Joe McConnell
The day has finally arrived.
Finally, you can now earn AAdvantage miles and American Airlines loyalty points for upgrades purchased on American Airlines flights. The Fort Worth, Texas-based airline first teased this feature earlier this year, promising it would launch by the end of 2024.
Going forward, all paid upgrades purchased starting August 14 will be eligible to earn miles and loyalty points.
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Earning mileage rates will mimic traditional paid tickets. You’ll earn miles based on how much the upgrade costs, with tiered bonuses for elite members, as shown below.
- AAdvantage Member: 5 miles per dollar
- Gold Member: 7 miles per dollar
- Platinum Member: 8 miles per dollar
- Platinum Pro Member: 9 miles per dollar
- Executive Platinum Member: 11 miles per dollar
- Concierge Key Member: 11 miles per dollar
For example, if the upgrade costs $75, you’ll earn between 375 and 825 AAdvantage miles per upgrade, depending on your status level. According to TPG’s August 2024 valuations, American miles are worth 1.7 cents each, so that translates to a discount of between $6.38 and $14.03 on future travel from a $75 upgrade.
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In addition to redeemable miles, travelers looking to elevate their status will earn Loyalty Points on upgrade purchases, just like they would with a traditional paid ticket. The number of Loyalty Points you earn from an upgrade will be equal to the number of redeemable miles you earn.
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For example, an Executive Platinum member would earn 825 AAdvantage miles for a $75 upgrade, plus 825 loyalty points for that purchase.
After completing the trip, the miles and Loyalty Points resulting from the purchase of an upgrade will be credited to each individual traveler’s account.
The addition of the ability to earn miles and loyalty points from paid upgrades is definitely a welcome enhancement to the AAdvantage loyalty program.
In recent years, U.S. airlines have been more aggressive in selling paid upgrades after you book your flight. These upgrade offers are dynamically priced based on real-time availability and can sometimes be a better deal than buying premium cabin outright.
While this upgrade acquisition has resulted in fewer complimentary upgrades for Elite members, it makes sense for American to try to meet as much demand for premium cabins as possible.
So far, the airline has not allowed loyalty members to earn miles and status credits from upgrades. For me, this has been a reason to generally avoid these purchase offers and instead change my ticket to a business or first class fare if it becomes more reasonable over time.
But now I’ll be more tempted to buy an upgrade with American the next time I find a reasonable deal.
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American’s other major competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, also sell post-book upgrades on select flights. On Delta, upgraded tickets are eligible for additional miles and elite qualification earnings tied to the upgraded seat. On United, purchasing a post-book upgrade will earn you more status credits (Premier qualification points), but it won’t earn you more redeemable miles.
With this change, American will join Delta in offering the most comprehensive loyalty benefits for travelers who purchase upgrades.
In addition to earning miles and status credits for upgrades, American has promised other enhancements to its loyalty program coming later this year. These include the ability to request system upgrades online and redeem miles for upgrades on more airline partners.
This feature is expected to debut later this year, at a date yet to be announced.
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