AAdvantage, American Airlines loyalty program, is among the most valuable assets the airline possesses. The loyalty program generates huge volumes of revenue and helps make the airline reach its profitability goals every single year. However, the issue faced by the big three American carriers is the fact that the market is saturated and it difficult to enroll new customers. It is even harder to poach them from the competition as airlines have become very capable in incentivising passengers to remain loyal. Therefore, the only way to further expand the loyalty programs is by looking outside of the US borders. That is what American Airlines has been doing and has done again, with its latest JetSMART agreement.
JetSMART adopts American Airlines AAdvantage Loyalty Program
The TLDR is that JetSMART is adopting American Airlines’ frequent flyer program AAdvantage. That means that travellers booking a flight on the Chilean airline will also be able to enroll in the program along with, most importantly, earning miles and tier miles on every trip. The agreement translates to the fact that passengers will accrue miles in the same way regardless which of the two airlines they are travelling on.
JetSMART’s entry in the AAdvantage program follows the codeshare agreement the two airlines signed in 2023. Therefore, American Airlines’ frequent flyers now have an option to travel seamlessly from north to south America while not losing any miles on the way.
The accrual of miles on JetSMART will be possible immediately, while redeeming award flights will only be possibile at a later stage in 2024.
More Foreign Airlines in the AAdvantage Program
As mentioned already, American carriers would love to expand and grow their loyalty programs but the market in the US is already close to saturation. That means that most potential customers have already signed up for a program with one of the major carriers. Therefore, the only way to fuel growth is by looking outside of the US borders.
American Airlines has been quite forward looking in this regard as it already brought two carriers into its AAdvantage program over the past few months. Namely:
- JetSMART
- Fiji Airways
It’ll be interesting to see if any other of the American carriers move in this direction too as AA has. For another example of non-owned airline adopting a frequent flyer program of another carrier you can look at Lufthansa’s Miles&More program and how LOT and Luxair adopted it.
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