If you’re hoping to earn (or renew) your American Airlines AAdvantage elite status, the clock is ticking. Most airlines have already reset for 2025, but American’s “status year” runs from March 1 to Feb. 28 … which means you’ve got just a few days left to earn the necessary Loyalty Points – the airline’s primary building block for earning AAdvantage status.
Worried it’s too late? Not at all.
Flying might seem like the most logical way to earn status, but American offers far easier avenues to earn even more Loyalty Points (and redeemable AA miles, too!) in a hurry – including some that don’t require you to leave your couch! A few options include:
- Using the AAdvantage eShopping portal for online purchases
- Booking a hotel room through AAdvantage Hotels
- Spending on an American Airlines co-branded credit card
And don’t worry about the tight timeline. So long as you make your purchases before the end of the month, all those points will count towards the current status year!
Read on for everything you need to know about qualifying for AA elite status … in a hurry.
How to Earn AA Status
Before we get into all the best ways to rack up American Airlines Loyalty Points, let’s take a quick look at what it takes to earn AA elite status in the first place.
American has four different levels of elite status: Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, and top-tier Executive Platinum. Don’t even get me started with why American calls its lowest status level at Gold, while most other airlines call it Silver, and then proceeds to have three different variations of Platinum status.
Each level of status unlocks some perks when you fly with American as well as fellow Oneworld airlines, ranging from free checked bags and priority boarding to complimentary Main Cabin Extra seating at time of booking and a much better shot at premium cabin upgrades. The higher your status, the more perks and benefits you get.
Here’s how many Loyalty Points you need to earn during the status year (March 1 – Feb. 28) in order to qualify for each level:
- 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
At each status level, you’ll also earn incrementally more Loyalty Points (and AAdvantage miles) on paid flights, helping you achieve the next level of status even faster.
But these days, actually flying American Airlines is arguably the worst way to earn Loyalty Points…
7 Easy Ways to Earn AA Loyalty Points
Flying
Let’s get this one out of the way first. Just like the days of old, you can earn American Airlines elite status through flying … but it’s far from the fastest (or cheapest) way to do it.
Regular AAdvantage members without elite status earn 5 Loyalty Points per dollar spent on AA flights, excluding taxes and fees. So if your airfare costs $200, you’d earn 1,000 Loyalty Points and 1,000 AAdvantage miles once you’ve completed that flight.
If you’ve already got some level of AAdvantage status, you’ll earn between 40% and 120% more miles and Loyalty Points on every paid flight. For example, AA Platinum Pro status gets an 80% bonus, meaning that same $200 flight would earn 1,800 Loyalty Points and redeemable AA miles.
But you won’t earn the Loyalty Points until you complete the flight. So if you’re looking to earn Loyalty Points in a hurry before the current status year ends, flying probably isn’t your best option.
Credit Card Spending
If you’ve got an AA co-branded credit card like the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® or the AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard from Barclays in your wallet, pulling it out every time you go to make a purchase can help you rack up Loyalty Points in a hurry.
No matter which AA card you’re using, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar you spend on the card. That’s true even if you’re spending in a bonus category like dining. While you might earn 2x AAdvantage miles per dollar, you’ll still earn just 1 Loyalty Point per dollar.
While time is running out on earning the Loyalty Points for status this year, every dollar you spend on an AA credit card before the end of the month will count towards the current status year. Even if your statement closes mid- or late-March, the spending you do in February will count.
Let’s say you have a big tax payment coming up. While it might normally make sense to wait until the very last minute (April 15), using an AAdvantage credit card to pay your tax bill before the end of February could be enough to secure elite status for a full year or even bump you up to the next status level.
To be perfectly clear, this won’t be the perfect strategy for everyone: Paying taxes with a credit card incurs a minimum 1.75% fee. But given that payment will earn both redeemable AA miles and the Loyalty Points needed for status, it could be well worth it for some.
Related reading: The Best Deals We’ve Found Using American AAdvantage Miles
AAdvantage eShopping
Using a shopping portal for online purchases is one of our favorite ways to earn miles and points. While we typically recommend using a portal like Rakuten, clicking through American’s AAdvantage eShopping to earn both AA miles and Loyalty Points can be a solid option … especially for someone in a last-minute push to qualify for elite status!
Exactly how many Loyalty Points (and miles) you can earn through AAdvantage eShopping will vary by merchant. In some cases, it’s a set rate like 2x or 3x Loyalty Points (and miles) per dollar. In others, it’s a big lump sum. We most commonly see lump sum payouts for subscription services like Blue Apron, HelloFresh, AT&T, and Verizon, among others.
Here’s an example: You can currently earn 4,800 miles (and Loyalty Points) when signing up Blue Apron’s meal delivery service. Exactly how much that will cost you depends on how often you want meals delivered and the number of portions you need – but in many cases, an offer like this can be worth signing-up for – at least temporarily.
Critically, any purchases you make through AAdvantage eShopping will be credited to your account based on the day they’re made. This means that anything you buy through the portal in February will earn Loyalty Points for the current status year – even if you don’t actually receive the miles and points until March, April, or sometime further out.
