Method: Distance formula - where?
 

I've searched all over, but I cannot find the details of how American calculates AAdvantage miles and loyalty points using the distance method.

Could you clarify a bit? The distance is the distance of the flight, no?

Yes. The question is how do they calculate the number of AAdvantage miles and loyalty points earned for distance X, in class Y, on airline Z. The airline partner pages on aa.com (such as this) provide some of the information, but I can't find the exact formula anywhere.

It should be Distance * Base Mile Multiplier * Cabin Bonus * Status Bonus.

In your activity it is broken down by each bonus/multiplier.

I assume that "Base Mile Multiplier" refers to the "Base miles" column. So that just leaves the "Status Bonus." Is that documented anywhere?

Also, it sure seems like this is something that should be documented somewhere on aa.com.

I haven't flown yet. I'm trying to compare the prospective earnings from booking directly with a partner vs. booking AA codeshares.

It's worth noting that the AA earning page says:But they don't provide any information about how that calculation will be done. They don't even provide the base mile and cabin bonus multipliers for AA fare codes.

Use : https://lpcalculator.com/#/landing

makes it super easy.

Yes, Base Miles, it's a multiplier (or divisor) on distance flown - .25 to 2.5.
Status Bonus is documented: https://www.aa.com/pubcontent//en_US...-statuses.html

There are calculators out there that do the hard work for you, including https://lpcalculator.com/#/calculator

There is no class of service bonus for AA coded flights. It's purely based on dollar spend with base miles at 5 miles per dollar (2 miles per dollar for BE fares) plus status bonus miles.
https://www.aa.com/web/i18n/aadvanta...s-flights.html

Except that, as noted above, AA flights can still occasionally post using the distance method if the the fare information isn't available (rebooking during IRROPS, etc.).

It can happen, but it is rare.

Regardless, if it does happen and the result is not to your benefit, you can always call AAdvantage Customer Service and have them fix it.