Heads up, budget travelers! American Airlines has quietly stopped awarding AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points on basic economy tickets. This means those super-cheap fares no longer help you earn elite status or free flights. If you're all about maximizing rewards, this is a major bummer.

Why does this matter? Loyalty Points are how you climb the elite status ladder with American. No Loyalty Points earned means it will be harder to qualify for status if you're flying basic economy. This could impact things like free checked bags, priority boarding, and upgrades.

While this isn't great news, it could have been worse. Other airlines have severely restricted basic economy benefits and American didn't go quite that far. If you need the absolute cheapest flight and don't care about perks, basic economy still gets you from A to B. Just remember to factor in the lost mileage when you're comparing flight costs.