How American Airlines Will Choose Preferred Travel Agencies – Live and Let’s Fly

As it prepares to limit how AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points are earned, American Airlines is laying out the criteria for its preferred travel agencies, which give us an idea of which outlets will still quality for these frequent flyer benefits.

Requirements For American Airlines Preferred Travel Agencies

Starting with tickets issued on or after May 1, 2024, American Airlines will limit whether you can earn Loyalty Points and miles to those who:

• Book directly with American and eligible partner airlines
• Book travel anywhere as an AAdvantage Business member or contracted corporate traveler
• Book through preferred travel agencies
  • American will share a list of eligible preferred agencies on aa.com in late April

While that list will not be shared till late April, AA has already given us an idea of the requirements to be on that list:

• 2024 incentive agreement requirement
  Agencies must be on a 2024 incentive agreement issued by American at American’s sole discretion. If, at any point, their incentive agreement with American ends, the agency will no longer be able to participate in the preferred agency program.
  
• New Distribution Capability (NDC) adoption requirements
  Agencies must adopt and implement American’s NDC and shop and book through American’s NDC connections, meeting the progressive NDC thresholds below. Shopping and booking must be done in accordance with American’s connection and capacity requirements.

• Preferred agency display requirements
  As customers consider purchasing an American Airlines offer, fare rules, product attributes, and fare restrictions should be fully displayed and clearly communicated. A new product attribute of American’s offers is the ability to earn AAdvantage miles. For an agency to be considered preferred, they must demonstrate their ability to clearly communicate to customers when they earn AAdvantage miles in the online booking tool throughout the booking flow before a purchase is finalized. Agencies must contact their Modern Retailing business manager to begin the review and approval process on display criteria.

  The deadline for the display qualification criteria is July 1, 2024, to allow time for the completion of any necessary updates.

  If an agency meets the criteria for the first NDC threshold on April 21, 2024, customers with tickets issued by the preferred agency between April 21 and June 30 will earn miles and Loyalty Points. In order for customers purchasing a ticket July 1, 2024, and beyond to earn, however, the agency must meet the display criteria.

Meeting these requirements does not guarantee placement on AA’s preferred travel agencies list. Such placement remains at American’s sole discretion.

This Is About Upsells

A world about NDC. In short, NDC technology provides customers more opportunities to tailor their experience, including elevated offers and ancillary products in more channels.

Enhanced offerings available in NDC connections and on aa.com include Main Plus, Main Select and Flagship Business Plus fares, carbon offsets via Cool Effect, and day-of-travel features such as seat choices, upgrades and pre-ordered meals.

In other words, American Airlines wants to be able to upsell its various suite of ancillary products wherever you book your tickets. To incentivize this, you won’t earn miles and status points through channels that cannot offer this full experience.

CONCLUSION

American Airlines has laid out its requirements to be considered a preferred travel agency, although it will retain final discretion in awarding that designation.

Theoretically, I see no barrier for the major travel agencies like Expedia or Kayak not to meet these requirements. We’ll have to wait to late April to see who makes the cut, but I am not certain yet that customers will broadly feel the pain. Those who might include bookings made via American Express or Capital One travel portals, though even that remains up in the air.

AA is gambling by closing off booking channels (i.e. limiting potential and future business), but feels confident that this approach allows it to best monetize its product offering and capture revenue for its loyalty program.