Dec 17, 2021, 11:25 am
Last edit by: jbeckett
American Airlines announced that starting in 2022, the way to earn Elite status has changed. No more Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM), Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS), or Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD)!
Now, you can get AA Elite status by earning Loyalty Points (LPs): https://aadvantagestatus.com/?anchor...=newaadvantage
How many LPs do I need for elite status?
How do I earn LPs?
Flying
What you get for redeemable miles (RDM) is what you'll get for LPs.
AA and B6 flights:
No status: 5 LPs per $ spent in base fare plus fees (excludes taxes)
Gold: 7 LPs per $
Platinum: 8 LPs per $
Plat Pro: 9 LPs per $
EXP: 11 LPs per $
Partner flights (other than B6):
Distance flown x accrual rate* x (1 + cabin bonus + elite bonus**)
* Certain discount fares earn less than 100% of miles flown. In those cases, the discounted accrual rate (0% to 75% depending on the partner and the fare class) should be applied to the flown miles. Otherwise, the accrual rate is 100%. If there is a cabin bonus, it should not be added to the accrual rate; it is applied separately within the parentheses. The accrual rate can never be more than 100%.
** 40% for GLD, 60% for PLT, 80% for PRO, 120% for EXP.
So for example, an EXP on a 5000-mile flight on QR booked in J would earn 5000 x 100% x (1 + 25% + 120%) = 5000 x 1 x 2.45 = 12250 LPs.
A PLT on the same flight booked in P would earn 5000 x 75% x (1 + 0% + 60%) = 5000 x .75 x 1.6 = 6000 LPs.
Earning chart for QR
Here's a great online LP calculator:
https://lpcalculator.com/#/calculator/
AAdvantage non-flying partners:
Generally, 1 LP per base mile earned. But in many cases you can earn large bonuses that post as base miles; see link here: https://exploreamerican.com/newaadva...nloyaltypoints
There are differences among how these programs work, ranging from minor to significant, in terms of awarding LPs. You will need to skim through the thread as there are too many different promo offers to address here. But here are the popular ones:
BookAAHotels and RocketMiles: You can earn large mileage bonuses here, separated into "base" miles and "promo" miles by the portals. For now they are all posting as base miles on aa.com, but there is a suspicion that the "promo" miles may start posting as bonus miles (and so would not count as LP). You don't even have to actually check in or stay at the hotel as long as you pay for the stay.
SimplyMiles: You must link a MasterCard to the account. Then you can add their promos to your card by activating the offers. When you accept one of their offers and then pay for it using your linked card, you will get the associated miles which currently post as base miles on aa.com.
AAdvantage eShopping: Once you click through the AAdvantage eShopping portal to a vendor offer and make a purchase, you will eventually get the associated miles posted to your AAdvantage account as both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points. If the merchant advertises an increase in the miles per dollar spent, you'll earn the higher amount in both redeemable miles and an equal number of Loyalty Points. The same applies if a merchant advertises a higher fixed amount per purchase, rather than a per dollar amount. Examples of this would appear on the portal as, "Extra miles. Was 1 mile/$. Now earn 3 miles/$" or "Extra miles. Was up to 3700 miles. Now up to 6200 miles." However, if the website advertises a "Limited-time bonus offer" for "bonus miles" after meeting a spending threshold, that bonus will only post as redeemable miles and not Loyalty Points. If a bonus is offered for some site-wide activity such as 1000 miles for installing an extension, or 500 miles for enrolling in the portal, or 2000 miles for meeting a spending threshold across multiple merchants, the bonus will only post as redeemable miles and not Loyalty Points.
(If a vendor has offers with both SimplyMiles and eShopping, activate the offer on SimplyMiles first and then make the purchase through eShopping with the MasterCard linked to your SimplyMiles account. Apparently that you can get a double-dip. You can also get a double-dip by stacking the promos with discount offers from your credit card issuers, basically reducing the cost to you.
Booking directly with hotels, car rental companies, etc.: The picture here is a bit unclear but it appears that if you book with a hotel that offers 5x miles, only 1 mile will post as base and the rest as bonus.
Credit card spend:
1 LP per $ spent on an AA branded card (except for one card which earns 0.50 LP per $ and several non-US cards which earn 2 LP per $). See the list of cards, and a lot more small print here: https://creditcards.aa.com/aadvantag...hange_ExecCard
What about spending bonuses?
E.g., your card gives 2x miles for hotels, or 3x for AA purchases, etc etc. These do NOT count.
These bonuses count:
Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard (the $450 annual fee card that gives Admirals Club access): 10K LP bonus when hitting $40K spend for the year.
AAdvantage Aviator Silver Mastercard: 5K LP bonus when hitting $20K spend, another 5K LP bonus when hitting $40K spend, and another 5K LP bonus when hitting $50K spend for the year.
