American Airlines has quietly changed the rules for its ‘basic economy’ tickets. As of today, buying a basic economy fare means no mileage-earning and no credit towards elite status for the flying. Tickets purchased prior to December 17 still earn based on the old rules.
The news was flagged by aviation watchdog JonNYC – and, notably, not by American Airlines.
AA: basic economy, someone sends: pic.twitter.com/HsVNN7dGlp
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 17, 2025
This mirrors Delta, and is tougher than United – which awards miles and qualifying points (but not qualifying flights) for basic economy tickets.
For American, it represents another of many shifts. There have been near-constantly changing rules for basic economy since they first introduced restrictions on these fares in 2017. And it is probably a bad idea. Maybe that’s why they didn’t announce it to customers. They announced renovations to one of their three airport lounges at D.C.’s National Airport today.. but not this.
How Airlines Use Basic Economy
Basic economy is the tool airlines have used, not so much to get customers to pay a bit more for what used to be included in a standard fare, but to price discriminate and sell tickets to ultra-low cost airline customers without offering those low fares to existing passengers willing to pay more.
By making the restrictions unpleasant, they offer their seats cheaply to compete with Spirit and Frontier but in a way that avoids lowering the price of ticket sales to everyone.
That’s been a key way they’ve successfully competed against low fare airlines. They are simultaneously a high fare and a low fare airline on the same plane. And that gives them a much better revenue mix than Spirit et al (albeit with higher costs as well).
Previously they would have to match fares or they would lose too much business – but in so doing they lost too much revenue. Basic economy became the new advance purchase and Saturday stay fare rules that gated business travelers and leisure travelers, allowing them to sell expensive tickets to people flying on company money and cheap tickets to those coming out of their own pocket. It is how they avoid selling cheap tickets to business and premium leisure passengers.
The thinking now seems to me ‘those who care about AAdvantage will buy up or be kept from buying down’ and that might be true. It might also be that without mileage-earning those passengers aren’t loyal and defect to Delta.
American’s Schizophrenic Approach To Basic Economy
Since the very beginning with these fares, American has been constantly tweaking the rules. Perhaps they’ve done it so often they no longer feel the need to tell customers when the rules have changed. They’ll discover it when they fly, or in the case of mileage and elite status credit, after they’ve flown.
American rolled out basic economy in 2017 and they even treated these customers worse when cancelling their flights in addition to offering no changes or credit for cancelled tickets; last to board; no free advance seat assignments; no upgrades; and reduced elite qualfiying credit.
In 2018 they started allowing basic economy passengers to bring carry-on bags on board making their basic economy much more attractive than Untied’s (United still bars standard carry-on bags, which is worse than Spirit which charges for them).
In 2019 they started selling seat assignments to basic economy passengers – it was no longer ‘no seat assignments in advance, period’.
During the pandemic, American restored elite benefits like upgrades, extra legroom coach seats, and confirmed same-day changes to basic economy (as well as allowing basic economy passengers to buy upgrades, priority boarding, and Main Cabin Extra).
American elimianted basic economy earning towards elite status in 2021, and then brought it back starting in 2022.
Last year, American made it possible for basic economy customers to retain some ticket value when cancelling a ticket.
Now they’ve taken away all mileage-earning and status credit, but those with credit cards and status can still use their benefits.
Why American Airlines Will Take A Revenue Hit From This Change
In recent years, American has taken the approach that basic economy is the gateway into AAdvantage. They start with budget travelers and begin moving them up the ladder.
It’s one thing if they didn’t want these fares to count towards elite status, but that too seems like a mistake (because flying and credit card spend combine towards status). But not awarding miles at all means there’s no point in joining or engaging with the program. And they’re already awarding few miles because mileage-earning is based on fare paid and basic economy fares are cheaper to begin with.
Encouraging flyers to join AAdvantage is the first step in converting them to a co-brand credit card. This will eliminate the incentive for new and price-sensitive travelers to start the Citibank journey that drives their profits.
American Airlines loses money flying. Their costs of flying are greater than passenger revenue. More than the entire profit earned at the airline is represented by revenue from Citibank, which is estimated at around 50% margin.
They’re moving to free inflight wifi for AAdvantage members. They want people joining the program! When they had a JetBlue partnership, high spending New Yorkers were joining in droves, outpacing additions from other hubs. Now they need all the help they can get adding to the member base, because their co-brand has fallen from number one in charge volume seven years ago to number three among airlines today. With this move they are choosing marginal ticket revenue over their Citi partnership which seems unwise.
Crazy not to inform customers. I would think the point is to get Aadvantage members to purchase more expensive ticket options. Well why would they do this if they don’t know about the policy change?
It’s not like it even costs anything to communicate via the App!
Count on AA to mimic the worst elements of competitor rules.
This is absolutely the right move for AA. People who are attracted to basic economy fares are not brand loyal; there is no reason to chase them.
As usual, AA realizes that DL has handled basic economy the best of the big 4 and they are copying DL.
@tim dunno- airline loyal isn’t the point. AA was giving 2 miles per dollar to basic. That’s 300 miles on a $150 base fare. It gets people into the database to market to. This is one of the things Delta does wrong – an opportunity to sign up members.
