AAdvantage

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American Airlines Boeing 757-200

AAdvantage is the frequent flyer program of the American airline American Airlines and its merger airline US Airways . It was launched on May 1, 1981, making it the oldest existing frequent flyer program in the world and the second of its kind. The first such customer loyalty program was launched in 1979 by Texas International Airlines . With 67 million members (as of October 2011), AAdvantage is one of the largest frequent flyer programs in the world.

history

The establishment of the program resulted from the Airline Deregulation Act of the USA of 1978 and the resulting increased competitive pressure . In order to reward and retain loyal customers, a discount on flight tickets was first introduced and free upgrades were added. For this purpose, the flight bookings of the Saber reservation system were examined for recurring telephone numbers in order to determine the 130,000 most active frequent flyers and automatically enter them into the program. Furthermore, 60,000 members of the AA's Admirals Club were registered. The name AAdvantage was chosen based on the corporate identity and the logo was designed by Massimo Vignelli.

Less than a week later, competitor United Airlines launched the MileagePlus frequent flyer program , with other airlines to follow in the weeks and months to come.

AAdvantages first worked with an international airline in 1982, and miles could now be earned on flights to Europe with British Airways .

Frequent flyer status

The unit of account of the program is "miles". Members who have registered free of charge can collect these on flights with American Airlines and their partners in the Oneworld Alliance and have them credited to various hotels, car rental companies and tour operators. Miles can be redeemed for free flights, upgrades and various rewards. They also lead to different status levels. AAdvantage knows four different categories for frequent flyers:

  • Temporary members will receive an "AAdvantage" paper card to print out when they register on the Internet.
  • Gold status , from 25,000 status miles or 25,000 status points or 30 flight segments flown. Benefits include a 25% mile bonus, a second free bag, check-in at the business class counter and the collection of upgrade points. For every 10,000 miles flown, you receive 4 points, with 1 point allowing an upgrade for a distance of up to 500 miles.
  • Platinum status , from 50,000 status miles or 50,000 status points or 60 flight segments flown. In addition to gold status, benefits include a 100% mile bonus and, on international flights, access to the Admirals Club Lounge or to a business class lounge of another oneworld airline.
  • Executive Platinum , from 100,000 status miles or 100,000 status points or 100 flown flight segments. Members of this category can automatically fly business class for free within North America and the Caribbean if there is space. In addition, when they reach this status they receive 8 eVIP upgrade vouchers, which can be used on intercontinental routes (1 eVIP is valid for a maximum of 3 flight segments in the next higher seat category). There is no need to collect upgrade points. Check-in takes place at the first-class counter. Members get access to first-class lounges when traveling internationally with oneworld airlines.

A renewed Million Miler Program has existed since the end of 2011. All tier miles earned on AA or oneworld airlines will be added to the miles earned up to the end of November 2011. Members who have accumulated 1,000,000 miles on American Airlines flights receive lifelong Gold status. For 2,000,000 miles there is lifelong platinum status.

Cooperations

In addition to the cooperation within the Oneworld alliance and the regional airlines American Connection and American Eagle , miles can also be earned on codeshare flights with the following airlines.

Airlines

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A history of US Airline Deregulation (English) accessed on October 26, 2011
  2. ^ American Airlines program information, accessed April 7, 2012
  3. ↑ The Big 2-5 - Celebrating 25 Years of Frequent Flyer Programs ( Memento from January 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (English) accessed on October 26, 2011
  4. ↑ Program information ( memento of October 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on October 26, 2011
  5. ↑ Elite Levels , accessed December 21, 2012
  6. ^ American Airlines Codeshare Partners . aa.com. Retrieved December 21, 2012.