any SWUs earned in 2020 will expire in January 2022 so there is no extension for SWUs earned in 2020. More on that in a second.
Reduced Elite Status Qualification Requirements For 2020
In addition to the above, American is following United’s lead by reducing elite status requirements for 2020. The new AAdvantage elite status requirements are as follows:
Overall, these changes represents about a 50% reduction in standard requirement thresholds.
This is perfect for anyone hoping to qualify for a higher level of elite status in 2020 than in 2019. Personally, I also wouldn’t be surprised to see further changes to the above requirements if stay-at-home orders continue through Summer 2020.
Waived Change & Reinstatement Fees On Award Travel
American also made some generous changes related to fees associated with award travel. For starters, American is waiving all award change and reinstatement fees for tickets booked prior to May 31, 2020 for travel through September 30, 2020. Then, for any travel booked on or after June 1, 2020, the following chart applies:
As you can see, American is waiving all fees 60+ days prior to departure. Then, from 60 days out American will start charging change and reinstatement fees to most AAdvantage members. So, if you have any award travel booked for later in the year, now is the best time to change/cancel to avoid penalty.
AAdvantage Credit Card Spend Temporary Counts Toward Million Miler Status
This one was a bit of a surprise. American’s Million Miler program is a tier of elite status awarded to passengers who fly over a million miles. What’s unique about the Million Miler program is that it only counts butt-in-seat miles. So, it doesn’t matter if you do those million miles in economy or business, they all count as 1 mile per mile flown. Additionally, you can earn million miler miles with partner airlines like you would EQM or EQD.
Until recently, you could also earn Million Miler miles from co-branded credit card spend. However, American took that away a few years ago. Now though, through 2020, AAdvantage members can earn Million Miles through co-branded spend. This of course is to award credit card holders who can’t currently fly. Personally, I think it’s a creative change that makes a lot of sense given the circumstances, but isn’t the most exciting of changes given the low value offered from the program.
American Airlines Vacations Booking Credit
Another creative change was the introduction of a credit that can be applied to American Airlines Vacation bookings. Now, you might not know about AA Vacations, but they are essentially packaged trips you can book with American. When booking an AA Vacation you generally have to pair flights with a car or hotel. Occasionally these AA Vacation packages offer some savings over booking each piece of a trip individually.
Surprisingly, with these COVID-19 concessions, American is offering an AA vacation credit to elite members. Gold elites will receive up to $300, Platinum and Platinum Pro will receive up to $350, and Executive Platinum elites will receive up to $400. This represents a one-time credit used toward AA Vacation package bookings.
It’s worth noting these credits are only awarded when making a booking of more than $2,500. Now, I realize that is a lot of money to spend, but I think people should be able to take advantage of this. I don’t think anyone should go out of their way to book with AA vacations to get this credit, but when shopping around for airfare and hotels it’s worth considering.
Other Changes
American also offered a few other changes that really only apply to the most loyal of American fliers. These changes include reduced thresholds to earn additional SWU and some changes to program changes related to partners. Instead of going into detail about each, I’ll leave the link to the press release here for reference.
Final Thoughts
First of all, I’m glad American finally announced these changes. Waiving elite status through 2022 seems to be the choice made by most U.S. carriers and it makes a lot of sense given the current environment.
With these changes I can finally address my future travel plans for later in the year. I have some large trips booked in June and July 2020 that I’ll now move into 2021. Those trips were mostly to earn elite status, so now I’ll have a head start on the 2021 qualifying year.
One thing I’m partially frustrated with are the plans for the 2020 program year. While I’m of course happy to see reduced qualification thresholds, I would have rather seen a rollover concept. I’m already about 50% of the way to Executive Platinum for 2020 (old guidelines) so it would have been nice to roll that into 2021. Now the question I have to figure out is if it makes sense to go for Ex Plat in 2020 to earn the extra SWUs for 2021? Given that I’m already so close, this might be the right decision, especially considering I’m already itching to get on a flight.
Anyway, I overall think these changes are positive and I’m excited to see American finally outline a plan. However, I would also keep in mind that these changes are a bit of a moving target. If global air travel remains shut down perhaps we could see even further changes. So I’d keep that in mind today when trying to “plan” for the rest of 2020.
