15 March 2024

It might be a strange manner to celebrate its birthday: On May 01, 43 years after having launched its – and as such the first ever – Frequent Flyer program, American Airlines will start to use the program as weapon of its distribution strategy – copying something that has widely been practiced in the hospitality industry since ever: In order to earn AAdvantage miles and status points for American Airlines flights, one needs to book directly through American Airlines or through “preferred” travel agencies, unless your company also participates in the Corporate Loyalty Program AAdvantage Business or has any corporate agreement with American Airlines. The list of preferred agencies will change every six months and is determined in function of the share of NDC bookings the agency realises with American Airlines. These New Distribution Capabilities allow agencies notably to sell ancillary services. It looks though that this restriction can be circumvented by simply crediting miles to one of American’s numerous partner programs.