AA Adds Loyalty Reward Tiers, Raises Threshold

American Airlines in March 2023 will add rewards tiers to its AAdvantage loyalty program, allowing members to earn perks when reaching certain loyalty point thresholds, the carrier announced Thursday. American also raised the number of points necessary to qualify for AAdvantage status levels.

American created new reward levels based on the number of loyalty points earned, the metric the airline developed in 2021 and which members can attain by flying or spending with American partners. The first level is at 15,000 points, a level at which AAdvantage members qualify for Group 5 boarding for the membership year and can choose between priority check-in, security and Group 4 boarding for a single trip or five preferred seat coupons, according to the carrier. 

Additional reward levels are reached at 60,000 points, 100,000 points, 175,000 points, 250,000 points and six higher levels. Among the rewards members can choose at higher levels include “systemwide upgrades, Admirals Club one-day passes, trip credits and award rebates for flights purchased with miles.”

Those reward tiers are in addition to American’s AAdvantage status level. The carrier effective in March will raise the points necessary to qualify for Gold status to 40,000 from 30,000 in 2022. Thresholds for the other levels will hold steady: 75,000 for Platinum status, 125,000 for Platinum Pro status and 200,000 for Executive Platinum status.