Unlock First Class: Simple Steps to Elite Status

I fly in class on almost 85% of my trips. Yet, I am a budget traveler and have never paid for it. My first-class upgrades are courtesy of being an elite-status member with American Airlines. Today, I will expose how I have maintained elite status for the last six years. And did I mention that you don’t need an airline credit card for this?

It’s simply two words: Shopping Portal.

American Airlines has a shopping portal that allows you to earn miles and loyalty points for every dollar you spend at online stores. On the portal, they have most of the popular stores that we frequently shop at, such as Walmart, Sephora, CVS, Home Depot, etc. Since I work constantly and never have time to shop in stores, it basically rewards me for things I need to buy online anyway.

With the shopping portal, you can earn Gold status simply by shopping.

At American Airlines, the lowest elite status is Gold, and you need to earn 40,000 loyalty points a year to acquire it. It is way easier to earn elite status with them versus other airline such as Delta. I also have elite status with Delta, and I will write about my tips for earning status with them next.

Unlike other airlines, you can earn elite status and don’t even have to fly with American that often to achieve it!

One of the first things you must do is sign up at AAdvantageshopping.com. Once there, you can link your current account number. After that, you can browse over 1200 stores and click on the ones you typically shop at. You will receive daily emails from Americans alerting you on how many points per dollar the store offers that day. Normally, most stores provide 2-4 points per dollar; for example, if you spend $20 multiplied by 3, it is only 60 points, which is not a lot. That’s why I typically wait until a store offers eight or more points per dollar. The maximum points most stores offer is 10 points per dollar.

The Quickest Way to Elite Status

So, the easiest way to earn 40,000 loyalty points is by food subscription services. I typically do this around the beginning of the earning period, which starts in March. I sign up for a subscription to Blue Apron, Green Chef, Hello Fresh, Factor, etc. The meal subscriptions have the highest earning rate. I sign up with them when they offer 4500 loyalty points and up. However, the offer is only available to new customers. I’m unsure of their definition of “new”, but I do this yearly. Your subscription must be active for 60 days, then you can cancel. You can even skip boxes during the 60 days.

On average, with food subscriptions, you can earn around 20,000 loyalty points.

Coming up with the other 20k points is super easy. I do it by booking all my hotel stays through the portal. It links me directly to the hotel website to receive hotel and AA loyalty points. I usually wait until the hotel offers 5 points per dollar, and then I book all my upcoming hotel stays. All major hotels are on the portal except for Hyatt, and they have a unique partnership you can register with on Hyatt’s and AA’s websites.

I also wait to buy stuff until stores offer more points per dollar. When they finally do, I basically go on a haul. I wait for Macy’s to offer 8 points and up for home goods such as cookware and home essentials. For beauty, I wait for Sephora and Ulta to offer 10 points. I wait for Nike to offer 10 points when I need new sneakers. I wait for Apple and Best Buy to offer 5 or more points if I need new electronics. This also leads me to…

& The Most Practical Way

The easiest and most practical way to earn more points per dollar and achieve elite status through the portal is to do all your holiday shopping there! Starting around November, most stores on the portal offer at least 8 points per dollar for purchases during those months. Don’t shop in any stores if you can avoid it; order all your gifts through the portal. I purchased myself a YSL handbag for Christmas from Neiman Marcus at 10 points per dollar. That was a quick 25,000 points. I purchased gifts for my family, such as children’s clothing, electronics, fragrances, and even floral holiday gift baskets, and earned 17,000 points. During the holidays, the points are plentiful and easy to earn!

Speaking of holidays, the portal also has bonuses around every other month, mostly around holidays. During that time, you get a bonus for spending a certain amount, typically around 500-2000 additional points.

I have also earned many points by making large purchases of household goods through the portal. When my refrigerator died, I bought a new one at Home Depot. Even though the points per dollar were low—only 5—since my fridge was $1300, I was still able to earn 6500 points. When I purchased a new living room furniture set, I used the portal and purchased it at La-Z-Boy. I earned 10,000 points for that.

By utilizing the portal and doing all your yearly shopping there, it is super easy to earn elite status. It’s so many stores on the portal and if you get a little creative with your shopping habits you can unlock so many perks by just making your regular purchases.

So how does all this get me in to first class?

To sum everything up.

The lowest elite status with American Airlines is Gold. To reach Gold status, you need to earn 40,000 loyalty points. Once you attain gold status, complimentary upgrades to a first-class or main cabin extra seat are one of the perks. The only way to upgrade is if the plane has not sold out of those seats. On most flights, they don’t, so you will be put on a list with everyone with status to get upgraded to a first-class seat. Since Gold is the lowest status, you are at the bottom of the list. There are three higher statuses: platinum, platinum pro, and executive. You can also achieve them through the portal, but the way my bank account is set up – it is a no for me. After all the other statuses have cleared, then they get to gold and if you’re lucky you will get upgraded.

Even though it’s three higher tiers, I have been upgraded on nearly all of my flights with American Airlines. The highest I’ve been was platinum and I would get upgraded the day before my flight. As a gold elite, I get upgraded the day of or at the airport right before boarding. But with both, the upgrades were around the same. I typically fly out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays and im unsure if that has anything to do with it.

So those are my tips for getting elite status through the shopping portal. I hope it helps and you get a little bit closer to first class! Even though first class on American-based airlines is not as extravagant as in other countries, it’s still better than being cramped up in economy.

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Be sure to check out how I score cheap airlines tickets and as always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions leave them below in the comments 🙂