American Airlines AAdvantage members have until the end of each February to earn enough Loyalty Points for their desired American Airlines elite status. So, if you want to earn more Loyalty Points to secure a specific AAdvantage elite status tier during the current qualification period, now is the time to act.
If you haven’t done so already, log in to your AAdvantage account and check how many Loyalty Points you have compared to how many you need for your desired elite status tier. Hopefully, you’ve already reached your goal, but if not, keep reading for ways you could still accrue enough Loyalty Points by the end of February. Remember, many ways to earn Loyalty Points don’t involve travel.
AAdvantage elite status overview
In 2022, American Airlines began using Loyalty Points as its metric for earning elite status. You earn Loyalty Points when you earn base American Airlines miles. However, many bonus American Airlines miles won’t get you Loyalty Points. So, consider whether you’re earning base or bonus miles on your flights, credit card spending and other partner activities.
You need to earn the following numbers of Loyalty Points during the 12 months between the start of March and the end of February to qualify for AAdvantage elite status:
- 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
If you earn enough Loyalty Points for your desired elite status within these 12 months, you’ll keep your status through the end of the following March. So, if you earn your desired status by the end of February 2025, you’ll keep your status through March 31, 2026.
You can also earn Loyalty Point Rewards when you reach certain Loyalty Point thresholds. So, even if you’ve earned enough Loyalty Points for your desired status, it’s worth checking what Loyalty Point Rewards thresholds might be within reach if you earn more Loyalty Points before the end of February.
Related: 6 ways that American Airlines could enhance Loyalty Points
Strategies for earning Loyalty Points
You have until the end of February to earn Loyalty Points for the current qualification period since — in most cases — Loyalty Points are posted to your account based on the activity date.
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This means that even if you don’t have enough Loyalty Points showing in your account when Feb. 28 ends, your balance may still grow as activities that occurred by the end of February post to your account with backdated activity dates. After all, some activities take up to 10 weeks from the activity date to post.
With this in mind, here are a few ways to earn Loyalty Points. Considering that the time you have left to earn Loyalty Points is short if you’re reading this before Feb. 28, I’m listing the most reliable options first.
Go on a mileage run
The most reliable way to earn the final Loyalty Points you need is to go on a mileage run. Since time is short, you may want to focus on simply booking a trip from your home airport that gets you the Loyalty Points you need.
However, if time permits and you can find a compelling fare, inexpensive long-haul premium cabin travel on American Airlines’ partners — excluding British Airways and Iberia, which now credit based on the ticket price — may provide more Loyalty Points for the cost paid. In particular, you’ll likely find AAdvantage’s earning charts for partners Finnair, Cathay Pacific and Qantas appealing since most premium economy fare classes earn at least 100% of the flight distance in base miles.
Regardless of what you book, ensure you’ll complete your travel by the end of Feb. 28.
Spend on an AAdvantage credit card
Another reliable way to earn Loyalty Points is spending on American Airlines credit cards. However, you’ll only earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent regardless of bonus categories with most cards. Credit card welcome offers and spending bonuses earn bonus miles that aren’t eligible for Loyalty Points.
Loyalty Points you earn from spending on an AAdvantage credit card will be posted based on the purchase date. So, purchases that post to your AAdvantage credit cards by Feb. 28, 2025, will count toward the current qualification year. However, it may take up to 10 weeks from the transaction date for the Loyalty Points to be posted to your AAdvantage account.
Two AAdvantage credit cards offer the option to earn extra Loyalty Points when you meet specific thresholds. These extra Loyalty Points should apply to the qualification period during which you met the threshold, but I wouldn’t stake my elite qualification on these extra Loyalty Points posting correctly. Even so, here’s what you should know about these two opportunities in case you want to hope they post to the qualification year that ends Feb. 28.
The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees) offers two tiers of Loyalty Point bonuses. If you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points during a qualification year (earned in any way), you’ll automatically receive 10,000 more Loyalty Points. And if you reach 90,000 Loyalty Points, you’ll receive another 10,000 Loyalty Points.
Meanwhile, the AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Silver Mastercard® (no longer accepting applications) lets you earn up to 15,000 additional Loyalty Points each qualification period through purchases on your card. You’ll get 5,000 additional Loyalty Points after $20,000 in net purchases within a status qualification period, another 5,000 Loyalty Points after a total of $40,000 in net purchases and another 5,000 Loyalty Points after a total of $50,000 or more in net purchases.
