You can now finally earn miles, Loyalty Points from paid American Airlines upgrades

The day is finally here.

At long last, you can now earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points from upgrades purchased on American Airlines flights. This feature was first teased by the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier earlier this year, with the promise that it would launch by the end of 2024.

Going forward, any paid upgrades purchased on or after Aug. 14 will be eligible to earn miles and Loyalty Points.

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The mileage earning rates will mimic those from 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 for the upgrade, depending on your status level. According to TPG’s August 2024 valuations, American miles are worth 1.7 cents a piece, so this translates to a rebate of between $6.38 and $14.03 toward 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 a traditional paid ticket. The number of Loyalty Points you’ll earn from an upgrade will equal the number of redeemable miles earned.

For example, an Executive Platinum member would earn 825 AAdvantage miles for a $75 upgrade, as well as 825 Loyalty Points for this purchase.

After completing travel, the miles and Loyalty Points from an upgrade purchase will be posted to each individual traveler’s account.

Adding the ability to earn miles and Loyalty Points from paid upgrades is undoubtedly a welcome improvement to the AAdvantage loyalty program.

In recent years, American carriers have been more aggressive about selling paid upgrades after booking your flight. These upgrade offers are priced dynamically based on real-time availability and can sometimes represent a great deal relative to outright purchasing a premium cabin.

While this upgrade buy-up has translated to fewer complimentary upgrades for elite members, it does make sense for American to capture as much premium cabin demand as it can.

Until now, the airline hasn’t allowed loyalty members to earn miles and status credits from upgrades. For me, that’s been a reason to generally avoid these buy-up offers and instead change my ticket to a business- or first-class fare if it becomes more reasonable over time.

But now, I will be more tempted to buy an upgrade with American the next time I find a reasonable offer.

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American’s other major competitors, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, also sell post-booking upgrades on select flights. With Delta, upgraded tickets are eligible for additional mileage and elite qualifying accruals tied to the upgraded seat. On United, purchasing a post-booking upgrade will accrue more status credits (Premier qualifying points), but it won’t earn you any more redeemable miles.

As such, 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 from upgrades, American promised other improvements to its loyalty program are coming later this year. These include the ability to request systemwide upgrades online and redeem miles for upgrades with more airline partners.

This functionality is still on track to debut later this year at an undisclosed date.

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