What is American Elite Status Worth?

When achieving elite status with an airline, flyers can take advantage of extra perks. If you frequently fly with American Airlines and are working to earn elite status, you may be wondering how much is American Airlines elite status worth.

NerdWallet analyzed elite status benefits from multiple airlines to estimate the value of the perks offered.

American Airlines elite status has four tiers: AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum Pro and AAdvantage Executive Platinum.

Below, you'll find further explanation of the estimated value of each of American’s elite status tiers so you can decide if achieving elite status with the airline is worth it.

To become an AAdvantage Gold member, you need to earn 30,000 Loyalty Points within twelve months starting on March 1 of each year. Below are a few of the most valuable benefits of AAdvantage Gold: 

• Priority check-in, security and boarding. 

• Complimentary Main Cabin Extra seats at check-in, when available. 

• Complimentary Preferred seats, when available. 

• Complimentary upgrades within North America as early as 24 hours before departure. 

• Earn 40% more miles.

• Same-day standby priority. 

• One free checked bag. 

• Oneworld Ruby benefits. 

To become an AAdvantage Platinum member, you need to earn 75,000 Loyalty Points within twelve months starting on March 1 of each year. Below are a few of the most valuable Platinum benefits: 

• Priority check-in, security and boarding. 

• Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seats, when available. 

• Complimentary upgrades within North America as early as 48 hours before departure. 

• Earn 60% more miles. 

• Same-day standby priority. 

• Two free checked bags. 

• Oneworld Sapphire benefits. 

» Learn more: Your guide to the American Airlines award chart

To become an AAdvantage Platinum Pro member, you need to earn 125,000 Loyalty Points within twelve months starting on March 1 of each year. Below are a few of the most valuable benefits of AAdvantage Platinum Pro: 

• Priority check-in, security and boarding. 

• Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seats. 

• Complimentary upgrades within North America as early as 72 before departure. 

• Earn 80% more miles. 

• Same-day standby priority.

• Free same-day flight change. 

• Three free checked bags. 

• Oneworld Emerald benefits. 

To become an AAdvantage Executive Platinum member, you need to earn 200,000 Loyalty Points within twelve months starting on March 1 of each year.

Below are a few of the most valuable benefits of AAdvantage Executive Platinum: 

• Priority check-in, security and boarding. 

• Complimentary Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seats. 

• Complimentary upgrades within North America as early as 100 hours before departure. 

• Earn 120% more miles. 

• Same-day standby priority.

• Free same-day flight change. 

• Three free checked bags. 

• Oneworld Emerald benefits. 

» Learn more: The complete guide to the American Airlines AAdvantage program

If you plan to pursue American status, you might be wondering how much American miles are worth. The easy answer is that they are worth approximately 1.5 cents each toward main cabin travel, according to a recent analysis from NerdWallet.

Based on a separate NerdWallet analysis that compares the cost and value of each airline's elite status, American Airlines received a rating of 4.4 out of 5.

While not at the top of the list, only Alaska Airlines beat American on elite status value, while United Airlines was tied with American.  

» Learn more: The highest value airline rewards program this year surprised us, too

Frequent American Airlines flyers may wonder if achieving elite status is worthwhile. Since American Airlines flies to nearly 350 destinations around the globe and has many partner airlines travel partners, there are plenty of opportunities to earn miles and Loyalty Points.

That said, American announced in late 2022 that it was making significant changes to its elite status program after March 2023 — including making it tougher to earn Gold status. The high-level summary of the changes indicates that big spenders will have more earning opportunities, while those who fly less frequently will have fewer.

Travelers living near one of American's hubs who are willing to get an American Airlines credit card may find it worthwhile to achieve elite status, as flight offerings will be more plentiful, thus giving them ample opportunity to take advantage of high-value elite status perks.

» Learn more: Is the American Airlines credit card worth it?

