MikeTucson

What can will happen when I hit 3 million miles with AA this month?

JDiver

You will receive two new luggage tags and a new current status card with the 3 million logo, and have four eVIPs posted to your account (valid through Feb 28, 2007.) And our congratulations, of course!

JGR01

And of course at 2MM you were made lifetime PLT ..

There is nothing above that! There aint no lifetime EXP!

I'm 25,000 away from 4MM which will also be within days of my EXP requalification ... sure nice to put those new eVIPs into my empty account! Oh .. every million miles you cross is 4 one way eVIPs from here to infinity ....

BTW . did 2-3MM go faster then 1-2MM???

cme2c

You're going to hit 3 million miles this month?? Boy that is a lot of flying in 5 days. I didn't know planes could fly that fast.

JDiver

Now, he's a double lifetime Platinum! I wonder if we serve those concurrently or consecutively?

JGR01, good question. I'm 300k short of 3M, and it is perceptually slower than 1 - 2M; I crossed the 2M threshhold April 17, 2004, and it took at least 2 - 3 years? so obviously it is not. I wonder if anyone has diagnosed "VIP anxiety"?

(I must be getting to be a FTer - I can name the date I crossed 2M? )

DutchMember

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe I read on this forum before that AAdvantage members based in the US received 8 x 500-mile upgrade certificates when crossing a million mile 'milestone', and only non-US based AAdvantage members would get the 4 eVIPs ?

tfjim

Congrats on the 3M

For those that follow this issue (what one gets at thresholds) I have a question: I just passed 1M last month (June really), currently a platinum member residing in Germany. I have been checking my AA account online but have yet to see anything interesting there. How long do I wait before I might see anything of substance in my account? And since I'm plat, not entirely familiar with explat and eVIPs, where do those show up in one's account???

JDiver

DutchMember, US members receive 8 500-mile "stickers" the first 1M threshhold, then 4 eVIPs every subsequent 1M crossing; members residing aborad receive 4 eVIPs the first million as well, in lieu of the "stickers".

tfjim, AA promised us eons ago we would be able to see our eVIPs reflected in our on-line account, took months trying to make it happen, and finally admitted it would never happen. They now send out a quarterly report* telling us how many eVIPs we have and their expiry. You should have 4 eVIPs with expiration date of February 28 2007; the only way you will be able to verify this before the next quarterly report is to call AAdvantage.

*The e-mail title is "Important AAdvantage Elite Upgrade Information" and the last one I received was July 21 - so the next one would be quite a while from now.

DutchMember

Thanks, now it's clear. If I would prefer to receive 4 eVIPs, could I change my address temporarily to one abroad, and change it back right after? It seems like the value of 4 eVIPs is much bigger than 8 500-mile stickers... Or would it be risky to change the address temporarily to cash those eVIPs, can AA take away your miles or not award anything perhaps ?

JDiver

Some FTers have spoken of doing this precisely because of the desirability of the VIPs, though I imagine the least risk would be from those who truly have multinational addresses. It has been a while, perhaps last year, so a Search might be best, using word combinations like VIP million address might do.

JGR01

And as a bit of triva for 2MMers (or non-US residents crossing 1MM) who are not familiar with eVIP's... look at the EXP Benefits manual online for details.

eVIP's are capacity controlled confirmable upgrade to next class of service. They are not valid on specific fares on some routing (transpac Q fares for example are not valid).

The way I normally use my eVIP is to HOLD a trip that I want (after looking at ExpertFlyer.com to see the fare class AND the availability of upgrades by specific fare being available) .. then I call AA and ask 'can I VIP this flight I have on hold?'. If they say YES, I will purchase it online while still talking to them .. then they take over and complete the upgrade.

NOTE that eVIP's nowdays are capacity controlled... so they are not always available. Look at ExpertFlyer for these 'hidden' fares to see availability. The farther out you book/request the more likely they immediately clear. If nothing available, you can be wait-listed for the upgrade and can clear months, weeks, days, hours or at the gate. Hard to predict.. each routing has its own Yield Management 'scheme' of initial seats and what releases when..

A AA First - upgrade using Miles/VIP or restricted purchase of First
C AA Business - Upgrade from Coach using Miles/eVIP on all 3-class and Int'l 2-class flights

Onwards to more millions!!

PresRDC

You have to pay the PresRDC 3 MM tax, whereby you give 1 MM to me.

It's buried somewhere in the terms & conditions of the AAdvantage program.



Seriously, congrats! ^

JDiver

JGR01, you gotta love those eVIPs! ^

PresRDC, good try there!

Upgrade up to three segments in one direction, including flights such as ORD-DEL from almost any fare class to next class of service (I did exactly what JGR01 recommends - searched for C on ExpertFlyer, held an itinerary, called and had eVIPs applied (and bought it in M class.)

No, you can't buy an I class discount Biz fare and upgrade to A / First. 'cause I just knew you were gonna ask...

Cost to upgrade AA's soon-to-be longest flight - 1 eVIP per person each way SFO-ORD-DEL and return. Our considerably increased comfort on that flight - priceless!

Moomba

How do you people do it? I am in awe at the prospect of a 4MM being out there in FT land.
I have a lowly 636718 miles and have been flying on biz and personally for 3 years. All my points are bum in seat and bonus flight miles.
I have been flying back and forth across the pond in discount Y (thanks to my oh so generous company) which doesn't help.
Are a substantial amount of your points earned by some other means? Credit Cards etc. Or are you all the lucky dudes who get paid J & F flights?

onedog

For someone who has only been flying for the past 3 years, having >600k miles in your FF account ain't too shabby (averaging about >200k miles yr). Pay a lot of attention to FT and keep on flying like you are, and 3 MM is just around the corner. Oh yeah, and do like what a lot of us here do. After you get tired of working for the man, strike out on your own so that you can rack up 100's of 1,000's of miles on credit cards. Lots of risk, but the rewards are worth it.