pauleeepaul

Alas, temper the expectation. It has proved beneficial during bad weather and helped with a couple of upgrades, but not much more. The meet and greet is <20% IME, not that it really matters or helps that much, and I have never had a motorized cart when one would have been useful.

The inconsistency in terms of what to expect is IMO a weakness with the offering.

Of course, YMMV.

MikeBOS

You might consider VX + AA as an alternative to UA for BOS-SFO. Between the two and as an EXP on AA, you should be able to get an upgrade just about any time. VX's system is not status-based; costs $150-$250 and is first-come first-served starting 24 hours before flight, but my success rate is greater there than as EXP on AA. And the product is vastly superior to both AA and UA -- much better seat (like the old AA international J seats), internet access, power, great entertainment system, much better service. AA's food/wine is probably better than VX, but aside from that VX beats both AA and UA on just about everything else. (I am comparing F products on all, in case that is not clear.)

BobbySteel

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.344 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/120)

Fair enough. My main interest is for international flights. When an AA flight is cancelled ex-LHR or ex-CDG it should come in handy to rebook me more easily than fighting with the local staff.

stiphy

Only time I've had a meet and greet was when I was flying T/A...and when arriving at LHR to connect to BA I was met and provided with a car to drive me from T3 to T5 which was excellent!

One thing that they could fix is that the 800 number only works from inside the US. I learned this in SXM when my flight cancelled. My cell doesn't work at SXM and when using the payphone they wanted $30 for 3 minutes! Fortunately a fellow pax lent me her phone so I could find out what was going on from CK and relay it to everyone else.

Sean

fixedwingflyer

Agreed! The program is a work in progress.

As for another poster's comment on the impossibility of calling CK while abroad, there's another number below the 1-888 number on the back of you CK card. It's a 1-919 number.

dmeals

I recently flew ORD - PVG and on that trip obtained PLT status. I knew that my PLT status allowed me into the OneWorld lounges, but because the first leg put me over the PLT status it hadn't registered in their system, yet. Anyway, I asked the lady at check in whether or not I had access to the lounge and she said no. I proceeded to the lounge and was told I needed to call AA to verify my status. I spoke to a lady who said she would call back within 10 minutes with more information. She called back within 5 and let me into the lounge. Not 45 minutes later, she personally came to the lounge, found me and apologized for the inconvenience that it had caused. She also gave me a bottle of very nice Chinese wine. She came back 20 minutes later to get me for my flight and proceeded to escort me to my gate.

However, after I boarded my Biz Class seat I realized I had left my jacket in the Dragon Air lounge and the FAs wouldn't let me off the plane to get it. I called the Dragon Air lounge as soon as I landed and they still had my jacket. I was then contacted the very next morning by the same lady from AA who let me into the lounge and escorted me to the gate. She said she would UPS the coat to me Next Day Air.

I didn't realize until I read this forum that her email signature was as follows:

***** | Premium Services | ConciergeKey

Terminal 2, PuDong Int'l Airport
Shanghai 201207, China
TEL:
FAX:
email:

I obviously am not highly profiled within AA as I am only 21 years old and a newbie from growing up with status on UA; however, I did obtain EXP this year (thanks to Double Elite Miles). Against what people are saying on this forum, it would be extremely comforting to know you will be treated this well by AA all the time..

dstan

Welcome to FlyerTalk, dmeals, and thanks for sharing a great story! (You'll often see Premium Services / CK reps at AA Admirals Clubs, and I suspect that this was something similar at the PVG CX lounge.)

flipside

Here's a little something I found interesting..

I was hovering at the JFK AC desk with an agent and we were calculating the odds of my JFK-GRU upgrade clearing. The lady sitting next to the agent that was helping me had a name tag with her name and "Concierge Key" under it.

We were going over all the possibilites for my upgrade to clear (x people need to not show up, my position on the list etc) when I said "Ok, so how many people in biz are trying to upgrade to first? That should open up a couple of seats."

