How To Get American Airlines Elite Status

American Airlines dramatically changed award program, AAdvantage, in 2015 with revisions that would come out in phases. AAdvantage is making a transition to a partially revenue-based earning. Unlike Delta ripping the band-aid off all at once, American Airlines is doing it slowly.

Terms
– EQM: Elite Qualifying Miles.
– EQS: Elite Qualifying Segments.
– RDM: Redeemable Miles.

Requirements for Status
– For Gold you need to fly 25,000 EQMs or 30 EQSs.
– For Platinum — 50,000 EQMs or 60 EQSs.
– For Executive Platinum — 100,000 EQMs or 120 EQSs.

Upgrades
Gold and Platinum members earn four 500-mile upgrades for every 12,500 EQMs accrued during the previous membership year. Current Executive Platinum members who qualified in 2015 still receive eight system wide upgrades.

Mileage Bonus
– Gold: 25%
– Platinum and Executive Platinum: 100%

When the earning component comes into effect, the Elite members will earn more miles (regular AAdvantage members will earn 5 miles per dollar).

– Gold — 7 miles per dollar.
– Platinum elites — 8 miles.
– Executive Platinum elite犀利士
s — 11 miles.

Elite members still receive 500 miles for flights under 500 miles on American and participating partners.

As an AAdvantage elite status member, you’ll enjoy a world of benefits

Fee Waivers
– Gold and above: Free bag (1), same-day standby.
– Platinum and above: Free bag (2), preferred and main cabin extra seat.
– Executive Platinum: Free bag (3), same-day flight change, award change and reinstatement charge, alcoholic beverage and snack in coach.

Airport Services
– Gold and above: Priority Check In, Security, and Boarding.
– Platinum and above: Priority Baggage Delivery.
– Executive Platinum: Waitlist priority for purchased First or Business Class ticket.

Lounge Access
– Platinum and above: Discounted Admirals Club membership, Access to Partners Business Class and FF lounges.
– Executive platinum: First Class lounges.

Oneworld Status
– Gold — Ruby
– Platinum — Sapphire
– Executive platinum — Emerald

You can also earn AAdvantage miles by flying on American partner airlines

Earning EQMs with credit cards
If you don’t ftravel enough to qualify for the status, you can earn some extra EQMs with AA-branded Citibank credit cards.

Citi AAdvantage Executive MasterCard:
– 10,000 EQMs after spending $40,000 on eligible purchases during the calendar year

Note, that you may only earn up to 10,000 EQMs a year with the Citi AAdvantage Executive MasterCard, even if you have more than one.

Earning Miles on Partner Airlines
You can earn AAdvantage miles by flying on American partner airlines and crediting your miles back to AAdvantage. When you fly on a partner airline not marketed by AA, you will always earn miles based on the distance and class of service.

David

David is the Author of Memoirs of Napoleon Streisand and the Founder of Wise Flys. He has been to 7 continents and loves to travel the world for cheap.