J S

First of all, Airpass rates are negotiable depending on the size of the business. Sometimes it is cheaper to use Airpass and sometimes we buy tickets.

The real savings come for business and first class tickets. Business class is priced at 1.25 airpass miles per mile flown and first class at 1.5 miles. At these rates, it is always cheaper to use airpass.
-JS

chet

What is the deal with aairpass?

I went to the website today, and noticed that they increased prices since I joined. The 2 year price is presently $25,500 vs. $23,000 when I signed up in 10/2000. Do they continually increase prices like this? At this price, is it even worth it?

Prior to 10/2000, I worked for a company that had thousands of aairpass holders and the per mile rate was much lower (for obvious reasons). Is there any way we can work together to negotiate a lower price?

On the website (www.aairpass.com),one of the benefits they mention is "Priority waitlist for upgrades and space clearance on fully-booked aircraft. " Is that the same as the EXP guaranteed seat benefit? If so, when did this benefit commence?

martin33

NO. you're not guaranteed a seat, as an EXP would be. you get priority over non-elites on the waitlist. whooppeee.

FullFare

I'm a Lifetime AAirpass member and, obviously enjoy it very much for the good value that it has been. Have bought numerous 2 and 5 yr plans for spouse and children. However, I must say that I will never buy any more again. They have raised the prices beyond what you can get for a full fare walkup. That includes the value of the AC membership, which you get with AAirpass.

Don't know why they have raised the price outa sight, when I believe they would sell more of these if they went back to the 40 cents per mile price range. They must think the public is certifiably stupid enough to pay 57 cents/mile (it isn't). By their accounting, a full F ticket from HNL to ORD, round trip, would be $7100, although RT from LGA to ORD would be $1219 in F, possibly less than the going F rate.

I used to think that maybe they wanted to end the program, but there must be a lot of takers (suckers?) out there who pay it. And yes, you don't get any status for being AAirpass in and of itself (you get a quasi-"gold" status for sticker situations, as long as you are using AAirpass).

And, oh yeah, if you call the AAirpass res number, you get shunted to the gold desk. Nothing special about that, IMO. Thus, you always call your own elite category desk, AAirpass or no. I think they've messed up a good thing, regardless of their intentions.

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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus

Mikey

Lifetime AAirpass?

I cannot find any info on that. I'm not going to buy - I am just curious. Oh well.

PaulSEA1

Does lifetime Airpass mean that you've prepaid unlimited travel on AA for life? Or do you have a certain number of miles per year only?

It must be hard as a lifetime Airpass to see AA cut its routes.

FullFare

Update: They quit selling the Lifetime AAirpass in 1995/96. There were different versions. You could get a Lifetime Unlimited with companion for about a million bucks(I almost did it) or--buy chunks of miles per year (I bought 60,000/yr) which would pile up and roll over if you didn't use all of them per year. Since I was 44 at the time, I didn't think I could literally get the time off to justify a million bucks.

So, I put out about 150,000 for the whole thing and have been quite happy with the budgeting of the bucks for the miles I projected I would get to use before I was likely to kick off. I thank the airline for having me contemplate my mortality.

All that aside, the deal was great when I did it and continues to be. Doubt they will market Lifetime AAirpasses again. The only other guy I know near me who has one is Willie Mays, although others on the board may chime in, if desired.

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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus

martin33

Indeed!! The walkup fare in F is currently $2189.50 roundtrip for ORD-LGA.

So I guess we know for whom current AAirpass prices are a good enough deal.

Eli Gorin

I notice you are EXP... how does this work? How do you earn the mileage on AAirpass tickets? Is it also based on your class of service?
Just curious.

-Eli

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Washington,DC/Miami
AAdvantage Platinum

FullFare

Eli: AAirpass usage piles up AAdvantage miles like anything else. One of the best uses for AAirpass is when they ask you to do a bunch of segments in a brief time going full Y, C, or F to fulfill a promo requirement. If you use your AAirpass, that's easy to do. Izap those promos all the time. Probably the neatest gimmick, by far, is using your companion's miles (q miles) with the AAirpass to qualify for, say, EXP. I flew, one year, about 35,000 miles with my wife, all in F. I got double that because of my wife's part, and 50% added for Q points--and scored over 100,000 Q points--making EXP around April. Three trips to Europe from the West Coast did it--all in Flagship service.

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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus

Eli Gorin

Here is an interesting point that I found on the AAirpass website:

Payment must be made via check or wire transfer (no credit cards).

This can be found under the pricing page. Also, after doing the calculation, the price comes out to $0.51 a mile, not $0.57.

So i guess this means you cant buy a two year membership to AAirpass AND get the extra 25K miles to get a free domestic flight. Now that would be a nice perk to add.

-Eli


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Washington,DC/Miami
AAdvantage Platinum

FullFare

Eli: You're right on the 51 cents per mile figure. My 57 cents per mile is wrong. Still way to high for many routes, IMO (typically the longer ones in the US--although there are discount multipliers for European and South American routes). And yes, for that amount of coin, 25K (dollars) translates to a 25K award. Agree that I wish they'd allow a credit card for it--for the miles.

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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus

Y2k

I would like to know is it really worth the money to actually buy it?

FullFare

At current pricing, IMO, it is not worth purchasing at this time. You can usually buy full walk-up fares for cheaper than the AAirpass price paid in cent/mile.

If you had been in on the ground floor in purchasing AAirpass (the liftime one) some 8+ years ago, --well, that's a different story.

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AAExecPlat; Lifetime AAirpass; 3MillMiles; UApremier-PassPlus

jsmeeker

well, the AAirpass I have (company supplied) always gives a lover AAirpass price for last minute tickets. Of course, I am only pricing domestic stuff out out DFW.

I really don't understand the details, but I was under the impression that the per mile rate could be negotiated.