This morning I received an email – as I’m sure many of you did – announcing the return of American’s AAdvantage Elite Rewards for 2012. As it was in the past, it’s based on your elite qualifying point total on December 31, 2012, so those who purchase lower-bucket fares will have a significantly more difficult time hitting the required target within their status level.

As a reminder, here’s a list of what each class of service ticketed earns in terms of elite qualifying points.

This program is particularly great if you already accrue more points than required to re-qualify for your status level each year and are just shy of the next level. As it’s based on your status at the end of the 2012, if you just roll over to the next level during the year, it will certainly be difficult to hit the next status’ threshold.

Registration is required using promo code ELTA2 prior to December 15, 2012 and members who successfully achieve the stated goal will receive an email in January 2013 with a link to select the reward(s).