Maybe they incorrectly think free wifi will be enough. But they need that account balance over 0.
It’s been two years since I paid to fly on American, though I fly the airline almost exclusively and regularly. I’ve been working off several million accrued miles, purchasing (mostly) Basic Economy fares well in advance with my banked miles, effectively transforming those tickets into fully refundable and changeable fares, and side-stepping otherwise-applicable Basic Economy restrictions. I’ve been doing that because that “loophole” seemed too good to be true. In light of this change discussed in Gary’s post, I have a feeling something similarly customer-unfriendly will be coming for Basic Economy fares purchased with miles instead of $$$. Makes me glad I have burned through a couple million miles with this plan while I still could. I suspect AA will soon make miles-purchased Basic Economy fares fully or largely non-refundable, as is already the case with miles-purchased upgrades. I hope I’m wrong.
Gary,
and yet DL and now AA recognize that you don’t chase the loyalty of people that pay bottom of the barrel fares.
The difference between execs at DL and AA is that they, unlike you, manage billions of dollars in revenue.
as for loyalty program revenue, DL gets the most of any airline in the world.
Maybe things will change with Hauenstein’s retirement, but I doubt DL is anywhere near at risk of slipping on a banana
That is short sided of AA. It would be beneficial for them to award only a small amount of miles for basic economy to develop a loyal customer base, not zero miles.
Agree with @Tim – biggest thing I take issue with is the lack of notice. People are going to join the program in 2026 because of the free wifi, not because they’re going to get 2x miles/LP on a basic economy ticket. I’m sure they’ve run the numbers – even if the average basic economy passenger is spending $1000 a year with the airline (and I doubt it’s that high), folks are not going to be up in arms about not earning 2,000 miles that will sit in an account and go unused. As a status member, I was already “buying up” to get 11x or 9x or whatever status I have that year if the cost difference was reasonable and I wanted the flexibility / did not want to incur a $99 penalty. Will I mostly buy main cabin and very rarely still buy basic? Yep, this doesn’t change that.
Interestingly they now say nothing on the Basic side of the Basic v. Main chart about same day changes. This perhaps implies that same day changes are not available to Basic fares (and provides more of an inducement to buy up to Main), but if you click on the little (i) button, seems like that has not changed? Still says: Pay to choose another same-day flight (complimentary based on status); Same-day travel changes subject to availability.
Hope everyone is currently enjoying the $0 AA cardmember zoom baking class with Claire Saffitz. AA – delivering value during the holidays!
I have flown basic in coach on JetBlue (Blue Basic) and remain brand loyal to them, even having their branded credit card. Their seats, their routes and their prices all make a difference. If it wasn’t for Blue Basic, I would not have became loyal to them as the low price brought me in enough times to realize that the product I was getting was filling all of the right boxes with checks. Until they really screw up things, I will continue flying with them. I wish I had switched to them sooner.
And AA is raising thresholds on status and making the announcement as quietly as possible during holiday time hoping we won’t notice. Check Reddit and its X replies. It can do what it wants but it publishes its crap ahead of time, like no one ever passed a basic PR class over in Fort Worth. They blow my mind with how they HYATT-ize everything. This is what sent me back to prioritizing Hilton as a Globalist. Now they must “make room” for the new awards. I don’t care about BE, but I do care how they use free wifi, exchange gifts and their fancy centennial to make status cost more. It is already pricey enough.
One way to get rid of the bottom feeders and thin the elite massive pool.
I do thinks its going in the wrong direction as folks like to be feel somewhat valued
I’d argue make it tougher to get status but doing what they are doing is not productive IMHO
Added to that I almost always pay higher fares and even then the amount of miles earned is next to nothing when compared to what I earn off Bask Bank and credit cards without having to put myself in one of their seats onboard
@Tim Dunn – The evil one Mr Ham Sandwich has done is work all too well.
I doubt Delta will ever recover!
Exec P in Basic E was a pretty good deal before. This change will get me to buy normie Economy or more likely use AAdvantage miles. AA had comms probs.
@Tim Dunn — “slipping on a banana”… you crack me up, sir!
@Joey – yeah, I’d like to see it confirmed, not via reddit, but I agree the changes to earning status is probably the real story. I’m not thrilled there’s now only one 6 month 25% bonus window, not a 20% six month window at 60k followed by 30% at 100k. AND it says you can only earn 15k LP that way. Brutal. That said, at least it’s only applicable upon registration, so you can time it for when it makes the most sense for you and your travel/spending (such as during end of year if you do a lot of AA eshopping then, etc.).
AA is back baby
@jns — Well said on B6. If you’re in NYC, BOS, FLL, and a few other markets, I’ve found jetBlue is a great secondary preference. Thanks to their new partnership, I’ve started burning some United points on their flights, too. I’ve had their ‘plus’ card for years and although it’s by Barclays, it’s decent with the 6x and 5K anniversary bonus. I know the focus here was Basic fares, but, I really cannot say enough good things about Mint. Hoping to try out the new JFK T5 lounge in 2026.