2026 American AAdvantage program changes leaked early. American Airlines posted – and then looks like they pulled – changes to elite status benefits for next year. It appears that thresholds for earning status are not changing while there are changes to rewards at different Loyalty Points levels.
News of AAdvantage program changes come out later than for other programs, because the AAdvantage program year runs March through February, rather than with the January through December calendar year.
Bottom-line is that most changes are minor, in addition to the immediate end to miles-earning and status credit on on basic economy fares they appear to be shifting what rewards are available at different thresholds in a modest way.
Core qualifying rules and benefits appear to remain the same. Of course since this hasn’t been published ‘officially’ we could see more changes than what leaked out early.
AA quietly posts 2026-2027 changes (in part)
byu/SenoritaShelly inamericanairlines
15,000 Loyalty Points
Coming later in 2026, new rewards include:
- 2 food and beverage coupons to use on flights where service is offered
- A 12-month New York Times subscription to your choice of Games, Cooking or The Athletic
60,000 Loyalty Points
Starting March 1, 2026, we’re increasing the Loyalty Point bonus with select partners from 20% to 25%. Earn more when you spend with the American Airlines Vacations℠, AAdvantage Hotels℠, AAdvantage eShopping®, AAdvantage Dining℠ and SimplyMiles® platforms for 6 months after you register for this reward.
A maximum of 15,000 additional Loyalty Points can be earned from this promotion.
175,000 Loyalty Points
Starting March 1, 2026, you can choose from:
- $250 credit toward American Airlines Vacations℠ packages*
- 1 AAdvantage Exchange℠ gift*
Coming later in 2026, you can also choose a 12-month New York Times All Access subscription, which includes News, Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic.
250,000 Loyalty Points
Starting March 1, 2026, you can choose from:
- $500 credit toward American Airlines Vacations℠ packages*
- 1 AAdvantage Exchange℠ gift*
- 1 AAdvantage Exchange℠ premium gift* (requires 2 choices)
Coming later in 2026, you can also choose a 12-month New York Times All Access subscription.
400K / 550K / 750K Loyalty Points
Starting March 1, 2026, you can choose from:
- 1 AAdvantage Exchange℠ gift*
- 1 AAdvantage Exchange℠ premium gift* (requires 2 choices)
- $500 credit toward American Airlines Vacations℠ packages*
Coming later in 2026, you can also choose a 12-month New York Times All Access subscription.
Discontinued rewards
To make room for these additions, we’ll be removing some rewards on March 1, 2026:
- The 30% Loyalty Point bonus at the 100K Loyalty Point Reward level
- Bang & Olufsen reward choices at the 250K, 400K, 550K and 750K Loyalty Point Reward levels
- The Flagship® First dining pass reward choice at the 400K, 550K and 750K Loyalty Point Reward levels
Use miles for events and experiences
Along with new Loyalty Point Rewards, you can also enhance your experience with AAdvantage® miles. In 2026, use your miles for major events like the PGA Championship and U.S. Soccer matches.
There’s a good bit of outrage over some of these changes, but I see them as largely minor.
- There’s a modest improvement / actual usefulness at the 15,000 point level. Last year’s additional of a luggage tag redemption was low value and borderline offensive since other programs offer elite brag tags gratis as a marketing item. Now there are things some may value a little bit, and suggests that they’re continuing to lean into food for sale on board.
- The removal of a 30% bonus on loyalty point earnings at the 100k level reduces the return on AAdvantage Hotels and portal-heavy strategies without immediately publishing higher elite thresholds so in some sense this is better than alternatives we might see. Flyers and those earning status via credit card may actually like this, while those leveraging portal offers will find upper tier status-earning a little harder.
- The bonus on loyalty point earnings at 60,000 moving from 20% to 25% looks like an improvement, but it’s capped so is very minor.
- The “discontinued rewards” list is telling in what AA views as costly or supplier-dependent. Bang & Olufsen is a real cost items and supplier-dependent. Flagship First Dining has been empty with so little first class, but expect American to lean into selling it as part of ‘Flagship Business Plus’ fares on 787-9P and reconfigured aircraft and on the A321XLR. (This also suggests re-opening of Flagship First Dining at LAX.) I actually quite like redeeming miles for access.
