I finally once again earned oneworld Emerald status, and I’m really happy about that. Let me provide some background, and then I’ll share how I’m thinking about status with American going forward.
My fall from AAdvantage Executive Platinum grace
For 14 years, I had AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, which is American’s top (published) tier status. At the beginning of the current elite status year I lost that, and dropped all the way to AAdvantage Gold status, which I receive on account of my million miler status with American.
Why did I give up on Executive Platinum status? It actually wasn’t due to anything American did wrong, and not due to any desire to not fly with the airline. Instead, I just don’t think airline elite status is worth as much as it used to be. Going back a decade, Executive Platinums cleared upgrades on a vast majority of flights, while nowadays, clearing upgrades is extremely difficult, as airlines do a much better job monetizing premium cabin seats. This is true across the “big three” carriers. So I always do what I can to secure first class in advance, and that often means I’m redeeming miles for my flights (which don’t count toward status with AAdvantage).
The other thing to keep in mind is that I make a point of flying as many airlines as possible, mainly because I like to review as many experiences as I can. So while American is the most convenient airline when living in Miami, I’m not one of these brand loyal people who insists on flying “their” airline all across the world.
Nowadays you can qualify for American elite status using the AAdvantage Loyalty Points system, and even credit card spending can count toward that. So while I could’ve put enough spending on an American card to retain Executive Platinum status, I found the opportunity cost to just be too high, so I ultimately decided against it.
My journey back up to AAdvantage Platinum Pro
There was one thing I really missed about status with American, which isn’t even specific to the airline as such. Specifically, I love oneworld Emerald status, and consider it to be the best alliance-wide status tier. This offers access to some incredible first class lounges, and it’s a treat to be able to visit those when not flying first class. This includes the Cathay Pacific First Lounge, Qantas First Lounge, etc.
So even though I gave up Executive Platinum status, I knew I wanted to still maintain oneworld Emerald status somehow. As I explained earlier this year, my strategy was as follows:
- I’m fine “settling” for AAdvantage Platinum Pro instead of Executive Platinum, since both tiers offer oneworld Emerald status, and the difference in qualification requirements is huge (125,000 Loyalty Points vs. 200,000 Loyalty Points)
- Rather than spending my way to AAdvantage Platinum Pro at the very end of the last elite status year, I figured I was better off front loading my spending at the beginning of this status year, so that the status would be valid for an additional year (qualifying through March 2027, rather than through March 2026)
So while I started the current elite year with AAdvantage Gold status, I’ve slowly been working my way through the ranks, and just had AAdvantage Platinum Pro status post to my account today.
In my opinion, I’ve been able to make the math on this work very nicely. Specifically, most of the spending has been on the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (review). The card has a quirk when it comes to authorized user rewards. On this card, the authorized user ordinarily earns the Loyalty Points for their spending, and not the primary cardmember.
The catch is that there’s a limited time (currently through the end of 2025, but it might be extended), targeted promotion, that offers the ability to double dip. For those who are targeted (and it seems to be widely targeted), both the primary cardmember and authorized user earn Loyalty Points for spending. It basically means you earn two Loyalty Points per dollar spent, just in different accounts.
Ford and I have been “double dipping” Loyalty Points, so we’ve both been working our way up the elite ranks with the same spending.
On top of that, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review) offers 20,000 bonus Loyalty Points if you earn 90,000 Loyalty Points in a year. So since I earned over 90,000 Loyalty Points, that’s what just put me over the edge to earn AAdvantage Platinum Pro status.
I’m happy these Loyalty Points posted, because I’ve been meaning to take some review trips where oneworld Emerald status is valuable, in terms of the lounges that I can visit.
How my AAdvantage elite status strategy may evolve
Now, I did want to address a couple of additional points about how my elite status strategy may evolve, since there are still several months left in the AAdvantage elite status year.
First, I may still keep spending on American cards, because the math potentially gets even better. For example, keep in mind that with the AAdvantage Loyalty Point Rewards program, you can pick rewards at various tiers. For passing 175,000 Loyalty Points in a year, you can select 25,000 AAdvantage miles as an option.
Keep in mind that Ford and I are both earning Loyalty Points for the same spending, so that means spending an incremental $50,000 would let us earn that reward twice, for a total of 50,000 AAdvantage miles, in addition to the ones ordinarily earned for spending.
For that matter (this might be more than I can spend, but…), if passing 250,000 Loyalty Points, we could each select 60,000 AAdvantage miles. That means an incremental $75,000 would let us earn 120,000 AAdvantage miles, in addition to the ones ordinarily earned for spending. So elite status aside, this is actually a pretty compelling return on spending, if you ask me. Of course that would also help us earn Executive Platinum status, but that’s not really a primary motivation here.
One last point to address is that I’ve also covered the concept of switching from AAdvantage to Atmos Rewards. That’s still something I’m seriously considering for next year. However, when the Atmos Rewards program was launched, I was already so close to earning oneworld Emerald with American, so I didn’t want to completely ditch that and start over. Now that I have oneworld Emerald, I have some time to still decide on a strategy.
Bottom line
I just qualified for AAdvantage Platinum Pro status, which I’m very happy about, as it means I once again have oneworld Emerald status. While I had Executive Platinum status for 14 years, I just didn’t find it to be worthwhile requalifying last year, given the opportunity cost of credit card spending.
Instead, my long term goal is to just maintain the lowest tier that earns oneworld Emerald status, since that’s my main draw to this status nowadays. Fortunately thanks to a double dip Loyalty Points opportunity, I’ve actually had a reasonably easy path to qualify for status.
I can finally get back to taking those trips that I was putting off until I had oneworld Emerald again…
