opalfruit

Thanks guys. Bag is checked through, yes. Sounds like the AA check-in guy at SFO was a bit confused telling me about the airside bus. I'm somewhat familiar with T4, but I've never had to transfer internationally outward.

Reclearing security at TBIT sounds like a barrel of laughs. Lets hope the gods smile on me today.

bdemaria

The process is automatic starting at 100 hrs before departure but (a) you must request the upgrade and (b) - most importantly - the upgrade is subject to availability. They are processed based on time of request - so you will be behind all other EXP who have already requested the upgrade. The likelihood of clearing will depend on the route.

Yes, food is free in first. Also, as an EXP you get a complementary snack in Coach.

AMEX Platinum currently provides AC access.

GITU

AC lounges are free for EXPs when traveling internationally, correct? No desire to get the AmEx Plat card.

bdemaria

Yes although AA has a slightly odd definition of "international" for club access, it doesn't include

Apieinthesky

A few things, in addition to what has been said:

I assume you know that even though the upgrade process is the same, you won't actually be charged any "500 mile stickers" to upgrade, since you are EXP.

I'll also assume you booked your flight after the EXP status posted to your account. Otherwise, you'll need to have your status refreshed on your PNR or it might reflect your old status (the status you had when you booked the trip).

The upgrades are automatic, but they depend on X inventory, which is released by a Revenue Management analyst. Once an analyst determines to release such inventory, the upgrades will be processed automatically, until T-4, when the flight is in airport control. If it hasn't cleared by then, it will be cleared by the GA.

You don't need your EXP card. Your boarding pass will suffice.

Food and booze is free in domestic F. For "how is the food?", see this thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Is lounge access worth $450 a year? That's up to you. The AmEx Platinum and the Citi AAdvantage World Elite card both provide AC access (the latter provides a full AC membership), but both have a $450 annual fee, so I wouldn't exactly call it "free". If you fly mostly international, I'd say it's not worth it. Still up to you, of course.

joejoe666

Hello. I switched to AA this year. I will have completed 93 segments by this week. Unfortunately I may only fly I more trip this year (4 seg). Does AA make exceptions and make me exp if I am 3 or 7 segments short?

I hope this is right place to ask.

Apieinthesky

I wouldn't count on it. If you want EXP, I'd suggest booking a short segment run.

bdemaria

3 to 7 segments for a first time qualifier is a long way off. If you were requalifying for EXP & at 99 segments, there could be an exception, but maybe not.

The problem: you won't know for sure until next cal year, and if they don't bump you up (which again I find very unlikely) then it will be too late to do anything about it.

You don't note a location in your profile, so its hard to make any suggestions re: flights, but if you will be at 97 segments, it might not be too difficult to add a 3 segment flight to your schedule between now and the year's end.

Djokison

Yes, Golds only have free access to MCE until the end of this year. If you've already chosen your seats for flights in 2014, you can still keep the seats for free. They won't throw you out or make you pay.

As for what will happen for us Golds afterwards, is anyone's guess. A discount on MCE seats, free choice of MCE a couple of days before the flight or perhaps they'll change nothing and Golds will keep free MCE.

I too had issues finding the thread (and I knew it existed), eventually I found the regular MCE thread and clicked through to the 738/MD80 threads. So I understand.

Eujeanie

Maybe they can move the seat threads up to the top to be stickies?

brp

If you use "Advanced Search" from the dropdown, and limit it to Titles, with 738 in quotes (quotes are not usually needed, but i think it is necessary for numbers), the 738 seating thread is the top returned hit. I find restricting to titles to make things pretty easy to find.

Also, the seat threads are linked from the FAQ, which is "stickied."

Cheers.

opalfruit

Well, I must've angered them pretty bad! SFO-LAX ended up being 3 hours delayed, so I well and truly missed my connection. AA wanted to rebook me on the red-eye LAX-JFK, and then the daytime JFK-LHR - in coach. My original itinerary was F/J.

I politely informed them that this was absolutely not happening, and instead asked them to rebook me on a LAX-LHR tomorrow and to have the good grace to put me up overnight. No bueno. "ATC delay, sir, out of our control. We can try to rebook you, but you're probably best to speak to BA, and we definitely won't be finding you a hotel".

Arguing was pointless. I spent the next four hours waiting for them to relocate my bag, and finding a reasonably priced room at the LAX Hilton, and calling up BA in the UK to unpickle this mess. BA, to their credit, have rebooked me with ease, but it really shouldn't be like this.

Joint venture? OneWorld alliance? Not if it involves AA, it seems. Very disappointed with the way AA handled this.

opalfruit

Oh! I forgot! AA were gracious enough to give me a $12 food voucher. Amazing.

smithrh

In early 2014, traveling to the middle east with a friend, he has business there, I'm tagging along.

My friend will have ExPlat status at that time, but we live in different cities, I'm in ORD land while he's in RDU land.

What he typically does is fly AA to LHR, then another carrier (BA, Qatar, etc) to the middle east. This time he's entertaining Gulf Air.

When we did this the last time, he had absolutely no status on AA. I've rectified that by telling him what ExPlat would get him; he had been selecting lowest fare. I've made Plaat a few times, but never been ExPlat myself.

Now with him having ExPlat, should I consider flying to RDU to fly over with him? What benefits can he expect on the AA-metal RDU-LHR (and LHR-RDU) leg? Would he be upgraded?

HRHPrincessPam

First AA award flight to Europe. I booked the outbound from ORD/DUS/VIE for 5/1/14, but am unable to find any acceptable return without incurring BA fuel surcharges. I have been searching 2 times per day for return (NCE/MAD/ORD) via IB but nothing has become available on 3 acceptable dates (5/9,10,11). How long before you suggest giving up and transferring UR pts to United and booking my return that way? I love the 40k pts to Europe during that time frame and was hoping to save my UR pts for hotels/incidentals. Any idea about IB and if they ever open up seats (searching via Qantas website). This is a special trip for my daughter and I, her first time out of the US and she's almost 30! Thanks in advance for any tips/advice/help.