captaink

YMMV- It's all about when and where you fly. I've had good luck as a GLD on my trips around the holidays, and even on some routes Thursday/Sunday. The stickers help relative to UA/DL as not every PLT is listing for an upgrade, and I've yet to miss a <500 comp upgrade since they've introduced them.

bse118

I think if someone is so clueless about their FF status so as to not know if they are going to requalify, they probably aren't likely to drop $1200 to pay for keeping it.

avhokie

As a less frequent flier of American (though that's probably going to change) I got this email and my first thought was "oh, they call their 50k or 75k tier Gold?". Then I saw that this is the 25k tier. For $500. I almost fell out of my chair.

Lakeviewsteve

I received an offer to keep my platinum status thru Feb 2017 for $1,199. I'm only 10,000 from qualifying for platinum and already have reservations booked for more than 10,000 EQP's. I don't think it is worth $1,200 anyway. Since they changed the year to January 31st under the new rules, I'm surprised the email said through February 2017.

ashill

Yeah. If you're going to spend ≈$500, the $450/year Citi Executive card might be worth more than Gold status. You get early boarding, priority check-in and security, 1 free checked bag, and 2 miles/dollar spent on American (the same bonus as Gold status gives once revenue-based earning kicks in, except it applies to the full purchase price including taxes; the counter argument is that another credit card, eg AmEx Gold, will give you a comparable or larger amount of arguably-more-valuable miles/points on the same spend) with either the credit card or status.

Status gives you wait list priority and a jump in the phone queue, which are occasionally useful in the event of IRROPS, as well as the occasional upgrade; the credit card does not give you these.

The credit card gives you lounge access, which status doesn't. And also a $100 Global Entry credit, which gets you precheck (far bigger deal than airline priority security), although that's only worth $20/yr, since Global Entry is good for five years.

For me, if I were going to spend ≈$500 to improve the experience on American despite not flying 25k miles on AA in a year, I think the credit card (lounge access) would win. In reality, I wouldn't spend $500, but the OP may well be in a different financial situation than I.

FWAAA

I'd pay $1,200 to extend EXP long before I'd pay $400 for Gold.

jsintexas

How many miles YTD are you short of GOLD?

It may be cheaper to find a flight for that number of miles and that will put you over the 25,000.

I got an Email today that for $1,199 I can retain my EXP status. I have another business trip that will put me over the 100,000 scheduled for the first week of December.

Back in September I calculated out my trips for the year and realized I would be about 4,500 miles short. So I found 2 trips for a total of $240 that ensured I would hit 100,000.

satman40

I am sure glad I am a Lifer...

Madison Guy

Did the offer say if it comes with the 8 SWU's?

metallo

Your offer was $1199 to keep EXP? That's strange -- mine was $1799. You sure you don't mean PLT?

In any case, I'm sitting at about 95k EQM at the moment, so certainly not worth it for me.

Superguy

I got that today as well. I was over 23k away from PLT.

Of course, I already bought a premium MR for a couple hundred more that would put me over for next year. That could have saved me a weekend, but I'd miss out on about 30k RDMs too.

WRCSolberg

Shoot, my offer was $650 to keep gold.

Yeah, no.

metallo

The email itself doesn't mention SWUs, but there is a link to a full list of benefits, where it states, "You’ll receive 8 systemwide upgrades when you qualify or re-qualify for Executive Platinum status. Upgrades are valid, when available, for one-way travel on any American marketed and operated flight (up to 3 segments) and you can give them to anyone, even if you're not traveling with them."

That statement borders on being deceptive, in my opinion, given the recent changes that were announced to qualifying for status in 2017.

Madison Guy

Well, we are still in the qualifying for the 2016 membership year, and that still does include the 8. But yes, a bummer...

MADPhil

I encountered a couple at LIH who were looking at their boarding passes and wondering what "Gold" and "Priority" meant. Another person in line explained that it was the lowest elite frequent flyer level and they admitted to having done a bit of flying this year. They are probably now looking in puzzlement at an email.