American Air joins peers in making it harder to hit top loyalty tier

American Airlines is making it harder to qualify for the highest published tier of its loyalty program. Monday, American announced that in 2019 it plans to increase the volume of spending required to qualify for its top-tier Executive Platinum status in the AAdvantage loyalty program by 25%. To qualify for elite status in 2020, it means that through 2019, Executive Platinum members will need to fly 100,000 miles and spend US$15,000 instead of $12,000 with the carrier. No other tier of American’s AAdvantage loyalty program will see changes to elite status qualification requirements in 2020. American’s move comes just a month after United Airlines announced an identical change. Qualification for the top tier of Delta’s SkyMiles loyalty program already requires $15,000 in annual spend plus 125,000 flown miles. <br/>