Looking for a shortcut to Oneworld frequent flyer status? The American Airlines AAdvantage Instant Status Pass could be your ticket to lounge access, priority benefits and lots of other perks when you fly with Oneworld airlines including Qantas.
The Instant Status Pass is unique because you don’t already need to hold status with any other airline to start a challenge. You’ll even get to enjoy the benefits of your American Airlines status during the challenge period! To keep this status, you’ll have to hit certain Loyalty Point targets (depending on the status you’re targeting) over four-month periods.
There is generally a fee to start an Instant Status Pass challenge. But if you start a challenge now and earn enough Loyalty Points, you could even get to keep your Oneworld status benefits until March 2026.
For a limited time, Delta and United frequent flyers can even get an Instant Status Pass for free.
This guide explains how the American Airlines Instant Status Pass works…
Contents
What is American Airlines’ Instant Status Pass?
American Airlines offers four elite tiers beyond the basic “member” tier. Each status level offers different benefits, including extra baggage, complimentary seat selection, priority check-in/boarding, and space-available upgrades.
As American Airlines is also a Oneworld member, you will receive status benefits when flying on Oneworld partner airlines. You can read the full list of benefits of American Airlines status on their website.
American Airlines’ Instant Status Pass challenge lets you fast-track to one of the four AAdvantage status tiers. It is divided into three phases, each lasting four months.
During the first phase, you can enjoy the benefits of your nominated status tier immediately. You can extend these for another four months by earning a set number of Loyalty Points (over the four-month period):
- AAdvantage Gold status (equivalent to Qantas Silver): 13,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum status (equivalent to Qantas Gold): 25,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro status (equivalent to Qantas Platinum): 42,000 Loyalty Points
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum status (roughly equivalent to Qantas Platinum One): 67,000 Loyalty Points
Overachieving the required Loyalty Points in the first phase allows an upgrade to a higher status in the next phase. The second phase also lasts four months and involves the same challenge to reach the third phase. Completing all phases secures the AAdvantage status until the end of your next membership year.
It’s worth noting that the points earned over the period are simply a third of the actual requirements for yearly status. In general, the challenge is targeting those who fly regularly throughout the year, with the benefit being that you don’t have to start from scratch.
Strategically, starting a challenge in November or December can maximise the duration of your status. For instance, beginning in November 2023 and finishing by October 2024 extends the status until March 2026. But if you started a challenge in August 2024, on completion you’d still keep your status until March 2026.
You can’t take advantage of the Instant Status Pass if you already have previously.
The Instant Status Pass replaces the previous AAdvantage status challenge that was available until 2022.
How to start an Instant Status Pass challenge
You can participate in American Airlines’ Instant Status Pass in a variety of ways. Some methods involve paying a fee, while some allow you to begin the challenge for free.
Paying for a status challenge
If you don’t fit any published criteria for a status challenge, and don’t see one available in your AAdvantage account, you could always request a challenge.
To get an Instant Status Pass offer, you’ll need to contact American Airlines either by phone or contact form. American Airlines offers the Instant Status Pass at its discretion, although you might be more likely to receive one if you have elite status with a competitor or a lot of travel planned with American.
If you receive an offer, you’ll probably need to pay a fee to start the challenge. American Airlines also determines the size of the cash payment based on a number of (undisclosed) factors, such as your current elite status and date of application. As a rough guide, you might expect to pay around USD400 (~AU$600) to start a Platinum challenge.
Holding status with another airline
Airlines often match the status of rival airlines, and American Airlines is no exception. For an undisclosed period of time, American is offering a free start to its Instant Status Pass program for Delta Platinum and Diamond Medallion members, as well as United Premier Platinum and Premier 1K holders.
Delta Platinum and United Premier Platinum members are eligible for a match to American Airlines Platinum Pro, while Diamond Medallion and Premier 1K members receive Executive Platinum.
To get your status match from Delta or United, you will need to fill out a contact form and attach a screenshot of your 2022 status and earned miles. Those who earned their status through a match or promotion, or lifetime members, are not eligible.
You can read the full terms of the Delta and United Instant Status Pass challenge on the American Airlines website.
Holding status with World of Hyatt
Targeted World of Hyatt members may also receive an invite to American Airlines’ Instant Status Pass. You must link your AAdvantage and World of Hyatt accounts prior to the promotion.
