I heard from someone in exec from AA but again.... it is speculation. Nothing was definite. In the talking stages. That was about a year ago. Hopefully there will be some more CK events this year and see if there is any further info,

 

Data Point: HNL to DFW…inbound flight delayed due to bad DFW weather; pilot made up some time, and arrived around 7:32 AM (original arrival 7:00). Due to gate issues, parked into gate around 8:20am.

I emailed the CK desk around 8am to see if I can get some assistance due to the delay and knowing my next flight is expected to board soon (8:19am) and having to make the trek from D to A..

They emailed back promptly and mentioned someone is tracking my
flights. Golf cart or perhaps tarmac transfer? Nope.

No texts or phone calls from the assigned CK rep, no meet/greet, went from D to A gates via Skytrain, and when I arrived at the gate, the departure flight is delayed due to one missing FA.

CK rep shows up about 10 minutes after I arrived and just did the typical if I need any further assistance.

Won’t be sad if CK is not renewed, and rather have a consistent service via paid options like five star select and P/S.

 

DFW lost a lot of premium staff. I agree, I have not any assistance for quite a while there. It has been quite lean in other areas as well, although I got 2 calls about a delayed flight the other day thru PHL. I agree with looking into the other services.

 

I guess I might have lucked out because I actually had a pretty good experience last week at DFW when my flight was delayed due to plane maintenance. CK rep kept me posted and even carted me to the other terminal to make sure I made my flight.

 

paid services are great, but they are available at what, a dozen airports? and thats out of what, 350 or so?

 

But does AA even offer any CK services at small to medium sized airports outside of hubs? Most are contract workers anyways who are clueless about any loyalty program. They just want to get flights out on time.

AA has no CK services at PDX at all. HNL, my home airport lacks any true CK services, and even poorly ran HA one uped AA at HNL.

I believe at all AA international destinations, you can just purchase ala carte VIP services to expedite arrival anyway. And most smaller international airports have VIP services.

CK just need to be more consistent at its own product.

 

AA definitely does not have any CK service at my medium sized airport, I mean they don't even have a partner lounge in the airport. I will say the only thing that makes me want to wish to keep CK is IRROPs especially at the peak of summer travel when a majority of us still have to constantly travel for work.

 

Thats good to hear. I think we all get abit bummed hurt when we need the CK reps the most and they don’t pull through.

 

dedicated in person services? no. but who cares about that? when a flight is canceled and the line for reaccommodation is 150 deep and you get a txt saying you are rebooked already, or worst case you have to call in and wait on hold for 30 seconds, thats all I'm worried about. and correct me if I'm wrong but the third party paid services cant make any magic happen during irrops, can they?

 

Agreed. Five star does offer priority re accommodation as per the website, but as someone else said that’s only available at a small number of airports.

IRROPS assistance is the #1, #2, and #3 reason I care about CK status, and that’s available everywhere AA flies.

 

Double post for some reason

 

i didnt mean americans paid premium service. they accommodate at a status higher than CK even. I meant the third party premium services.

doesnt the forum have a filter that blocks double posting? I know i see it al lthe time...

 

In person service/tarmac transfer is nice if your connecting flight already started boarding when you arrive to the gate, especially at a spaced out airports like LHR/DFW. Doesn't happen often for myself, perhaps 1-2x per year, but for me personally, I think this is where I would like CK to pull through since they monitor the flights.

Third party services can't rebook you on IRROPS, but I don't rely on AA CK desk nor anyone else to rebook me anyways. The FTer in me already have researched AA/AS/DL/UA flights to get me back on time; since PDX/HNL has limited AA options.

Not sure about your experiences, but even CK for IRROPS, it is hit or miss. Either already too late, or don't look outside of the box for IRROPS since they restrict themselves to AA flights first. For the past 2 years, I've been at the airport for every single PDX ice storm that has shut the city down; if I had waited for the CK desk to contact/rebook me, I would never had gotten anywhere since flights would have been sold out by that time. Or I would have had to wait another day to fly out on AA metal.

I do value the immediate pick up time of CK phone lines the most during IRROPS.

It's good to talk about the negatives of CK, and not everything is rosy for future folks who are thinking about CK.

 

We could stage a GameStop-esque show of strength on collectively withholding ticket spend until AA makes a decision here on renewals. I figure we all control enough buying influence to make a noticeable dent in AA ticket revenue. Food for thought.

It is ridiculous that we have 8 days left...

 

THIS! Seriously. I am at over 100k LP just in the last month and could have easily used that spend towards another status. In addition I have another 2 biz Europe flights booked. This is borderline ridiculous. I don’t see how they think this is engendering loyalty - more like gnashed teeth frustration. Not good.