BlooJoo

PassPlus Secure is it. Just an alternative future option. I looked at it before I bought Airpass. Wasn’t as good IIRC, but some pay want to look again.

metallo

Ha, I was actually waiting for you to chime in on this

I’m stopping any cash flow to AA until I figure out what’s going on — for instance, are they actually attempting to eliminate/alienate a certain sort of traveler, or are they seriously ditching Airpass due to difficulties booking on partner airlines? I never booked partners with my Airpass, but one report is suggesting that Alison Taylor mentioned that. The timing and nature of the announcement don’t seem to have been well received by the Airpass holders who have posted here so far, and I must wholeheartedly agree.

I just dropped 28.5k miles for my flight from Hawaii back to the mainland soon — upgrades cleared already.
Flew here in UA paid J yesterday. Normally, I’d book it in J on my Airpass.

Not spending another cent on AA until I figure out what’s really happening here.

BlooJoo

Partner booking with Airpass is an utter mess. There are all sorts of rules and limitations. What they don’t tell you is that you can only book if there’s an AA code! So I can’t use my Airpass on MEXMAD on IB nor MEXLHR on BA. Full fare Airpass J will only book into D on BA, and you cannot buy First! Just some crazy examples of how they limited it.

scott56

I understand there was issues. Personally I was always domestic with it. When it came to international I would stick with aa if I really wanted to use it. Otherwise I choose which airline I wanted. International is more a vacation then work for me. Some were work. Domestic was all work

tismfu

I also see that JSX bookings earn 5x points when booked via Amex. The loss of Airpass means I am likely going to move spend away from AA-branded cards. No loss to AA, but I suppose this is a win for me.

FullFare

The Airpass I bought was a limited lifetime product, back in 1994, paying $200K for a plan that furnished 60,000 Airipass miles, year, which rolled over annually. Right now, I'm sitting on 700,000 actual Aairpass miles.
We would up not using all of the 60K yearly allotment, mainly due to AA reducing service in our home town (they had lured me buy building a hub at SJC). It hurt badly when they stopped my favorite route, SJC-HNL. After 9/11, they decided to de-hub SJC and threw their lot in with LAX as their West Coast hub. Things have condensed such that we typically have 2 flights/day SFO-ORD, with one of them a red-eye. The SFO-JFK route is frequently way down, and was full of code shares with Jet Blue, which they didn't allow my Aairpass to use. After the merger, they directed a lot of flow through CLT, PHL, and PHX. Painfully, from the SF Bay Area, a lot of flow had to go through LAX, with their deplorable transfer hub from the regional terminal to main LAX gates. A half hour waste with every connection.

I easily flew $200k in airline spend (not including AAirpass flights) per year, consistently. Along the way, I suggested they make me CK, telling them I would put it to use and even make undesirable connections through the likes of DFW and LAX. They told me to pound sand. I have the letter, which I was going to frame or laminate. So, I made top tier with UA, DL, and even AS, always buying J tickets. All my travel is on my own dime---not corporate.

So I don't know what to say about AAirpass. I have been with them nearly several decades and have used it as best I could, but they didn't (and still don't) make it easy. Along the way, I even bought Pass Plus for my wife and myself, although I admit it wasn't as easy to use as AAirpass was from my computer. I went to do an AAirpass change today and the reservationist insisted that the miles go to my wife's Advantage account. I encouraged her to check with someone else, and she did, and fixed it.

If CK had been "for sale" for a price of reasonable value, I would have paid for it. But, after having been dissed, I spent my dollars elsewhere, and for better service. I will never understand the formula, or caprice, with which they decided to invite flyers, but they pissed me off irreversible by it. Best revenge is generally living well---elsewhere. I still always grin when I watch CK customers called to board first, while I'm in the EXP line.

TravelerMSY

Has American ever offered to buy you out? Or do they have a voodoo doll of you on the wall of the sales office, hoping you meet an untimely demise, lol? Any suspicious staff members at the field trying to bust you selling benefits to companions?

BlooJoo

Wow what a story!

JustAnotherFFlyer

Hi there, Been a reader (lurker?) here a LONG LONG time. First post ever. Actually, I too am a AA Lifetime AAirpass (original spelling) member. And, like "FullFare", I am a "limited lifetime member" (X miles per year for life). And, funny thing is that just like FullFare, I have used lots real $s to fly other carriers - sad to say, but true! In my case, a big part of the reason for the spend elsewhere is corporate flying - F, J, or charter. So I am in no position to complain. That said, AA really has messed up the Airpass program. In my opinion, it would work well if they just stuck to the basics - mainline AA and AA's regional carriers only. No partner booking. Offer Airpass miles at a reasonable discount, and maybe even raise the entry point a bit. Keep it simple. Instead, they have, in my opinion just made a mess. Years ago they converted the miles to $s, and then had to keep track of the everyones cost per mile number from their contracts. That finally settled down, and then they made a god awful switch a number of months back to a new booking platform and reporting platform. TERRIBLE! Honestly, a high school coder could have written a better looking system. Statements went from legible to a complete joke. Maybe they will bring Airpass back, after 2024 when they clear out the existing "new generation Airpass contracts" in some form that resembles something workable. And, like FullFare, I thought that it was an absolute slap in the face that lifetime Airpass holders were not given CK status. After all many of us purchased the AAirpass when AA was in deep financial trouble. It would have cost AA nothing to offer up some CKs, and they would have earned a lot of goodwill in return. Very short sighted move. I do give them some credit for saying that they will honor lifetime Airpass contracts - too many high profile lifetime Airpass customers to anything otherwise, I suppose. It will be interesting to see how they handle lifetimers and their bookings in the future. I remember the days when you reached into your bag, whipped out the four part paper ticket, and wrote your ticket out yourself! And, then the GA or FA said, "Mr. Jones, it is a pleasure to have you with us today, and we appreciate that you are an AAirpass member". Oh well.

wutlol

Fun while it lasted. Not sure how AA expects users like myself to to end up spending anything comparable without the Airpass. As an ex-EU flyer I paid well more than buying even fully flex business would have cost me when I used my pass. I guess I should be thanking them for pushing me to finally be fiscally prudent but I valued being ensured CK status, amongst other benefits.

GoBirds

The most surprising thing for me is AA ending the program while not even hinting at replacing it with anything similar.

Members like myself, who gave AA 95% of my significant airline spend because of Airpass, are going to be forced to look at alternatives, which I haven’t done for many years.

scubadu

You might actually find that is a good thing...

Regards

scott56

I wish Delta had a program like Airpass. Would be nice to have a program similar to get 360. United does, they just don’t fly to enough areas I go to. I may still go with them tho.

wutlol

I got a call from AA asking me what they could do to keep my corporate booking business in light of the airpass cancellation.

I told them honestly that I think I’ll just let anyone book the flight of their choice with the carrier of their choice and simply use corporate virtual cards to track receipts. No more corporate accounts with specific airlines.

They seemed shocked but I told them that they took away the one unique feature that AA offered me and that as an ex-EU flyer it was already a tough decision (and ultimately an emotional rather than economic one) for me to justify prioritizing AA and buying Airpass miles each year.

Sadly the lovely employee on the other line seemed to be flummoxed by my reply so I’m not sure I did anything positive for those of us already missing the programme or whom would like to see aspects of it returned in a new venture.

BlooJoo

I’m surprised they were surprised! I guess they would offer you a corporate discount?