American Airways is altering how AAdvantage members earn miles and Loyalty Points on flights marketed and operated by British Airways and Iberia, as first identified by Olouie on Twitter and confirmed to TPG by American Airways.
Ranging from Oct. 18, 2023, AAdvantage members will earn miles based mostly on the worth of their tickets somewhat than the gap flown and their fare class. AAdvantage members will earn 5 miles and Loyalty Factors per greenback spent, with extra elite bonuses for AAdvantage Gold, Platinum, Platinum Professional and Govt Platinum members, which aligns with the way you earn on American-marketed flights.
This is what it’s essential to know concerning the modifications to what you may earn on BA and Iberia tickets.
Income-based accruals on British Airways and Iberia
While you fly American, you earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Factors on the bottom fare of your ticket. However when you purchase a ticket straight from certainly one of American’s companions, these airways use completely different ticketing methods, so American has traditionally credited accomplice tickets based mostly on three elements: the working airline, the fare class and the gap of the flight.
Every accomplice has a dedicated AAdvantage accrual page.
Since there’s not at all times a direct correlation between these three elements and your ticket value, AAdvantage members can typically earn far more miles and Loyalty Points on partner-marketed and issued tickets than they might on American. That is why information reporter Caroline Tanner earned AAdvantage Platinum with Finnair last year.
And that is what is altering — AAdvantage members will quickly earn on the worth of their British Airways and Iberia tickets somewhat than the fare class and distance of the flight.
The brand new British Airways and Iberia incomes charts have already been loaded onto American’s web site.
This variation is motivated by British Airways and Iberia also transitioning to revenue-based earning in their loyalty programs, which occurs on Oct. 18.
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And this variation is reciprocal — British Airways Govt Membership and Iberia Plus members may also earn Avios on the worth of their American Airways tickets (somewhat than the gap and fare class).
For now, no modifications have been introduced to how AAdvantage members earn on Qatar Airways, the opposite Avios Oneworld service. Subsequent yr, Finnair will join the Avios currency, however as with Qatar Airways, no modifications to Finnair accruals have been introduced.
We reached out to American to search out out if it is planning to increase revenue-based accruals to different accomplice airways.
An American spokesperson mentioned, “Relating to different companions, we do not have the rest to share right now.”
Backside line
Other than British Airways and Iberia, for now, all different accomplice tickets will proceed to earn miles and Loyalty Factors on the three elements talked about: the working airline, the fare class and the flight distance.
This shift is probably not favorable for British Airways and Iberia prospects as revenue-based applications sometimes provide fewer alternatives for maximizing accruals on discounted airfare. However it’s according to airways’ shift to award miles and standing to excessive spenders as an alternative of simply frequent long-distance vacationers.
It might take time for American to implement the expertise to credit score revenue-based accruals on different accomplice airways. However for now, we all know you may earn on British Airways and Iberia similar to you earn on American-marketed flights.
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