Prince Harry is back from another trip to England and once again flew home on American Airlines, likely in first class. By this time, the Duke of Sussex is well on his way to elite status on world’s largest airline.
Prince Harry Flies American Airlines Again…Does He Now Have AAdvantage Elite Status?
The 35-year-old grandson of Queen Elizabeth II flew to the United Kingdom on June 25th in order to take part in the unveiling of a statute of his late mother, Princess Diana, who would have turned 60 on July 1st. After quarantining for five days, he attended the dedication ceremony at Kensington Palace’s Sunken Garden, which only featured 15 guests. Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, was not in attendance.
At the event, Prince Harry and his bother Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, released the following statement:
“Today, on what would have been our mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength and character – qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.
“Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy.”
Prince Harry flew American Airlines First Class on the way out, where other passengers onboard reportedly saw him lounging in sweats.
The day after the ceremony he proceeded back to London Heathrow Airport, where he boarded a flight home in order to rejoin his wife Meghan, who is grieving the loss of her uncle.
Harry’s motorcade was seen proceeding directly to the Terminal 5 tarmac at Heathrow. He was later seen exiting a side staircase flanked by American Airlines luggage carts in LAX before stepping into a Private Suite vehicle. It is likely he flew AA135, a 777-300ER operated flight which left LHR at 6:00pm and arrived into LAX at 9:15pm.
Not that AAdvantage elite status is a big deal to the Duke of Sussex, but let’s do the math. Let’s say that he booked a discount first class ticket (“A” class) from Los Angeles to London, which runs about $6,200 round-trip.
LAX – LHR is 5,456 miles each way.
If he started without status, he would have earned:
- 21,824 elite-qualifying miles (EQMs) + 4 elite-qualifying segments (EQSs)
This year, Executive Platinum requires:
- $12,000 in spending
- 80,000 EQMs or 95 EQSs
While the Duke of Sussex has already met the spending requirement (and likely greatly exceeded it), he still has a ways to go to qualify via the EQM or EQS metic. If he paid for the trip on his Citi / AAdvantage Executive card he can earn another 10,000 EQM by spending $40,000 on the card during a calendar year.
The good news for Prince Harry is that it likely doesn’t matter. Being an A-list celebrity carriers an elite-status far more valuable than even AA’s invite-only Concierge Key and if he’s buying first class fares anyway, status is essentially meaningless for his trips to London.
Still, his loyalty to American Airlines is quite interesting. What is about American Airlines that has drawn Harry back four times? Is it just the nonstop flight at convenient times with first class or is there something else going on?
> Read More: Prince Harry Chose American Airlines First Class Over British Airways
> Read More: Prince Harry Flies American Airlines First Class To London…In Sweats?
image: Intagram / dukeandduchessofcambridge
Maybe he wants to stay in oneWorld (AA and BA)?
Who Cares!!!???
He probably doesn’t want to be on BA given British people that BA presumably employs possibly have an opinion about him one way or another whereas AA’s employees are likely to be Americans who don’t care about him.
Woe to Matthew! Meghan will not be happy that she received very little attention in this piece. Based on past behavior, she isn’t grieving over an uncle but the lack of press coverage on herself. As for Harry, I thought he was a climate change warrior, but all these flights spewing carbon into the air? Oh that’s right, climate diktats do not apply to climate elitists.
I wonder if his AA flights are meant to be an anti-British statement?
As far as his AAdvantage miles, there’s a possibility that he didn’t even sign up. Over the years, I knew 3 people well enough to know that they were not frequent flyer program participants and didn’t mind that I sign up for them and use their miles. Of those 3 people, I earned magazine subscriptions from two of them and a domestic economy class ticket from the third. That was without badgering them or trying to get them to fly a specific airline.
Slow news day?
No, but people love stories about Harry.
Do they?
Surely these are comp tickets?
I don’t know that his monthly allowance from Meghan would allow him to be in first.
Why would AA comp tickets to him?
It’s truly alarming that so many young people ( albeit clueless ones) actually believe the preposterous stories from the disagreeable wannabe princess, via the interview with the ludicrous Operah. He can continue to fly AA: the schism with his family is set in stone; there’s no coming back…rather like Great-Uncle David and Auntie Wallis.
BA Gold would be better since he’d not need to also buy an Admirals Club membership and would have access to the superior Flagship lounges (where available and open) in place of the Admirals Club when flying within the US. But most likely AA has given him CIP/VIP status if he doesn’t already have it from BA, a likely Royal perk.
If he were a real man he would have booked LAX-JFK-BEG-LHR using Aeroplan miles with Air Serbia as the choice for the crossing. And brought his own damn pajamas.
my theory is the AA flights have less F bookings. Looking at the next few days the BA flights are quite often heavily loaded in 14 seat F cabins, whereas the AA F cabins you can find flights with 1 or 2 people only + their F is smaller
Maybe American Airlines isn’t quite as terrible as its critics allege. I’ve flown on all of the major U.S. carriers, and, for my money, the differences among them are trivial. Based on some of the withing (and I think unwarranted) criticism I’ve read here and on other blogs, it almost seems as if there are some people who are hoping the airline gets liquidated. To them, I offer these words from Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Not sure why you refer to this blog. I gave American Airlines great praise on my recent trip–
https://liveandletsfly.com/american-airlines-777-300er-business-class-review/
I wasn’t referring specifically to you or this blog. My comment was meant to be general. Not to mention that you aren’t the only person who writes an opinion here, and weren’t the only person who had written about the fact that Prince Harry has been flying on American Airlines. I’m of the general view that no airline is quite as perfect as its fans claim. Nor are is any as awful as its critics allege. As I wrote above, it often seems to me that much of the criticism about the various airlines is about trifles. And the criticisms often reflect a double standard, one for what seems to be the commentator’s favorite carrier, and another for its competition. There’s also an implication that all the U.S. legacies have to offer precisely the same product. Why? to me, that would be boring! I only recently discovered your blog, and have found it quite informative.
Perhaps he booked on a BA codeshare
Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
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