How do american airlines loyalty points work?

In 2022, American Airlines completely overhauled its AAdvantage loyalty program. Now those pursuing AAdvantage elite status need to focus on just one thing: Loyalty Points. In this comprehensive guide, we look at the many ways to earn Loyalty Points — what counts and what doesn't — to help you on your way toward AAdvantage elite status.

Let's dig into the many ways to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points — and the ways that don't yield any elite status earnings.

On March 1, 2022, American Airlines completely overhauled its loyalty program (AAdvantage) and introduced Loyalty Points. Now, Loyalty Points are now the single metric you need to follow when pursuing elite status with AA.

Instead of the complicated math involved with the old system and three metrics to track (EQM/EQD/EQS), you now just need to care about one thing: Loyalty Points.

You'll need to earn the following amounts of Loyalty Points for the status tiers in American Airlines AAdvantage going forward:

So, how do you earn these Loyalty Points? Here are the various activities for earning and the rates at which you earn.

The most obvious, you earn Loyalty Points every time you fly with American Airlines. The following chart from AA shows that all of its fare codes for American Airlines-operated flights qualify for Loyalty Points.

However, the rate is going to depend on how much you pay for your ticket and your AAdvantage status level. When flying with American Airlines, you earn AAdvantage miles based on the cost of your ticket, at the following rates:

Basic Economy flights qualify for Loyalty Points earning. However, as of March 1, 2023, travelers only earn a base of 2 Loyalty Points per dollar spent on basic economy fares — instead of the standard 5x.

For American Airlines flights, every AAdvantage mile that you earn nets you a Loyalty Point.

Example:

If you book a $100 flight (before taxes and fees) Main Cabin fare, you would earn the following AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points:

Unfortunately, earning Loyalty Points through partners isn't as clear-cut.

You can earn Loyalty Points when flying with numerous American Airlines partners. And AA has a ton of partners. The simplest way to understand which partners qualify for Loyalty Points is this: You'll earn Loyalty Points when flying Oneworld alliance members, JetBlue, and GOL. You will always earn Loyalty Points on these flights by crediting your flight earnings to your AAdvantage account.

For other partners, it's more complex.

When flying on certain non-alliance partners, you'll only earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when you fly an American Airlines marketed flight (booked as an AA flight number). These airlines include Air Tahiti Nui, Cape Air, and Silver Airways.

However, you won't earn Loyalty Points at all on other partners, including Fiji Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Etihad Airways.

For all partners except JetBlue, you will earn miles and Loyalty Points based on the fare class you book, the distance of the flight, and your status level. With JetBlue, you earn based on the cost of your ticket — just like you do when flying American Airlines. You can see the partner earning rates for each airline here, since they vary.

Except as noted, for each AAdvantage mile you earn from these flights, you will also earn 1 Loyalty Point.

When you book a combination of flights / hotels / rental cars at AAvacations.com, you earn 1,000 miles per booking. These miles count as Loyalty Points.

However, any “bonus miles” promotions won't. For example, a promotion marketed as “up to 30,000 bonus miles for booking featured hotels” will earn you AAdvantage miles, but no Loyalty Points toward AAdvantage elite status.

While you'll only earn 1,000 base miles / Loyalty Points from AA Vacations bookings, remember that American Airlines flights flown as part of these packages will earn Loyalty Points as well.

Cruise bookings made through bookaacruises.com earn 1 mile per $1 spent on cruises. If you pay with an American Airlines co-branded credit card, you get an extra mile per $1 spent.

Any “base” AAdvantage miles earned on this site will also earn Loyalty Points at a 1:1 ratio. Any AAdvantage mileage bonuses on top of this base earning rate likely won't count as Loyalty Points.

If you book a stay at bookaahotels.com (which is powered by booking.com), you can earn up to a maximum of 10,000 miles per night. However, that is the maximum, and most stays earn far less than this. These AAdvantage mileage earnings count as Loyalty Points and can be an excellent way to get a lot of Loyalty Points in the new system.

Similarly, hotel bookings made with rocketmiles.com will earn up to 10,000 miles per night. That is the maximum, and many bookings will earn less than that. All miles earned here qualify for Loyalty Points earnings.

You can also earn Loyalty Points on stays with Hyatt. You get 500 miles and will earn 500 Loyalty Points on each stay. AAdvantage elites can enroll to also earn 1 mile per $1 spent. The maximum earning in this partnership is 10,000 miles per year.

With Marriott (including Marriott Vacations), you earn 1-2 miles per dollar spent. Lower-tier properties earn 1 mile, while higher-tier properties earn 2 miles per dollar spent. These earnings qualify for Loyalty Points at a 1:1 ratio.

For stays at IHG properties, you earn 2 miles per $1 spent at all brands except Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites. At these properties, you earn 1 mile per $1 spent. All of these earnings qualify for Loyalty Points at 1:1.

Stays at Wyndham do not qualify for Loyalty Points. More on that in the section on “what doesn't count”.

Important note: In order to earn American Airlines miles (and thus Loyalty Points) with these programs, you need to change your account settings in the partner program. You must choose to earn AA miles (not points from the hotel program) on your hotel stays.

Take that into consideration, since you wouldn't earn Marriott Bonvoy points on future Marriott stays, for example. This is especially important when considering the fact that many hotel promotions require you to earn their points (not some partner program) to qualify for the promotions.

As with vacations, hotels, and cruises, American Airlines offers a rental car portal at aa.com/car. All miles earned from these bookings qualify for Loyalty Points at 1:1.

You can also earn AA miles (and thus Loyalty Points) on bookings with Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz, National, Payless, and Sixt. As with the hotels above, you will need to choose to earn AA miles (and not points from the car rental program) in order to earn Loyalty Points on these bookings.

