American Airlines Says AAdvantage Is Its Edge—These 10 Changes Would Make That True

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom calls AAdvantage one of the airline’s strongest competitive advantages. I agree. I still find more value in American’s program than in most of its competitors. Alaska can be better for single-partner awards, including domestic American Airlines flights. American itself can offer terrific deals on its own flights, alongside some truly terrible ones. One of AAdvantage’s best features is that the partner award chart hasn’t been devalued since 2016. But a good price for an award you can’t book doesn’t get you very far. American improved its Million Miler program in 2025, and has more changes coming there. But that’s really the only real improvement I can think of in the past few years. In the meantime, it eliminated fixed-price mileage upgrades and took seat selection and upgrade benefits away from elites buying Basic Economy. Some of my major complaints about the program: American offers paid upgrades to anyone on the flight while elite members wait and usually do not get upgraded. Systemwide upgrades are nearly impossible to use. Upgrades were once the major benefit of status but can no longer meaningfully be factored, of course dependent on route and dates of travel. When you aren’t upgraded, at least elites can confirm extra legroom seats – but American has far too few of those. And when you exclude exit row seats (not eligible with young children), I often have to pick my flights carefully because there just aren’t extra legroom seats available. American says they’re adding more – but won’t start until 2028. When they first introduced Main Cabin Extra they did the whole fleet in a matter of months! Scarce partner business class awards. British Airways guarantees award space for those redeeming Avios (whether their own, Finnair’s, Qatar’s, etc.) but those guarantee seats are unavailable for AAdvantage redemption. Qantas reserves premium cabin awards for its own members (they didn’t before the pandemic). Cathay Pacific does the same. Qatar limits access to its own premium cabin awards to those redeeming their points or those in other Avios programs. Etihad heavily limits redemptions by partners, to name just a few. These are all new restrictions in the past few years that make AAdvantage miles less valuable. Same day changes are highly restrictive. Elites can confirm changes to their bookings, but can’t change the routing – they can’t connect through a different hub than their original reservation. What’s the use of having the best domestic network when customers aren’t allowed to use it? And from many cities there aren’t multiple flights to a given hub, effectively eliminating the benefit entirely. Here are ten changes that would make earning American miles and status more worthwhile. Most have precedents at other airlines. Some are things American has already done, and could simply bring back. Give the best customers better award pricing. American doesn’t offer a standing award discount for its top elites or credit card customers. They used to have extra availability at the saver level for Executive Platinums – by phone only – but they eliminated this when dropping the idea of saver awards for their ow flights and going all-dynamic pricing. They also used to offer an award option of a 15% redemption rebate at 175,000 Loyalty Points but they dropped this for 2024. It only applied to one American Airlines award trip, for up to two passengers, with a claim process after travel. Bring it back, make the rebate automatic, and let members use it on the awards they actually book. An annual mileage cap would control the cost without requiring a narrowly defined roundtrip. American still offers award rebates at million-plus Loyalty Point milestones. Delta and United have elite or cardmember redemption discounts. Delta mostly seemed to just raise prices on everybody else, while United’s has actually opened up more saver awards and discounts even compared to the old saver level at times. American doesn’t have anything comparable, but should. In my ideal – I don’t expect American to budget for this – I’d love to see Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members have a limited number of opportunities to open award space each year. British Airways Gold Guest List members have “jokers” that can release awards from specified paid inventory. It doesn’t have to mean last seat avialability on every flight. It could be capacity controlled with a certain level of revenue inventory. Make partner awards easier to get, including when schedules first open American’s partner chart is very good (10 years ago the devaluation was brutal, but many airlines have devalued more since then). The challenge now is access to partner award space, with so many partners withholding inventory from American. British Airways shares revenue with American in a transatlantic joint venture that’s supposed to make them indifferent about whose aircraft a passenger flies. Yet Avios programs even outside the joint venture can get British Airways award space that American can’t. Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Qatar Airways and Etihad also give their own members or selected partners access that AAdvantage doesn’t get. American should negotiate for access, pay for additional inventory, and make reciprocal access part of its partnership discussions. Start with British Airways, despite draconian fuel surcharges that some other partners don’t even charge, simply because their close commercial relationship should produce a better result for customers – otherwise why are we allowing antitrust immunity in the first place? And keep the existing partner chart, don’t use this better inventory as an excuse to reprice the seats. American should also stop making members wait for its own booking calendar to open. American books up to 331 days ahead, while Finnair opens awards 360 days out. When a partner releases seats earlier, AAdvantage members should be able to book them then. Nearly a month’s head start matters when there are only a couple of business class awards. Many years ago that was the practice at Alaska Airlines – you could book the partner award right away, and call up later to add Alaska connecting flights when their own scheduled loaded. Give top elites priority for an empty middle seatI argued for this in 2020. It would be even more useful now, with complimentary upgrades harder to count on and not enough Main Cabin Extra seats. When a Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum or ConciergeKey member sits in a window or aisle seat in regular coach, hold the adjacent middle seat out from seat assignments. Have AgentAssist automatically release it at the gate when needed. The airline would keep selling the flight. It wouldn’t turn away a paying passenger to preserve an empty seat. Families who need to sit together and