American Airlines' boss Robert Isom calls the AAdvantage loyalty programme one of the carrier's biggest competitive advantages. A recent View from the Wing piece largely agrees — the programme still offers real value, and its partner award chart hasn't been devalued since 2016 — but argues the airline needs serious changes to make that claim stick.
The core problem isn't pricing, it's access. Business class award space on partners has dried up: British Airways guarantees seats to Avios redeemers that AAdvantage members can't touch, while Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways and Etihad have all added new restrictions in recent years reserving premium seats for their own members. A great award chart is useless if the seats never appear.
Upgrades, once the main reason to chase status, have also lost their shine. Paid upgrades go to anyone willing to buy, while elites usually wait in vain — and systemwide upgrades are notoriously hard to use. Extra legroom seating is thin on the ground too, with more Main Cabin Extra seats not arriving until 2028. Same-day change rules add insult to injury: elites can confirm a different flight but can't reroute through a different hub, which neutered the benefit of American's huge network.
The ten proposed fixes are mostly things other airlines already do. Highlights: award discounts or extra availability for top-tier elites like Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey (United and Delta offer comparable perks); pushing partners like British Airways to release inventory, leveraging their transatlantic joint venture; booking partner awards as soon as partners open their calendars — Finnair loads 360 days out versus American's 331; holding the middle seat next to top elites when it would fly empty anyway; making premium-economy-to-business confirmed upgrades a permanent systemwide upgrade option; 20% off paid upgrades for top elites; flexible same-day rerouting; free stopovers on international awards like Alaska and Aeroplan allow; counting award flights toward status and Million Miler totals (Delta already does the latter); and free household mile pooling.
Why should a traveller care? If you hold AAdvantage miles or chase status, these ideas map out exactly where the programme's value leaks — and which competitors currently do it better. Even if American never adopts them, the piece is a useful reality check: upgrades are no longer something you can build a trip around, partner business class awards are scarce, and Alaska's programme can beat American for some single-partner redemptions. The Million Miler improvement in 2025 is about the only genuine upgrade in recent years.
The practical takeaway for now: treat American miles as best spent on American's own flights, where genuine award deals do exist alongside truly bad ones; book partner awards the day calendars open; and don't count on a complimentary upgrade when choosing your ticket. Anything better depends on the airline actually acting on its own boasts.