Replacing them with AA Vacations credit and merchandise redemptions pushes towards keeping additional spend in their ecosystem and lower-value and cost items. Meanwhile, pushing Free Wi-Fi is weird in the context of loyalty points rewards (and isn’t new).
I still view American AAdvantage as far more compelling that United MileagePlus and Delta SkyMiles. There’s a compelling case to be made for Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards, but there are drawbacks even there, especially on the functionality side of mileage redemptions (like inability to combine most partners on awards, and no infant tickets on awards).
This year I’ve reduced my own loyalty points-earning. I’ll be over 300,000 but no longer over 400,000. Upgrade priority just isn’t materially helpful to me. Upgrades on routes where I care are rare. If a published path – like 1 million loyalty points – existed for Concierge Key I’d go all-in on that. I’ve been an Executive Platinum or higher since 2012, and I’ll continue to be. Where do y’all stand?
What about the two swus at 175k miles?
It’s the cap at 15k LP on the now 25% six month bonus that is really rough. Makes no sense if AA is earning its profit through credit cards not flying – they should want to continue to incentivize spend. 15k is too low.
They also made it so that you have to register for the promotion. In this case I actually think that’s a positive – I’ve had a lot of frustration hitting the various 60k/100k thresholds only to wait 5 days before they activated the promo on their end. If it’s only one six month period at least you can control when it starts and time the bonus to your advantage.
Fluctuate between EP and PP. I’ll make EP for this year. But was already thinking about dropping to PP and this change makes it much more likely that I will interact with the program much less once I hit 125k LP.
That said AA Hotels remains excellent value. For now!
Removing the 30% at 100k is a significant downgrade, and shouldn’t be minimized. It basically removes any incentive I had to try for >75,000 LPs, since I won’t hit Executive Platinum and Platinum status gives me the benefit I value the most (MCE at booking). Once I hit 75k I’m basically done with the AA ecosystem for the loyalty year in terms of cards and partners.
I have ExP secured for the 2026 year and due to the nature of my flying, I’m usually in that fuzzy grey area in PP close to ExP. That’s the reason I switched from MileagePlus this year, since United’s severe increase in qualifying meant that I’d probably lose my 1K. I’m glad qualifying thresholds aren’t being moved, since I do value my status.
Ah, Loyalty Points and ‘rewards’… I preferred the thresholds and awards in 2022… like, you’d get the reward (SWUs, etc.) when reaching Platinum Pro (125K LPs), and again when reaching EXP (200K), which ‘felt’ right (something tangible for reaching the next level). But, when AA changed this in 2023, making us work extra for the reward (175K, 250K, etc.) it felt ‘off.’ I get it, they’re a for-profit business, and we’re all peons (mere EXPs included). Even so, I got burned on SWUs in 2023 (waitlisted to oblivion), so I had gone with the bonus miles thereafter (the sets of 25-30K with the 5K credit card bonuses, because a sure-thing is better than the bait-and-switch). Yet, these days I’m settling on Platinum Pro just for the oneworld Emerald; no (meaningful) rewards. And, it seems Gary’s keeping EXP and not pushing for the 400K or 550K rewards (good call). And, no worries on the removal of the Flagship First Dining pass… (not like they’ll ever reopen it at LAX.) @Peter congrats on EXP! AA Hotels! @George Romey, did you get your Key renewed?
Next year is the last year I’ll be EXP. For 2026, moving non AA credit card spend to 2% cash back card. Upgrades are in a free fall and that is main value for me. AA lost me when they started trying to sell $40 upgrades to me at check in when I should have cleared days ago.
15k lp cap on the lp bonus is brutal.
@Mike Sherman – no changes, apparently, to the other reward choices at each level
Are they still going to have the free Admirals club dues at 250k?
