How I earned American Airlines Executive Platinum status

I believe that, for most casual travelers, airline elite status is unnecessary. If you're only flying one to five times per year, just be an airline "free agent", and select flights that are the cheapest, whether in cash or miles! Don't spend the substantial time (and money) that it takes to secure top-level airline status, to only use the benefits a few times per year.

However, for those traveling at least six times a year, the perks that come along with high-level elite status (such as United 1k status, Delta Diamond, or American Executive Platinum) are very advantageous. After I earned American Platinum Pro status (American’s second highest elite status) back in September 2022, and Executive Platinum status in February 2023, here are some of the perks that I have utilized the most:

3 Free Checked Bags

• Although, when I am flying alone, I try to carry-on as much as possible, when I am traveling with the family, or taking an extended work trip, it’s always nice to not have to pay exorbitant fees to check bags!

Upgrades to First Class

• I’ve been successful with premium cabin upgrades for 7 of 11 flights while having American status. Not a bad ratio!

One travel companion is eligible for an upgrade as well!

120% Status mileage bonus

• For each paid flight on American, I receive 120% more miles than the average AAdvantage member.

We earn more miles from the elite status bonus than we do from the base miles!

Complimentary same-day flight change

• Plans change and you want to get home earlier? You can confirm same-day flight changes without any fees.

Complimentary Main Cabin Extra seats

• This is one of the most underrated elite status perks in my opinion. For those times that your first class upgrades don’t clear, having the option to select extra legroom economy seats at purchase is clutch! For short-haul economy flights, first class is not a massive deal in my book, but having an aisle seat with extra legroom, near the front of the plane, IS!

I was flying economy on an American flight from Philly to London in May 2022. Free Main Cabin Extra seats as an elite came in handy when I changed to an empty row 45 minutes before departure. Had one of my best nights of sleep on an airplane ever!

Loyalty Choice Rewards

• In addition to the 200k AA miles we earned throughout the year, we also received 3 systemwide upgrades and 30,000 bonus points.

OneWorld Emerald Status

• American Airlines is a part of the OneWorld airline alliance. In the past year, having high-level OneWorld Emerald status has helped me gain lounge access at the Doha Airport while flying Qatar, extra bags while flying British Airways, etc.

Qatar Airways Platinum Lounge (South), Doha Airport, Qatar

Making the decision whether airline status is worth pursuing or not is completely subjective. However, if you do decide it’s worth it, I want to give you an example of how much it might take for you to obtain, by walking through how I obtained American Airlines Executive Platinum status for the next 12 months. American unveiled a new way to obtain status, called Loyalty Points (LP’s), that rewards not just flying, but any spending that they want to incentivize. Here’s my breakdown:

1. 15k LP’s: Citi AA Business card spend

   • I opened the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® card in the middle of 2022 and spent enough for the sign-up bonus, plus some strategic spending throughout the year.

2. 58k LP’s: Actual flying on AA (and OneWorld Partners)

   • A majority of the flights were booked through the American Express travel portal using the pay with points feature on the AMEX Business platinum, where you get 35% of your points rebated 6-8 weeks after purchase (resulting in 1.54 cents per point). In addition, I had two long-haul flights for work that accounted for over 2/3 of the amount of points earned (31k and 15k points, respectively).

3. 99k LP’s: AA Shopping Portal purchases

   • This is obviously the biggest reason we have AA status. The AA shopping portal consistently has the highest return on spending, compared to any of the other airline shopping portals. We maximized every elevated offer throughout the year, including (but not limited to):

     • 15k miles for Giftcards.com (which, as of writing, is no longer available on the portal, unfortunately)

     • 6.2k miles at The Motley Fool

     • 4.6k miles for new washer & dryer at Samsung

     • 3k miles for Bright Cellars, WSJ Wine & Laithwaites

     • 3.7k miles for Naked Wines & Sunbasket

     • 2.2k miles for Green Chef (three times!) & Blue Apron (twice!)

     • 2.5k miles for Spot & Tango & Byte

     • 2k miles for Factor 75 (twice!), Hello Fresh & Gobble

     • 1.5k miles for Winc Wines

     • 1k miles for Babylist (and didn’t have to spend a penny!)

4. 12k LP’s: SimplyMiles Purchases

   • SimplyMiles is a card-linked offers program that gives you bonus AA miles on purchases that you link to your Mastercard. Most of these points were “stacks” to AA Shopping portal deals.

5. 15k LP’s: Rocketmiles hotel stays

   • These points were from two work stays and one personal stay. We crunched the numbers and the AA points were worth more than the hotel points we would have earned.

6. 1k LP’s: AA Dining & AA surveys

   • Just a negligible amount of points earned from these two sources.

Clearly, airline status comes with a lot of perks, but also takes a lot of work to make happen! We’ve found a ton of value in it as a family, but will likely slow it down this year and settle for Platinum or Platinum Pro status. It’s a constant weighing of the benefit of the perks vs. the cost to maintain the status. Hope this was helpful as you make that decision for yourself!