I have not flown a single flight on American Airlines this year. Nevertheless, I received an offer this week to buy up to Gold status for 2019.
You might recall that I earned nearly enough AA miles last year to qualify for Platinum status, but did not even earn Gold status because I did not meet minimum spend requirements. Rather than mileage run for a status I did not plan to use, I let it go and left the status on the table.
I know AA views selling status status as another source of ancillary revenue, but was curious how much they wanted for this.
I’d say the only valuable benefits to Gold Status are increased mileage earnings, the occasional (very occasional) upgrade, complimentary standby, and preferred seating in economy class (on a space-available basis). All you need is an AA credit card for a free checked bag (already have that) and Gold status does not include lounge access.
I clicked through on my email and was taken to a landing page where I had to input my AAdvantage credentials:
Upon entering them, the offer displayed: $995.
Seriously? $995? Thanks but no thanks.
CONCLUSION
If I was serious about flying American Airlines, I would do a status challenge from United and use that $995 to essentially mileage run during the trial period. That seems far better dropping $995 for a status level that is frankly not worth anything close to $995 for an occasional AA flyer.
Would you pay American Airlines for status?
I wouldn’t pay American Airlines to leave the comfort of the ground, much less earn status. This is true even if United is exponentially more expensive, I have that strong of hard feelings towards American, and a family connection to United certainly does not help Doug Parker there.
I’m only 3000 EQMs away from requalifying for EXP and I got an offer to buy it for $1900. That’s so stupid. I could book an economy round trip from DFW-SFO for $300 and meet that. I’m well past the EQDs.
They offered it to me for $675 and I’m only $200 or so from the min spending threshold. The airline has absolutely lost the plot in keeping customers loyal: not much award space, sub par customer service, and industry avg freq flyer program rewards.
Teja, did you try reaching out to the Customer Relations people about getting it reduced since you are so close?
My offer was for $799.
My offer $395. Still a no.
My offer was $599 and I’m going to be short 1100 miles to hit gold again (way over my eqm’s) for 2019.
I was in the same situation as Matthew – having not purchased an AA flight for well over a year (besides using miles). My offer to retain lowly Gold was $699. No thanks.
I credited my business trip on Qantas to AA so I’m over their EQD but below the EQM my offer was $1315 lol.
I’m at 43,687 EQMs and $8,088 EQDs and they wanted $995 for Platinum from me. Is there anyone good at math at AA anymore?
Horrible airline. I dont get why people would even bother
I am 73 miles short of Gold, and they want $465.
I’m considering it. Mine was $699 for gold and like $1000 plat. The key for me is the plus type seating on booking. I have a family of five so can save $750+ for one ways being able to book into extra leg room seats. Pretty helpful.
Ha, I was offered the bargain of $1600+. Still laughing two days later.
Living in Dallas, American flies the majority of direct routes to anywhere in the US and overseas. As an EX PL, my husband and I have no complaints. We enjoy the FF program and are treated well. I would prefer to see more Business seats available for miles. Otherwise, we’ve been happy with American.
I had 6 months of work wirh no paid travel. Annoying that us airlines don’t drop you through tiers. One advantage of qantas. If platinum they give you one year of gold complimentary.
my offer for gold was 2200 lol
Nicholas has me beat; I thought my gold status offer of $1750 was absurd.
No. Because AA has major reliability issues. Claim weather when other airlines fly. Mechanicals as a constant issue. Those horrible MAX jets. I‘d rather fly Spirit, Southwest, United or Delta.
I got the $799 offer to retain Gold and have flown AA a few times after switching to UA this year. I’m surprised they haven’t yet offered Gold for AA miles. It wouldn’t be a good value but I could see them selling it for say 100k in AA miles.
They do offer status for points. Award BXP5 gives AA gold status for 3200 Business Extra points. Those points are a lot harder to earn than AA miles, though. A $1000 flight earns 5000 miles at least, but only 200 BX points. So those 3200 points for a year of gold represent $64,000 of spending in that Advantage Business Extra account.
My offer is $699 and I intend on actually doing it. I don’t recommend this in most cases. While I realize it seems dumb to most, I have almost 400k miles and I utilize the reduced-mileage awards often, usually last minute. I book very few revenue flights on AA so I’m far away from qualifying (~$600 EQD & ~ 7k EQM) the normal way. Since I plan to book at least 10 award flights in 2019 the status will pay for itself in avoiding close-in fees alone.
Seven segments away from Platinum — I can only make status on segments — and they want $1095 to keep Plat? Guffaw. I’ll fly six in a few weeks then do a quick run to CLT for the afternoon.
I have an offer to get Gold for $235, I’m currently $181 EQD short. Is it worth it? Further more; I if I do upgrade I plan on doing a status match with United because I have a flight to Japan with United in February and that trip will meet the requirements (from their website and research of previous status match posts). So it’s kind of like paying $235 for status on two airlines. Also the flight to Japan will be paid for by my organization, so no additional funds out of my pocket.
My offer was $495.