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Good news AAdvantage elites! As of March 31, 2021, you'll now earn more AAdvantage miles on each Alaska flight you take. This is thanks to a small—but impactful—change that was made as Alaska joined the Oneworld alliance.
Let's show you how you earn AAdvantage miles on Alaska flights. Then we will show you what changed.
How AAdvantage Members Earn Miles on Alaska Flights
When flying on American Airlines, you earn AAdvantage miles based on the price you paid for the flight. However, when crediting any partner flights to AAdvantage, you'll earn AA miles based on the distance of the flight and the fare class you booked. And that the chart varies from partner to partner.
With Alaska joining Oneworld on March 31, 2021, AAdvantage made some tweaks to its Alaska earning chart. For flights going forward, here's how you'll earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when crediting Alaska flights to AAdvantage:
You will notice the base miles are earned at different rates, depending on the cabin and fare class of your ticket. Additionally, there are cabin bonuses for J (75%) and C, D, I (50%) tickets. Lastly, all tickets qualify for Loyalty Points, regardless of fare class. The number of Loyalty Points you earn will match the base miles earning.
More Miles for AAdvantage Elites on Alaska Flights
AAdvantage elites will now get up to a 120% elite bonus on any base mileage earnings when flying Alaska. That's these flights qualify for the same bonus earnings on your miles as you get when flying on AA.
In an email to AAdvantage elites about Alaska joining Oneworld, American Airlines listed the new “elite mileage bonus” as one of the new benefits:
AAdvantage elite mileage bonuses
By now, American Airlines flyers are probably familiar with earning AAdvantage miles on AA flights. General members earn 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar of fare and carrier-imposed surcharges. AAdvantage elite members earn an elite bonus on top of that, up to a total of 11 miles per dollar spent.
On partner flights, the calculation is a bit more complicated. First, you need to calculate the base mileage earning based on the earning chart for the particular airline. Then, elite members apply an elite mileage bonus on the base miles:
- Gold: 40% bonus
- Platinum: 60% bonus
- Platinum Pro: 80% bonus
- Executive Platinum: 120% bonus
However, this elite mileage bonus is only available on certain airlines. Luckily, Alaska Airlines is among the qualifying airlines.
An example of this new elite bonus
Let's look at a sample flight for an Alaska Airlines first-class ticket from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Portland (PDX).
If you book “I” fare class (discounted first class), you will earn 100% base miles plus a 50% cabin bonus. So, for the 1,616-mile flight, you will earn 2,424 AAdvantage miles.
If you hold AAdvantage elite status, you will add your bonus earnings to the base miles (but not to the cabin bonus):
- Gold: 646 more miles
- Platinum: 970 more miles
- Platinum Pro: 1,293 more miles
- Executive Platinum: 1,939 more miles
If you have top-tier Executive Platinum status, you get almost 2,000 more AAdvantage miles for the exact same flight. Even if you value AAdvantage miles at a super-conservative rate of just 1¢ per mile, that's almost $20 more in value on this one flight. That bonus can really add up for frequent travelers.
Bottom Line
There's a lot for American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan elites to be excited about with Alaska joining Oneworld. Elites now get guaranteed benefits flying on the other airline — such as free checked bags, lounge access, priority check-in, and priority boarding. In addition, Alaska and American have introduced reciprocal first-class upgrades and extra-legroom seats for certain elites.
With all of these changes, it was easy for flyers to miss a small change to how AAdvantage elite members earn miles on Alaska flights. But, as you can see, this small change can have a sizable impact. For AAdvantage elites, flying Alaskan just got a lot more rewarding
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I’m still confused….Do you have to book through AA or Alaska to get the extra loyalty points? thanks!
It all depends on the cost of the flight, the earning rate, and the flight distance. Generally you want to book longer, cheaper flights through partners like Alaska. But for shorter and more-expensive flights, book through AA to maximize your mileage earnings.
This was very helpful. I’m trying to calculate a DC to SEA loyalty point earnings at platinum status. If RT miles are 5500, and I get an economy ticket, base miles of 50% are 2250. Then multiply by 7 for status? That seems like quite a few loyalty points. Do they all count towards status? Thanks!
That’s not quite how it works. With Platinum, you earn a 60% elite status bonus. So, you’d earn a base of 2,250 miles (5,500 x 50%) plus 1,350 miles for having elite status = 3,600 miles. If the flight costs more than ~$550 round-trip, you’d do better booking the Alaska flight with an American Airlines flight number (a codeshare flight). $550 – ~$35 taxes = $515 x 7 = 3,605 miles
That’s not quite how it works. With Platinum, you earn a 60% elite status bonus. So, you’d earn a base of 2,250 miles (5,500 x 50%) plus 1,350 miles for having elite status = 3,600 miles. If the flight costs more than ~$550 round-trip, you’d do better booking the Alaska flight with an American Airlines flight number (a codeshare flight). $550 – ~$35 taxes = $515 x 7 = 3,605 miles
I’m still confused about this. I’m platinum pro on American. Hypothetical situation – If I choose to fly Alaska over American same route same price, will I get more loyalty points from flying American or Alaska?
That depends. Any flights with an AA flight number will earn based on the spending (less taxes). AS flight numbers earn based on a percentage of flight miles (https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/partner-airlines/alaska-airlines.jsp). So, cheap and long AS flights will earn more LP than a similar flight booked on AA.
Please add me.
Question – if I booked an Alaska Airlines flight, should I have included my American Airlines advantage # since that is where my elite status is? Currently, the reservation is showing my Alaska Airlines MVP #, not my AA advantage #. Does this need to be changed / does it always need to show my AA #? Thanks!
If you have elite status with American, you should probably add your AAdvantage number to the flight. AAdvantage elites are now eligible for upgrades on Alaska. Executive Platinum elites can get upgraded to first class while all other elites can get upgraded to premium class (practically Main Cabin Extra).
Very good news.Alaska joins Oneworld makes passengers have more options to collect and spend miles.What a fun is that sometimes it’s better to collect miles to partner airlines than the airline you flies.
This is very timely news given our planned trip to Alaska and the West Coast later in the year. All small wins add up.
This is good for now and AAdvantage elites should take aadvantage (pun intended 🙂 ) of it while they can. I’m sure AA is going to “fix” this somehow
Finally, some good airlines news since the pandemic…
I think that Alaska joining OneWorld and creating this partnership with AA is perfect and just what each airline needed. Alaska now has a large national presence, and AA has a west coast presence, which was lacking. Good on them, but even this partnership may not cause me to switch my loyalty.
Thank you so much for sharing the real AAdvantage bonus example.
Excellent news! I have MCO-PDX booked later this month on AS in first…looking forward to the extra miles!
I know that American no longer counts basic economy tickets toward “Million Miler” status but am unclear on flying a partner and crediting to American. Does anyone know?
Here’s the relevant language:
“Miles earned toward Million Miler℠ status are based on the distance of your flight for travel on American marketed flights or the base miles earned for travel on eligible partner marketed flights.”
https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/elite-status/million-miler-program.jsp
I loved this combination of AA + Alaska + further miles to Aadvantage members.