operational requirements could take priority. But when some middle seats are going to wind upempty anyway, ensuring the empty seat is beside the airline’s best customers simply makes sense. American could deliver a meaningful comfort benefit with very little displaced revenue. Make confirmed upgrades from paid premium economy a permanent option American has already tested this twice. In March and again in September, it offered promotions where a member could buy premium economy and apply a systemwide upgrade to confirm business class without the usual upgrade inventory. Make that a regular feature of systemwide upgrades: buy premium economy, spend a certificate, and confirm business class when a seat is still for sale. If American needs a short, published list of blackout dates, that’s fair enough. The existing ability to upgrade from coach should stay. This would give members an additional way to use their certificates, with certainty in exchange for buying a more expensive ticket. Give top elites 20% off paid upgrades, and let them earn upgrade creditsAmerican sells seats that once would have gone to complimentary upgrades. They value the tens of dollars more than rewarding the customer who spends tens of thousands. But upgrades were the key reason to earn status, which is the key driver of cobrand card spend. Give Platinum Pro and higher members 20% off the paid upgrade offers they see. American already has AA20 discounts for employees and eligible family members on airfare and awards. A comparable discount on upgrade offers for top customers isn’t an out of sample idea. The price before the discount needs to be the same offer the customer would otherwise receive. And American might collect more money from members who currently decline a buy-up because they’re waiting for a free upgrade. Some existing buyers would pay less while some people who never buy would start. Elites would get a better deal on excess premium inventory than once a year flyers. Add upgrade credits at Loyalty Point Reward milestones, usable toward these offers. That would provide something useful even when a systemwide upgrade won’t clear. Let top elites use the route network for same-day changes American has a huge network. Its same-day change rules prevent members from making full use of it. Under American’s rules, a replacement itinerary needs the same airports and routing. If you’re connecting through Charlotte, an earlier option through Dallas doesn’t necessarily help you. Neither does a nonstop replacing your connection. I was writing about this problem in 2015. The same-routing restriction already existed then, though agents had often been willing to waive it. Let Platinum Pro and higher members confirm a same-day change between the same origin and destination using any reasonable American routing with seats available in the cabin they’re entitled to occupy. Keep it to the day of travel, so this doesn’t become a way to buy a cheaper itinerary weeks ahead and immediately swap into an expensive one. Let an already-purchased upgrade carry over when the new flight has room in that cabin. A meeting ends early, the member gets home sooner, and American gives a frequent traveler a real benefit for their loyalty. Bring back stopovers on awards. Alaska allows free stopovers on one-way awards. Air France KLM’s Flying Blue offers them, too. Aeroplan charges just 5,000 additional points for an eligible stopover. American should let members stop at a connecting city on an international award that prices based on the partner redemption chart. Spend several days in Tokyo on the way to somewhere else in Asia, or visit Helsinki, London or Madrid before continuing through Europe. This should be free for top elites, but consider charging 5,000 miles for everyone else. Count award flights toward status and Million Miler balancesAmerican encourages members to earn miles through credit cards, shopping, hotels and other partners. When they finally redeem those miles and fly, the award trip doesn’t earn Loyalty Points. Publish a simple rate of Loyalty Points per mile redeemed. Include partner flights booked with AAdvantage miles. American issued the ticket and knows what the member redeemed. It could begin with its own flights if that’s easier to administer, but that shouldn’t be a permanent limit. Actual distance flown on awards should count toward Million Miler status as well. Delta already counts award travel toward its lifetime totals. Let elite households pool miles for free and share benefits easilyA family can collectively have enough miles for an award while each individual account comes up short. American should let an elite member establish a household pool, with no charge for combining miles. LifeMiles makes family pooling an elite benefit. Other programs manage pooling, too. Require verified members, put limits on how often people can join or leave, and give the household head redemption authority. Restricting the benefit to elites should make some forms of abuse less attractive, though it wouldn’t eliminate fraud. But the optimal amount of fraud is not zero anyway. American already lets members give someone status for a day. Make that benefit work like a trip benefit: select the traveler and reservation, then have the eligible seating and airport benefits apply immediately. The current terms require selecting the usage day at least seven days ahead Give Million Milers a benefit every yearAmerican deserves credit for adding lifetime Platinum Pro at four million miles and Executive Platinum at five million. It has also announced more choices for Million Miler milestone rewards. The next improvement should be something that arrives every year, including years when the member doesn’t cross another million mile threshold. Alaska gives Million Milers an annual head start toward status, which keeps them flying rather than retiring from engagement after they hit their threshold. American could also let a Million Miler share status with a designated household member, as competing programs do, or choose an annual benefit such as upgrade credit. Delta’s higher lifetime tiers bring recurring Choice Benefits. I’d start with the annual Loyalty Points. Someone who has already flown American a million miles shouldn’t have to begin every year’s pursuit of higher status at the same zero as someone who just joined. What do you feel American Airlines AAdvantage is missing, and how does it compare to other programs today? I see only Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards as comparable among U.S. airlines, believing both American and Alaska’s programs to be better than United’s. Some of you will disagree! And Alaska’s has its own challenges, including inventory for award redemption on its own flights and combining different partners on the same award ticket. Which of these changes I’ve suggested would move the needle for your own loyalty? And what am I missing from this list? Topics on this page