Points Panda has partnered with a variety of financial companies including CreditCards.com for our coverage of credit card products. Points Panda and CreditCards.com may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired. For more information please read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
AA Companion Upgrades are officially free! American Airlines officially retired its 500-mile electronic upgrades last July 14, 2022.
Now, all AAdvantage elite members with a non-status traveling companion on a same-day reservation will get priority-based waitlisted companion upgrades on select flights.
Here are the guidelines if you want to get companion upgrades:
- Your travel companion must be booked in the same reservation on an American Airlines marketed and operated flight.
- Eligible routes include all domestic U.S. flighats, and flights between the U.S. and Bermuda, the Bahamas, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico.
- A traveling companion who are booked in a different reservation are also eligible for upgrades but you must call customer service first to link your reservation to the companion reservation.
Your 500 mile upgrades will be converted to 250 status-qualifying points if you still have any more left in your account. However, a lot of AAdvantage members were complaining about this type of compensation so American included an option where members can get full refunds instead.
Here’s a tweet shared by Twitter user @JTGenter about American Airline’s policy regarding the 500-mile upgrade certificates. It says that you can only request for a refund if your 500-mile upgrades were purchased before April 19, 2022.
Apart from the refund, some AAdvantage members are reportedly having an option of converting their 500-mile upgrades into miles (5000 miles per 500-mile upgrade certificates). Wheter it’s true or not, we looked at American Airline’s latest policy and confirmed that converting your certificates into miles isn’t possible.
Bottomline
This change is very beneficial to all Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum statusholders who have saved up a lot of 500-mile upgrades. They can now have these converted into status-qualifying points so they can maintain their status for the next calendar year,
Advertiser Disclosure
PointsPanda Deal of the Week!
Looking for the best flight deals? Each week we'll send you updates with the best deals on flights and hotels both using points and cash.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.