American Airlines last year separated out earning status from many of the benefits that used to attach to status. After first making benefits choices that were earned upon achieving certain status levels and beyond, they increased the qualification levels required for some of those choices.

For instance, earning Platinum Pro (formerly the ’75K’ tier) status no longer comes with the choice of a systemwide upgrade.

• You earn Platinum Pro status at 125,000 Loyalty Points
  
• Your choice benefit, that includes that upgrade, now requires 175,000 Loyalty Points

The same thing happened to Executive Platinum status – which is earned after 200,000 Loyalty Points, but the choice benefits that used to come with that status now take 250,000 Loyalty Points.

For the upcoming member year (March 2024 – February 2025) there is no change to the number of Loyalty Points required to earn status, and no change to the number of Loyalty Points required to earn choice benefits.

There are, however, a couple of changes to the choice benefits.

• The 175,000 Loyalty Point level will no longer offer a 15% rebate on award redemption. This was perhaps the single most valuable choice some members could make below the 1 million Loyalty Point level. It was combersome to use, requiring a roundtrip (not even an open jaw) for up to two passengers flying on American Airlines-only awards and had to be requested after travel.

  I liked this award for premium cabin roundtrips to Australia. Spending 175,000 miles per person each way meant a rebate of 105,000 miles. Fortunately I didn’t have to spend that many miles, but it was still valuable enough that I booked my wife on a separate reservation so that my daughter and I qualified to request the award for the trip we have coming up. I’m told that only 1% of members selected this reward.

• New choices of progress towards status. This is brilliant because the choice of Loyalty Points don’t really cost American anything (though they do sell Loyalty Points to partners) while members will value them, and indeed in some cases value them more than other choices that come at a hard cost.

The Loyalty Point choices are as follows:

• 15,000 Loyalty Point tier: 1,000 Loyalty Points as an alternative to preferred seat coupons and group four boarding choices, which those with status can’t really make effective use of. So nearly all members with status will choose this, as de minimis as it is it’s better than the existing alternatives.

• 175,000 Loyalty Point Tier: 5,000 Loyalty Points as an alternative to a choice of 2 systemwide upgrades; 20,000 – 25,000 AAdvantage miles; $200 – $250 trip credit; 6 club passes; gifting gold status. That’s a tough sell unless you know you need those 5,000 points to hit the next choice threshold. (The good news is that you have until the month following the end of the member year to make your selection, so you can wait until the very end of the member year to see whether you need the loyalty points.)

• 250,000 Loyalty Point Tier: 15,000 Loyalty Points – which you can select twice since you get two benefit choices at this level. This becomes somewhat more attractive, since the benefit choices are similar although also include Flagship lounge visit passes. And again, you wait until you know that you’ll need the Loyalty Points – such as to hit the 400,000 or 550,000 tier although if you truly don’t value other options, your total Loyalty Point balance in the previous 12 months are an upgrade tie-breaker.

I’m sad to see the 15% award rebate go at the 175,000 point level. I would have rather seen it made more user-friendly, but then it would also be even more costly to offer. That’s really the only meaningful negative in a suite of changes to AAdvantage for the coming year that are surprisingly and broadly quite positive.