American Airlines
Photograph ©2018 by Brian Cohen.

AAdvantage to No Longer Partner With Three Hotel Membership Programs

Effective as of Wednesday, April 1, 2020, members of the American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flier loyalty program will no longer be able to earn AAdvantage miles or convert lodging points to AAdvantage miles with three different frequent guest loyalty programs.

AAdvantage to No Longer Partner With Three Hotel Membership Programs

“Thank you for being a member of the AAdvantage program. We know you value the ability to earn AAdvantage miles through many of our partnerships, and we want to let you know about changes with some partners”, according to an e-mail message which was received earlier today from the American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flier loyalty program. “We continue to cultivate partnerships which suit our customers’ changing travel preferences and needs. You still have many options for earning miles through every hotel stay with a variety of our global hotel partners. We encourage you to explore some of our best hotel offers now.”

The three frequent guest loyalty programs which are affected by this new policy include:

  • Best Western Rewards
  • Choice Privileges Rewards
  • Hilton Honors

Summary

You will still be able to convert points from the aforementioned frequent guest loyalty programs to AAdvantage miles — as well as still earn AAdvantage miles through them — through Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

This change is possibly a result of the strengthening of the partnership between the American Airlines AAdvantage and World of Hyatt frequent travel loyalty programs, which became effective as of May of 2019

…although you can still convert points to AAdvantage miles with the IHG Rewards Club and Marriott Bonvoy frequent guest loyalty programs — as well as still earn AAdvantage miles through the following frequent guest loyalty programs:

  • IHG Rewards Club
  • Marriott Bonvoy
  • Wyndham Rewards

Photograph ©2018 by Brian Cohen.

  1. I’m guessing that it’s more likely that the AA/AAdvantage contracts with these three hotel groups were in some way coming to an end — whether or not the contract was called in by AA using a 60 or 90 day escape clause — and that AA wanted to push through a price increase (for each AA mile sold) that exceeded what these hotel groups wanted to pay AA.

    Even as AA is on a big kick to devalue AA miles in customer accounts, AA is also pushing for price increases for the miles it sells to its program partners.

    I completely discount the idea that Hyatt has enough muscle in its relationship with AA to get AA to stop selling miles to the AA program hotel partners. I wouldn’t rule out the idea that such an AA agreement with Hyatt may have a clause saying that AA agrees that it’s miles cannot he sold for a lower cost/price (than what Hyatt pays) to any hotel groups (or perhaps even some others) under any new contracts or contracts subject to extension.

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