As an example, with Avis/Budget, you will earn a minimum of 500 miles per rental (basic members) or 1,250 miles as a maximum for Executive Platinum members. Rentals from Alamo or National will give 50 miles per day.

All base mileage earnings will give you 1 Loyalty Point for each mile you earn on rentals with these partners. Any mileage bonuses or promotions likely won't count for Loyalty Points.

American Airlines' own shopping portal and SimplyMiles both provide mileage earning when clicking through before making purchases. You will get 1 Loyalty Point for each 1 base mile you earn through these portals.

Be sure to check any current new member bonuses if you have never used the AA eShopping portal before. Just note that this new member bonus likely won't count as Loyalty Points.

For SimplyMiles, you must live in the U.S. and have a Mastercard to enroll.

See also: Beginner's Guide to Shopping Portals

The AAdvantage Dining program offers miles if you sign up, store a credit card in your profile, and then eat at participating restaurants. New member bonuses for this program are common, so be sure to check for any bonus mile opportunities. Again though, these mileage bonuses likely won't count as Loyalty Points.

As with other programs, any miles you earn will also earn Loyalty Points at a 1:1 ratio. However, promotions and new member bonuses do not count toward Loyalty Points earning.

See also: Beginner's Guide to Dining Programs

This represents the most significant change to AAdvantage status because you can earn Loyalty Points by spending on American Airlines co-branded credit cards. The earning of Loyalty Points applies only to daily spending, however.

Every $1 spent on virtually all U.S.-issued American Airlines credit cards from Barclays and Citi will yield 1 Loyalty Point. This includes the following U.S. cards:

Remember that you only earn 1 Loyalty Point per $1 spent. Category multipliers where you earn extra miles for certain types of spending will not yield extra Loyalty Points. An example is the American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®, which earns 2 miles per $1 spent at grocery stores. While you would earn 100 AA miles after spending $50 at the supermarket, you would still earn just 50 Loyalty Points.

There is also the AAdvantage® Aviator® Mastercard® issued in the U.S. As a no-fee card, it earns just 1 mile / 1 Loyalty Point for every $2 spent.

Additionally, American Airlines issues some international co-branded credit cards. Some of these can earn 1.5-2 Loyalty Points per $1 spent. Check the list of countries here to see which cards are available in your country and what the earning rates are.

As mentioned, only daily spending counts toward Loyalty Points earning with credit cards. Bonus category earnings, welcome offers, sign-up bonuses, retention offers, referrals for your friend to sign up for the card — none of those will generate Loyalty Points.

Although credit card “bonus miles” don't count toward Loyalty Points, you can still earn bonus Loyalty Points through credit cards. Clear as mud, right?

Cardholders of certain American Airlines credit cards can earn bonus Loyalty Points by hitting credit card spending thresholds:

American Airlines has partnered with NRG Energy, Reliant Energy, and Xoom Energy. Payments to these companies earn miles, which also earn Loyalty Points at 1:1.

Only available in select states in the U.S., these electricity companies offer energy at variable rates (meaning prices can go up and down). Take that into consideration if you sign up, but these companies sometimes offer welcome bonuses of 10,000-15,000 AA miles for new members. While these new member bonuses might not qualify as Loyalty Points, you'll earn AA miles and Loyalty Points when paying your monthly bill.

You can earn AA miles (and Loyalty Points at 1:1) when purchasing gas with Shell. You will need to link your rewards accounts on this page. Note that the same thing applies as with the hotel and rental car partners: you will no longer earn Fuel Rewards points or save 3-5¢ per gallon at the pump if you choose to earn AA miles via this program. Additionally, you only earn miles (and thus Loyalty Points) on the first 20 gallons of fuel in each purchase.

You can also earn Loyalty Points from select partners on the AA promotions page. Partners that qualify for Loyalty Points include Vinesse, FTD, and Vivid Seats.

Additionally, you can earn miles for taking surveys with Miles for Opinions. These will qualify for Loyalty Points.

Now that we know what counts, here's a look at what doesn't. These activities can generate AAdvantage miles (which you can redeem for flights), but those will not translate to Loyalty Points. Thus, they don't help you achieve elite status.

Simply put: if it's not a Oneworld partner and the partner page on AA's website doesn't say you will earn Loyalty Points, then you won't.

AA has a large list of partners, but flights on China Southern Airlines, Etihad, Fiji Airways, and Hawaiian Airlines won't earn Loyalty Points — even though you can earn AA miles when flying on these airlines.

There's a workaround though. If you're able to book the flight with an American Airlines flight number, you'll earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points as if you're flying on an American Airlines flight number.

While the Bask Bank savings account is popular because you can earn AA miles as the interest on your account, these earnings will not convert to Loyalty Points. They are miles that you can redeem for travel, but these are not elite status-qualifying earnings.

While you can transfer numerous different types of points and miles to American Airlines AAdvantage, none of these generate Loyalty Points. This includes transfers from bank partner Bilt and even transfers from Marriott — despite Marriott being a preferred hotel partner (see above).

Gifting or buying AAdvantage miles won't count toward Loyalty Points. Otherwise, that would be a really easy way to secure AAdvantage elite status!

Even though you can earn AA miles from stays with Wyndham, these do not earn Loyalty Points. This is different from the hotel partners mentioned above, which do generate Loyalty Points.

You can earn 10 miles per dollar if you donate $25+ to Stand Up to Cancer, due to its partnership with American Airlines. Unless AA changes course, these donations will not qualify for Loyalty Points.

When American Airlines introduced Loyalty Points, it changed the way that the airline prioritizes members for upgrades on flights.