Do miles earned at Bask Bank count?
No.
Will Loyalty Points count toward Million Miler℠ status?
No, Million Miler℠ status will still be earned the same way as today, based on miles earned from flying with American and its partners.
Now, you can get AA Elite status by earning Loyalty Points (LPs): https://aadvantagestatus.com/?anchor...=newaadvantage
How many LPs do I need for elite status?
Code:
Gold: 40K Platinum: 75K Plat Pro: 125K EXP: 200K
Flying
What you get for redeemable miles (RDM) is what you'll get for LPs.
AA and B6 flights:
No status: 5 LPs per $ spent in base fare plus fees (excludes taxes)
Gold: 7 LPs per $
Platinum: 8 LPs per $
Plat Pro: 9 LPs per $
EXP: 11 LPs per $
Partner flights (other than B6):
Distance flown x accrual rate* x (1 + cabin bonus + elite bonus**)
* Certain discount fares earn less than 100% of miles flown. In those cases, the discounted accrual rate (0% to 75% depending on the partner and the fare class) should be applied to the flown miles. Otherwise, the accrual rate is 100%. If there is a cabin bonus, it should not be added to the accrual rate; it is applied separately within the parentheses. The accrual rate can never be more than 100%.
** 40% for GLD, 60% for PLT, 80% for PRO, 120% for EXP.
So for example, an EXP on a 5000-mile flight on QR booked in J would earn 5000 x 100% x (1 + 25% + 120%) = 5000 x 1 x 2.45 = 12250 LPs.
A PLT on the same flight booked in P would earn 5000 x 75% x (1 + 0% + 60%) = 5000 x .75 x 1.6 = 6000 LPs.
Earning chart for QR
Here's a great online LP calculator:
https://lpcalculator.com/#/calculator/
AAdvantage non-flying partners:
Generally, 1 LP per base mile earned. But in many cases you can earn large bonuses that post as base miles; see link here: https://exploreamerican.com/newaadva...nloyaltypoints
There are differences among how these programs work, ranging from minor to significant, in terms of awarding LPs. You will need to skim through the thread as there are too many different promo offers to address here. But here are the popular ones:
BookAAHotels and RocketMiles: You can earn large mileage bonuses here, separated into "base" miles and "promo" miles by the portals. For now they are all posting as base miles on aa.com, but there is a suspicion that the "promo" miles may start posting as bonus miles (and so would not count as LP). You don't even have to actually check in or stay at the hotel as long as you pay for the stay.
SimplyMiles: You must link a MasterCard to the account. Then you can add their promos to your card by activating the offers. When you accept one of their offers and then pay for it using your linked card, you will get the associated miles which currently post as base miles on aa.com.
AAdvantage eShopping: Once you click through the AAdvantage eShopping portal to a vendor offer and make a purchase, you will eventually get the associated miles posted to your AAdvantage account as both redeemable miles and Loyalty Points. If the merchant advertises an increase in the miles per dollar spent, you'll earn the higher amount in both redeemable miles and an equal number of Loyalty Points. The same applies if a merchant advertises a higher fixed amount per purchase, rather than a per dollar amount. Examples of this would appear on the portal as, "Extra miles. Was 1 mile/$. Now earn 3 miles/$" or "Extra miles. Was up to 3700 miles. Now up to 6200 miles." However, if the website advertises a "Limited-time bonus offer" for "bonus miles" after meeting a spending threshold, that bonus will only post as redeemable miles and not Loyalty Points. If a bonus is offered for some site-wide activity such as 1000 miles for installing an extension, or 500 miles for enrolling in the portal, or 2000 miles for meeting a spending threshold across multiple merchants, the bonus will only post as redeemable miles and not Loyalty Points.
- A separate thread exists to discuss the AAdvantage eShopping portal
- Another thread exists to discuss using the portal for a particular merchant, giftcards.com
- For additional questions about buying and using gift cards, refer to the separate Manufactured Spending forum.
(If a vendor has offers with both SimplyMiles and eShopping, activate the offer on SimplyMiles first and then make the purchase through eShopping with the MasterCard linked to your SimplyMiles account. Apparently that you can get a double-dip. You can also get a double-dip by stacking the promos with discount offers from your credit card issuers, basically reducing the cost to you.
Booking directly with hotels, car rental companies, etc.: The picture here is a bit unclear but it appears that if you book with a hotel that offers 5x miles, only 1 mile will post as base and the rest as bonus.
Credit card spend:
1 LP per $ spent on an AA branded card (except for one card which earns 0.50 LP per $ and several non-US cards which earn 2 LP per $). See the list of cards, and a lot more small print here: https://creditcards.aa.com/aadvantag...hange_ExecCard
What about spending bonuses?
