apodo77

I'm a Plat on AA and have been upgraded once in 14 segments this year. Wouldn't get too excited if they did offer it.

IceTrojan

And you can bet that if (or, I like to think, when ) AS joins OW, the top-tier requirement will be shifted up to 100K (perhaps 90K AS only metal) to bring it in line with the others, especially AA. There's no way AA will let an easier way to elite status right in the same corner of the sandbox.

BOB W

IF, and it's not even being talked about anywhere else, AS did ever join OW, they would be wise to keep their current levels. Keep it for AS fliers only, not others. AS lower qualification levels are driven by the fact that the vast majority of their routes are short to mid length and that, in itself, keeps their top tier level too difficult to attain for the vast, vast majority of their customers.

dayone

Discussing the possibility of AS joining OW makes for a nice party game. The reality is that it is not on the near- or mid-term horizon (pun intended).

To inform the theoretical, joining OW would require AS' policies and procedures to be brought into congruence with the other OW members. Emerald status would not be granted for 75K miles flown, period. 90K on AS? Who knows, but it certainly won't be 75K.

ashill

Why? The extra benefits for oneworld Emerald over Sapphire are relatively small: an extra checked bag (noting that elites don't check bags, particularly not 3, all that often anyway), Flagship Lounge access (instead of business) on international itineraries, F checkin (instead of business), and a free snack/drink in coach. Anything else?

It's not like AS 75k/Emerald flyers would suddenly get EXP status for upgrades, and they certainly wouldn't get SWUs or complimentary AA lounge access on domestic itineraries (the benefits that would cost AA significantly).

AS remains a regional player and would be if they were in oneworld. The slightly lower elite qualification requirements reflect that.

It is certainly true that AS would become a significantly more attractive program for flyers with significant international travel if it joined an alliance; the lack of alliance elite status is why I credit my ≈50-70k BIS miles per year (roughly equally split between AS, BA, and US/AA) to AA, not AS. But if I were in sniffing difference of EXP (the only elite status level at which the qualification requirements are different on AA and AS), the SWUs would be a huge trump card over MVPG 75k, even if AS were in oneworld.

I think that overestimates the difficulty of bringing AS into oneworld. 75k only on AS metal doesn't affect status used on partners (much); if you don't fly partners, why do they care what status you have?

Mind you, I don't necessarily expect AS to join oneworld soon (though I wouldn't be shocked if they did), but I think their reluctance has much more to do with keeping their options open to retain or expand non-oneworld partnerships, including with (non-DL!) Sky Team airlines, as it suits them. Any difficulty aligning frequent flyer programs and status tiers could be handled easily.

dayone

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

...back on topic

I used a kiosk this morning as the Priority Access checkin wasn't immediately clear in TPA. The kiosk offered 3 bags for no charge, so I took the kiosk up on the offer. I have a carryon as well, so am fully loaded.

jrl767

and that's before any PDB service

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

This gets better...

Just flew MIA-JFK (757 angle flat ^) in F and after checking 3x I went back to the kiosk. It gave me an option to check a 4th bag for no fee ^!