American Airlines Walks Back Unpopular Loyalty Program Change

Travelers on American Airlines will now be able to earn loyalty points no matter where they book their ticket after the airline walked back prior plans to place a limit on its loyalty program. 

The carrier will continue to allow travelers who book with a third party to earn AAdvantage Miles on their ticket, Skift reported. Under previous plans, travelers booking with certain sites (like corporate travel) would have lost the ability to earn miles on those tickets.

“Next month, we were going to differentiate who earned AAdvantage Miles and who didn’t, based on where they booked. That’s off,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said at a conference on Wednesday, according to Skift. “We’re not doing that because it would create confusion and disruption for our end customer, and we’re going to make sure that we take care. We’re listening to feedback.”

Under the now-abandoned plan, American would have designated “preferred” booking agencies with whom customers could continue to earn points. The change was previously set to go into effect in July.

However, Isom said the airline still wants to target direct bookings. 

“We’re learning and adapting,” Isom said. “We know that NDC [New Distribution Capability], modern retailing provides a better experience for the end customer. And we know that we will get there over time, but we have to go about it differently. We’re going to make it easier, we’re going to execute better and we’re going to do a lot more to try to bring people along with us.”

A representative for American Airlines did not respond to requests for comment from Travel + Leisure on the new plans. 

The decision to scrap this change comes months after American revamped its loyalty program, introducing “members-only” benefits like free same-day standby to earlier domestic flights and 12 months of validity for trip credits, compared to just six months for non-members.

American isn’t alone in walking back changes to its loyalty program following negative feedback. Last year, Delta Air Lines similarly made changes to its planned SkyMiles revamp after swift backlash to the initial announcement.