American Airlines to Merge AAdvantage, Dividend Miles Frequent Flyer Programs This Weekend

American Airlines will begin the process of moving millions of US Airways Dividend Miles members into its AAdvantage frequent flyer program on Saturday as it embarks upon the path to transition to a single loyalty program.

For many, the change will be the most visible sign to date of the American-US Airways merger, which took place in February 2013. The process of absorbing all Dividend Miles accounts will take several days, according to the Fort Worth-based airline.

For those program members who matched their account numbers within AAdvantage and Dividend Miles, the mileage balance in Dividend Miles will move to the AAdvantange account on a 1:1 basis. For those without an AAdvantage account, American will create one. Members will be notified by e-mail when the process for their individual accounts has been completed.

Some Dividend Miles functionality, such as the ability to book award travel, will be unavailable during the transition.

The airline expects to fully complete the transition by the middle of the coming week, according to Suzanne Rubin, who runs the AAdvantage program at American.

Launched May 1, 1981, AAdvantage is the world’s oldest frequent flyer program still in operation (Texas International Airlines, now part of United-Continental, created the first one in 1979). It is also the largest.

US Airways currently has some 30 million Dividend Miles members, while American has 70 million AAdvantage members. The combined program, which will continue to use the AAdvantage name, will have fewer than 100 million because of an overlap in members between the two.

Following the US Airways-America West merger in 2005, America West’s FlightFund frequent flyer program was merged into the Dividend Miles program.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)