In years past, priority was given to those with higher Elite Qualify Dollar (EQD) spending in the rolling 12 months before the flight. This would put one member in front of another when other factors like status and type of upgrade request were equal.

As of March 2022, the tiebreaker is solely the rolling 12-month Loyalty Point earnings.

Remember that the introduction of the new American Airlines AAdvantage program represented a complete overhaul not just with the introduction of Loyalty Points but also in the qualifying timeframe. Previously, you qualified from January 1-December 31 for status in the ensuing year.

Now, American Airlines travelers qualify from March to the following February. Status earned during that period will be valid through March 31 of the year following the end of the qualifying year.

Here's an example: Between March 1, 2023 and February 28, 2024, you earn 75,000 Loyalty Points. At the moment your 75,000th Loyalty Point posts to your account, you'll get Platinum elite status. You will enjoy that status from that date until the end of March 2025 — since that's the end of March in the year after the end of the qualifying period.

Loyalty Points represent not just a new way to earn status with American Airlines AAdvantage but something truly novel in the world of airline loyalty programs. In this guide, we took a deep look at what does and what doesn't qualify for Loyalty Points.

If you are pursuing AAdvantage status, this is the one metric that matters going forward. This guide should help you understand the various ways to earn your Loyalty Points, so you can chart the path that best suits you.

On everyday spend: Base miles earned with eligible partners. Base offers vary by partner and eligible partners include:

For American Airlines AAdvantage® credit cardmembers, eligible AAdvantage® miles include the base miles earned on eligible purchases using your AAdvantage® credit card, and do not include any bonus miles or accelerators

How do I earn Loyalty Points on flights marketed by oneworld® airlines vs flights marketed by American Airlines or JetBlue?

How points are calculated on American and partner airlines

How do I earn Loyalty Points from AAdvantage® eShoppingSM purchases?

Learn more

How do I earn Loyalty Points from Avis and Budget?

Rent with our preferred car rental partners and you’ll earn base miles and Loyalty Points at a higher rate based on either your AAdvantage® status or the type of AAdvantage® credit card you have, whichever rate is higher.

The most important concept about the program is that your AAdvantage elite status will now be determined by how much you interact with the AAdvantage ecosystem, which extends beyond flights on American Airlines and its partners.

One of the coolest implications of this is that you can now earn top-tier elite status just by spending on your American Airlines-branded credit card — so with all that being said, let’s take a look at all of the neat ways you can now earn AAdvantage Loyalty Points.

AAdvantage Loyalty Points are the new currency in AAdvantage’s loyalty program that is used to determine your elite status.

So instead of confusing metrics like the former elite qualifying miles, elite qualifying segments, or elite qualifying dollars, the pathway to earning AAdvantage elite status has been simplified tremendously.

There are many direct benefits associated with using Loyalty Points — the most obvious is that your Loyalty Points balance will determine which tier of elite status you fall under:

Also, if you hit certain thresholds of Loyalty Points, starting at 15,000 and going all the way up to 5,000,000, you’ll earn Loyalty Point Rewards.

These rewards include systemwide upgrades, Admirals Club membership, carbon emissions offset, gifting elite status, bonus AAdvantage miles, and much more (view the complete details).

Lastly, your Loyalty Points balance now determines your upgrade priority in an objective way. Simply put, if you have the highest Loyalty Points balance among all other travelers on your flight, you will have the highest upgrade priority.

If you’re thinking about pursuing elite status on American Airlines, the first thing you ought to do is sign up for an account. Just fill out the form and you’ll be ready to go with an AAdvantage membership number.

Keep this membership number handy because you’ll need to provide it every time you’d like to earn Loyalty Points.

And with so many new ways you can get closer to elite status, you’ll probably have your AAdvantage number memorized by the time you’ve qualified for elite status!

One of the most exciting aspects of American’s loyalty program is that the criteria used to determine your elite status, Loyalty Points, can be earned through a variety of activities beyond booking paid airfare on American Airlines.

Specifically, those who spend big on AAdvantage credit cards have a huge opportunity to get elite status entirely through credit card spending!

So in this section, we’ll show you how that can be accomplished through its 2 credit card issuers: Citi and Barclays.

We’ll start off with Citi. At the moment, Citi issues the following co-branded American Airlines credit cards:

For each qualifying AAdvantage mile you earn on these cards, you will earn 1 Loyalty Point.

It’s important to note that even if you’re earning 2 or 3 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on these credit cards through bonus categories like gas stations or telecommunications, you’ll still only earn 1 Loyalty Point.

Therefore, if you tried to earn 200,000 Loyalty Points to qualify for Executive Platinum status, you’d have to spend $200,000 to get there, which means welcome offers and bonus categories do not earn more Loyalty Points.

In addition, Barclays issues co-branded credit cards that earn qualifying AAdvantage miles (and therefore Loyalty Points). These are:

The same principles apply for Barclays credit cards — regardless of bonus categories and welcome offers, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point per qualifying AAdvantage mile earned. This more or less means that you will just get 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent with these cards.

So if you had an AAdvantage Aviator Business card and wanted to pursue Platinum Pro status (which requires 125,000 Loyalty Points) solely through spending, you’d need to make $125,000 in purchases to qualify.

Bottom Line: With the simpler Loyalty Points system, you can now earn AAdvantage status (including top-tier status) solely through credit card spending. You’ll want to remember that bonus categories and welcome bonuses don’t give you bonus Loyalty Points, however, so you’ll likely earn just 1 Loyalty Point per dollar you spend on co-branded credit cards.