E.g., your card gives 2x miles for hotels, or 3x for AA purchases, etc etc. These do NOT count.
These bonuses count:
Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard (the $450 annual fee card that gives Admirals Club access): 10K LP bonus when hitting $40K spend for the year.
AAdvantage Aviator Silver Mastercard: 5K LP bonus when hitting $20K spend, another 5K LP bonus when hitting $40K spend, and another 5K LP bonus when hitting $50K spend for the year.
Do miles earned at Bask Bank count?
No.
Will Loyalty Points count toward Million Miler℠ status?
No, Million Miler℠ status will still be earned the same way as today, based on miles earned from flying with American and its partners.
Loyalty Points discussion/questions - From 2022 now used for determining elite status
Oct 29, 2021, 8:33 am
#736
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: SoCal,
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro
Posts: 771
I’m not being flip or a smart azz here, but no way AA is allowing any segments traveled under an award to be counted. Giving customers anything isn’t in their DNA any more. This entire change is about boosting revenue. One poster nailed it a few pages back, this is HP reincarnated.
Oct 29, 2021, 8:40 am
#737
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 29,585
I’m not being flip or a smart azz here, but no way AA is allowing any segments traveled under an award to be counted. Giving customers anything isn’t in their DNA any more. This entire change is about boosting revenue. One poster nailed it a few pages back, this is HP reincarnated.
"American marketed award travel will count toward reaching the minimum flight segment requirement."
Oct 29, 2021, 9:04 am
#738
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
Oct 29, 2021, 9:09 am
#739
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Washington,DC
Posts: 1,822
So invest your emergency fund in Bask Bank. Get 200,000 Reedemable miles, use these to fly 30 segments and get full EXP.
I doubt Bask miles will count, but if they do, I'll definitely invest some $ there for an easy way to earn miles and LP's
I doubt Bask miles will count, but if they do, I'll definitely invest some $ there for an easy way to earn miles and LP's
Oct 29, 2021, 9:11 am
#740
Join Date: Oct 2019
Programs: Flying Blue, Hilton Honors, Amtrak Guest Rewards
Posts: 2,402
Hilton's CEO commented that while overall business travel is down, it's down most among the big companies (he was quoted as saying the biggest companies have gone from 20% of Hilton's business travel revenue to 10%). It's not surprising: for a company of N employees, there are probably typically log2(N + 1) decision makers: if 1 of those decision makers decides not to resume travel at 2019 (let alone trend), that company isn't resuming 2019/trend travel (a decision maker could be a department head: one department not resuming means the overall company is still down). So for a single-person company (e.g. an independent consultant), it's 1 decision maker, at 100k, it's 17. So if the probability of a given decision maker in an industry saying "get back out there" is P, then the probability of a company of N employees resuming travel is 1 - (1-P)^(log2(N + 1)).
Let's say 80% of decision makers in some industry are in favor of resumption. That indicates that 80% of 1-person shops go back out, 64% of 3-person shops, 51% of 7-person shops, 41% of 15, and so on to 2% of 100k shops. If this model is anywhere near accurate, you'd see that shift in composition. The longer companies survive without 2019 levels of travel, the lower the ceiling on that probability gets.
The program changes are somewhat a reaction to that. Small business owners are legendary in their ability to put spend on cards in ways that a salaryman at a large company (where there are more likely to be corporate issued T&E and/or procurement cards) can't (Delta's longstanding practices around card spend are almost certainly driven by Amex's view of small business cards as a key part of their ecosystem (even prepandemic, it was possible to put c. $250k in spend on the right combination of Delta Amex cards and get SWUs with zero segments required!)).
The segment requirement is also, IMO, a reaction to the shift in clientele. J/F flyers can be partitioned into three categories: self-pay, OPM where the OP are okay with their M being spent on J/F, and OPM where the OP are only okay with M being spent on Y/PY, but someone self-paid for an upgrade with miles or cash. SWUs for the second category of flyers are a good business practice: if the people paying for your travel are OK with J/F, you're not booking Y and applying an SWU. The SWU will get used for J -> F or on a leisure trip where the yield was low anyway. In the other categories, you're more likely to see a behavioral change from a cash J/F booking to Y + SWU, and smaller companies are more likely self-payers (or you see the boss saying, "I know you have a SWU, so expense Y and use the SWU", i.e. more likely to opportunistically be third category). This can of course be dealt with by restricting SWU applicability (there do appear to be more complaints on the DL forum than the AA forum about not being able to find a flight where a SWU can be applied), but AA seems to prefer to limit outstanding SWUs vs. being much more restrictive about when they can be applied.
