Choice Essential and Choice Plus fares -- Benefit Changes [Feb 2014]
Feb 25, 2014, 2:20 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: AA ExPlt, UA Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 356
Choice Essential and Choice Plus fares -- Benefit Changes [Feb 2014]
The Choice Essential fare level no longer waives the applicable change fee. It now includes just 2 options: A Free Checked Bag and Group 1 Boarding.
Choice Plus comes with those two features, plus 50% mileage bonus, free change fee, SDFC, same-day standby, and an adult beverage.
I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but the descriptions on AA.com now reflect the revamped offerings.
Choice Plus comes with those two features, plus 50% mileage bonus, free change fee, SDFC, same-day standby, and an adult beverage.
I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but the descriptions on AA.com now reflect the revamped offerings.
Feb 25, 2014, 2:30 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Dallas
Programs: AAdvantage EXP, IHG Spire, Marriott Gold, HHonors Gold, National Executive Elite
Posts: 1,523
Wow, so why in god's green earth would an elite ever buy that? I hope they reduce the pricing for Essential and Plus to more normal levels then.
Feb 25, 2014, 3:10 pm
#3
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Exploralist, Marriot Silver
Posts: 2,065
Thanks for pointing this out! Considering that the recent price changes were never announced, I doubt there will be anything official announcing the benefits chances.
Feb 25, 2014, 5:00 pm
#4
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 700
This doesn't apply to Choice Essential fares already purchased, does it?
Feb 25, 2014, 6:12 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: AA ExPlt, UA Gold, HH Diamond
Posts: 356
It would only apply to tickets purchased after the rule change. However, if you do change a Choice Essential ticket that has the waived change fee the rules of the new fare would apply to changes made to the new ticket. Thus, a second change would result in the change fee being applied.
Feb 25, 2014, 6:16 pm
#6
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: NYC, SLC, LAX
Programs: AA EXP, UA Plat
Posts: 3,952
I was just going to book a ticket now with choice essential and was furious. They dropped the price on Essential to $29 ew but the non change fee Choice Plus is now $80 ew...I'll no longer be buying, thanks.
Feb 25, 2014, 7:17 pm
#7
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: JFK > LGA >> EWR
Programs: AA EXP 1.2mm, Kimpton IC, Starwood Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,180
Feb 25, 2014, 9:13 pm
#8
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: FIND ME ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST
Posts: 27,730
Good catch. From the Q&A on it...
EDIT, see full section from AAgency below, thanks for the correction
EDIT, see full section from AAgency below, thanks for the correction
Last edited by JonNYC; Feb 25, 2014 at 9:39 pm
Feb 25, 2014, 9:31 pm
#9
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: JFK > LGA >> EWR
Programs: AA EXP 1.2mm, Kimpton IC, Starwood Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,180
Feb 25, 2014, 9:37 pm
#10
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: FIND ME ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST
Posts: 27,730
) is from, here's the rest, dated Feb25, FWIW:http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Genera...fares_faqs.jsp
Feb 26, 2014, 6:06 am
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 1999
Posts: 12,097
The only way to eliminate change fees on a roundtrip is to pay 80% of it upfront.
Feb 26, 2014, 7:59 am
#12
Join Date: Mar 2008
Programs: AA EXP 2.5MM National EE
Posts: 298
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/33.0.1750.14 Mobile/11B554a Safari/9537.53)
It's still a good deal if you billing your expenses for a non elite traveler.
I'm buying a ticket now for non elite who will check a bag but I'm not able to present two receipts...
This way I roll it into the price of the ticket and AA them forces me to spend $4 extra for "group 1" boarding. Win. Win.
It's still a good deal if you billing your expenses for a non elite traveler.
I'm buying a ticket now for non elite who will check a bag but I'm not able to present two receipts...
This way I roll it into the price of the ticket and AA them forces me to spend $4 extra for "group 1" boarding. Win. Win.
Last edited by hotdogs; Feb 26, 2014 at 8:01 am
Feb 26, 2014, 8:10 am
#13
Join Date: Apr 2000
Posts: 2,663
The real benefit of choice plus is same day flight change w/o paying the $75. That may be all that one needs to decide if you want to buy up...
Feb 26, 2014, 8:21 am
#14
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 4
AA Choice-Choice Essentials-Choice Plus CHANGES
Choice Essential no longer waives the $200 change fee as of Feb 25. The only benefit for Choice Essentials is extra bag. I understand there are going to be changes but wheres the email, notice, something telling us of these changes. What the purpose of Choice Essentials. Fourth Bag yeah. lol 
Feb 26, 2014, 8:27 am
#15
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: High Point, NC
Programs: None
Posts: 9,171
Choice Essential no longer waives the $200 change fee as of Feb 25. The only benefit for Choice Essentials is extra bag. I understand there are going to be changes but wheres the email, notice, something telling us of these changes. What the purpose of Choice Essentials. Fourth Bag yeah. lol
Jim
Last edited by Microwave; Feb 26, 2014 at 8:33 am Reason: Added quote for continuity post merge