joe_miami

Given that there are only a few major airlines, I suppose this could be true, but as a general matter, it's much cheaper to keep current customers than it is to gain new ones.

joeyE

Oh, no doubt. That's marketing 101.
Point is, It seems AA thinks they don't have to invest much to keep said current customers. In fact, their actions point to decreasing the spend on current customers....

enviroian

Of course they do. They are fat and happy. Remember their CEO said they will never lose money again. AA could care less about customer's satisfaction and on board experience. It's a bus in the sky these days just about for every airline although AA is operationally the bottom of the barrel compared to others.

Cheynewalk

I had a few glitches in having AA recognize that I successfully completed this challenge, so you may well have to call Aadvantage customer service.

I hit the Plat requirements on this promotion on September 24. My EQM and EQD from my qualifying trip posted today (September 27) but the website did not automatically reflect my Platinum status. I had to call AAdvantage Customer Service to manually extend my Platinum status, which they were very willing to do. Then, the app showed the new Plat status but only to January 2020. So I had to call again to have them manually extend the Plat status to January 2021, per the promotion. They were very nice about it.

That said, it was well worth it to have the interim Platinum status and earn the award miles bonus and have international lounge access for the qualifying trip. I did it on a single international itinerary booked with British Airways LAX-LHR-CDG-CLT-LAX.

I will note that it was difficult to determine the booking classes when trying to book through BA. I found the flights through Google flights and called BA to book it. I couldn't see the booking classes on the BA website and the BA agent gave me incorrect information about the booking classes (saying all four segments were in fare class T in Premium Economy, when in fact the ticket that was issued was Premium Economy (T) for only LAX-LHR and CDG-CLT, with the other two shorter segments in Economy (LHR-CDG was S on British Airways and CLT-LAX was Q on AA)) and also gave incorrect information about whether the flights were marketed by BA or AA (saying all four segments were "marketed by" BA, when the ticket that came through had 3 out of 4 BA flight numbers and one AA flight number). Perhaps others know how to be certain on fare class and marketing carrier before booking, but my way was just to see what came through on the E-ticket once I got my email confirmation from BA.

One pleasant surprise benefit was the 500 EQM minimum guarantee that came through on the LHR-CDG portion, which only earned 108 base miles under the partner earning rate for BA S Economy class. If I had understood all the rules and booking class/marketing carrier better, perhaps I would have gone for the Platinum Pro levels, but as it was I am happy to be Platinum through 2021 and appreciate all the information that has been posted here.

sethMCOflyer

I was worried there as the promo end date came and the status expiration date didn't update, especially with the bulk of my miles coming from a segment that should not have generated MQDs and MQMs. But the day after the promo ended my expiration date updated to 1/31/21 and I received a "welcome to platinum" email the day after.

I was only about $600 and 3k miles away from Platinum Pro but I don't see myself flying enough AA next year to get enough benefit from the Pro level that would warrant some sort of mileage run.

One small datapoint that this promotion is working is the fact that I may fly AA voluntarily next year, without the status it would have only been when the lowest logical airfare rules dictate that I do.

nautikal

Has anyone had success getting a challenge if not explicitly offered it initially? Any advice?

I received two of these offers this year but don't have one at the moment, and now I'll be needing to fly to Dallas every week for work. I'm Plat on United and formerly Exec Plat 2014-2016

_kurt

You can request a status challenge at any time but you'll need to pay a couple hundred dollars for it. Just call Advantage Customer Service. The thread for that is here: HELP DESK & FAQ: Gold and Platinum Status Challenge