Originally Posted by metallo

This is exactly why CK is sort of a joke status level for most AA frequent flyers. It's completely unrealistic and unattainable for most posters on this board and not worth chasing, in my opinion.

And if one is somehow drawn to the prospect of achieving CK nevertheless, I would suggest considering what benefits you're really chasing. To me, I want to ensure I'm sitting in a premium cabin (J/F) with the best possible lounge access while paying the lowest price possible. I pay far less for EP status and can pay for J/F when I clearly won't be upgraded (or just don't want to play the lottery or want to reserve a specific seat/meal, etc.), so I'd be grossly overpaying to get CK as opposed to buying the other benefits individually.

EP provides most of the benefits I need, and I can pay for the rest, use non-AA OWS to access the FL, buy J and upgrade to A (or just buy F or use miles) if I really want FFD, etc.

It's crazy to me to think that people would intentionally pay for higher fare classes or take additional flights simply to try to achieve CK. Most people who are organically reaching that amount of spend aren't spending their own money and, ethically, shouldn't be spending someone else's money unnecessarily.

The rest of the CK benefits are sort of gravy (waived copays, tarmac transfers, email support, upgrade priority), and even though they'd be nice, they're not worth an incremental spend of $25-50k to me (or increasing my ratio of spend to miles flown or whatever criteria they actually use).

Just look at how many CKs in this thread are disappointed with the benefits like inconsistent tarmac transfers, hold time/automated menus on the CK line, etc. Is it really worth going out of one's way to attempt to achieve CK? Not in my mind, anyway.