This is where the concierge key lady chimed in "You can't upgrade from business to first, its impossible." To which I replied "huh?" Perhaps thinking she didn't hear correctly, I said "Oh I know you can't upgrade from economy to first, but I'm talking about the people in paid business trying to upgrade to first" And yet again she said, "it can't be done". I replied saying that I've done it plenty of times using my eVIP's and the agent I was working with shot me a look like "let it be" and we just changed the subject.

It was kind of obvious the concierge key person was this agents superior and didn't want to cause any friction with her. I didn't want to push it either, who knows if this lady has the power to "accidentally" remove me from the upgrade list. I came back about 20 minutes later and the AC agent apologized for the concierge key lady not knowing what she was talking about.

Anyway, long story short, there was a couple ahead of me on the list and 1 seat left in J. I was the only person left waiting to board and the gate agent said if the couple doesn't split the seat is mine. She called down to the plane to have someone ask the couple if they wanted to split up and if so to move to 9A. 2 minutes later the confirmation came back that they split and the gate agents mouth dropped open. The guy left his wife in coach.

I was the last person to board and took my seat in 31J. My second JFK-GRU flight in a row where the upgrade didn't clear. I was at 100% until these last 2. Oh well.

fixedwingflyer

Sounds right to me. It bothers me a great deal that these so called "premium service" and CK employees don't know the rules on basics as well as I do. I've been told that these employees have been handpicked by the boys upstairs. So it begs the question: what are the boys uptairs thinking?

AA really ought to send their premium and CK staff to train with a top five star hotel (e.g. Ritz-Carlton) for a few weeks so they can understand what top service is all about. CK staff should know ALL, and should be able to do ANYTHING a passanger needs. CK is, in theory, the face of AA for someone who flies 200,000 EQMs a year in paid F. Is this type of person really the face they want those pax to see (and hear about)?

NYBanker

For pax with 200k EQM in paid F, upgrades is the one area that they don't need assistance with.

That said, the experience with inexperienced AC reps is not unique.

I've had a number of debates re J to F upgrades at the JFK ACs, where in each case the AC staff were incorrect.

When I had a BA gold (OW E) card, JFK lounge personnel used to give me a bit of a hard time with Flagship Lounge access too. One AC rep went so far as to say 'because I was an American,' she wasn't sure I could enter (I was traveling on an all-US itinerary). Indeed, any BA Gold card holder can use any OW F lounge, as long as they are traveling on an OW itin - which they ultimately agreed.

vasantn

Welcome to the dAArk side, NYBanker!

zander003

Yes, I wrote to AA about their new VIP service, both my wife and I are ex-plats. Basically told I was not good enough for the service. That they only provide it to there frequent business class ticket customers who actually buy business class tickets rather then economy who upgrade. We spend about 50,000 a year on tickets so the VIP must be somebody. We a thinkin g of a switch.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Ok I will take the bait. If this is an unpublished, invitation only service, it would go without saying that only those flyers spending major $$ (typically lots of paid premium flights) would be provided the service. $50,000 a year while far from a Kettle is not a huge sum (when you consider one long haul flight in paid F could run easily $20,000).

Sure, being escorted through the airport would be nice, but I think AA does a very good job with its EXPs (free domestic upgrades, SWUs, special customer service line, certain fees waived, discount on AC membership).

videomaker

When you find an airline with better FF benefits at the EXP level, let us all know.

It depends on your travel patterns and what you're looking for, of course. But IMO, AA's EXP program is very hard to beat.

intltraveller

My dad was offered the Concierge Key recently (about 4 months ago) but only until May. At that point, he only was Gold but had just moved into a new job with a lot of international travel across the world. His predecessor had made a point of always traveling w/AA so he was probably flagged by the corporate Amex travel desk.

However a few interesting points to highlight:
- He has zero say over his company's travel budget
- Firm's policy is to go for cheapest ticket no matter what
- Firm does not authorize any premium travel - economy regardless of length and even for executives
- CK is set to expire in May - is that unusual for it to end after less than a year?
- contrary to suggestions by earlier posts, he is not a 'VIP', movie star or anything of the sort

Also, as for the actual service, he found it rather uninteresting - main thing he was offered was to be escorted to the plane.

Just thought I'd share an example of someone who was offered the service.