American Airlines Will Waive Minimum Spend For Some US Flyers But Forgets Everyone Else

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The changes to American Airlines’ AAdvantage program continue to flow and, while I’ll address most of the changes in a post later today, I’d like to focus on one particular change that American announced yesterday – a change to minimum spend.

Back in June, when American dropped the bombshell that it was introducing minimum spend criteria for all AAdvantage status levels, AAdvantage members were left wondering why American Airlines hadn’t offered any ways to bypass the minimum spend criteria like both United and Delta have.

United’s Rules

• MileagePlus members based outside the US are exempt from the minimum spend criteria
• Customers who spend $25,000 in a year on a United co-branded credit card (or over a portfolio of United co-branded credit cards) will have the minimum spend criteria waived for all but the top earned status level (1K).

Delta’s Rules

• Medallion members based outside the US are exempt from the minimum spend criteria
• Customers who spend $25,000 in a year on a Delta co-branded credit card (or over a portfolio of Delta co-branded credit cards) will have the minimum spend criteria waived for all status levels.

So why no waiver for AAdvantage members?

The consensus opinion at the time seemed to be that American was waiting to renegotiate its credit card agreement with Citi and/or Barclays before deciding on any waivers….. but when the new credit card agreement was announced there was still no sign of any minimum spend waivers.

Finally, yesterday, American Airlines tried to announce something positive…at least for US based members.

AAdvantage Aviator Red, Aviator Blue and Aviator Business MasterCard accounts can earn up to $3,000 EQDs by spending $25,000 on qualifying net purchases during the calendar year.

AAdvantage Aviator Silver MasterCard accounts can earn up to $6,000 EQDs by spending $50,000 on qualifying net purchases each calendar year. They’ll earn $3,000 EQDs after spending $25,000 on qualifying purchases and another $3,000 EQDs after $50,000 on qualifying purchases.

There are a few interesting things to pick out of those statements:

• Citi credit cards are not mentioned…which is surprising since Citi offers the most expensive co-branded American Airlines credit card ($450).

• If you take a look at the minimum spend criteria required for each status level (below) it quickly becomes obvious how much worse American’s waiver is compared to both United’s and Delta’s.

The best that an American Airlines flyer can do is get the minimum spend waived for Platinum status (second from bottom status) and that will still require $50,000 of spend on a single credit card.

Per American:

[Y]our spend on all of your AAdvantage® AviatorTM MasterCard® accounts cannot be combined to count toward the spend requirement to earn EQDs

Compare that to Delta where $25,000 spend over all Delta co-branded cards will see the minimum spend requirement waived for all status levels.

Even at United, although the waiver isn’t as good as Delta’s, $25,000 spend across all United co-branded credit cards will see a customer do a lot better.

• American is not giving a waiver for members based outside of the US – those members will still have the full spend criteria to meet.

Thoughts

This last point is hardest to understand and feels like a big kick in the guts to all AAdvantage members outside of the US.

I can imagine American arguing that it allows flights booked through partners to earn Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) based on distance flown while United doesn’t…but that’s not much of an argument when you realise that Delta has the same rules for partner flights as American.

As for the waivers for spend on credit cards…they’re not going to be too useful to most AAdvantage members.

$50,000 spend on an American Airlines credit card just to have $6,000 spend waived? You’re kidding, right? Only someone who has a lot of business spend or someone manufacturing spend will find that useful.

And $25,000 spend for a measly $3,000 waiver is bordering on insulting when compared to what United & Delta offer.

Upgrades

I can only see one possible reason why a customer would go out of their way to earn EQD from credit card spend and that’s to improve their chances on the upgrade list.

At some point in 2017 the way upgrades are processed will be changing. Rather than ranking travelers based on the date the upgrade was requested, travelers will be ranked based on how many EQD they have earned in the previous 12-month rolling period….and that’s where EQD from credit cards may come in useful.

Bottom Line

I will not be making any effort to earn EQD from credit card spend. I’m going to employ a far easier method of meeting the minimum spend criteria – booking away from American wherever possible but crediting my flights to AAdvantage.

I strongly recommend all non-US AAdvantage members do the same.

With flights on partner airlines earning EQD based on a percentage of the distance flown I’ll earn the EQD I need while still being able to use whatever credit cards I want whenever I want – no need to concentrate all spend on a credit card I rarely use nowadays (Aviator Red).

In a nutshell this is where we now stand: American Airlines will require its customers to put twice as much spend on their credit cards as Delta asks of its customers…but American’s customers will be getting a lot less for their effort. Good move American, way to win the race to the bottom.