Originally Posted by
Antarius
This is a fair assessment. At booking C is harder and harder to find. On that list above, only 2 of 8 cleared at booking. But they all cleared for me.
Its not a perfect system, but to me, the benefit of a near 100% clearance rate at some point before departure to a 1-2-1 J with FL lounges greatly outweighs at booking clearing into 2-3-2 NGBC with admirals clubs.
You would think a better compromise since they cut the # of SWU's in half would be the high clearance rate with the current J and FL lounges since only their top tier elites earn SWU at all, and 4 SWU only = 2 roundtrips. Would be a nice way of incentivizing loyalty. I imagine many of them would still go unused and AA wouldn't get crushed too hard. If people say 100% of their SWU are clearing anyway, then AA isn't losing $ by letting us clear at booking, but they take away our anxiety and make us feel more valued.