AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Today, American Airlines announced changes to its AAdvantage program for 2025. And the headline is just how few changes there are to share.
American Airlines is maintaining the same status requirements for 2025. Instead, it's making a couple tweaks to its Loyalty Point Rewards program, adding new tiers to Million Miler status, extending the validity of systemwide upgrades, and continuing to add options to redeem AAdvantage miles for everyday purchases.
Here's what to know about the AAdvantage program changes for 2025:
Page Contents
- No Changes to Loyalty Point Thresholds for AAdvantage Status
- New Loyalty Point Reward Options
- Redeem AAdvantage Miles for Onboard Food and Beverage
- New Tiers of American Airlines Million Miler Status
- Extended Validity of Systemwide Upgrades
- Previously-Announced Changes Highlighted in Today's Announcement
- Final Thoughts
No Changes to Loyalty Point Thresholds for AAdvantage Status
For the second year in a row, American Airlines is keeping the threshold for AAdvantage status the same. Yet again for the 2025 qualification year, you'll earn AAdvantage elite status at the following thresholds:
- AAdvantage Gold: 40,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum: 75,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 125,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 200,000 Loyalty Points
Over the past couple of years, Delta and United have increased their elite status requirements, so I naturally had to ask American Airlines about this decision.
AAdvantage directors insisted they carefully review the number of AAdvantage elite members and their team's ability to serve them. American Airlines is happy with the current levels of engagement from AAdvantage members. So, it's keeping these thresholds where they are.
New Loyalty Point Reward Options
Since initially rolling out “Elite Choice Rewards” in 2020, American Airlines has tweaked its Loyalty Point Rewards program every year since. While this year is no different, the changes are quite minor.
Collectible luggage tag
AAdvantage members will be able to select “a personalized, collectible luggage tag” upon reaching 15,000 Loyalty Points. This is a nice addition to this tier, particularly for AAdvantage elites who may have found the other choices lacking at this level.
Changes to carbon offset reward
Starting at 175,000 Loyalty Points, AAdvantage members have had the option to select a “carbon offset” choice. If selected, American Airlines pledged to purchase carbon offsets from the nonprofit Cool Effect to fully offset the “AAdvantage® status member’s full year of travel on American.”
Now, American Airlines is switching up this option for a contribution to the airline's Sustainable Aviation Fuel. At this point, it's unclear how much this contribution will be.
Redeem AAdvantage Miles for Onboard Food and Beverage
American Airlines has continued to grow the ways travelers can redeem AAdvantage miles — albeit typically at a subpar redemption rate. In 2025, the airline is expanding this to include using miles to purchase food and beverages “on eligible flights.”
American Airlines didn't share the redemption rate for this option. However, you will undoubtedly continue to get better value from your AAdvantage miles through American Airlines sweet spots.
In addition, American Airlines used today's announcement to remind travelers they can redeem AAdvantage miles for Wi-Fi passes on most flights “with more to come in the future” and for Admirals Club or Flagship Lounge day passes.
New Tiers of American Airlines Million Miler Status
Starting March 1, 2025, American Airlines will add two new tiers to its Million Miler program:
- 4 million flown miles: Lifetime AAdvantage Platinum Pro
- 5 million flown miles: Lifetime AAdvantage Executive Platinum
This means that AAdvantage members can lock in Oneworld Emerald for their life (or the life of the AAdvantage program, if shorter). But it will take a ton of flown miles on paid tickets to achieve.
Note that the other tiers of AAdvantage Million Miler will remain:
- 1 million flown miles: Lifetime AAdvantage Gold
- 2 million flown miles: Lifetime AAdvantage Platinum
That means there will be a gap in the lifetime status ladder at 3 million miles. AAdvantage members will only be rewarded with four systemwide upgrades for achieving this threshold.
Extended Validity of Systemwide Upgrades
Systemwide upgrades are one of the most valuable perks you can earn through American Airlines' Loyalty Point Rewards program. These golden tickets let you upgrade from economy to business class anywhere American Airlines flies — as long as there's upgrade availability.
In recent years, American Airlines systemwide upgrades have only been valid for one year from selection. That meant travelers were incentivized to wait until they found upgrade space — or the Loyalty Point Reward deadline — to choose this reward.
Starting March 1, 2025, American Airlines will give AAdvantage members longer to use these upgrades. Instead of only being valid for one year, systemwide upgrades “will be valid through the status membership year.” That means a reward should be valid through March 31 of the year your status would expire (if you didn't requalify).
Previously-Announced Changes Highlighted in Today's Announcement
In today's announcement, American Airlines shared several previously announced changes. In case you missed them, here's a recap.
Apply Systemwide Upgrades online
In mid-October 2024, American Airlines added the ability for select AAdvantage members to apply systemwide upgrades online. Then, the airline rolled out this functionality to all AAdvantage members (at least those who have a systemwide upgrade) in mid-November.
New World of Hyatt Loyalty Point Rewards
As announced in October as part of an overhaul of the American Airlines-Hyatt partnership, American Airlines is adding the following new Hyatt-related Loyalty Point Rewards:
- 40,000 Loyalty Points: Redeem 25k AAdvantage miles for a Hyatt Category 1-4 free night award.
- 100,000 Loyalty Points: Hyatt Discoverist Status
- 175,000 Loyalty Points: Hyatt Explorist Status
- 125,000 Loyalty Points: Redeem 65k AAdvantage miles for a Hyatt Category 1-7 free night award.
- 400,000 Loyalty Points: Category 1-4 free night award
- 550,000 Loyalty Points: Category 1-4 free night award
- 750,000 Loyalty Points: Category 1-4 free night award
- 1 million Loyalty Points: Category 1-7 free night award
- 3 million Loyalty Points: Category 1-7 free night award
- 5 million Loyalty Points: Category 1-7 free night award
Redeem AAdvantage miles for Flagship First Dining
Also in October 2024, American Airlines rolled out the option to redeem AAdvantage miles for Flagship First Dining through its Enhance With Miles program. Upon achieving Platinum Pro elite status, AAdvantage members can redeem miles for a one-time pass to American's sit-down restaurant experience in Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) or Miami (MIA).
Final Thoughts
In a call to discuss this year's changes, AAdvantage directors highlighted just how happy they are with the current state of the AAdvantage program. They were excited to highlight that there were no increases to the Loyalty Point thresholds for AAdvantage elite status, noting their confidence in the AA team's ability to serve their “highly engaged member base.”
Actions speak louder than words. American's relatively minor changes for the 2025 program year really do confirm that the airline seems happy with how things are going.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
