How To Earn American Airlines Loyalty Points [Without Flying]

American Airlines (AA) Loyalty Points are the metric that determines elite status with the carrier. Of course, you can earn them by flying with American and its partners, but what about earning AA Loyalty Points quickly without having your butt in a seat? That’s precisely what we’ll look at in this article.

If you are just shy of the next level of elite status or the elite status qualification year is ending soon, you may be looking for ways to earn AA Loyalty Points fast. Thankfully, there are ways to do just that — and you don’t even have to step foot on a plane.

Let’s get to the details.

What Are Loyalty Points?

If you’re chasing American Airlines elite status, you need to earn AA Loyalty Points, which are different than traditional redeemable miles. Thankfully, they’re pretty easy to earn — you’ll get 1 Loyalty Point for every qualifying base American Airline mile earned. You don’t earn Loyalty Points for bonus miles.

There are 4 levels of elite status within the American Airlines AAdvantage program:

You’ll also earn Loyalty Point Rewards along the way as you work toward earning status. These rewards are earned starting at just 15,000 Loyalty Points and include perks like priority boarding, Avis Preferred elite status, systemwide upgrades, Admirals Club passes, and so much more.

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American Airlines Elite Year

The number of Loyalty Points you earn during the elite qualifying year determines your American Airlines elite status level for the following year.

The elite qualifying year runs from March 1 through the last day of February the following year. Once you earn status, it’s valid through the following membership year.

The membership year starts on the day you qualify for status or April 1 (whichever comes first) and goes through the following March.

For example, if you earn American Airlines Gold elite status on December 7, 2023, it would be valid through March 31, 2025.

The Best Ways To Earn AA Loyalty Points Quickly

AAdvantage Shopping Portal

One of the fastest ways to earn AA Loyalty Points is through the AAdvantage eShopping Portal. When you shop through this portal, you’ll earn Loyalty Points and redeemable miles.

To use the American Airlines shopping portal, you must create an account at aadvantageshopping.com. Then, all you need to do is click through the portal to the website you want to shop at, and your miles and Loyalty Points will be tracked and added to your American Airlines account automatically.

The site will clearly show how many miles per dollar you can earn. The great news is that you’ll earn Loyalty Points for each of those redeemable miles. For example, if the store you want to shop at offers 7 miles per dollar spent, you would earn 7 redeemable AA miles and 7 AA Loyalty Points.

Some stores offer a fixed number of miles instead of a miles-per-dollar rate. These miles will also earn Loyalty Points.

The only exception to this rule is when the shopping portal offers bonus mile promotions, which usually include a chunk of miles for spending at different thresholds. Those are considered bonus miles, so you’ll only earn redeemable miles, not Loyalty Points, with those offers.

If you need American Airlines Loyalty Points fast, you’ll want to find the stores offering the most miles. To do this, click on Find a store or product, and instead of typing in a specific store, click on View all. Then, sort the list of all stores by earn rate.

Of course, it’s not worth spending a lot of money to buy things you don’t need just to earn Loyalty Points. However, there are often great deals allowing you to earn lots of points for very little cash, and if you need Loyalty Points right away, these opportunities could be worth it.

Check out meal delivery programs like Blue Apron or HelloFresh. You can often get the first month for under $20, which means you can get a few meals and a nice chunk of Loyalty Points for minimal out-of-pocket cost.

Also, consider subscriptions like Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Motley Fool, or Marketwatch. The cost of these subscriptions can be low enough to make it worth it, even if you don’t care about the product or service.

Pay attention to each offer’s fine print to ensure you’re meeting the requirements for earning Loyalty Points. If you sign up for a subscription or service, note when to cancel so you don’t pay for anything extra.

Don’t forget to look for stacking opportunities. For example, in the example below, you could subscribe to The Wall Street Journal for just $4 per month to earn 500 AA Loyalty Points.

The Platinum Card^® from American Express gives you up to $20 a month in digital entertainment statement credits upon enrollment for eligible purchases — and The Wall Street Journal is one. So, if you pay for the subscription with that card, you’ll get that $4 back each month. That’s 500 American miles and Loyalty Points plus a subscription to The Wall Street Journal for $0 out-of-pocket cost.

Bottom Line:

Credit Card Spending

You’ll earn 1 AA Loyalty Point for every dollar you spend on American Airlines co-branded credit cards (with 1 exception; see below for details). This is an easy way to earn Loyalty Points with little effort — and you can earn points fast if you have some large bills coming up.

Both Citi and Barclays offer many different American Airlines credit cards, and you can have more than 1 at a time.

American Airlines Barclays Cards

• AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Red World Elite Mastercard^®
• AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Silver Mastercard^® (not open to new applications)
• AAdvantage^® Aviator^® World Elite Business Mastercard^®

American Airlines Citi Cards

The AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Mastercard^®, which is not open to new applicants, only earns 1 Loyalty Point for every $2 spent, so it’s not a great option for earning AA Loyalty Points quickly.

Remember that you’ll still only earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar even when the card earns multiple miles per dollar in bonus categories. For example, even if you can earn 2 miles per dollar spent on American Airlines flights, you’d still only earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar.

Depending on your current number of Loyalty Points, just holding the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card can be a fantastic way to quickly get up to 20,000 Loyalty Points. That’s because one of this card’s perks is a Loyalty Point boost.

When you reach 50,000 Loyalty Points during a qualification year, you’ll automatically get a 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus. You’ll earn another 10,000 Loyalty Point bonus after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in a qualification year for up to 20,000 Loyalty Points per year.

SimplyMiles

SimplyMiles is a card-linked program that offers American Airlines miles and Loyalty Points. To use this website, you’ll need to create an account and then link 1 or more Mastercards to your account.

These don’t have to be American Airlines cards, but you’ll earn Loyalty Points faster if you use an AA card.

Before redeeming an offer, you must add it to your card first. Then shop at the store or website with your linked Mastercard, and you’ll earn miles and Loyalty Points. The great thing about this program is that since these offers are card-linked, you can stack them with your favorite shopping portal, like Rakuten or the AAdvantage eShopping Portal.

Unfortunately, Simply Miles offers can no longer be stacked with Citi Merchant Offers.

American Airlines Dining

American Airlines Dining is a card-linked program that awards miles and Loyalty Points for dining at participating restaurants. All you need to do is add 1 or more credit cards to your account and then use those cards to pay for your bill.

Using American Airlines Dining to earn Loyalty Points quickly will depend on your ability to access participating restaurants in your area. Not all areas have the same number of restaurants, so this method won’t work for everyone.

Based on the number of times you dine through AA Dining, you’ll earn 3 to 5 redeemable miles and Loyalty Points per dollar spent. New customer bonuses do not earn Loyalty Points.

AAdvantage Hotels

Using AAdvantage Hotels to earn Loyalty Points fast is another method that won’t work for everyone, but it’s worth mentioning. This website is an online travel agency that awards American Airlines and Loyalty Points for booking hotels — up to 15,000 base miles per stay!

If you need to book a hotel, using AAdvantage Hotels could be a great way to collect a nice stash of Loyalty Points quickly. It’s important to remember that you won’t be able to take advantage of any hotel loyalty program benefits or elite status when booking a hotel through a third party. However, the trade-off could be worth it if you’ll earn lots of Loyalty Points.

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Final Thoughts

Loyalty Points are the metric that determines your American Airlines elite status. Of course, you’ll earn them by flying, but there are a few easy ways to earn AA Loyalty Points quickly without stepping foot on a plane — you can shop through the AA shopping portal, use SimplyMiles, use an American Airlines credit card, use the American Airlines Dining program, or book a hotel.