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American Airlines Group Inc. said Monday it will change its frequent-flier program to award miles based on ticket price rather than distance flown, becoming the largest carrier to shift its loyalty program to favor bigger spenders.

The top U.S. airline by traffic said that its AAdvantage program, which has about 100 million members, will make the change on August 1. Starting then, customers who have no status in the plan will receive 5 miles for each dollar spent on tickets, excluding government taxes and fees. The number of miles awarded will increase based on the passenger's elite status, with the lower "gold" members receiving 7 miles to a dollar and top-tier "executive platinum" fliers getting 11 miles per dollar spent.

American also said that effective Jan. 1, it will add minimum annual spending levels fliers must meet to reach elite status the following year. To be a gold level flier, a customer will have to spend $3,000, along with flying 25,000 miles or flying 30 segments in a given year. A platinum flier will need to spend $6,000 and fly 50,000 miles or 60 segments, and so on.

The outlines of the new AAdvantage elements closely mirror changes already made to the loyalty programs of Delta Air Lines Inc., the No. 2 carrier by traffic, and United Continental Holdings Inc., No. 3. Other carriers including Southwest Airlines Co., JetBlue Airways Corp., and Virgin America Inc., also already have moved to the so-called revenue model, intended to reward frequent fliers who spend more money.

American, the result of the late 2013 merger of the old American Airlines and US Airways Group, has been busy integrating its operations and just over a year ago folded US Airways' loyalty plan into AAdvantage. Now it is making good on its pledge late last year to bring make bigger changes to the enlarged program.

One change it will also make in January is to add a new elite tier, "Platinum Pro" between its Platinum and Executive Platinum levels. Pro will require fliers to travel 75,000 miles or 90 segments and spend $9,000 on tickets. This tier will provide complimentary automatic upgrades on all eligible flights in North American, two free checked bags and pay 9 award miles per dollar spent.

American said it hasn't made any changes to its redemption options aside from some modifications made in March, and said it still plans to show the award redemption requirements on its website. While American was preparing to make the program changes, it found itself uncompetitive with its largest rivals on the more expensive tickets. So it has had a special mileage promotion in place that will be phased out in August.

Changes to the program for customers who use co-branded American credit cards to book travel are still under review, the company said.

Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 06, 2016 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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