American Airlines is currently counting credit card spend toward Million Miler status. Several have asked me if United Airlines will match. My answer: I certainly hope not.
What Is Million Miler Status?
Million Miler status is special lifetime status conferred upon this frequent travelers who show long-term loyalty to an airline program.
At American Airlines, you can earn up to lifetime platinum status by flying two million miles on American Airlines or partner flights:
- One Million Miler – AAdvantage Gold status for the life of the program + 35,000 miles
- Two Million Miler – AAdvantage Platinum status for the life of the program + four systemwide upgrades
Miles are earned based on the distance of your flight for travel on American marketed flights or the base miles earned for travel on eligible partner marketed flights.
For comparison purposes, at United Airlines you can earn up to lifetime Global Services status (the secretive top-tier status for high-senders),
- One Million Miler – Lifetime Premier Gold
- Two Million Miler – Lifetime Premier Platinum
- Three Million Miler – Lifetime Premier 1K
- Four Million Miler – Lifetime Global Services
Furthermore, as a Million Miler, you may invite your spouse or significant other to share your current Premier status.
Status is earned exclusively via butt-in-seat miles on United flights (500 mile minimums still apply) without class of service or other bonuses counted. Continental used to count partner flights and there was a reconciliation in 2011 that retroactively counted Star Alliance partner flights on United too, but since the merger only United flights count toward this status.
American Airlines Temporarily Counts Credit Card Spending Toward Million Miler Status
Through the end of the year, any spending you place on your Citi co-branded American Airlines cards will count toward Million Miler status.
We’re introducing a limited-time promotion to help you reach Million Miler status and receive benefits like elite status. For all eligible Citi / AAdvantage and AAdvantage Aviator products, as well as select AAdvantage credit cards outside the U.S., every dollar spent on net purchases that post between May 1, 2020, – December 31, 2020, will count as 1 mile toward Million Miler status.
This is actually a re-introduction of what was once a longstanding policy at American Airlines to count credit card spending toward lifetime status. I cannot count the number of Award Expert clients I have who have earned lifetime gold or platinum status by virtue of their credit card spending.
Million Miler Status Is Far Less Generous On American Airlines Than United
As I noted above, the program at United is far more generous than American. Untied Gold status is equivalent to American Platinum status and includes Star Alliance Gold status (lounge access and other benefits worldwide) and free status for your spouse, family member, or friend of your choice.
Untied also offers additional lifetime tiers that incentive a lifetime of loyalty beyond 2,000,000 miles.
Consequently, I’d hate to see United start counting credit card spending toward lifetime status and then devalue the Million Miler program in a manner that resembles what American offers.
Quite the contrary, I would like to see United’s Million Miler program remain exclusive…and hopefully unchanged. It’s a generous, longstanding program that should not risk being diluted through gimmicks.
CONCLUSION
I appreciate that American Airlines is trying incentivize spending on its co-branded credit cards and encourage long-term loyalty. Still, I don’t think a similar program is the right fit for United Airlines.
I thought we were supposed to stop whining about these things? Oh wait, that was another blogger. 🙂
I can be a whiner, but I don’t think this is one of those posts. 😉
I know. But it’s a sunny day in DC so thought a little shade would be nice. 🙂
LOL @Stuart
I also LOLed through his (the other blogger, not Matthew) post. Such hypocritical nonsense.
@ Matthew — The statuses are like apples and oranges. AA”s is pretty worthless, while UA’s is industry-leading. Why would United match?
AA 2MM is equivalent to UA 1MM, so not totally worthless
One UA 1 MM = Two AA 2 MMs.
@Gene: That’s my point, but many have asked for my thoughts on whether UA will match.
Agree with you I don’t want UA to match, don’t want to give them any excuse to further devalue!
Are the systemwide upgrades for AA 2 million milers per year or one-time? Thank you!
One-time.
I agree. This is a hard-earned status that requires actual butt-in-seat miles and many days away from home. I’ve been an M+ member since 1985 and was looking forward to finally making my first million miles. I needed 1,795 more when my company grounded us in mid-Feb. I would have made it years ago if I didn’t fly AA between 1988 and 1998.
I vote NO to CC spend for MM status!
I do wish UA would factor in MM status when processing upgrades. GSMs, then, 1Ks with MM status (3, 2, 1), then, 1Ks and so on; subject to fare class and date-of-purchase.
I would think they would favor current customers (those with 1K status earned that year) opposed to historic customers (those with 1K through MM).
As a 35-year old with only 288K lifetime miles, I could use all the gimmicks I can get! 🙁
the UA MM was a real pain to achieve
opened m account in 1994, and don’t travel regularly for work. Took me 24 hours, including the merger with Conti, to actually hit 1MM by end of 2018.
but it was a great moment cuz the 777 captain personally brought over the gift – a thick hardcover coffee-table book detailing history of the airline, and signed by all crew onboard that flight. and naturally, i stapled my full length boarding pass too.
took me a long ass time to finely tune the 1MM crossover flight to be the 8000 mile journey in J and not a connecting segment on some ERJ.
*24 *years*
I was going to say, that was fast. 😉
I’ve got 2M Lifetime status on both (all on PmUA and PmAA, no PmCo or PmUS). AA’s is pretty worthless other than Int’l. lounge access and MCE seats. UA offers much better lifetime status recognition IMHO.
AA should at least make 2M (in the seat miles) = to PlatPro and 3M to ExecPlat if they want to be comparable to UA, and nix the cc spend b.s.
I got lifetime Gold with AA many many years ago when that status was halfway decent. I stopped flying AA 15 years ago but still have that status. Nowadays Gold with AA is worthless. Seriously, not sure if there is any major difference than having no status at all. I made to 1MM with Delta last year which gives me lifetime Silver. Actually I was surprised that I got nothing from Delta other than simply one of those horrible red luggage tags saying I am a million miler.
Elites always want to keep everyone else from joining their level of status or higher, particularly if the status is suddenly cheap or free for the newcomers. I was pretty pissed that Hyatt gave away my earned Globalist status to tons of American elites for doing nothing while receiving nothing in return.
I am not making that argument here. Frankly, I don’t care if there is a huge swell in Star Alliance Gold members. Rather, I am just pointing out that United has a great Million Miler program which I would hate to see chopped down to what AA currently offers.
Indeed I hope this will not be copied. It would artificially bloat up the number of premium members who will then be hogging the lounges.
I am a firm believer of status though flying only and keep the hoards out.
I am totally against counting credit card spending miles for MM status. It is Million-Mile Flyer not Million-Mile Purchaser!
How can one call him/herself a MM Flyer when one does not fly.
I understand the reason post merger UA did it to include the PMCO EQM balance in the combined program. It is a one-time exception and should not be treated a precedent event for future consideration.
I am glad almost 2/3 of the poll result in the UA forum of Flyertalk is totally against the idea. I understand people vote with self-interest in mind, but I take comfort that a logical and fair view has come through the polling result so far.