At the close of the earning year for 2024 American Airlines loyalty points and Aadvantage elite status, there was a snafu – but American has made up for it and then some.
What Happened
I outlined a few weeks ago that February earnings to close out the 2024 Aadvantage elite earning cycle were taking an extended time to return. Rather than reporting on the fifth of the following month (March 5th, 2025), nothing was reported, elite calculations were reset to zero and whatever loyalty points accrual the flyer opened February with is where they remained for the year – at least in the case of credit card earnings.
I started the month on the border of achieving the 250,000 point level unlocking a new pair of systemwide upgrades, but I was just a little under 13,000 points short. Through some purchases I made during the month and prior to the end of the accrual period, I looked to far exceed the quota. However, I had some unexpected returns that put this in jeopardy and while I felt confident I had exceeded the target on a net basis, I had my doubts.
As I posted five weeks ago, I had to call in to learn that reporting can take up to April 20th (instead of March 5th) and only after it hadn’t posted then did American look into it further:
“April 20th came and went without the adjustment made, another call to the Executive Platinum desk resulted in submission of a credit card statement demonstrating the amount due and was submitted to additional management with a new deadline of May 7th for a result (approximately two weeks.) However, March activity had taken the February qualifications and moved them forward into 2025. As this shorted me a pair of eVIPs, it was important that they were credited to the prior year and the qualification activity was split correctly.
Plainly, there’s no excuse for waiting 51 calendar days for activity to post, only to wait another 14 days to correct it.”
Bank Error In Your Favor
I had noticed an elevated balance in March, but no more eVIP systemwide upgrades to use in my account (I had two, one was redeemed) and never received notification that the next one was available. On the one hand, I had a nice headstart on 2025, but I finished barely short of arguably the most valuable benefit and the one I had been striving for.
Then, more than two weeks after the extended two-week research period, a full 90 days after 2024 closed out, the following email arrived:
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But wait, there’s more.
When I opened my Aadvantage account, I found (5) available eVIPs. This includes the two I should have earned (I claimed them) following the adjustment, and another two mysteriously remained. While this is still another error, it’s one that favors me, and additionally, it’s probably fair compensation as I lost out on the chance to buy some favorable coach flights with upgrade space in the interim.
Steps In The Right Direction
In the end, I qualified for 2024, have a dramatic start to 2025, and more eVIPs than I should. And it feels fair. The reporting issues are a problem but it’s possible it’s a one-time problem (this month came in as normal). However, the most important part to me is that the brand made it right and was more generous than they had to be. Some compensation was due because we couldn’t go back in time, and I couldn’t use the benefits as I had intended and in the right amount of time.
It also seems to be that American is taking their competition seriously and feels like they need to make right by their customers and members.
Conclusion
American Airlines made good on their significant reporting delay by crediting Loyalty Points to both accrual years and either intentionally or unintentionally (because they never mentioned it) credited me an additional two eVIPs. While I might have wished that the error never occurred, I understand that not everything goes as planned all the time and the important thing isn’t to never make a mistake, it’s how you recover.
What do you think?
“… the important thing isn’t to never make a mistake , it’s how you recover.”
Better : … the important thing is to not care about unimportant matters .
Good for you, Kyle.
It’s nice to hear anything remotely positive these days, especially airlines !
But I’d watch your subsequent account activity, as ‘magically’ as those 2 eVIPs appeared, they can vanish ‘unexpectadly’ especially now since you’ve disclosed their nature in this posting !
” The Lord ( & AAdvantage ) giveth & taketh ! ”
And, yet, the hamster wheel of reward programs incessantly goes round n’ round !
@bossa – There’s always a risk, especially when you point it out publicly, but it’s only fair: criticize publicly, praise publicly.
If you check flyertalk, many people have run into this situation with accidentally credited SWUs. AA has been known to claw back, even 6 years later.
Beware !! The grasping claws of AA !!