MarkOK

Exactly.

I have recently gone from 'member' (a few years ago) to 'member' with a Citi Exec AA card (last year through May this year), to 'plat pro' (since May). My flight experience has not really changed.

I get on the plane 1 boarding group earlier. Big whup (and I never bring-on rollaways, not for like 10 years. I hate juggling luggage through airports, I hate packing 'light'. The overhead space fight has never been an issue for me). Even before my CC and before I registered for an AA account, when I boarded in Group 8 it really didn't mean anything to me. If anything, something was nice about not sitting on the plane for 20 extra minutes waiting for everyone else to board. I always wonder why I even board with Group 3 now, must be some mental thing of 'checking off' something on my to do list (board the plane....check!), or maybe feeling 'special' going down the priority lane with a bunch of burnt out sales men (sorry, that may have been a low blow to some of you).

I do get MCE and can actually choose seats -- but I fail to see all that much value in this. For one thing, if I am travelling alone, in MCE I am more likely to be sitting next to some pretty big guys. I am of 'medium' build myself, and if you put three of 'me' across a row, it is cramped, when you put me and two people heavier than me, it is quite cramped. The leg length doesn't alleviate a squeeze in width. When I travel with my family, I have quite a bit of space sitting next to a 7 year old. That few inches in leg/knee space in MCE doesn't really mean anything additional really. I wouldn't buy MCE for any more than maybe 5$, or 10$ if it is an evening flight when I want a wine or something. So, I am usually up there nowadays, but again, I say big whup.

Upgrades for me thus far have not happened with plat pro (though, I did get one upgrade last year as 'member'). I don't think they are likely to happen except perhaps when I take some short-haul flights where the benefit is relatively minor. This is domestic "first" afterall, and I am routed through DFW so domestic US flights aren't all that long anyways.

Free baggage comes with the CC. The second free bag with plat pro I may actually use once or twice a year, so that saves a little cash.

Now, if I could get ExecPlat, then I would get some free SWUs that could have some REAL value on my 1 or 2 international flights a year. I would also move up that upgrade list on domestic flights making some value out of that. It's a pretty big gap in value (mostly because of the SWUs).

Athena53

My Dad, who was a frequent flyer in the 1960s, had a few Rules of Travel and one was that you don't have a confirmed seat until you're sitting in it. His other primary rule is now a bit obsolete- it had to do with checking your multi-page ticket booklet after any airline employee handled it to make sure they hadn't torn out pages you needed- but I still board as early as I can.

jsintexas

I retired this year after traveling internationally for 25 years out of a 40 year career.

Having lived in Chicago, Miami and Dallas I have flown mostly American. I have accumulated over 3 million miles and I am Platinum forever. Which I will enjoy in my leisure retirement travel with my wife.

The most valuable part of status is that gate agents will do things for you that they will not do for non status flyers.

Most of my years traveling I was Executive Platinum. Over the past few years American like the other major airlines has reduced the value of elite status. If I was 25 years old and starting my career I am not sure if I would be loyal to any specific airline. They no longer value our loyalty like they once did.

Uncle Nonny

'Loyalty' is a misnomer. The pure definition of the word does not apply to FF programs. None of us don't swear allegiance to a program out of loyalty. We do it to game the system the best way we can. That means preferential treatment, upgrades, familiarity, travel flexibility, etc. It doesn't mean blind faith. You cannot compare the benefits of yesteryear's programs to today's. Times change. Economics change. The competition changes. Expectations must also change. As with most things in life, there is no perfect situation.

mvoight

Possibly, but benefits of PLT over gold not obtained from the standard credit card:
Better priority boarding
Better line positions for upgrades
2 checked bags instead of one
Free MCE
Better RDM multiplier

jsintexas

Yes we do it for the perks we get. I have stayed at the same hotel "brand" and rented from the same car rental company for the preferred treatment.

One issue that bugs me about Executive Platinum status is the reduction in the number of system wide upgrades from 8 to 4. As someone that flew to Asia 5-6 times a year those 8 upgrades made travel less stressful. Like everyone in business our travel budgets were tight and not having to pay the extra $thousands to sit in J was important.

As for treatment by gate agents. I was on a trip to TPE 2 years ago. To get there I would fly DFW to NRT, NRT to TPE. My NRT flight was delayed then cancelled due to a mechanical problem and the later flight was delayed meaning I would miss my connection in NRT. The agent put me on a flight in Business Class to SFO with a connection on EVA Air that would put me into TPE at 6 AM which would allow me to make my lunch meeting with an important client in TPE.

drsh99

OP here. I just checked in after a couple of days and see a bunch of posts, of which several have thought-provoking comments. Flying_geek, this is really helpful. I hadn't weighed the branded CC against the elite benefits but will do that now.
I guess my original question was twofold: 1) is pursuing the lowest level of elite worthwhile and 2) is pursuing higher levels worthwhile. For American/OneWorld, I have lifetime Gold/Ruby, earned from a decade of sitting in the back of the plane for my (very fulfilling and frankly hard) work in global development in Africa and Central/South America. So that's my baseline. My current projects are in countries served by Delta/Air France more than AA/BA. I wrote my original post as I was trying to decide whether to go for midlevel status on Delta by concentrating my next 4 trips this year on that alliance. After reading the useful posts here (and a rare few that made me glad I don't "do" social media much), I decided to split my allegiance and choose the best schedules in premium econ over attaining mid-level status on one or the other airline. So, Air France for 3 trips and BA for 1.

