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Achieving elite status on American Airlines is your ticket to complimentary upgrades, bonus miles, priority treatment, and more. If American is your airline of choice, it might make sense to earn a few more Loyalty Points to make the jump from AAdvantage Gold to AAdvantage Platinum. The benefits alone can make your travel experience a lot more comfortable by moving up one more tier.
Here's everything you need to know about American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum elite status.
Page Contents
- AAdvantage Platinum Benefits
- Complimentary upgrades to premium cabins
- Free access to Main Cabin Extra seats
- Earn 60% bonus miles on paid flights
- Lounge access on international itineraries
- Two free checked bags and priority handling
- Priority check-in, security, and boarding
- Complimentary same-day standby
- Oneworld Sapphire benefits
- Platinum service desk
- Save on Admirals Club memberships
- How To Get AAdvantage Platinum Status
- How To Get AAdvantage Platinum Benefits for Life
- Is It Worth Earning AAdvantage Platinum Elite Status?
- Final Thoughts
AAdvantage Platinum Benefits
One step above Gold (American Airlines' lowest status tier) and two below Executive Platinum (the top published tier), American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum elites can enjoy a variety of benefits that improve the travel experience as a whole. Here's what perks you can expect after reaching AAdvantage Platinum status.
AAdvantage Platinum members can take advantage of unlimited complimentary upgrades to the next class of service on eligible American Airlines within North and Central America. American will start confirming upgrades for you and up to one traveling companion as soon as 48 hours before departure.
Status holders can also enjoy complimentary upgrades on Alaska Airlines flights. And upgrades are available even on award flights booked with miles. Better yet, you have the ability to upgrade one companion traveling with you.
Free access to Main Cabin Extra seats
When booking, you can choose Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seats free of charge. This means sitting closer to the front of the plane without an extra cost — a nice benefit when you have a tight connection and need to get off quickly or just want to stretch out with extra leg room.
Earn 60% bonus miles on paid flights
AAdvantage Platinum elites earn 8X miles per dollar spent on American Airlines flights and paid upgrades — a 60% bonus over general AAdvantage members. Additionally, the miles you earn on flights and paid upgrades also count as Loyalty Points.
For flights booked in AA basic economy, note that you'll earn the 60% bonus on top of the base earning rate of 2X miles per dollar spent. For AAdvantage Platinum elites, this means 3.2X miles and Loyalty Points per dollar spent on basic economy tickets.
But there's an important caveat you'll want to pay close attention to. AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points are earned based on ticket price, which includes carrier-imposed fees but excludes government-imposed taxes and fees.
Related: American Airlines Loyalty Point Rewards: Tiers, Choices, and Deadlines
Lounge access on international itineraries
On qualifying international itineraries operated by American Airlines or another Oneworld airline — regardless of the cabin you're flying — you can access Admirals Clubs® and even American Airlines Flagship Lounges. You also can bring one guest as long as they're on your reservation.
Qualifying flights include those between the United States and:
- Asia
- Australia
- Canada
- Caribbean (Excluding U.S. territories)
- Central America
- Europe
- Mexico
- Middle East
- New Zealand
- South America
Plus, you'll be able to access frequent flyer and business lounges from Oneworld partners, regardless of which cabin you're flying in. Note that this doesn't include Alaska Airlines lounges, though.
Two free checked bags and priority handling
On each trip, you can check two bags free of charge for yourself and up to eight companions on your reservation. American Airlines will also place a priority tag on your luggage at the check-in counter, indicating that your bag should be one of the first delivered to the carousel. But your mileage may vary on whether your bags are some of the first out.
Priority check-in, security, and boarding
AAdvantage Platinum members can board with Group 3 (out of 9) on flights operated by American Airlines. You'll also get to the gate faster, courtesy of shorter wait times at security and priority check-in counters.
Complimentary same-day standby
Whether you need or want to switch flights, you can do so for free. You'll receive fourth priority — below only Concierge Key, AAdvantage Executive Platinum, and AAdvantage Platinum Pro members.
Oneworld Sapphire benefits
One of the more unheralded perks that AAdvantage Platinum members enjoy is reciprocal benefits on Oneworld partner airlines. This means priority check-in, boarding, security lanes, complimentary standby, preferred seating, and complimentary checked bags. Oneworld Sapphire elites can also access business class and frequent flyer lounges when flying internationally.