Obviously, the most tried-and-true way to get AAdvantage elite status is by booking travel. Now the options to earn Loyalty Points through travel are much larger. So in this section, we’ll explore all of the best ways to earn AAdvantage Loyalty Points through travel.

The best way to kick off this section is to discuss the simplest way to earn AAdvantage Loyalty Points: from American Airlines flights!

When you fly on American Airlines, you will earn 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on your fare. In this case, all of your AAdvantage miles are qualifying AAdvantage miles, which means you’ll get 5 Loyalty Points per dollar spent on American Airlines flights. Basic Economy fares only earn 2 miles per dollar.

This does not include airport taxes and fees, as well as carrier-imposed surcharges (including fuel surcharges).

For example, if you book a $3,000 business class ticket to Spain, and this includes $700 in fuel surcharges and $50 in airport taxes and fees, you’ll earn based on a $2,250 fare. Therefore, you’ll earn 11,250 Loyalty Points. We’ll touch on how you can use existing elite status to earn Loyalty Points even quicker in a later section.

Note that AAdvantage’s Million Miler lifetime status requirements have not changed — you need to pass lifetime mileage thresholds to qualify for status:

Hot Tip: Even under the new program, you can’t earn Lifetime Million Miler status through credit card spending. Interestingly, it’s based on distance flown for flights marketed by American Airlines and base miles earned for travel on flights marketed by eligible partners.

For now, though, let’s look at other airlines!

You can also earn Loyalty Points for flying on any of American’s Oneworld partner airlines.

In fact, you’ll earn Loyalty Points at the same accrual rate as redeemable miles. Partner airline accrual is determined by the flight distance and cabin class, which means that the way you calculate how many Loyalty Points you get is slightly different.

But the good news is that cabin class multipliers and elite status bonuses also apply to earning Loyalty Points.

So let’s say you’re flying round-trip from Chicago (ORD) to London Heathrow (LHR) aboard British Airways on a paid, business class ticket in the R fare class. In total, you’d earn based on a total, round-trip flight distance of 7,906 miles. On an R-class ticket, you’ll accumulate 150% of the flight distance in miles, which is 11,859 AAdvantage miles. Therefore, you’ll earn 11,859 Loyalty Points (and that doesn’t even take into account any existing elite status!).

Although JetBlue isn’t a member of the Oneworld alliance, American Airlines has deemed JetBlue as one of the few non-alliance partner airlines that can earn Loyalty Points towards AAdvantage elite status!

Again, the accrual rate for Loyalty Points stays the same as the accrual rate for redeemable AAdvantage miles since all AAdvantage miles are deemed as qualifying AAdvantage miles.

So let’s say you book a paid JetBlue Mint flight one-way from Los Angeles (LAX) to Miami (MIA) in the I fare class. This ticket cost $599, and the fare was $585. In this case, you’d earn 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent on the fare, which is 2,925 AAdvantage miles. By the same token, you’d earn 2,925 Loyalty Points.

GOL is the other partner airline that currently earns Loyalty Points as a non-alliance airline. This airline follows a distance-based accrual chart. For example, if you book a U-class economy ticket from Salvador (SSA) to Rio de Janeiro (SDU), your accrual is based on a flight distance of 758 miles.

You earn 75% of the flight distance as redeemable miles (and therefore Loyalty Points), which means you’ll end up with 569 AAdvantage miles and 569 Loyalty Points.

Another fantastic way to earn more Loyalty Points is to use your existing elite status. You can get up to 120% in bonus Loyalty Points, depending on which elite status you have:

This elite status bonus could potentially be huge. For example, if you take the example of the business class ticket to Spain with a $2,250 fare that would normally earn 11,250 Loyalty Points, and layer Executive Platinum elite status, you would actually earn 13,500 more Loyalty Points! That would bring your total to a staggering 24,750 Loyalty Points earned from 1 plane ticket!

Hot Tip: Elite bonuses do not apply for non-flight activity, including shopping, hotel stays, and other travel.

In addition to booking flights, you are eligible to earn Loyalty Points when booking hotel stays with eligible hotel partners.

There are 2 separate types of hotel stays you can book:

Currently, partner hotel chains include:

Keep in mind that by crediting hotel stays to American Airlines (or any other partner), you won’t earn points or elite credit toward the hotel program.

Partner hotel booking portals include:

You’ll earn up to 10,000 AAdvantage base miles per night when booking through Rocketmiles and American Airlines Hotels, which could be huge since all of these miles are qualifying miles that also earn Loyalty Points.

Planning on renting a car? With AAdvantage, rent at most major car rental companies to earn Loyalty Points:

All miles earned through these car rental partners are qualifying miles, so you can rack up Loyalty Points very quickly!

Currently, you can book cruises through bookaacruises.com and vacation packages through aavacations.com.

With cruises, you can earn up to 10,000 AAdvantage miles per cruise, and all of these miles are qualifying miles, which will get you Loyalty Points towards AAdvantage elite status!

Similarly, you can earn loads of Loyalty Points when you book the right vacation package.

Now that we’ve wrapped up all of the travel- and credit card-based ways you can earn Loyalty Points, let’s look at the other ways to earn points towards elite status!

One of the most popular dining loyalty programs is AAdvantage Dining! If you’re going to visit a specific restaurant, bar, or club anyway and can earn Loyalty Points, why wouldn’t you take advantage of this?!

The great aspect of this is that if you’re an AAdvantage Dining VIP member, you’ll earn 5x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent, all of which count towards elite status!

This is a significant way you can earn Loyalty Points through eating out.

American Airlines’ online shopping portal is called AAdvantage eShopping, and you can earn AAdvantage miles at more than 1,200 stores at brands, including Apple, Kohl’s, and The Home Depot.