Also, I'm gonna throw this out there to see if it will mediate/moderate comments a bit from folks who are inclined to be aggressive in their posts: I'm a really kind, caring mid/late-ish career person who is also a mom and wife. A number of posts have self-identified as men at mid to later career or retirement. Others have not self-identified and I'm not asking you to describe your background but I have anecdotally noticed a correlation between gender and aggressiveness in posts with, perhaps, a bit of correlation with age (younger more aggressive). Please note that folks who post on FlyerTalk come from all walks of life and are real humans. Let's treat each other at least as nicely as we'd treat each other in line at a coffee shop.

rbAA

You've obviously never flown some of the Chinese and Russain airlines. Even CI and Air Asia have had their moments.

rbAA

I'll try not to get this thread closed too, but welcome to FT. The second part of your post is the most frustrating part of this site. Having been active here for some time, and having gotten to know many of the original members and moderators, including sharing drinks and meals with them at DO's, I can tell you that there are the same problems that all the current (anti-)social media sites are experiencing.

To answer your first inquiry, and the premise of your first post, elite status is not as valuable as it used to be. Few things are, but there is still value in it, if you look for it and keep your expectations in check. I don't need a lot of recognition, but I am a just a poor retired ex-pat in BKK trying to spend as little as possible and enjoy travel as much as I can. Elite status still helps i.e. SWU's are useful as I can fly to the US (mostly HKG-LAX RT) midweek and on a flexible schedule, planned well in advance. There they are 100% useful as I usually pay $500 RT and immediately am confirmed into J. The FC lounges are excellent and I'll probably miss them when I drop from EXP in 2020. I like the no fee redeposit on award cancellations and no close in booking fees. And, a myriad of other benefits that may seem minute, but add up in the scheme of things. Surely, not as good as some years ago, but the rules change though the game remains the same. I skip flying AA whenever possible as the RDM and EDQ earning on OW partner airlines in premium cabin are the sweet spot. I would imagine if you sat down and worked out the math, 4 RT's to Africa from the US on BA in PE would actually get you some where. Though, I not thrilled with BA and especially their business class. DL, maybe not as much, though I concentrate on AA and *A (UA 1K now and OZ *A S working my way to *A G on them as it's easy and lasts longer.)

Doing a rough calculation as I don't know your home location and the destinations you frequent, you could easily achieve EXP with 3 or 4 BA PE RT's. Assuming you ticket on BA stock and fly BA metal to make sure that you get the distance credit, a RT of ORD-LHR-CAI is 12.300 BIS at 20% for the lower PE buckets, so 2460 EQD's per RT and at 1.5 EQM's apx 18,450. If you are going deeper into Africa, easily done, or at least PLT PRO. The RDM haul is much better as well, as even at AA Gold, you get 140% of BIS, so 17k apx. As you move up, EXP would generate 26.7k each RT. So, as you can see, a little planning and concentration would benefit you. Just the Galleries FC Lounge at LHR would be a nice perk.

goldmarch

Like OP, I have never managed to obtain top-tier status on any airline despite flying often. All my travel is on my own dime, most of it is international (a mix of J, PE, and Y in the exit row) and I often have my family with me. I have never been able to consolidate into one alliance for two main reasons: prices are wildly inconsistent, and I earn no status miles for the tickets I buy for my family members. While I might be willing to pay $200-$300 more for a TATL J ticket on my preferred alliance in order to get the almost 20k status miles where I want them, I won't pay the extra $200-$300 x 4 tickets for the same 20k status miles. As a result, I usually end the year with 30-40k eqms on 2 or 3 alliances. This year, largely by chance, I have done most of my flying on OW. I have 3-4 more trips to Europe this fall, without kids, and hopefully in J. If I can get at least two of these on OW I should make EXP. The dilemma is that OW is not looking very good on price to Europe this fall in J. The AA Vacations deals seem to be gone, and I can't get anywhere near the prices I was getting earlier in the year. *A, Skyteam, and Expedia.com vacation packages on a variety of non -OW carriers are all much cheaper for similar travel times. My normal route is ORD-FCO. So I'm trying to decide between taking IB via Madrid in PE a couple of times just to make EXP, or getting the cheapest J fare regardless of alliance and getting some decent sleep. First world problems, I admit.

MADPhil

I took a quick look through the thread again and didn't spot any mention of the benefits of AA versus BA status within Oneworld. The two major ones are that it is a little bit easier to earn BA Silver/OW Sapphire than it is to earn PLT as long as you fly at least four BA code share or metal segments; and that it gets you access to OW Business Class lounges everywhere when flying on OW in any class. You don't get upgrades on AA out of it but then PLT doesn't seem to help much in that regard! A benefit on BA of having Sapphire status is that you can choose most seats at booking for no cost. It looks as if OP may not be flying AA/BA enough for this to help but I thought it worth adding.

Adelphos

Sommy

ibrandsguest

Benefits of elite status to me:
* Fees waived for Main Cabin Extra
* Earlier boarding
* Better treatment in case of irregular operations
* Bonus miles
* Somewhat faster phone line

I don't see a reason to give that up.

janwillem

Deminishing benefits everywhere. When the next economic downturn happens will benefits get better again? Or is everything so uniform and competitive that it will be lean and mean for years to come?