Be careful: 9 times you won’t earn American Airlines Loyalty Points, even if you earn miles

With less than 2 months left until Feb. 28, 2025, when all American Airlines Loyalty Points balances reset, the race to earn AAdvantage elite status in creative ways is alive and well.

Loyalty Points are the sole metric used in qualifying for American status. From credit card spending to buying flowers through the AAdvantage Shopping Portal, numerous creative ways exist to earn Loyalty Points. People might say: "A mile earned, a Loyalty Point earned." But there are plenty of exceptions to that rule.

Just as important as knowing what earns Loyalty Points is familiarizing yourself with what won't earn Loyalty Points. After all, we don't want you miscalculating your award balance and subsequently not achieving status.

Here are nine AAdvantage activities that won't accrue Loyalty Points.

Buying, gifting or transferring miles

You won't earn Loyalty Points when you buy, gift or transfer miles. For example, you can buy 150,000 AAdvantage miles at a 35% discount for $3,668.44. But you'll earn 0 Loyalty Points on that transaction.

Similarly, if you transfer or gift AAdvantage miles to someone else, neither you nor they will earn Loyalty Points.

Related: Current promotions for buying points and miles

Redeeming AAdvantage miles

You also won't earn Loyalty Points when you redeem AAdvantage miles.

For example, I booked the above flight from Velana International Airport (MLE) in the Maldives to Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) in Malaysian Airlines and Japan Airlines business class for 40,000 AAdvantage miles per passenger. As you can see, I accrued no Loyalty Points.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Related: How to redeem miles with the American Airlines AAdvantage program

Welcome offers, spending bonuses and special promotions

"Sign up and earn 50,000 bonus miles." "Book now and enjoy 5,000 bonus miles."

We've all heard these offers on flights, in airports and when calling American. Unfortunately, you won't earn Loyalty Points for welcome offers, spending bonuses and special promotions, even if it's a sign-up bonus on an AAdvantage cobranded credit card. This exclusion also applies to bonuses on the AAdvantage Shopping Portal, AAdvantage Dining, AAdvantage Cars, AAdvantage Cruises, AAdvantage Hotels and AAdvantage Vacations.

Similarly, AAdvantage Hotels doesn't award Loyalty Points on the additional miles you can add at checkout.

Of course, you'll continue earning Loyalty Points on standard purchases through these platforms, just not bonuses or promotions.

For instance, at the time of writing, Viator purchases earn 6 miles per dollar when you click through the AAdvantage Shopping Portal. In this case, you'll earn 6 Loyalty Points per dollar you spend on Viator tours. However, if a promotion through AA Shopping lets you earn 2,000 bonus miles for spending $500, you won't accrue another 2,000 Loyalty Points even if you earn the 2,000 bonus miles.

Related: The beginners guide to airline shopping portals: How to earn bonus points and miles

Credit card bonus categories

You'll earn a flat 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent on purchases made with your cobranded AAdvantage card, even if the card earns more than 1 mile per dollar on certain categories. Take the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees), for example. Even though this card earns 2 miles per dollar on eligible American Airlines purchases, at gas stations and on other bonus categories, you'll only earn 1 Loyalty Point per dollar spent regardless of where you spend.

Still, if you're a business owner with high credit card spending, charging $200,000 to the card would give you 200,000 Loyalty Points, enough for top-tier Executive Platinum status without ever setting foot on an American plane.

In addition, there are two ways to earn bonus Loyalty Points with credit cards. Travelers with an AAdvantage® Aviator® World Elite Silver Mastercard® earn 5,000 Loyalty Points when they spend $20,000 in a status year. Plus, they can earn another 5,000 Loyalty Points when they reach $40,000 and $50,000 spent on the card, for a maximum of 15,000 bonus Loyalty Points per status year.

The information for the AAdvantage Aviator Silver card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

On the other hand, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees) awards 10,000 Loyalty Points after you accrue 50,000 Loyalty Points in a status qualification year and another 10,000 after reaching 90,000 Loyalty Points in the same status qualification year.

