Mr. Elieson called me, and we had a great conversation. It lasted approximately 30 minutes. At first, it was about my length of time with AA, travel habits during the pandemic, and how I felt the flying experience was. He also had information about my CC use and spend, in addition to the use of the AA shopping portal. I found that surprising. I was then able to ask a few questions. So here are the salient topics, that will interest FT the most:
1. When will full service resume in Y? Beverage service resumes in June, and food for sale would be "not long after". Like other information posted, this probably means sometime in summer.
2. When will hot food service and soft products (pillows/blankets) return to FC? There is no timetable for this yet. He did note that catering companies were at HQ 2 weeks prior to preview menu items. So it's possible hot food returns mid-to-late summer also. No set date for the other amenities, however. (Beverage service in the premium cabin is available now.)
3. When will AC showers re-open? He hadn't been asked this question, and was unsure.
4. SWU Availability - He acknowledged these are hard to use. Technically, space can be confirmed at time of booking. However, in reality, inventory is not available and released close to day of departure (he said "80% confirmed at time of departure").
First big news - There will be a news release in the first week/early June that SWU expiration will be extended another full year!!! Regarding availability, one option up for discussion was what if flyers paid a fee to confirm seating with the SWU, regardless of inventory availability. In my opinion, this would be reasonable, but the price point could not be prohibitively high.
5. Will AA re-issue luggage tags? This would be a good gesture, but is unlikely to be done.
6. Increased options for rebooking/SDFC - This could be looked at and would be easier to accomplish than #5. It's possible they may allow increased options and co-terminals with SDFC. He wasn't able to address routing changes, but it may be possible?
7. All member populations of the frequent flyer program are to decline "precipitously" this year.
There will be further revisions to obtain status for 2022. It may include threshold changes and/or accelerators/boost. More details would be released "early next month", to coincide with the SWU news.
All in all, it was a very pleasant conversation and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He also offered up his AA email to contact him should any issues arise in the future! WOW!
I feel like JonNYC, providing breaking news and info regarding AA!