Platinum service desk
When you phone American Airlines, you can access dedicated customer service agents as an AAdvantage Platinum. In some instances, this means your calls are answered faster, but it's hit or miss. You'll likely get faster service by messaging American Airlines in the mobile app or on Twitter/X — even if you don't hold elite status.
Save on Admirals Club memberships
When you purchase an Admirals Club membership, you'll pay $50 less on a new membership than a general AAdvantage member. With the savings, you'll pay $800 for a new, individual membership and $750 for each year you choose to renew.
Comparatively, you can access lounges for less with the $595-annual-fee Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®, which offers complimentary Admirals Club access as a built-in benefit.
- Complimentary Admirals Club® membership for the primary cardholder
- Admirals Club® membership for authorized user accounts
- First checked bag free on domestic AA flights for you and up to 8 companions
- Priority check-in, TSA screening lines, and boarding
- 10,000 bonus Loyalty Points after you spend $40,000 in purchases within the year
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Earn 10X miles for every $1 spent on eligible hotels booked at aa.com/hotels and eligible rental cars booked through aa.com/cars
- Earn 4X miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases (increased to 5X miles through the end of the calendar year after you pass $150,000 in purchases annually)
- Earn 1X mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases
How To Get AAdvantage Platinum Status
A few years ago, American Airlines moved away from more traditional status qualification methods. Now, the sole status-earning metric is Loyalty Points. And to reach AAdvantage Platinum, you need to earn 75,000 of them between March 1 and the end of February of the next calendar year.
Recalling that AAdvantage Platinums earn 8X miles and Loyalty Points per dollar spent on American Airlines flights, 75,000 is an expensive number. That would work out to $9,375 of spending on AA flights each year. And remember that's before government-imposed taxes and fees.
Thankfully, you can earn Loyalty Points in dozens of other ways — many of which don't require hopping on an airplane. To name a few methods, you can earn Loyalty Points that count towards status through:
- Shopping on the American Airlines eShopping portal and leveraging SimplyMiles offers.
- Spending on an American Airlines credit card, such as the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®.
- Booking American Airlines Vacations.
- Rental car reservations and hotel stays.
Related: How To Earn American Airlines Miles and Loyalty Points
How To Get AAdvantage Platinum Benefits for Life
You'll achieve AAdvantage Platinum for life once you reach two million miles flown on American Airlines and eligible partner-operated flights. To celebrate the accomplishment, American Airlines will also issue you four systemwide upgrades (SWUs) that you can use to confirm an upgrade to the next class of service.
Is It Worth Earning AAdvantage Platinum Elite Status?
In an era where elite status is becoming a hard sell, the answer to whether or not the push for 75,000 Loyalty Points to reach AAdvantage Platinum is worth it is hard to determine.
When you receive an email confirming an upgrade to domestic first class — or get to camp out in an Admirals Club before jumping on an international flight — AAdvantage Platinum status absolutely feels worth it. But if you fly a lot, your experience won't always be picture-perfect.
The joy of getting upgraded on one flight (usually to/from a smaller, regional airport) is quickly snuffed out when you see yourself 58th on the upgrade list for your next flight out of an AA hub. Lots of us have been there. It's a major gripe that many travelers have with American Airlines' re-imagination of the AAdvantage program.
Related: Why I’m No Longer Crediting Flights to the American Airlines AAdvantage Program
Even worse, the benefits that you'll most routinely enjoy as a status holder — such as a free checked bag, preferred boarding, access to priority check-in, and more — are run-of-the-mill benefits you'll find on one of American Airlines' credit cards that you can carry for less than $100 a year.
Sure, there remain many positives to having status. There's value in free Main Cabin Extra seats and a healthy amount of bonus miles good for nearly free travel. However, if you're going out of your way to achieve elite status through spending, you'll likely find it leaves a lot to be desired.
AA Platinum status is a net positive to have if you can pick it up organically through business travel or using credit cards for product procurement in your reselling operation. But, it's probably not worth the cost it takes to get status otherwise.
Final Thoughts
If American Airlines is your airline of choice, locking in AAdvantage Platinum elite status and its benefits is a near-surefire way to make your next journey much more comfortable. From complimentary upgrades to extra complimentary checked bags, priority treatment, and much more, AAdvantage Platinum is hard to overlook. But if it's worth the cost to earn it, well, that may be a different story.
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