I couldn’t give a damn about status and loyalty anymore. I’ll earn what I earn on the airline that most meets my need. I rarely go out of my way unless just maybe it’s a single ticket or stay that will bump me to the next threshold. The benefits of doing so are marginal. I’ll mostly rely on bank cards for the perks I care about most (points earning and lounges) and anything I get from airline status is just extra gravy.
SWUs have become near useless. I got four earlier this year for hitting 3MM Lifetime miles. Right now I have 2 applied to a LAX/MIA flight and one applied to a CLT/DFW flight. None have cleared, the CLT/DFW flight a possibility. LAX/MIA (on a 321 neo not a widebody) somewhat doubtful unless there’s a misconnect or no show and no other CK with higher rolling 12 month spend and also applying a SWU. And when you apply the SWU the cash upgrade options goes away.
@AZTravelGuy — This is becoming the norm, even for many of us who have earned status for years and years. We’re letting it go, or reducing our expectations (which is a little sad, especially when it used to be so much more fun, back in the day). For 2026 and beyond, it’s just not worth the effort as much anymore. If you can reach your goals naturally, don’t chase it; let status come to you.
As a 100% leisure traveler and a portal heavy leaning loyalty point gatherer, I usually only achieve Platinum status. It gets me the MCE seats and a few upgrades since I often fly many routes that aren’t so premium traveler heavy(Not referring to people, just the lack of 1st class seats booked). I decided to really work to make PlatPro for 2026 and looks like I’ll get there with the assistance of the 30% bonus at 100k. Without that next year, there’s no way I can or will spend enough on my AA credit card to get to that level again. Looks like I’ll be back to Platinum in 2027 and American will not get my extra portal spending. Once I reach 75K, I’ll just use the Chase portal.
The New York Times reward is more like punishment to me. It’s even less valuable than the Avis status levels you get.
As a lifetime ExPlt (5+ million miles) I have reduced my spend on tickets and have started to use more of my miles. So, sitting around 120,000 LPs for the year (and nothing else in the pipeline until Feb 28) all those ridiculous levels have meant nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. The days of getting 8 eVIPs when hitting 100,000 miles are long gone. This year I had one last expiring SWU and was able to buy a Basic Economy ticket to Madrid (about $550) in January and applied the SWU and am now flying LBB-DFW-MAD in biz. That was probably the last REAL benefit from all those years of loyalty. Every year it gets worse. Like others, I am directing more and more of my (meager) spending from the AA Citi card to more lucrative cards. I’m just a normal guy, nit supported by some company that sends me here or there.
@DaninMCI — LOL. Would a WSJ subscription make you feel better? Like Amex Platinum’s digital entertainment credit, perhaps AA will follow.
@JH – Really sad, ain’t it? The mindset behind all of it. AAdvantage used to be run by people who understood that loyalty is an emotional contract built over years, not a spreadsheet exercise optimized quarter by quarter. Now it feels like the program is designed by revenue managers and lawyers whose primary goal is optionality and deniability, post it quietly, pull it when noticed, then reintroduce it later once the outrage fades. That tells you everything about where priorities sit. The irony is that AA built one of the most powerful loyalty franchises in the industry by being transparent and generous, and they’re now steadily burning that goodwill for marginal short-term gains. At some point the airline may finally realize that when trust is gone, no amount of algorithmic tuning brings real loyalty back. Or perhaps the domestic oligopoly will just continue to strengthen to the point that they will have little reason to care.
Platinum Pro and that’s good enough for me, as chasing up to reach Exec Plat just means have a rotten life living on planes and getting fat eating at hotels. The older I get, the less I enjoy travel, even with the perks. And, that last thing I want to do on holiday is get on another long haul flight. As the saying goes: “Nobody…nobody ever…retired on their frequent traveller miles”
Currently at 424,000 LPs and over 1M miles to burn. I’m counting in the Admirals club membership reward not changing. By Feb 28th I’ll be over 500k LPs as far as other rewards, I almost singed up for the NYT games subscription, so cool on that reward. The others are not that enticing. I’ll probably select LPs or miles SWUs are not worth it. We’ll see.