AAdvantage is the frequent flyer program of American Airlines (AA). It is pronounced "advantage," i.e. the first letter is silent. Launched May 1, 1982, it was the first such loyalty program in the world, and remains the largest with over 45 million members as of 2004. American Airlines logo, claiming fair use This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... A Frequent Flyer Program is a service offered by many airlines to reward customer loyalty. ... American Airlines Boeing 757 American Airlines and American Eagle aircraft at San Juan Note: For the arenas named after this company, see American Airlines Center (Dallas, Texas), or American Airlines Arena (Miami, Florida). ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Miles accumulated in the program allow members to redeem tickets, upgrade service class, or obtain free or discounted car rentals, hotel stays, merchandise, or other products and services through partners. The most active members, based on the amount and price of travel booked, are designated AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, and AAdvantage Executive Platinum elite members, with privileges such as separate check-in, priority upgrade and standby processing, or complimentary upgrades. They also receive similar privileges from AA's partner airlines, notably those in the Oneworld airline alliance. oneworld is third largest airline alliance in the world, behind Star Alliance and Skyteam. ... An airline alliance is an agreement between two or more airlines to cooperate for the foreseeable future on a substantial level. ...

History

Increased competititon following the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act prompted airline marketing professionals to develop ways to reward repeat customers and build brand loyalty. The first idea at American, a special "loyalty fare," was modified and expanded to offer complimentary first class tickets and upgrades to first class for companions, or discounted coach tickets. Membership was seeded by searching AA's SABRE computer reservations system for recurring phone numbers. The 130,000 most frequent flyers, plus an additional 60,000 members of AA's lounge network, the Admiral's Club, were pre-enrolled and sent letters with their new account numbers. The name was selected by AA's advertising agency. 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... President Jimmy Carter signs the Airline Deregulation Act. ... A Boeing 747-400 belonging to Virgin Atlantic Airways, one of the UKs largest airlines. ... Traditionally, Marketing is the process or act of bringing together buyers and sellers. ... Sabre is a computer reservations system used by airlines, railways, hotels, and other travel companies. ... For other uses of the acronym GDS, see GDS (disambiguation). ... A telephone number is a sequence of decimal digits (0-9) that is used for identifying a destination telephone line in a telephone network. ...

Scarcely six days later, rival United Airlines launched its Mileage Plus program, followed by other airlines in the ensuing months and years. The rapid appearance of competition changed the nature of the program, and as airlines began to compete on the features of their frequent flyer programs, AAdvantage liberalized its rules, established partnerships with hotel and rental car agencies, and offered promotions such as extra free beverages. In 1982 AAdvantage also became the first program to cooperate with an international carrier; members could accrue and redeem miles on British Airways flights to Europe. United Airlines Airbus A320-200. ... A hotel is an establishment that provides lodging, usually on a short-term basis. ... 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... British Airways is the largest airline of the United Kingdom. ... World map showing location of Europe When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ...

In 2005 American Airlines joined other major US carriers in introducing an online shopping portal allowing shoppers to earn AAdvantage miles when shopping online. See Online Shopping comparison table for this and other major shopping programs.

References

• FrequentFlier.com: History of Loyalty Programs
• WebFlyer.com: History of Frequent Flyer Programs

External link

• AAdvantage Program official site