JDiver

Thanks for sharing, and welcome to FlyerTalk, bdmarc!

I think the lack of consistency is a bad thing - the day you really need it because of misconnects, delays, etc. and they are not there, it leaves you feeling like the dropped the ball and CK is not such a wonderful thing. I hope AA get their act together for their best customers.

elitetraveler

I was part of the program pre - CK and it was inconsistent then, particularly for domestic hub connections. ORD was almost always a meet and greet, DFW virtually never. LHR if I had a relatively tight connection I would get the tarmac transfer, or at least the meet and cart. At my home airport JFK I was rarely met but sometimes I was. The issue at that time was lack of staffing to meet and greet consistently, but the reason it worked was I was told they worked the daily list of VIP departures and arrivals to identify pax who they thought would need help - connection, not sure what else? Often you would get a card from the person who did the greeting w an invite to call in the future if you wanted help. I would assume with CK you can request a meet and greet.

DCAstudent

[QUOTE=bdmarc;11639795]I've been a CK member for the last 3 years. [QUOTE]

Isn't CK a 2007 innovation?

elitetraveler

[QUOTE=DCAstudent;11640451][QUOTE=bdmarc;11639795]I've been a CK member for the last 3 years. Perhaps he means 2007, 2008, 2009

anabolism

Just an aside, but when I entered the SAN AC yesterday, the desk agent was on the phone but checked me in and said "I'm on the phone with Concierge Key." A few minutes later she approached someone in the club and said "Mr. xxx, Concierge Key said they'd look into [didn't catch]. I'll give them all your information. You can have your OneWorld back, I've faxed it to them, and they'll look at it and should contact you in a few days."

magellan01

While long time EXP, and AC Card Member, my company negiated some number of deals for execs to get all 3 (EXP, AC Card and Concierge Key). EXP is a wash for me, already have it. AC was nice, as I didn't have to pay for the year. But Concierge Key can be amazing!

On a connecting flight from AA to BA in LHR, they met me at the plane and drove me over to T5. Cool. The rest was on my own, they did not have me cut any lines.

Most recent, flying through SJU with family and lots of dive bags. She meets me off the plane, escorts me to "crew" lines for Immigration, helps me get my checked bags, gets me through "Crew" line for customs and takes us to the head of security line for reentering the aiport. She escorts us to the AC, and tells she will come get us when ready. She walks us over, boards us first, says have a nice day. Wow. My son was blown away.

OTOH - went through Dallas a couple of weeks ago, nothing special there. I think it is done on an "as can" basis.

When it works - it is terrific.

hal8b

Is there a higher status than this? I have heard there is a level that is within being EXP that is higher than a regular EXP? Is this true?

Non-NonRev

Welcome to FlyerTalk, hal8b.

EXP is currently the highest status level in the AAdvantage program.

Outside of AAdvantage, there is a service program known as ConciergeKey. The purpose of this program is to provide personalized services to those who are responsible for directing high volumes of revenue to AA. The goal of the program is to ease these peoples' day-of-travel experiences, including such things as gate-to-gate transport, and (especially important) proactive handling of issues caused by IRROPS.

The ConciergeKey program is offered only by invitation - one cannot "earn" access to these services.

brp

Also note that ConciergeKey (CK) is not "above" EXP. One can be PLT, for example, and CK. Their upgrade priority would be behind EXP in this case. Same would, technically, be true in IRROPS cases, but this can be overridden.

Cheers.

JPL9869

Air Pass has a few benefits that EXP doesn't have... But I guess I wouldn't classify it at a status...

jpzeller

Are we sure this is true? Doesn't CK status more or less override everything else?

brp

I would have thought so as well, but I have read reports here of people who are CK being lower on upgrade lists than EXP. I would imagine that most people with enough credentials to be CK are also EXP, but some are not...and they seem to get PLT priority. It seems that CK,in and of itself, doesn't bump some things.

Cheers.

FLLUAFlyer

From what I have seen, the CK staff seems to be based largley out of the Admiral's Clubs (or Flagship if one exists). Having spend a good part of my life in the LGA club (and personally knowing the CK rep), it appears that most CK transactions are handled by the club staff or the CK rep themselves. It also appears that they can at times (IRROPS) override just about everything (i.e. Book the CKs directly onto a "sold-out" flight, jump the upgrade list, etc.

Efrem

As I understand it, EXP is the top of the heap in the computer, but CK trumps it with live people - who can often override the computer if they want to. That's consistent with all the bits and pieces of the picture posted above.

dstan

Welcome to FT, hal8b!

You may want to check out our wiki, which includes information about Elite Status Levels and related topics, like ConciergeKey.


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As most of the posts in hal8b's thread focus on CK, it has now been merged into the consolidated thread on this topic.

/Moderator