For every AAdvantage mile you earn through AAdvantage eShopping, you’ll also earn 1 Loyalty Point.

Be sure to also compare the prices for your goods with other websites to make sure you aren’t paying too much more just to earn Loyalty Points and AAdvantage miles.

Another popular way to earn AAdvantage miles is SimplyMiles, which is similar to Amex Offers. Simply enroll using your AAdvantage account and you’ll receive personalized offers to earn bonus miles for spending at specific partners, such as SimpliSafe, Winc, 1-800-Flowers.com, and more.

All of the AAdvantage miles you earn through SimplyMiles are qualifying AAdvantage miles, which means you will earn Loyalty Points!

As if these ways to earn Loyalty Points weren’t comprehensive enough, you can even work towards elite status by paying your utility bill!

There are 3 main partners:

For example, with Xoom Energy, you can earn a welcome bonus when starting a residential electric or natural gas account and earn based on your energy bill.

Note that these offers are available only to customers in certain areas, so be sure to confirm directly with AAdvantage’s terms and conditions.

All of your accruals are eligible for Loyalty Points earning.

You can even earn Loyalty Points by adding gas, which is pretty incredible.

Specifically, with Shell Fuel Rewards, you can earn miles at the pump instead of getting a small discount on fuel.

All of your earnings here also earn Loyalty Points.

If you have a bunch of free time, you can take surveys to earn AAdvantage miles, all of which also earn Loyalty Points. There are 2 vendors available:

Just be sure to consider the value of your time, as some of these surveys can be very long, even if they do award more miles/points.

Although there is still a lot to be ironed out in terms of which partners qualify to earn Loyalty Points, the number of eligible partners you can leverage to get elite status has expanded dramatically.

This last way focuses on other partners that are available but didn’t merit their own sections.

For example, if you send flowers through FTD, buy event tickets through Vivid Seats, set up a WeWork membership, or shop through Vinesse, you can earn qualifying AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points.

So after this in-depth discussion, there’s a natural question that comes up: what doesn’t earn Loyalty Points?

Well, the reality is that AAdvantage has designed its new loyalty program to reward you as much as possible, even if you spend with its partners.

But there are a few (understandable) activities that will not earn you Loyalty Points:

Overall, American Airlines’ exciting recently refreshed frequent flyer program rewards you based on how much you interact with the AAdvantage ecosystem, instead of just how much you spend on American Airlines flights.

If you fly frequently with American Airlines, it pays to know about its AAdvantage loyalty program. The AAdvantage program makes it easy for travelers to earn and redeem miles as well as earn varying levels of elite status for bonus travel perks and benefits.

As one of the largest airlines in the world, there are plenty of options for travelers when it comes to earning and redeeming miles. Plus, when you’re flying with American with elite status, you can take advantage of bonus perks for a more comfortable and seamless travel experience. Here’s everything you need to know about the program.

Before diving into all the ways to can earn and redeem American AAdvantage miles, it’s important to understand what they’re worth. Frequent flyer website The Points Guy values AAdvantage miles at 1.77 cents each when used for flights.

However, the redemption value varies depending on how you use the miles. For example, you’ll get as few as 0.6 cents per mile in value when redeeming AAdvantage miles for non-flight travel bookings. On the other hand, if you book an international first-class ticket, you can get well over 2 cents per mile in value. Ultimately, the real value of your miles depends on how you redeem them.

There are various ways to earn AAdvantage miles, ranging from flying to credit card spending and banking. The unique thing about American Airlines is that you can earn both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points that count toward elite status on many of these activities.

Here’s a look at some of the ways you can earn AAdvantage miles.

Flying is the most obvious way to earn American Airlines miles. But you don’t have to fly with American Airlines exclusively. You can credit miles with more than a dozen partner airlines — including those that are part of the Oneworld alliance — to your AAdvantage account as well. When flying a partner airline, the number of miles you’ll earn depends on the cabin and fare class. Head to AA’s partner airline page and look up the earn rate for your specific partner carrier.

However, if you’re flying with American Airlines, there are set earn rates, which are determined by your elite status level:

With each American or partner flight you take, input your AAdvantage number and you’ll earn miles in return for your business at varying rates.

Credit cards are one of the easiest ways to earn American AAdvantage miles quickly. Both Barclays and Citi offer American Airlines-branded credit cards, with welcome bonuses ranging from 10,000 miles to 65,000 miles after meeting the minimum spending requirements.

Here’s a look at how the American Airlines credit cards compare against one another.

Unfortunately, earning AAdvantage miles through transfer partners isn’t as easy as it is with other airline loyalty programs. That’s because the AAdvantage program isn’t a transfer partner of any of the major transferable currencies, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards.

However, AAdvantage is a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards at a 1-to-1 rate. Alternatively, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to American Airlines at a less-than-favorable 3-to-1 ratio, with a 5,000-point bonus for every 60,000 points transferred. Ultimately, having a couple of options is better than none at all, but still, it’s more difficult than other programs to earn AAdvantage miles via transfer partners.

American Airlines has several partnerships that allow you to earn miles on travel bookings beyond flights. For example, you can earn bonus points on car rentals, hotel bookings, cruises, vacation packages and more. For example, with Hertz, you can earn 1 mile for every dollar spent on any car rental booking. Or, with Avis and Budget, you can save up to 35% off your car rental and earn bonus AAdvantage miles.

On hotel bookings, you can earn bonus miles too. By booking your hotel stay via American, you can earn up to 10,000 bonus miles and elite status-earning Loyalty Points per night. Alternatively, on stays with Marriott Bonvoy, you’ll earn 2 miles for every dollar spent on qualifying charges.

