Originally Posted by
coxm
Here is a data point.
as of today, I am a CK with the following stats. All have been booked as AA ticket numbers, would say about 50% on actual AA metal and the rest as AA codeshares on JV Metal (mostly BA, a couple of Iberia flights as well). In addition, I spent 4 months this summer off the road taking care of my father who passed away in September. I have a $6k AA/BA flight next week and a $4k AA/BA flight for thanksgiving, plus a handful of AA domestics before year end,
EQD: $62k
EQM: 278k
EQS: 92
received an email from AA yesterday that in order to maintain CK I would need an additional $10k spend on AA flights operated on AA metal either between my two international flights in November or between December 2 and January 31 to maintain (e.g. they know I have $10k worth of travel booked already and the AA segments won’t count towards this “challenge”)
as an SF based flyer, it is pretty frustrating that an approximately $75k ($85k if i did. the challenge) spend on AA (with travel on joint venture code shares) isn’t worthy of CK when there is another game in town. But, for a high spend like me, the only real benefit I lose is the email address and the very occasional Escalade transfer in LAX or DFW (but it isn’t often enough), and the FL access in Chicago or LAX (as it is too far out of the way in Dallas and JFK I’m flying business/first and have it anyhow)
I am really very surprised to hear that your requalification is in question. I would have thought you'd be good to go.
Regarding CK benefits (raised by responses to your post) -- I think this is very dependent on travel pattern. If you're flying mainly international, the number of times you need Cadillac rides to smooth out IROPS is probably low, and benefits like upgrade priority and FL access aren't relevant. When you're doing a ton of domestic flights with connections, the need for assistance during IROPS is much higher. I get saved from a misconnect by CK services I'd say once or even twice a month on average, and without this, I'd be in a situation of cascading problems, especially since I buy refundable Y but "expect" an upgrade to J. In particular, Friday night connections home often seem to be in jeopardy, and arriving home Friday night vs late Saturday morning is a big deal when you're leaving again on Sunday. I also like the other benefits, like the email access and the FL access, and the upgrade priority certainly helps my strategy of buying Y and "expecting" J work.