Oct 29, 2021, 9:12 am
#741
Join Date: Oct 2019
Programs: Flying Blue, Hilton Honors, Amtrak Guest Rewards
Posts: 2,402
Oct 29, 2021, 9:16 am
#743
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SJC
Programs: AA EXP, BA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton diamond, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 33,533
Some initial observations/comparison to the "old" system for EXP requalification
With what we had already booked for next year's travel (optimized for EQD and EQM since booked before the change:
EQD: 78% booked
EQM: 84% booked
$/EQD: $0.77
Under the new system
LP: 58% booked (based on current understanding of AA, partner, special fare LP earning)
LP/$: 12.8
EXP will definitely be more difficult,and spend is an issue as there are two of us doing this. It may be time to have mrs. brp be Plat Pro (she focuses spend on Hyatt) and me as EXP with some CC spend. We'd both be Emerald for OW benefits and only need on EXP for any benefits there. Reward selection for 30 segments will, of course, be less for PP.
Also, we do have 14 months for 2022 qualification, so a little easier the first year.
Cheers.
With what we had already booked for next year's travel (optimized for EQD and EQM since booked before the change:
EQD: 78% booked
EQM: 84% booked
$/EQD: $0.77
Under the new system
LP: 58% booked (based on current understanding of AA, partner, special fare LP earning)
LP/$: 12.8
EXP will definitely be more difficult,and spend is an issue as there are two of us doing this. It may be time to have mrs. brp be Plat Pro (she focuses spend on Hyatt) and me as EXP with some CC spend. We'd both be Emerald for OW benefits and only need on EXP for any benefits there. Reward selection for 30 segments will, of course, be less for PP.
Also, we do have 14 months for 2022 qualification, so a little easier the first year.
Cheers.
Last edited by brp; Oct 29, 2021 at 9:31 am
Oct 29, 2021, 9:21 am
#744
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 10,041
Oct 29, 2021, 9:52 am
#746
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,668
Oct 29, 2021, 10:37 am
#747
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: PHL / NYC / PSA-BLQ
Programs: AA PPRO, Marriott/Hilton Gold, AMX-Plat, Global Entry
Posts: 3,109
This will create a very interesting collision between AA/Citi & Amex.
For those of us with Amex Plat (whose price is going up to $695) and do a lot of spend on Amex, shifting all of that to an AA Citi-branded card (let's say AA Citi Executive for $450 fee & admiral's club membership, TSA Pre...) and dumping Amex Plat becomes an interesting option.
For me, the question is whether I'd rather be going to the Admiral's Club or the Centurion Club. Food & drinks definitely superior at Centurion. I have to understand the details of the new Loyalty program to see what moving that spend to AA/Citi does for me.
This definitely shakes some calculations up.
For those of us with Amex Plat (whose price is going up to $695) and do a lot of spend on Amex, shifting all of that to an AA Citi-branded card (let's say AA Citi Executive for $450 fee & admiral's club membership, TSA Pre...) and dumping Amex Plat becomes an interesting option.
For me, the question is whether I'd rather be going to the Admiral's Club or the Centurion Club. Food & drinks definitely superior at Centurion. I have to understand the details of the new Loyalty program to see what moving that spend to AA/Citi does for me.
This definitely shakes some calculations up.
Oct 29, 2021, 10:38 am
#748
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,668
You know that businesses see customer relationships as "what have you done for me lately" and "are you any useful to me anymore"...
Oct 29, 2021, 10:40 am
#749
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,668
Oct 29, 2021, 10:42 am
#750
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: DFW
Programs: OWE AA EXP;*A TK Gold; Marriott LTT; Hyatt Globalist; IHG Plat; National VIP
Posts: 3,097
This will create a very interesting collision between AA/Citi & Amex.
For those of us with Amex Plat (whose price is going up) and do a lot of spend on Amex, shifting all of that to an AA Citi-branded card (let's say AA Citi Executive for $450 fee & admiral's club membership...) and dumping Amex Plat becomes an interesting option.
For me, the question is whether I'd rather be going to the Admiral's Club or the Centurion Club. Food & drinks definitely superior at Centurion. I have to understand the details of the new Loyalty program to see what moving that spend to AA/Citi does for me.
This definitely shakes some calculations up.
For those of us with Amex Plat (whose price is going up) and do a lot of spend on Amex, shifting all of that to an AA Citi-branded card (let's say AA Citi Executive for $450 fee & admiral's club membership...) and dumping Amex Plat becomes an interesting option.
For me, the question is whether I'd rather be going to the Admiral's Club or the Centurion Club. Food & drinks definitely superior at Centurion. I have to understand the details of the new Loyalty program to see what moving that spend to AA/Citi does for me.
This definitely shakes some calculations up.