Cruise bookings are very lucrative for earning bonus AAdvantage miles. You can earn up to 10,000 bonus miles per cruise booking via American. Meanwhile, you can earn thousands of bonus miles on vacation packages booked via American.

Bask Bank’s Mileage Savings Account allows customers to earn AAdvantage miles instead of interest. Account holders earn 2 miles for every dollar saved annually. For example, if you deposit $10,000 in the Bask savings account and maintain those funds for a year, you’ll earn 20,000 bonus AAdvantage miles.

If you’re gearing up to do some shopping, the AAdvantage shopping portal and Simply Miles can help you earn even more miles on your purchases. Both tools are easy to use. With the shopping portal, log in to your AAdvantage eShopping account and click on the merchant you want to shop with. You’ll earn at least 1 mile per dollar spent and sometimes additional bonuses for meeting certain spending thresholds. The great thing about the AAdvantage shopping portal is that you’ll earn Loyalty Points toward elite status (more on that below) in addition to redeemable miles.

Simply Miles is limited to AAdvantage members with a MasterCard. You can sign up, register your card and add offers to your account from popular merchants. When you make a qualifying purchase with a registered card, you’ll automatically earn bonus miles (and Loyalty Points).

The AAdvantage Dining program is a great way to earn miles every time you eat out. Once you sign up, register your credit card and dine at a participating restaurant, you’ll earn up to 5 bonus miles per dollar spent. AAdvantage Dining even offers 1,000 bonus miles to new members who spend $25 in the first 30 days and complete a review.

The program offers additional bonuses to frequent diners, helping you earn even more miles. Paired with the AAdvantage Platinum Select card, you can earn up to 7 miles per dollar spent while dining at participating restaurants.

If you want to earn AAdvantage miles and support a great cause, consider donating to Stand Up to Cancer. The organization partners with American Airlines to offer 10 miles per dollar spent on donations of $25 or more. These tax-deductible donations are a great way to boost your AAdvantage balance and keep your miles from expiring.

When it comes to redeeming AAdvantage miles, it’s best to plan ahead. Award space can be limited, especially if you’re traveling during peak season. However, there is definitely value to be had. If you’ve got a ton of AAdvantage miles, you can redeem them in a number of ways, but you’ll get the most value from your miles by redeeming them for travel.

Redeeming AAdvantage miles for travel is the best way to get maximum value from your miles. It’s worth noting that American Airlines has a vast network of partner airlines, allowing you to redeem miles for both domestic and international flights.

Here’s a look at some sweet spot awards on the AAdvantage award chart that are worth considering:

Of course, this is only a small selection of sweet spots that are out there. If you’re looking to travel with the sole goal of saving cash, American AAdvantage miles are a great tool to have in your back pocket.

AAdvantage members aren’t limited to redeeming miles for flights. You can use American miles for various travel bookings, including rental cars, hotel stays and vacation packages. You’ll get around 0.6 cents per mile in value on these bookings in most cases. That’s significantly less than what you can expect when redeeming miles for flights.

Remember that AAdvantage miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Donating a small number of miles is an excellent way to keep your AAdvantage miles from expiring; however, you won’t get much value out of your miles by doing so. Through American’s partnership with Stand Up to Cancer, you can earn up to 10 miles per dollar spent on donations of $25 or higher.

Recently, American Airlines switched to a revenue-based model for earning elite status. Loyalty Points are the new metric for achieving elite status, expanding how members can earn elite status beyond flying.

American Airlines recognizes that loyalty comes in many forms. A customer flying thousands of miles per year can be just as valuable as a customer who puts large amounts of spending on their American-branded credit card. So, if you achieve elite status by flying or staying closer to the ground, there are plenty of benefits to be had.

AAdvantage members now earn points toward elite status for every dollar spent through the AAdvantage credit cards, AAdvantage shopping portal, dining rewards and more. For those who don’t travel often but want benefits when they do, this is great news because you can earn top-tier AAdvantage Executive Platinum status without stepping on a plane.

It’s worth noting that credit card welcome bonuses don’t count toward elite status requirements, and you’ll earn one Loyalty Point per dollar spent on these cards. If you do fly American Airlines, you’ll earn Loyalty Points based on your elite status level:

If you’re looking to earn AAdvantage elite status, you’ll need to earn between 30,000 and 200,000 Loyalty Points per year. The qualification period starts on March 1 and ends on Feb. 28 each year. Once you earn elite status, it’s valid through March 31 of the following year. Here’s how many Loyalty Points you’ll need to earn for each level of elite status:

American Airlines has four elite status tiers, all of which offer perks to improve your travel experience. All elite members qualify for seat upgrades, bonus miles and free checked bags. If you’re a frequent traveler, these benefits can add up in value.

Here’s a look at all the AAdvantage elite status benefits:

In early March 2022, American Airlines switched from elite qualifying miles, dollars and segments to Loyalty Points, its new elite status qualifying metric.

Nowadays, the number of Loyalty Points you earn is largely tied to your spending instead of how much you fly. As a result, you’ll theoretically be able to spend your way to top-tier Executive Platinum status without stepping foot on a plane — not that we necessarily recommend doing that.

Beyond flights, you’ll be able to earn Loyalty Points by spending and engaging with American Airlines’ partners. Goodbye last-minute mileage runs and hello strategic flower orders.

Here are some of the best ways to earn Loyalty Points to earn American Airlines elite status.

The traditional way to earn elite status — by flying on the airline — has been revamped as part of the program’s overhaul.

Now, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point for each redeemable AAdvantage mile from flying on American. Depending on your status tier, redeemable miles are awarded at a multiplier between 5 times and 11 times your base ticket price.

