In early 2014, traveling to the middle east with a friend, he has business there, I'm tagging along.
My friend will have ExPlat status at that time, but we live in different cities, I'm in ORD land while he's in RDU land.
What he typically does is fly AA to LHR, then another carrier (BA, Qatar, etc) to the middle east. This time he's entertaining Gulf Air.
When we did this the last time, he had absolutely no status on AA. I've rectified that by telling him what ExPlat would get him; he had been selecting lowest fare. I've made Plaat a few times, but never been ExPlat myself.
Now with him having ExPlat, should I consider flying to RDU to fly over with him? What benefits can he expect on the AA-metal RDU-LHR (and LHR-RDU) leg? Would he be upgraded?