Location: MSP (and will only fly NWA in re-routes if I HAVE to)
Programs: AA EXP (4.5MM), hotel programs as needed
Posts: 5,802
As you say it varies by market.
I use the Exit Row seats as a judge to see how many other elites (granted cannot tell their tier) may be on a flight.
When there is only center exit row left, I assume there are lots of elites on the plane.
When I am the only one in an exit row, I feel pretty special (tho waiting for my upgrade to clear).
I also look at the 'premium' seats that are held back for tier fliers. On MD80s I know 9D is one of these seats. If empty, not may tier fliers!
MSP-ORD is one of the flights where I see loads of open exit row seats.
DFW-LAX (actually many ex-DFW trips) I see no open exit row seats.
YMMV!
On a 'true' vs estimate note, I spoke with a MSP manager recently who estimated we have 200 EXPs that are based in the MSP area. For a smaller station (ORD, DFW, MIA, STL, LGA flights) this is a pretty good number in my opinion.
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I give up on snappy sigs .. then again, I don't steal sodas from the galley....
I know there has been speculation before, and I think we all realize the markets that probably have the most elites, but I still think it would be interesting to see a table with different cities and how many elites are stationed out of each one. I wonder if one of the people who work for the airline would be able to get such a thing?
Location: MSP (and will only fly NWA in re-routes if I HAVE to)
Programs: AA EXP (4.5MM), hotel programs as needed
Posts: 5,802
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneant
What's special about 9D?
Its classed as a Premium seat on the MD80s. Row 7 and row 8 are blocked for Airport Control day of flight assignment. Guess AA figures we tier fliers might like the first row of assign-able seating.
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I give up on snappy sigs .. then again, I don't steal sodas from the galley....
Its classed as a Premium seat on the MD80s. Row 7 and row 8 are blocked for Airport Control day of flight assignment. Guess AA figures we tier fliers might like the first row of assign-able seating.
Ah. Gotcha. Sure wish they'd open up 7 for tier fliers.
Programs: AA EXP 1.8MM, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Traveler's Aid JFK Volunteer
Posts: 5,521
Quote:
Originally Posted by oneant
Ah. Gotcha. Sure wish they'd open up 7 for tier fliers.
Row 7 is held for airport control because it's the bulkhead and they've gotta put the babies somewhere. (and it's for handicapped as well)
I'm not sure why Row 8 is held for airport control, but in my experience, you don't want to be close to Row 7 if it's occupied.
BULKHEADS = BABIES!
(If I'm in Y on the S80, I like to try to get 7D because it has more legroom than any other seat on the plane, including in F. But I ALWAYS ask the GA to make sure that the other seats in Row 7 aren't full of families with kids.)
(not to mention the fact that babies are walking/crawling/oozing germ factories, and I don't like to get sick)
Of those 56 million, probably less than 1/4 have regular (quarterly? monthly?) flight activity.
Remember that the vast majority of the traveling public has 3-4 business trips per year and the annual vacation with the kids to Disney. We FTers are unusual!
I would estimate close to a million GLDs (most of whom probably don't even realize they have it and never take advantage of the benefits). This category would include 1MMers who never fly or who have partner activity only.
Among AA elites (ONLY elites), perhaps 30-40% are PLT, and less than 10% are EXP.
Also, we have to keep in mind that if we fly LGA-DFW, LGA-ORD, LAX-JFK, RDU-AUS, AUS-SJC, that we will experience a much higher proportion of elites than a normal representative sample.
For any given mainline widebody flight ON AVERAGE, perhaps we could say an AVERAGE of 6-10 GLDs, 3-4 PLTs, 1 or 0 EXPs.
I have based these numbers on no actual data; just my personal speculation. So no flames please!
My own data (based on anecdotal visual evidence, NOT scientific) is similar to yours. Flying out of TPA I rarely see any other Plats, EXP, or Golds, and there are usually 1 or 2 other people boarding when they annouce ExP and Plat boarding. It's hard to tell how many F pax are Elite. It's a different situation out of DFW, STL, MIA, and ORD. Especially in STL I notice a lot of GOLD on boarding passes (yes I try and sneak a peak at everyone's to get an idea). MIA I've noticed a lot of plats.
My guess is for the average MD80, there is 1 EXP, 2 PLAT, and 3 Golds, with the exception of hub flights, say from SJU-MIA there are 2-3 EXP and 3-4 PLAT, unknown Golds.
I would love to hear an official number.
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AA EXP- AC visits - ORD (HK), STL, DFW (A,C,&D), MIA (A,D,&E), SJU, LAX, BOS, BOG, SFO, ATL, EZE, PHL, NYC (All 4), LHR, CDG
My guess is that the type of employee who knows this information is much higher up than a lowly gate agent, although I have searched jetnet in vain for any documents (found lots of other intresting stuff though).
I check pretty much everyday as there is a simple sabre entry that tells you how many top tier members are on each flight. A few weeks ago I did write down some numbers but I lost the piece of paper. I'll do it again later this week for our hub flights over a couple of days .
Hello,
I'm new to this forum and searched the threads to see if I could find the answers but I didn't find anything yet. Can anyone tell me about how many total members AAdvantage there are? How many gold level, platinum and exec platinum members are there?
Hello,
I'm new to this forum and searched the threads to see if I could find the answers but I didn't find anything yet. Can anyone tell me about how many total members AAdvantage there are? How many gold level, platinum and exec platinum members are there?
Thank you in advance,
Styles
I can tell you that there are at least 6 EXPs that I know personally. I don't socialize with the lower tiers.
