If you happen to’ve checked out your American Airways account just lately, you have doubtless seen two numbers: miles and Loyalty Factors. Though Loyalty Factors and American Airways AAdvantage miles are associated, they differ tremendously — and since Loyalty Factors reset to zero yearly on March 1, it is vital to know the distinction.
So, this is what you want to know.
American Airways miles vs. Loyalty Factors
Whenever you open the American Airways cell app or log in to your account on-line, you will see two outstanding numbers: award miles and Loyalty Factors.
In brief, award miles are what you possibly can redeem for flights, upgrades and seats, whereas Loyalty Factors are the metric by which American Airways awards elite standing and Loyalty Level Rewards. Let’s take a better take a look at every.
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What are American miles?
You earn award miles — additionally known as American miles or AAdvantage miles — while you credit score paid flights on American Airways and choose associate airways (together with Oneworld alliance companions like Alaska Airways and British Airways) to the AAdvantage program. You may also earn American miles by way of different avenues, together with utilizing the AAdvantage eShopping portal and benefiting from SimplyMiles purchasing affords.
You possibly can redeem American miles for flights, upgrades, seats and extra. Award miles do not reset to zero or expire so long as you’re the major cardmember of an open AAdvantage bank card, you might be beneath 21 years outdated, otherwise you earn or redeem miles on American or with an AAdvantage associate no less than as soon as each 24 months.
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What are Loyalty Factors?
Loyalty Factors, then again, are the metric by which you earn American Airways elite standing and Loyalty Level Rewards. Some, however not all, award miles you earn offer you Loyalty Factors. You may also often earn Loyalty Factors by way of promotions or by holding choose AAdvantage bank cards and assembly particular spending or Loyalty Level thresholds.
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You possibly can’t redeem Loyalty Factors for award flights; they’re solely good for incomes American Airways elite standing and Loyalty Level Rewards. As a reminder, Loyalty Level Rewards are additional advantages you earn as you attain particular quantities of Loyalty Factors all through your qualification interval.
Every year, you will need to requalify for American Airways elite standing and work towards incomes new Loyalty Level Rewards in the course of the airline’s elite qualification interval. As a substitute of the calendar 12 months qualification interval utilized by most different applications, American AAdvantage makes use of a March 1 to Feb. 28 (or Feb. 29 in leap years) interval. So, simply as your Marriott elite evening credit reset to zero Jan. 1 every year, Loyalty Factors reset to zero each March 1.
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Backside line
Your Loyalty Factors steadiness — the metric American Airways makes use of for elite standing qualification and Loyalty Level Rewards — will reset on March 1. However your award miles — those you possibly can redeem to e-book flights — will not reset then. You may hold your American Airways miles so long as your account is energetic, you are beneath 21 otherwise you’re the first cardmember on an AAdvantage bank card.
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