For simple math, if you paid $200 for a ticket (before taxes) from New York to Los Angeles, you’d earn 1,000 AAdvantage miles and 1,000 Loyalty Points as a general member with no elite status. If a top-tier American Executive Platinum member booked the same ticket, they’d earn 2,200 AAdvantage miles and 2,200 Loyalty Points.

You’ll no longer need to keep track of elite qualifying miles, dollars or segments. One redeemable mile earned from flying on American will translate to 1 Loyalty Point.

When flying with one of American’s airline partners, things get a little more complicated. You’ll continue to earn redeemable AAdvantage miles based on the cabin purchased, the distance flown and your elite status for partner tickets. The only exception is JetBlue, which earns miles based on ticket cost.

When crediting a partner flight to American AAdvantage that hasn't been bought directly with American, you’ll want to look at the earnings tables on American’s dedicated partner webpage. Once you’ve identified your fare class and flight distance, you can compute how many redeemable miles you’ll earn from a given flight.

All the redeemable miles you earn will contribute to your Loyalty Points balance at a 1:1 ratio.

For example, if you splurged for a discounted British Airways business class fare from New York to London, you’d earn 5,177 redeemable miles (3,451 base miles for the flight distance with a 50% cabin bonus), which translates to 5,177 Loyalty Points.

Suppose you’re a top-tier Executive Platinum member. In that case, you’d also receive a 120% elite bonus on the miles earned, bringing your total redeemable miles to 8,455 (3,451 base miles multiplied by the 1.20 elite bonus + 4,314) — and your Loyalty Points to 8,455.

American’s unique partnership with JetBlue awards miles (and therefore Loyalty Points) based on the ticket fare using the same framework as if you flew American.

This one is pretty simple: For every dollar you spend on a cobranded American Airlines credit card, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point. Eligible cards include all Citi AAdvantage, Barclays AAdvantage Aviator credit cards (except for the no-annual-fee AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard, which earns 0.5 Loyalty Points per dollar on purchases) and AAdvantage cards issued outside the U.S. (though you might have to contact your issuer for their exact terms).

Some popular cobranded American cards include:

The information for the CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum Select and AAdvantage Aviator Red cards has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

With this change, American made it more straightforward to earn elite status through spending alone. Note that you still have to fly 30 segments per year to be able to select elite choice rewards at the Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum levels.

Unfortunately, sign-up bonuses, limited-time spending offers and bonus category multipliers (groceries, gas, dining, etc.) are excluded from earning Loyalty Points, so you will earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar you spend.

These cards will earn bonus Loyalty Points after hitting certain spending thresholds:

The information for the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: The best credit cards for American Airlines flyers

Depending on how much you dine out, you might even be able to eat your way toward elite status. The miles you earn through the AAdvantage Dining program count as Loyalty Points.

Participating in the dining rewards program is simple. Just sign up for an account and link your favorite credit cards. Then, you’ll earn miles when you dine at a participating restaurant or order takeout directly. You can earn 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent if you’re a VIP member (earned when you make 11 transactions in a calendar year and you elect to receive email communication from AAdvantage Dining), 3 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent as an online member (if you elect to receive email communication from AAdvantage Dining) and 1 AAdvantage mile per dollar spent as a regular member.

AAdvantage Dining often offers a welcome bonus for new members, though these miles are not eligible for Loyalty Points accrual.

Related: Complete guide to airline and hotel dining rewards programs

Likewise, you can earn Loyalty Points through the AAdvantage eShopping online shopping portal or the SimplyMiles program.

Miles earned through these shopping programs count toward earning Loyalty Points at a 1:1 rate. And in fact, you can potentially stack the earnings in the programs to make elite progress quickly with the right offers.

The AAdvantage eShopping online shopping portal is just one of many online shopping portals you can click through before making online purchases with select retailers such as Home Depot, Apple, Walmart, Best Buy and hundreds more. When you do so, you’ll earn American Airlines miles on the purchase — typically as a multiplier of the cost of your purchase.

However, use a shopping portal aggregator to ensure another shopping portal isn’t offering a significantly better payout.

The SimplyMiles program is similar to Amex Offers in that it lets you add merchant-specific offers to a credit or debit card and earn AAdvantage miles when you use that card to make an online or in-store purchase with the merchant. For the SimplyMiles program, you’ll need to live in the U.S., hold a valid Mastercard, and enroll. Once enrolled, you can browse offers and activate the ones that you want to use. Miles are credited to your account when you make a purchase with the participating merchant.

Further, American has confirmed that you’ll earn points when shopping directly through retailers like Vinesse, FTD and Vivid Seats.

Related: How to earn frequent flyer miles shopping in stores — and why these programs matter

It’s sometimes easy to forget, but American Airlines AAdvantage members can earn miles when staying at hotels. We don’t typically advise doing that since you often miss out on earning hotel points, but it can make sense if you’d get more use out of American miles than hotel points.

Any “base miles” earned from spending with hotel partners will count toward Loyalty Points.

As a quick recap, you earn the following number of points with the following chains:

When booking with Hyatt, Marriott and IHG, you must log in to your hotel loyalty program account and opt to earn miles with AAdvantage instead of hotel points. Make sure you take that step before booking if Loyalty Points are your earning priority.

Related: Don’t book hotel stays directly if you want to earn maximum American Loyalty Points

American Airlines AAdvantage and World of Hyatt launched a partnership in 2019 to allow elite members from both loyalty programs to earn bonus points and miles on stays and flights. American elite members earn 1 AAdvantage mile per dollar spent on Hyatt stays and Hyatt elite members earn bonus points on American flights.

