So all of the Gold Elites work very hard to get the Gold Medal on the Airline of their choice depending on where they live and which airline is most convienent. So after all that work, isn't it nice that another Airline honors that work and comps you to Gold and those efforts can be recognized by other Airlines for FREQUENT FLYING! They are sharing the wealth, so to speak.
Since it has become such common practice to comp a few FREQFLYERS among the carriers, there is an overlap of comped status affecting passengers on each other's airlines. Perhaps there is less competition for the upgrades, then we would like to believe, since we are SO concerned about our butts being up front!

As for AmericanAirlines, doesn't GOLD Elite only reguire 25,000 miles, which is SILVER on most other airlines?

R&R -- AA Gold is the lowest Elite tier with AAdvantage, Platinum is mid-tier, and Executive Platinum is top-tier.

Actually, under the new 'q-points' system you need 25,000 q-points to get Gold status. So, only if your tickets are all full-fare economy will 25,000 miles get you gold. Business and first class fares earn you more q-points per mile so you only need to fly 20,000 or 16,667 miles respectively to reach 25,000 points. Now, if you are a lowly leisure traveler who purchases their own tickets at less than full fare, each mile is worth 1/2 point. You need 50,000 miles to reach gold. I was always just under the 25,000 mile mark each year until they switched systems. So, of course, the first year I reach 25,000 miles the requirement is 50,000. It isn't the amount of time you spend in an airline seat that gives you status these days, but the amount of $$$$ you (or your company) spend to put you there.

I talked to someone today at AA marketing. I understand that this "free gold" was a test program and was limited to the LA area.

It has not gone over well and they have been surprised that there has been all of this out cry from the elite community. He indicated that this program was NOT going to be expanded.

8 phone calls (and thanks to my AA friends that work in various depts at AA that pointed me in the right direction!) and I finally got to AA AAdvantage marketing in Dallas and got some answers!

PS: The guy said he had heard rumors that someone had posted the goold status on e-bay!

[This message has been edited by AAExecPlatFlier (edited 08-07-2001).]

AAExecPlatFlier,

Thanks for the effort. Please post the phone number to the marketing department in Dallas.

This isn't quite true, if you visit the aa.com site (when it's up) you'll find this:

So, now you can qualify based on miles, OR on points. The change in the qualifying points WAS made to the PLT Challenge, where you need 10K Q-Points in 90 days to make PLT. That's 20K miles in discounted coach.

I for one am glad AA discontinued this gold-for-free referral program, and I think that the reaction it generated on this board is probably one of the main reasons it was ended so quickly.

I only requalified for gold (the hard way) last year, (should I change my handle?) I'm about 55K away from 1M, (and lifetime gold, if they don't change the program) and just enrolled in the PLT challenge, FWIW.


[This message has been edited by PlatAAagain (edited 08-07-2001).]

Well done AAExecPlatFlier, and to everyone else who voiced their feelings on this. For once the frequent fliers may have actually won one.

Completed registration tonite per email.

Thanks, Darren!

I'm reluctant to revive this thread, but since I had promised to post any reply, here goes.

I got a very nice letter this weekend signed by Bruce Chemel. I'm too lazy to type the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

"Thanks for giving me the opportunity to address your concerns...

A _small_ group of individuals was contacted as part of a marketing test... Unfortunately, the publicity swirling around this very limited offer via the FlyerTalk web site makes it appear that the audience is huge, when it's quite the opposite... Your fears about your local market being flooded with AAdvantage Gold members are unjustified...

We agree that AAdvantage elite memberships should be earned - not given away - and exceptions are infrequent...

We are conducting the ... test to gauge customer reaction and behavior. You may be sure that we are taking into account your comments and those of our other members... Thanks for your feedback. "

Slightly OT, but: Swag, how did you manage that?

I worte a letter to him, addressed to him, etc. (not about this promotion, but about EXP qualification), and got a form letter-ish reply from a minion in AA CS which reflected a complete mis-interpretation of my original letter.

Not that I expected anything better (and would've been most pleasantly surprised if I'd gotten it), but is there some sort of secret-squirrel password I need to use to make sure he sees correspondence intended for him in the future? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

To put things in perspective: I just received a "trial" silver elite in Continental - I just have to fly 2 roundtrips to keep it. I have never flown Continental.

> Slightly OT, but: Swag, how did you manage that?

Simple enough. I wrote a letter addressed to him. I snail-mailed it to an address (on Amon Carter Blvd) I found by doing a web search on his name.

I don't know that it wasn't a form leter, but the content seemed pretty specific to my complaint. And I don't know that an assistant didn't sign his name, but do you ever? Perhaps due to the flyertalk references in my letter, he figured the response would be posted and so he took the time to do it right. Who knows...