Related: Best credit cards for American Airlines flyers

Bask Bank savings accounts

You're probably familiar with CD (certificate of deposit) bank accounts: Deposit a certain amount of money for a set period without withdrawing it, and you'll earn interest.

AAdvantage has applied this model to an arrangement with Bask Bank: AAdvantage members can deposit money into a Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account for 12 months and earn AAdvantage miles instead of cash interest. For every $1 that you deposit for 12 months, you earn 2 AAdvantage miles. You can deposit up to $200,000 and earn 500,000 miles; mileage interest is paid monthly.

In addition, Bask Bank occasionally offers promotions for extra miles. For example, new Bask Bank Mileage Savings Account customers can currently earn 10,000 bonus miles after opening a new account by Feb. 28, 2025, funding the account within 15 days and maintaining a minimum daily account balance of $50,000 for 180 consecutive days out of the first 210 days following the initial account opening.

Unfortunately, none of these AAdvantage miles count as Loyalty Points — unless a limited-time promotion explicitly awards Loyalty Points (like we saw in 2022).

Related: 10 ways you could be earning airline miles other than credit cards

Donations to fight cancer

American awards 10 miles per dollar when you donate more than $25 to Stand Up To Cancer. We've also seen promotions offering up to 50 miles per dollar for a limited time. That's a fantastic return for supporting a great cause.

While you earn miles from these donations, you won't earn Loyalty Points.

Related: Giving Tuesday: The 7 best credit cards to maximize your charitable donation

Transferring rewards from another currency to AAdvantage

Since AAdvantage and Bilt Rewards ended their partnership in June 2024, you can no longer transfer credit card rewards to AAdvantage miles. Marriott Bonvoy points are now the only currency that can be transferred to AAdvantage, but you won't earn Loyalty Points on these transfers.

Related: When does it make sense to transfer Marriott points to airlines?

The cost of your ticket outside the base fare and carrier-imposed fees

When you're flying American, you earn miles and Loyalty Points depending on your status:

However, you only earn miles and Loyalty Points on the base fare and carrier-imposed fees. Government-imposed taxes and fees, such as the U.S.'s mandatory $5.60 security fee on every ticket, are ineligible for mileage and Loyalty Point credit. Add-ons like seat selection and baggage fees don't earn miles or Loyalty Points, either.

You can call American and confirm how many miles and Loyalty Points your reservation will earn. Alternatively, you can pull up your itinerary on ITA Matrix and refer to the fare breakdown. Subtract all government-imposed taxes and fees, and you'll see how much spending earns AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points.

For example, this economy flight from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Mexico City International Airport (MEX) costs $322.13. However, only $250 of this is eligible for earning AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points. As you can see in the fare breakdown, the rest of the cost comprises taxes and fees imposed by the U.S. and Mexico.

This means an AAdvantage member without elite status would earn 1,250 AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points, while a top-tier Executive Platinum member would earn 2,750 miles and Loyalty Points.

Certain partner fare classes

Certain partner fares aren't eligible to earn miles and Loyalty Points. As you can see from the above Cathay Pacific earning chart, many economy-class fares are ineligible for credit. This means you won't earn miles or Loyalty Points on these sorts of fares.

In the case of Fiji Airways, all fares marketed by Fiji Airways (indicated by a Fiji Airways flight number) don't earn Loyalty Points.

You can check the full earnings list of American's partners here. If your fare class isn't eligible for mileage credit on AAdvantage, you'll want to credit the flight to another Oneworld frequent flyer program.

Related: Quick Points: Earn American AAdvantage status quickly with partner flights

Bottom line

Not all AAdvantage activities earn Loyalty Points. If you're after elite status this year, it's essential to know which ones do not. If you're chasing AAdvantage elite status, check out our guides on how to earn Loyalty Points and last-minute strategies to earn American elite status.