American Airlines now is allowing point accrual for bookings in all channels through its AAdvantage Business loyalty program, the carrier announced Tuesday. The program, inaugurated nine months ago, previously allowed accrual only for booked business travel on an American direct channel, such as its website or mobile app.
The move is the latest step by American in unwinding a controversial sales and distribution strategy that pushed, sometimes aggressively, booking through direct and New Distribution Capability-enabled channels. The moves frustrated some corporate travel buyers, and American CEO Robert Isom in May promised to evaluate its moves and possibly backtrack “piece by piece.”
The carrier in an email to travel managers, which it shared with BTN, indicated “companies earn AAdvantagemiles anywhere that business travel is booked – directly with American, and now through travel agencies.” The change took effect Tuesday, according to American.
American in October 2023 introduced AAdvantage Business as a replacement for its predecessor, the Business Extra program. Designed for small and midsized businesses, organizations “must have a minimum of five active travelers and spend $5,000 on American Airlines flights over the last 12 months to use miles earned with the program,” according to American’s website.
American in recent weeks has stepped back from some of the most divisive changes it made to its sales and distribution process since April 2023, when it began to remove content from EDIFACT-connected channels. The carrier in May changed course, with program architect Vasu Raja, the former chief commercial officer, departing the carrier. Since then, American has returned content to EDIFACT-connected channels and ditched a plan to limit point accrual by AAdvantage loyalty program members to bookings through channels and agencies that it considered preferred.
