There have been a few threads this year about strange calculations being applied to flights under 500 miles as they’ve posted to our accounts. I finally took the unique step of contacting AAdvantage Customer Service several times to clarify exactly how the miles and bonuses are calculated for flights under 500 miles. The information below came from emails and conversations with three separate AAgents, and was confirmed by an Aadvantage Customer Service Supervisor. I noted a couple small areas at the bottom that I neglected to clarify with them, and thus don’t want to present those particular pieces as “official” according to AA.

The issue started with a "debate" over whether the class of service bonus was applied before or after the minimum mileage guarantee, and what the resulting EQM and EQP would be based on. Here's what I learned.

Sources for Miles

BASE: Base Miles according to flight mileage

COS: Class of Service miles according to http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...ils/main.jhtml

ELITE: Elite Status Bonus according to http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...us/bonus.jhtml

MMG: Minimum Mileage Guarantee miles according to the various elite membership guides available at http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...tus/main.jhtml

BOOK: Booking Class Multiplier for EQM and EQP according to https://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantag...irements.jhtml

Where do the miles go?

RDM: Redeemable Miles
EQM: Elite Qualifying Miles
EQP: Elite Qualifying Points

How are they calculated?

These scenarios assume a Minimum Mileage Guarantee (MMG) of 500 miles, true for most (but not all) flights that earn AA mileage credit.

Standard Formulas for EQM and EQP:
EQM = MMG
EQP = BASE * BOOK (not MMG * BOOK, but total will be equal to no less than the MMG)

If the flight is between 334 and 500 miles
Y: RDM = MMG + ELITE
J/F: RDM = BASE + COS + ELITE

For a 400 mile flight by a PLAT or EXP, for example:

Flight booked in F:
400 (BASE) + 200 (COS) + 500 (ELITE) = 1100 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
400 (BASE) * 1.5 = 600 EQP

Flight booked in M:
500 (MMG) + 500 (ELITE) = 1000 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
400 (BASE) * 1.0 = 400, therefore MMG is used: 500 EQP

Flight booked in S:
500 (MMG) + 500 (ELITE) = 1000 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
400 (BASE) * 0.5 = 200, therefore MMG is used: 500 EQP

If the flight is 333 miles or less

Y/J/F: RDM = MMG + ELITE

For a 200 mile flight by a PLAT or EXP, for example:


Flight booked in F:
500 (MMG) + 500 (ELITE) = 1000 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
200 (BASE) * 1.5 = 300, therefore MMG is used: 500 EQP

Flight booked in M:
500 (MMG) + 500 (ELITE) = 1000 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
200 (BASE) * 0.5 = 100, therefore MMG is used: 500 EQP

Flight booked in S:
500 (MMG) + 500 (ELITE) = 1000 RDM
500 (MMG) = 500 EQM
200 (BASE) * 0.5 = 100, therefore MMG is used: 500 EQP

Thanks for this!
I've looked back at some of my older statements with flights on BA discount Y etc. Seems like I got 500 EQM/EQM even when earned miles were less than this. I also seem to remember other threads that referred to these minimums being automatically built into the system.

With regard to the calculations for these categories, the minimum Q-miles are wrong. It would be 500 in both situations, not 250, as this is the minimum Q-miles guaranteed on any AA-coded flight (except those on HA metal).

In fact, your Q-mile calculations across the board are wrong, as they are not multiplied by 1.5, 1, or .5. Those are the multiplication factors for Q-points.

Mike

Thanks for the work ^^

Thanks for catching this -- I pulled the data from the wrong column in my spreadsheet. I've updated the EQM to reflect being based on MMG.

For what it's worth, the reason I went through this is that I've looked at a number of the spreadsheets that are out there, and most of them seemed to return incorrect results for flights under 500 miles. Since I was seeing unexpected results in the miles that were posting for my own flights, I figured I'd call and see what the story was.

You can remove the note on the Q-points as well -- for the deep discounted fares, they are correct at 500, even with the 0.5 factor.

Mike

Done... Thanks, Mike!

thanks for spelling this out.

Thanks, dmfriedman.

I'm still trying to figure out the following:

BRITISH AIRWAYS 1391 C MAN LHR 151 811 962

where I did receive the minimum 500 EQM/EQP... but how the hell did they come to that RDM?

I tried to use the 10% WT+ bonus, the 25% CDIJ bonus (that isn't supposed to be awarded inside the UK), any random variation I could come up with. And I used to be a math major.

I can't find any logic whatsoever.

Based on their statement at https://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/V...artnersContent I would have assumed that the MMG of 500 miles would mean a minimum RDM of 1000 miles... I'd be curious to hear what AA would say.

I'm Plat and just did TPE-HKG-TPE in C class. Here's what posted:
02/16/07 CATHAY PACIFIC 468 C HKG TPE 484 605 1,089
02/14/07 CATHAY PACIFIC 451 C TPE HKG 484 605 1,089

First off, how does AA get 484 as the mileage from TPE-HKG? Great circle shows its 501 and CX shows its 522. Shouldn't AA take CX mileage since they actually fly it not AA? Second, isn't AA shorting me 16 miles each way in RDM? 484 (base) + 121 (COS) + 500 (elite) = 1105.
Watch me come up 32 miles short for an award.

I can't figure out where airlines get their mileage distances from. It can be important for programs that award EQP based on zones (eg. QF). On BA's LGW-KEF flight, the great circle calculator shows 1205 miles (which is QF zone 3) but it only credits as ~1180 miles (zone 2). They seem to be using LHR-KEF mileage in this case. Maybe AA still is using mileage from Kai-Tek?

Nice job! It's now on the wiki at http://flyertalk.com/wiki/index.php/...ation_%28AA%29 -- please keep it updated!

dmfriedman, I missed this thread the first time around. IIRC, your interest in this was started because of errors on an AA code, HA metal flight. Did AA have an explanation for the discrepancy? Or did they correct the posting amount?


It appears what they did was give you 484 + 121 + 484. Could be a bug in their software...