zeke320

Does anyone know if the annual spend estimate (e.g. $60K) for CK invitation is based on tickets for an individual or total spend? I spend quite a bit of money flying my family around on vacation relative to my own individual spend on AA, thanks.

oysterhead43

Highly unlikely that family spend would move the needle enough to influence CK status determination.

unitedhandcuffs

I'm global services with UA. Will probably spend about $100k this year out of SFO so may have a chance to get UA/GS and AA/CK if I decide to diversify. Two questions:
- does CK only count AA metal PQD or includes codeshares? I fly between US and Australia in business class quarterly and see a lot of QF flights with AA codeshare
- anyone ever successfully pulled off a status match from GS to CK?

millionmiler

As far as I know and as a long time CK AA has not chosen to publically disclose the details of CK selection.

ckx2

A direct status match, no definitely never heard of that. But if you travel routine has earned you GS status, I'd get in touch with an AA representative. There might be interest if the number of $$ spending you've mentioned is close to be accurate.

prw555

Good for you. Me ; 370k EQM - $55k spend and all in J and F. 2015 was $63k. Selection criteria now that formalized needs to be published. Moot point for me as moved all biz to CX next year as AA have a demonstrated inability to offer a relaible ex US to HKG service, regardless of DFW or LAX departure points.

Anddddd - I'll let 18 2016 SWU expire and 8 for 2017. They are worthless. I'd rather book J in advance and save, versus a SWU going down to 30 minutes before departure and not clearing. Then having to book last minute J. SWU = system wide unpromised. Agree was never promised but how are they ever a benefit when so scarce. Kudos CX for bailing me on AA fails in 2016

ttusqrl

No offense, but I can understand why you aren't getting CK. Everyone talks about high EQMs being a good thing. I say otherwise; low EQM and high spend is better. I know this gets confusing with the way EQM is calculated now that EQP isn't around, so perhaps segments would be a better example and actual miles rather then EQM. With that disclaimer out of the way, I'll issue a fairly hazy example of my thought process (knowing it's not 100% accurate):

I had 124k EQM and ~$50k spend and I still got issued a challenge. Think about it, that's 2.48EQM/penny. Your ratio is 6.72EQM/penny. That means you are 2.7x more expensive than I am even though we have to figure in the way EQM are calculated.

In other words, AA's profit/margin calculation is more complex like has been stated on this thread multiple times.

jdanton

Not exactly--I didn't track spend, but I had 272k EQMs on 80 segments. But almost all of that in paid J/F. About 80% AA, but almost all Int'l on partners. But without knowing the full breakdown of J/F segs vs Y you can't calculate profitability for AA.

And no CK for me

Rinzfish

I totally agree with ttusgrl - when it comes down to CK, it's all about one word: profitability. I have had CK for many years now, and my EQM is definitely under 150k and my EQS is much lower than most of people here, but when I fly (both international and domestic) I pretty much book all refundable first class tickets.

370K EQM with 55k spending is definitely too little spending for that many miles.

Also - i am certain that paid tickets on partner airlines don't count as much

just my take

JonNYC

You're both correct.

And while this is -not- the formula for member profitability, it hints at it obliquely; one could more accurately figure out where one "fits" in the hierarchy vs. a co-worker or whatever by calculating how much they spent for the year divided by # of miles flown, except then expressed as a 3-4 figure number, ie. "moderately profitable = $500"

Fraser

At a rough guess given that miles in J/F I'd assume you'd probably earn BA Gold Guest List. 5000 tier points in one year where you earn as follows for travel on AA:
-40 tier points for AA J/F below 2000 miles
-140 tier points for AA J/two class F above 2000 miles
-210 tier points for AA longhaul/transcon in F.

GGLs get sporadic/regular CK treatment at airports depending upon luck (a lot more than EXPs get though! ) and while there are no SWUs you don't use them. You do get "Jokers" allowing you to book anytime as long as a revenue seat is being sold (a few caveats there) for regular mileage levels. Sure there are a lot of other benefits CK get that GGL doesn't but I don't know how many regular AA users are aware of it...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...rd-ba-ggl.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r-s-guide.html

prw555

Interesting, I'll explore. Never taken a BA flight in my life. Club World hard product sucks, plus I'm US based so have no reason to use an EU carrier. For time being all business moved to CX and will qualify for Diamond by May and in meantime using legacy AA emerald status for lounge benefits (Pier first) in HKG.

ttusqrl

Glad I'm not crazy. Also interesting to see that disclaimers to generally vague metrics don't necessarily work in this forum

unitedhandcuffs

Jon, so if you had to guess at the CK criteria, what would it be? You seem the most knowledgeable here. Over on the UA message boards, the community seems a lot more sophisticated in their pursuit of this unknown criteria/formula with discussions on profitability metrics (CPM = cents per mile based off BIS miles) and location weighting (hubs needing more $s to get in top %), but when you log everyone's stats together you will always find outliers so the conclusion has ended after a few years back to 'spend more than $40k on UA metal flights and you may qualify for GS, more than $50k and you'll most likely qualify, more than $60k and you will qualify'. Any chance you could boil down CK criteria to something similar? Reason I ask is that i will spend ~$100k on flights this year so would be interested to diversify and attain both GS and CK, but not that interested to diversify and then have nothing to show for it due to misunderstanding the criteria.

JonNYC

The post of mine you quoted I'd humbly proffer is as close as you're going to get and as you can see, not determinable from overall spend.

As far as attaining (profitability-based) CK and GS at the same time, while I have no doubt a few have, I'd say to forget about that notion.