Got A Mastercard? Fly 2 Roundtrips In 90 Days For American Airlines Status Up To Platinum

by Gary Leff

American Airlines is offering the easiest Gold status I’ve ever seen from a public offer, and a path to Platinum with just two flights as well. Just sign up for Mastercard Travel. Details of the promotion are available under ‘latest offers’ but there’s no registration required. And you don’t even need to be a current elite frequent flyer with another airline.

  • Current non-status members earn Gold: Book and travel on 2 domestic roundtrips (any cabin) or one domestic roundtrip and one international roundtrip (coach).

  • Current non-status members earn Platinum: Book and travel on two international round-trip flights (coach) or one domestic roundtrip (coach) and one international roundtrip (premium cabin).

  • Current Gold members earn Platinum: Current Gold members receive platinum after 2 roundtrips within 90 days.

Two coach roundtrips in a 90 day period is all it takes to earn Gold status. There’s no qualifying dollars requirement. You just have to book through Mastercard Travel.

Key terms and conditions:

  • Valid for bookings through March 31, 2021
  • Not combinable with other offers
  • Bookings must be made through the Mastercard travel concierge
  • AAdvantage number must be in the reservation
  • Only paid tickets count
  • Elite status will be processed within 30 days of the second trip being completed

Gold gets you priority check-in; free checked bag; 40% mileage bonus; complimentary extra legroom seats if available at check-in;; complimentary upgrades on flights under 500 miles and certificate upgrades confirmed 24 hours to departure on domestic flgihts.

Platinum adds a 60% mileage bonus, higher upgrade priority and earlier processing; a second checked bag; complimentary extra legroom coach seats and lounge access during international travel.

American Airlines status challenges through Hyatt have been much tougher. And traditionally American even charges for status challenges.

The airline partners with two U.S. banks, Citibank and Barclays, and both issue co-brand Mastercards so there’s a relationship being leveraged here where Mastercard has access to perks and can provide customers to American. These benefits aren’t well-publicized, though, so thanks to Bougie Miles who found it.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Just to be clear, someone flies 2 roundtrips and gets to share the Covid virus with family/friends upon completion?

  2. Would it be possible to use this promotion to first get Gold status after 2 domestic round trips then after achieving Gold status get Platinum status with another 2 domestic round trips?

  3. Do Mexico and Canada trips count as international for Platinum? Would absolutely go on a mileage run flight for Platinum if I could stay in North America.

  4. Hm, my dad is a million miler, which means gold for life. Would he be able to jump to platinum?

  7. Meanwhile the US broke another record for COVID hospitalizations today. Health officials are practically begging people not to travel but here is an offer encouraging people to get in a metal tube together and fly around the country or world. Can’t be more tone deaf.

  9. Registered fully via link and waited for reply confirmation to activate – nothing arrived from Mastercard. Not convinced. :-mc(

  10. I logged into site and there is no mention of anything close to offers or anything with American Airlines? I think this is someone having some fun at others expense.

  13. Any more insight on this? Feedback in comments seems mixed.

    I’m based in MIA and could easily do two RTs to the Caribbean in a single day for Platinum. Very intrigued.

  14. “Registered” on the MC link (even though opening of this post says – there’s no registration required). And finally was able to get Email delivered to activate (by requesting Password reset). Can’t find where it says anything about AA Status promo?

  15. Email for activation did not show up at all unless I went to login and ‘reset password’, only then did activation email get in.
    Like many others stated, was unable to find AA status offer.

  16. I am a lifetime Gold (from reaching Million Miler). Taking 2 rtrip flights to get to Platinum – domestic or international required if I am already a Gold? How long would the Platinum status last? thx

  17. I registered yesterday, got email confirmation and saw it confirmed on my account, then logged in this morning and its now in “my past offers” and said it expired on November 20th.

    I was worried something like this would happen due to the press this got (and how bad the IT was to book my flights), so I messaged them… the person on chat couldn’t give me any information, said they would email me… I’m very worried!

  18. “Due to unprecedented demand, we have exceeded the allowance of the American Airlines status upgrades available via this promotional offer.”

    I activated last night, asked if this was retroactively cancelled… yep… great. waste of a booking on this awful portal.

  19. Offer seems to be dead but on the bright side. No trace of it on (awful) website.

    I also had to immediately do a password reset to complete sign up.

    Master card Travel is almost as bad as Connections (Citi an Chase point bookings) who issued me a record locator and then failed to ticket flight resulting stranding me overnight at ORD.

    When you book through any travel agency you are SOL in event of a problem.
    The airline will refer you back to them to resolve any and all issues..

    If you ever do book through ANY travel agency for cost savings or a promo call airline directly and get your ticket number and confirm you actually got the flight segments you were expecting, Ticket number should available within 30 minutes of booking.

    Same with hotels. Call the property and confirm you really have a reservation. However in the case of hotels I have had reservations not show up until a few days before arrival and everything worked out fine. As a precaution book a fully cancelable backup reservation.

    I also book a backup reservation for rental cars. Booking though rental car discount websites can provide significant savings. You prepay and present a voucher at pickup. Book 59 days out as the Chase limit for filing a dispute is 60

  21. Not working for me either. As others experienced, I also had to do a password reset. I see nothing under offers or search.

  22. All of you bloggers have been had. This offer was already dead when you published it, and all of you were too lazy to check before publishing!

Comments are closed.