American Airlines has extended the timeline for implementing the changes to its loyalty programme that will stop flyers from earning points from most travel agent bookings.
The preferred agency programme will now come into effect on July 11 instead of May 1 as originally planned.
The revised programme prevents flyers from earning loyalty points unless they book flights directly or with a ‘preferred agency’, which has prompted criticism from travel agents worldwide.
An airline spokesperson said the deadline was being extended to allow more agents to meet the requirements of being ‘preferred’.
“We anticipate even more who are on the cusp of meeting the threshold to do so very soon, which will provide customers with excellent preferred agency options to go along with our offerings on aa.com. As such, we’ve decided to extend the update to the way customers earn AAdvantage miles and loyalty points on flights to July 11.”
The airline has yet to specify which agencies have qualified for preferred status.
