US Airways Dividend Miles will be combined into American AAdvantage next year — the official word is second quarter 2015. If I had to be it would be on the early end of that timeframe, since they’ve made an announcement of when they’ll do it they are confident they’ll be able to hit the target (why announce a target you may not hit?). That tells me they think they can be ready even earlier.

When the two programs are combined, elite qualifying activity from 2014 between the two programs will get combined to determine 2015 elite status.

So someone that had qualifying miles or segments in both American and US Airways during 2014 can get their status bumped up as a result of merging the programs.

Someone might have 90,000 qualifying miles with American and 10,000 with US Airways. They’ll be an American AAdvantage Platinum member at the start of 2015. But a few months into the program year, they’ll have 100,000 qualifying miles, and become an Executive Platinum.

This isn’t as uncommon as you might think. In my own case I have 10,000 US Airways elite qualifying miles, from spending $25,000 on my Dividend Miles co-brand credit card. I thought I might need those miles, and I bet all along (though began to doubt) that these qualifying miles would get combined into AAdvantage for 2015 status. In the end I didn’t need them.

One artifact of the programs, as they sync up their requirements, is that US Airways — with a ton of short haul flights especially in the Northeast — has required 120 segments for top tier status. American has required just 100.

In next year’s program American is going to increase the segment requeirement for top tier status to 120.

But US Airways members get a brief reprieve… 100 segments in 2014 will equate to top tier status in 2015. US Airways Dividend Miles members that have already flown 100 segments have been bumped up to Chairmans Preferred status.

Chairman’s Preferred status normally requires 100,000 miles or 120 segments. However, in anticipation of combining Dividend Miles with the AAdvantage program in the second quarter of 2015, we are lowering the segment requirement for 2014 to 100 segments to align with the 2014 AAdvantage Executive Platinum threshold.

So the US Airways elite status requirement is being reduced now at the end of 2014, before being bumped back up for 2015. But it’s all part of aligning the US Airways and American frequent flyer programs, and making sure that all members are treated fairly. Since 100 segments in American’s program in 2014 was enough for top tier status, that same 100 segments in the US Airways program will be as well.

(HT: One Mile at a Time)

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