World of Hyatt’s Explorist members receive a match to AA Platinum status, while Globalist members receive Platinum Pro. The challenge requirements are the same as the Delta and United challenge above.
Only Hyatt elites who find “Instant Status Pass” in their AAdvantage promotions tab qualify for this promotion when offered.
How do Loyalty Points work?
The American Airlines AAdvantage program completely revamped how you earned status in 2022, introducing Loyalty Points as the sole metric.
Previously, to earn American Airlines status you would have to achieve a certain number of elite qualifying miles or elite qualifying segments, and elite qualifying dollars. Now, you simply get one Loyalty Point for every qualifying AAdvantage mile you earn!
How to earn Loyalty Points
Each qualifying AAdvantage mile you earn, whether from flying, credit card spending or through other partners, earns one Loyalty Point.
There are just a small range of non-qualifying activities that don’t earn Loyalty Points:
- Buying, or transferring miles
- Converting points to AAdvantage miles (such as converting Marriott Bonvoy points)
- Certain fees and taxes on airline tickets
- Some banking products
Every other AAdvantage mile-earning activity will also net you Loyalty Points.
When flying AA-operated services, the price of your ticket determines how many AAdvantage miles, and thus Loyalty Points you earn. For each USD1 (~AU$1.52) spent, you’ll earn 5 AAdvantage miles and Loyalty points. There is an exception for Basic Economy fares, which only earn 2 AAdvantage miles per USD spent.
AAdvantage elite members also earn bonus Loyalty Points and AAdvantage miles on their total earned, up to 120%.
The amount of Loyalty Points you could earn when flying partner airlines depends on your fare class. If you’re an AAdvantage elite member, you can still access your status bonus.
For example, if you flew Qantas in “Y” class (fully flexible Economy) as an AAdvantage Gold member, you would earn the following amount of AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points:
- You earn 100% of the miles flown
- You also receive a 40% bonus for being an AAdvantage Gold member
You can see the full list of partner earn rates on the American Airlines website.
How to earn American Airlines elite status
To earn status, you would need to reach the following requirements:
This means that to get AAdvantage Gold status (broadly similar to Qantas Silver), you would need to spend USD8,000 (~AU$12,160) on flights, if you were earning status purely on AA-operated flights. This is assuming you’re starting from scratch, and not earning any Loyalty Points from any other sources.
American Airlines also offers separate rewards for hitting certain Loyalty Points targets. These begin at 15,000 Loyalty Points earned, and include benefits such as higher boarding classes, confirmed upgrades and bonus miles. Depending on the tier you reach, you will have a choice of different benefits. You can see the full array of rewards and points requirements on the American Airlines website.
Most US residents chasing AAdvantage status would use a combination of credit card spend and flying. In theory, you could spend USD200,000 (~AU$304,000) on a US credit card and get Executive Platinum.
For Australians, the more accessible way to earn status with American Airlines would come by flying partner airlines. However, crediting to AAdvantage doesn’t really make sense except in some specific cases.
For example, flying Japan Airlines in “I” (Business) Class between Sydney and Tokyo Haneda would earn you 60 status credits, if credited to Qantas Frequent Flyer. This is 20% of the requirements of Qantas Silver status.
However, if you credited the same flight to AAdvantage, you would earn 12,092 Loyalty Points, or around 30% of the way to AAdvantage Gold (equivalent to Qantas Silver).
It’s also worth noting that you’ll generally receive more benefits when flying with the airline where you hold status. American Airlines elites, for instance, qualify for complimentary upgrades on AA-operated domestic flights, unlike Qantas elite members.
Is the Instant Status Pass worth it?
Taking up American’s Instant Status Pass challenge represents a serious commitment to American Airlines over a relatively long period of time. While you can earn status via partner airlines, it makes much more sense if you’re going to be flying American Airlines.
Regardless, if you have the opportunity for a free status challenge, and you don’t currently have status with American (or other Oneworld airlines), then it makes a lot of sense to go for it. If you don’t reach the challenge thresholds, then it’s not a huge loss anyway. The only reason you wouldn’t is if you planned to take a challenge in the future.
However, you should only pay for a challenge if you’re going to use it – planning your flights in advance would help you determine whether it’s worth going for!
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