Basic Economy No Longer Earn Miles & Points On American Airlines
Several years back the legacy carriers first introduced basic economy fares as a way to “compete with low cost carriers“. No matter how they want to frame it, the truth was that it just made regular economy tickets more expensive. A side effect of that change was that you needed to spend more to use your hard earned status, since many airlines blocked upgrades and earning on basic economy fares. American Airlines was on of the exceptions, at least in part.
American Airlines has always allowed you to use your status for Basic Economy tickets, and they even allowed you to earn some miles and loyalty points on the flights. It was one of the better, if not the best, basic economy set ups in terms of that. It appears that American Airlines got tired of being ToP of the class though with this recent change:
“Basic Economy fare tickets bought on or after 12:00 a.m. CT on December 17, 2025 will not earn Advantage® miles or Loyalty Points. For Basic Economy fare tickets bought on or before 11:59 p.m. CT on December 16, 2025, visit the AAdvantage® Earn page for the airline marketing your flight for details on the Advantage® miles and Loyalty Points you’ll earn.”
Before this change an American Airlines flyer would still earn loyalty points and 2x AAdvantage miles on basic economy tickets. While this was below the 5x AAdvantage miles earned on main cabin flights, it was better than nothing. Now nothing is exactly what you can expect.
It appears that status should still work at least, but earning nothing on the flight is a shame. Let me know if this changes how you will book American Airlines flights going forward in the ToP Facebook Group.
HT: SpartanScribe via DDG
