While American Airlines remained mum on their loyalty program amidst many of the other programs announcing changes last year, it seems that 2024 AAdvantage changes are happening after all. They just waited till the New Year to let us know.
2023 saw some pretty crazy changes in the airline loyalty space. Delta, of course, made it clear that it doesn’t care about anyone but its wealthiest customers. Alaska also announced several changes, though they were far more balanced than those of their arch-nemesis. In the wake of the Delta fallout, United stated that they weren’t going to announce any Mileage Plus changes at the time, though they eventually tweaked their cards a bit.
Throughout all of that, American remained pretty quiet. Alas, they have now announced changes of their own.
2024 AAdvantage Changes
Unlike Delta’s announcement, it seems most of the 2024 AAdvantage changes are positive. Most of them won’t kick in until March 1, 2024 (or later), but there is one going into effect “later in January.” Yeah, that’s precisely what American says when discussing this first change.
Basic Economy Cancellation
Typically, Basic Economy fares are non-cancellable and are always non-refundable. That, along with strong restrictions on seating, cabin bags, etc. are meant to make the lowest-priced fares as unappealing as possible. But American seems to be reversing course a bit, at least for AAdvantage members. That’s because, starting later this month, AAdvantage members will be able to cancel Basic Economy fares and will receive a partial Trip Credit (refund to wallet) when they do. However, the following stipulations apply:
- Valid for domestic flights only
- Travel cannot have started at the time of cancellation
- Fare must have been booked via aa.com, the American Airlines app, or directly with American Airlines reservation call center
- An undisclosed fee will be assessed
Same-Day Standby
Next up in the 2024 AAdvantage changes is same-day standby. Coming sometime or after March 1, 2024 (don’t you love how vague the timing of these 2024 AAdvantage changes are?) will be the ability to request same-day standbys. Honestly, I didn’t know you couldn’t do this with AA. I thought this was fairly standard, no? Then again, I haven’t flown with them since 2017, so…
Anyhow, you can begin requesting same-day standby 24 hours before your originally scheduled departure time. Requests must:
- Must depart on the same day and have the same origin and destination airports as your original flight
- You must have the same number of layovers, and they must occur at the same airports as your original flight
- Same-day standbys are valid only on flights operated by American Airlines and American Eagle
- Will continue to be available to Oneworld elite members, active U.S. military, and Main Cabin Select passengers
Other New Benefits
The start date of the other new benefits coming as part of the 2024 AAdvantage changes is even more nebulous, as it’s listed as “later in 2024.”
- Trip Credit: AAdvantage members will have six additional months to use their Trip Credit from canceled flights. As of March 11, 2024, American is implementing a 12-month expiration policy, meaning AAdvantage members will have 18 months to use their Trip Credit.
- Admiral’s Club One-Day Passes: at some point this year, day passes for Admiral’s Club may be purchased by AAdvantage members only.
- Flagship One-Day Passes: same as Admiral’s Club one-day passes.
- 24-Hour Trip Hold: only members will be able to hold itineraries for 24 hours free of charge.
- New Upgrade Benefits
- Earn miles when you pay to upgrade to a higher cabin.
- Buy upgrades with select partners using miles
- Ability to request systemwide upgrades online
Enhanced Loyalty Point Reward Choices
As part of their 2024 AAdvantage changes, American is enhancing their Loyalty Point Reward choices. I won’t go over all of what they have today, but as an example, at the base 15,000 points level, you get upgraded to Group 5 boarding for a year, and you can choose between Group 4 boarding for a year or receive five preferred seat vouchers. However, beginning March 1, you’ll get a third option for 1,000 Loyalty Points at the 15,000 points level. An additional points option is also being added to the following levels:
- 175,000 Points: 5,000 Loyalty Points
- 250,000 Points: 15,000 Loyalty Points
Flagship Lounge Redemptions
The final one of the 2024 AAdvantage changes is another one with no disclosed launch timeframe. As the subheading suggests, this option will let you redeem miles for a Flagship Lounge day pass. However, in order to be eligible for this redemption option, you need to earn 40,000 Loyalty Points, which is also the current threshold for the based AAdvantage Gold elite status. This is part of a broader “Enhance with Miles” benefit.
2024 AAdvantage Changes, Final Thoughts
It’s refreshing to see an announcement that is truly about enhancements to a program, even though some of these “enhancements” should have been part of the program already. That said, it doesn’t mean negative changes aren’t on the horizon. American hasn’t done much to its award charts in a while, meaning you can extract more value from AAdvantage relative to MileagePlus and SkyMiles. But if and when that happens is anyone’s guess.
I will say that while the recently announced changes are positive, it does seem American is trying harder to build its base of AAdvantage members and is struggling to give people reasons to fly with them consistently. Will these carrots work? We’ll see.