The information for the AAdvantage Aviator Silver Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Which credit card should you use for American Airlines flights?
Click through the AAdvantage shopping portal
Using the AAdvantage shopping portal is one of the easiest ways to earn Loyalty Points. Whether you’re hundreds or thousands of Loyalty Points shy of your desired AAdvantage elite status, making one or more purchases after clicking through this online shopping portal could help you earn the Loyalty Points you need.
Loyalty Points earned through the end of February via the AAdvantage Shopping portal count toward the status qualifying year that ends Feb. 28. However, note that many types of transactions tracked by the AAdvantage Shopping portal, including hotel bookings, base the activity date on the fulfillment date. So, carefully consider whether the purchase you make after clicking through the AAdvantage Shopping portal will likely have an activity date of Feb. 28 or earlier.
Use SimplyMiles
Another easy way to earn Loyalty Points if you have a Mastercard is to utilize SimplyMiles offers. These offers let shoppers with an enrolled Mastercard earn American miles and Loyalty Points when shopping with select merchants for which they’ve enrolled in an offer.
To get started, enroll in SimplyMiles, link your Mastercard cards to your SimplyMiles account and enroll in SimplyMiles offers you think you might use. Then, when you make an eligible purchase with an enrolled card at a participating merchant, you’ll earn Loyalty Points.
Your activity date for SimplyMiles offers is usually the purchase date or shipping date. However, AAdvantage usually takes 10 to 15 business days to post miles and Loyalty Points earned from SimplyMiles offers to your account. As with the AAdvantage Shopping portal, consider whether your activity date will likely be Feb. 28 or earlier before relying on SimplyMiles to get you the remaining Loyalty Points you need.
Earn Loyalty Points on hotel stays
You can also pick up some extra Loyalty Points on hotel stays. There are several ways to earn Loyalty Points from hotel stays, including:
- AAdvantage Hotels: Earn Loyalty Points for stays booked through this platform.
- Credit Hyatt stays to AAdvantage: Earn 500 Loyalty Points per stay.
- Credit Marriott or IHG stays to AAdvantage: Earn up to 2 Loyalty Points per dollar spent on qualifying charges.
While you’ll likely get elite night credits and benefits when you book through the final three methods, you’re unlikely to get them through AAdvantage Hotels.
However, you’ll want to check out of your stay on or before Feb. 28 to ensure it counts toward the current qualification period. Although the activity date should be backdated to no later than your checkout date, it will likely take weeks for these stays to be posted to your AAdvantage account. For example, I’m still waiting for the earnings from two AAdvantage Hotels stays in January to be posted to my account.
Book rental cars through AAdvantage
Especially if you don’t get much value from car rental loyalty programs, you may want to earn Loyalty Points when renting cars.
You can book Avis or Budget rental cars through AAdvantage Cars and earn 2 to 5 base miles and Loyalty Points per dollar spent. Your earning rate will vary based on your American Airlines elite status level.
Returning your rental car on or before Feb. 28 should count toward the current qualification period. Even so, it will likely take weeks for the miles and Loyalty Points to be posted to your AAdvantage account with a backdated activity date.
Related: Earn American Loyalty Points when you stay at hotels and rent cars
Dine with AAdvantage Dining
You can also earn Loyalty Points through the American Airlines AAdvantage Dining program. To do so, enroll in the AAdvantage dining rewards program, add your favorite rewards cards to your AAdvantage dining program account and then use an enrolled card to pay at participating restaurants, bars and clubs.
Depending on your status with the AAdvantage Dining program — different from your AAdvantage status — you’ll earn between 1 and 5 Loyalty Points per dollar spent. The restaurant should register your transaction within five days of your purchase, and then you should see the miles and Loyalty Points in your AAdvantage account one to two weeks later. Due to the time the restaurant may take to register your transaction, I wouldn’t recommend relying on AAdvantage Dining for Loyalty Points this close to the end of the qualification period.
Bottom line
It’s best not to wait until the final days of your qualification period to earn the Loyalty Points you need. After all, your activity might not post as you expect (or as quickly as you expect).
However, suppose you need just a few more Loyalty Points before the end of this qualification period. In that case, I recommend either spending on your cobranded American Airlines card or doing a mileage run. Both options are almost certain to post correctly and will post quicker than many other ways you could earn Loyalty Points.
It’s also worth checking whether you have an offer to buy the American status you want. However, these offers are usually rather expensive, so it’s almost always better to find a way to earn the Loyalty Points you need instead.