American Airlines offers several ways to earn Loyalty Points, which are required to achieve elite status. As you earn AAdvantage American miles, you’ll also earn Loyalty Points. Here are a few of the best ways to earn American Airlines status: 

Earn elite status by flying with American Airlines

When flying on American Airlines-operated flights, you can earn Loyalty Points as you work toward achieving elite status. The amount of Loyalty Points earned depends on your AAdvantage status level. Here is a breakdown of how many points you'll earn for every dollar spent on your flight: 

• General member: 5 Loyalty Points per dollar spent.

• AAdvantage Gold member: 7 Loyalty Points per dollar spent.

• AAdvantage Platinum member: 8 Loyalty Points per dollar spent.

• AAdvantage Executive Platinum member: 9 Loyalty Points per dollar spent.

• AAdvantage Executive Platinum member: 11 Loyalty Points per dollar spent.

Luckily, American Airlines have numerous travel partners, including being a member of the Onewold alliance. And flying with these partners can be worth it. While flying with a Oneworld partner or one of American’s other travel partners, American Airlines status holders earn the same number of points as they would when flying American with their given status level. 

Earn elite status by flying with a Oneworld airline 

American Airlines is part of the Oneworld Alliance. When flying on Oneworld airline flights, AAdvantage members will earn Loyalty Points toward elite status with American. Below is a list of Oneworld partner airlines: 

Earn elite status by flying with other partner airlines

In addition to earning Loyalty Points when flying on American Airlines or Oneworld partner flights, you can earn Loyalty Points by flying with other partner airlines as well. 

Below is a list of American Airlines' other airline partners:

Earn elite status by spending with American Airlines credit cards

You can earn elite status by earning Loyalty Points using American Airlines credit cards. You'll also earn Loyalty Points as you spend and earn AAdvantage miles. Cardholders will earn one loyalty point for every mile earned through American Airlines' credit card spending. This includes such cards as:

• American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp®.

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®.

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®.

• CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard®. 

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

Earn elite status through other travel partners 

Another way to achieve elite status with American Airlines is by booking eligible travel reservations with partners, including participating hotel and car rental companies.

The exact mile and loyalty point amount earned varies by partner. Don't miss out on extra opportunities like this to reach elite status sooner. 

» Learn more: The guide to American Airlines partners

If you're loyal to American, achieving American elite status may be worthwhile. You can take advantage of valuable benefits that take your flying experience to the next level. 

Depending on your status tier, American elite status is worth from $2,158 to $29,008.

Now that you know how much is American Airlines elite status worth, you can decide whether achieving elite status with American Airlines is something that you want to do. 

Value of each tier

To determine the value of each elite status tier, we considered those perks that carry a clear value, and we omitted luxury benefits (like dedicated phone lines) that don't. Specifically, we considered:

• Bonus miles earned.

• Bag fee offsets.

• Premium seating upgrades.

• First class upgrades.

• Upgrade certificates.

• Fee waivers.

• Other individual program perks with clear value.

The table below explains these benefits as well as the assumptions we made in calculating their value.

Here are the raw estimated values for each program tier:

Cost of earning each tier

Airlines offer different thresholds for achieving each status tier, which can be broken into two categories:

1. Number of miles flown.

2. Other combination of factors, including elite qualifying dollars spent.

For No. 1, we will estimate the cost of achieving each tier as:

Number of miles needed to achieve tier multiplied by the median cost of flown mile (12 cents, per a separate analysis we conducted). For example, Hawaiian requires 20,000 flown miles for Gold status, so the cost of achieving this tier is 20,000 x $0.12 = $2,400.

For No. 2, we will estimate the cost of achieving each tier as:

Number of elite qualifying dollars divided by the fare-to-cost ratio. The fare-to-cost ratio is a percentage value that represents the average “base fare” to “total cost” of airfare (83% per our separate analysis). For example, AAdvantage Gold status requires $3,000 EQDs, so the cost of achieving this tier is $3,000 / $0.83 = $3,614.

If an airline requires a combination of Nos. 1 and 2, we used No. 2 as the cost of earning because this is usually more difficult to achieve. In other words, it's rare to hit a minimum spending requirement without hitting the mileage requirement.

Here is the estimated cost to earn each status tier:

(Featured image courtesy of American Airlines)

The information related to the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Mastercard® has been collected by NerdWallet and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer or provider of this product or service.