So if you’re already an American Airlines elite and you tend to stay at Hyatt properties (or can change your travel plans to do so), you could rack up a lot of extra AAdvantage miles, thus Loyalty Points, on your hotel bookings. However, while you can transfer various hotel points to AAdvantage miles, these transfers will not count toward earning Loyalty Points per the program rules.

When you register by Dec. 28, there's a status challenge for Explorist and Globalist members, but more on that later.

Related: We tested earning American Airlines miles for 3 different hotel stays — here’s what we found

American Airlines has long offered a vacation package service that lets you bundle flights, hotels, rental cars, or any combination. These packages sometimes offer slightly better deals than if you were to book your flight, hotel and car separately.

Plus, you will earn 1,000 AAdvantage for every vacation package you book and can earn up to 25,000 miles when you book featured hotels.

As always, run the numbers before you book a vacation package over booking directly. Also, note that you most likely won’t earn hotel points and elite status on hotels booked as a part of a package.

Related: The complete guide to booking all-inclusive hotels with American Airlines Vacations

American offers the ability to book cruises directly through its website; any miles you earn will count toward Loyalty Points. You can earn 1 AAdvantage mile per dollar spent on cruise sailings through Dec. 31, 2024, up to 10,000 AAdvantage miles. In addition, those with an AAdvantage cobranded credit card earn an additional mile per dollar spent.

If you’re a cruiser looking to accumulate AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points, it may pay to make a reservation through American’s cruise portal.

AAdvantage miles earned with rental cars will count as Loyalty Points. The number of Loyalty Points and redeemable AAdvantage miles you’ll earn depends on the rental car partner you book with.

For example, with Avis and Budget members can earn at least 2 base miles for every dollar spent on all qualifying rentals at participating airport rental locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Plus, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point for every AAdvantage base mile earned.

Depending on how often you rent cars, this could be a good way to pad your Loyalty Points balance.

Remember that you won’t usually earn rental car points when you credit rentals to American, so consider whether that’s worth it. You may come out ahead with American miles on shorter rentals but earn more rental car points on longer and more expensive rentals.

American participates in the Fuel Rewards program by Shell. When filling up at a Shell location, you’ll receive 2 miles per gallon of fuel, which counts as Loyalty Points. New members earn 100 miles just for joining and completing their first fill-up at Shell, but these 100 miles won't earn Loyalty Points.

Related: Earn airline miles for gas purchases

American currently partners with three utility companies: NRG Energy, Reliant Energy and Xoom.

American has confirmed that activity through these partners will count toward Loyalty Points, making this an easy way to earn status without much legwork. Just be aware that several of these companies offer electricity at variable rates, so there can be some volatility in your monthly bills. Also, note that these services are only available in select states.

Note that these services offer welcome bonuses, but you may not earn Loyalty Points from said bonuses.

Miles for Opinions allows you to earn American Airlines miles for completing surveys on various topics. American has confirmed that miles earned through this partner will count toward Loyalty Points.

There’s no monetary cost to participate, so you’ll earn Loyalty Points for “free.” However, be aware that it takes a lot of answering questions to earn a small number of miles this way, so consider the value of your time.

Related: The easiest way to top up your points and miles without spending a dime

American has relationships with many companies, so you may be eligible for a status match or challenge through your employer’s corporate travel agency. Ask your travel department to see if you’re eligible.

Additionally, there's currently an American Airline status option for World of Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members. When you register by Dec. 28, Hyatt Explorist and Globalist members who have linked (or will link their accounts by Dec. 12) are eligible for American Airlines status from American's Instant Status Pass. Explorist and Globalist members receive instant Platinum and Platinum Pro status, respectively. Status is valid for four months after registering, and you'll have to earn a certain number of Loyalty Points to extend or upgrade your status for another four months.

Related: Current airline elite status match and challenge options you should know about

Unfortunately, not all mileage earning counts as Loyalty Points.

As mentioned, you won’t earn Loyalty Points for cobranded credit card sign-up bonuses, limited-time spending offers or multipliers on certain categories, like grocery stores and dining. As discussed, most AAdvantage cardholders will earn 1 mile per dollar spent, regardless of the type of purchase.

Further, you won’t earn Loyalty Points for miles earned from special promotions or those accrued through buy, gift or transfer transactions. This restriction includes miles transferred between individual accounts and those converted from another loyalty program currency, such as Marriott Bonvoy.

Unfortunately, American confirmed that you wouldn’t earn Loyalty Points through Bask Bank interest. A Bask Bank mileage savings account allows you to rack up American Airlines miles instead of cash on your savings. That said, through Dec. 15, when you deposit $25,000, you'll earn 5,000 AAdvantage Loyalty Points after maintaining the balance for 105 consecutive days.

Finally, American’s periodic donation campaigns do not count toward earning Loyalty Points. For instance, if you want to earn American AAdvantage miles while donating to charity, you can earn 10 miles for every dollar you give to Stand Up To Cancer when you donate $25 or more here. The donation landing page specifically states, “Bonus miles do not count toward elite-status qualification.”

Related: Be careful: 9 times you won't earn American Airlines Loyalty Points, even if you earn miles

There are several ways to earn American elite status without stepping on a plane. Although you ultimately may spend more time and/or money crediting American Airlines partner transactions to the program than you previously would have, there are now many more options than there were in the previous program.

Additionally, having a cobranded AAdvantage credit card will be extremely beneficial with the new qualification scheme. That said, non-cardholders will still be able to progress toward status by engaging with American’s other partners, including the dining reward program and online shopping portal.

You’ll have to look at your elite status goals and planned travel for the rest of the status year and decide whether the opportunity cost of committing to American’s non-travel partners is worth it to qualify for AAdvantage elite status.