Thrifty Tip: You don’t need to have (or use) an AA credit card when shopping through the AAdvantage eShopping portal. This means you can often stack Chase or Amex Offers to lower your cost even further.
SimplyMiles
SimplyMiles is a card-linked program where you can earn bonus AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points when shopping with select merchants. Unlike AAdvantage eShopping, this is not a shopping portal where you need to click through before making a purchase. In fact, it works in conjunction with shopping portals (including AAdvantage eShopping), which means you can sometimes double dip and earn miles and Loyalty Points with both programs.
For example, you can currently earn 1,200 AA miles and Loyalty Points when spending $50 or more with Blue Apron.
This means, if you added this offer to your card in SimplyMiles and then went back to the AAdvantage eShopping Portal to sign up for Blue Apron (assuming you spend $50 or more), you could earn 6,000 Loyalty Points (and AA miles) across the two different programs for your purchase. Not a bad way to earn status and miles in a hurry!
One downside with SimplyMiles? It only allows you to add Mastercards to your profile for these card-linked offers. The good news is it doesn’t have to be an AA Mastercard to work, so even a Citi Strata Premier℠ Card or *Bilt Mastercard* will still work.
AAdvantage Hotels
Just like Delta and United, American Airlines has its own travel portal for booking hotels. And it also allows you to earn redeemable AA miles and Loyalty Points for your purchase.
While we typically recommend steering clear of these third-party booking platforms, the ability to earn Loyalty Points – sometimes a lot of them – and AA miles can make AAdvantage Hotels a solid option, particularly for travelers who aren’t loyal to a single hotel chain.
Take this three-night booking in New York City, for example. The Residence Inn New York Manhattan is going for $322 per night through AA. That’s a few bucks more per night than what Marriott is charging for the same room when booking direct.
But by going through AAdvantage Hotels, you’d earn 15,000 Loyalty Points and AA miles for the stay.
If you’d be booking this hotel either way, it could definitely make sense to pay a little more by going through AA when you take into account all the miles and Loyalty Points you’d earn in the process. Just know that when you book through an online travel agency (OTA) like AAdvantage Hotels, you generally won’t earn elite night credits or hotel points for your stay. If you don’t care about elite status, this likely won’t be a huge loss for you.
Finally, it’s important to note that you don’t need to complete your stay by the end of February to earn Loyalty Points for the current status year. Even if your stay isn’t until June or July, your Loyalty Points will be backdated to the day you booked.
That said, you won’t actually earn those Loyalty Points (and therefore your status) until you check out. That means this option won’t help you if you have AA flights coming up before the hotel stay you’re booking.
AAdvantage Dining
Dining portals are another easy way to earn points and miles for the spending you’re already doing. And while AAdvantage Dining isn’t our go-to dining portal – that distinction goes to Bilt Neighborhood Dining, given how valuable and flexible Bilt points are – it’s another way to pick up a few more Loyalty Points and AA miles.
Earning miles through AAdvantage Dining is simple: All you have to do is link your card and then dine in (or out) at a participating restaurant.
After signing up, just enter your zip code in the search box to see a list of eligible restaurants and earning rates in your area. You’ll find everything from fast food to fine-dining available through AA, so no matter your taste buds, you should be able to earn Loyalty Points and AA miles for many of your restaurant purchases.
AAdvantage Events
Looking to take in a concert or other live event this spring or summer? If you purchase your tickets through AAdvantage Events, you can earn Loyalty Points and AA miles on every dollar you spend.
AA is even running a limited-time promotion through the end of February, allowing you to earn 2x Loyalty Points and 2x miles for every dollar you spend on tickets. If you’ve already got a healthy stash of AA miles and prefer to use those instead of paying cash, you can earn 500 Loyalty Points per redemption, no matter the ticket cost.
Again, you don’t actually need to attend the event before the end of February in order to earn the Loyalty Points needed to qualify for status. Just make sure you make your purchase before the end of the month.
Should You Buy Status Instead?
If none of those methods work for you to earn the Loyalty Points needed to qualify for status, there’s one last option to consider: Buying status.
If you’re close to earning AAdvantage Status, you’ve likely already received an email from American Airlines with an offer to outright buy status for the next year. Exactly how much it costs will vary by status level and just how many more Loyalty Points you need … but one thing all these offers have in common is that they’re rarely a good deal.
For example, I’m currently 14,000 Loyalty Points short of securing AAdvantage Gold status, the lowest tier. AA sent me an offer last week to “lock it in” for a cool $1,249. Thanks, but no thanks!
Since I also have an AAdvantage co-branded credit card, I’d be much better off making a tax payment and paying the 1.75% processing fee instead of taking AA up on this offer. In that case, it would cost me $245 in fees for making a $14,000 payment in order to earn the Loyalty Points needed.
Even if I didn’t owe the IRS that much (I don’t), I could still make that big of a payment and wait for a refund.
Bottom Line
If you’re planning to earn American Airlines AAdvantage elite status, time is running out. But before you give up hope, there are a handful of easy (and quick) ways to earn AA Loyalty Points before the end of the month.
