jhalapin

Yeah, that was me. And I agree that it's not really a fun way to qualify. I do it the same way. I usually qualify in September/October. Only reason I qualified early this year is because I rolled over almost $8K in spend and close to 60K mines from Q4 last year. Wish they would do that every year

I kind of envy the guy/gals that do a handful of international trips a year and qualify that way.

scubadu

Maybe not everyone that was Exp in the "old world" needs to be/should be in the "new world?"

Crazy, I know...

Regards

Herb687

And yet I have had an empty seat next to me when flying paid F CLT-DFW on a weekday afternoon.

radonc1

Maybe so, but if your world is going to be the new reality, then AA is going to be losing a boat-load of revenue, aren't they??

And if that is the case, then what are the ExPlat benefits going to look like in that event???

AAExecPlatFlier

That’s why there is PP and other statuses.

tismfu

I just requalified but I travel weekly and $600 is about the cheapest my fare is even with advanced purchase.. Usually I see the same couple on my flights and I assume they are close to requalifying as well.

Also some markets are still pricy even in pandemic times. Like JAC where one r/t in F from DFW can easily hit $2000 even if booking early.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I haven't seen an empty seat in F in months. Upgrade list are very back to normal. My "hunch" is there are certain number of elites, particularly PLT/PP/EXP that are flying personally in fear they will lose status this year but when business travel picks up they'd be back to square one. To my knowledge in the consulting world it's still all mostly virtual and many companies are still working remote.

aztimm

I flew yesterday for the first time in a long time. I'd guess coach was 70% full; first was full, but it sounded like upgrades. I'd imagine a Monday afternoon flight would usually be more full.... But AUS-PHX used to be smaller aircraft. I remember CRJ's on this route, while yesterday was an A321.

ksweeney

From the conversations that I have with fellow passengers, many high mileage business travelers are not flying for fear of loosing status. Instead, we are flying because it it is fun to travel. When told to work remotely, may frequent flyers are taking that as an invitation to work remotely from different locations. Since the pandemic I've been working remotely from different locations almost weekly. Next month I'm going to work remotely from Puerta Vallarta. My son, since he can't work in his Houston office has been working remotely from Mexico and Brazil since July. I have many co-workers who are doing the same. Business travel will come back, but until it does, I believe in taking advantage of the current mantra of "we don't care where you work from".

Adelphos

Consulting may be a world where travel is slower to come back, and it comes back in smaller total volume as a higher percentage of work is done virtually. That argues against extending status to consultants who were EXPs or whatever - AA and other airlines should be de-prioritizing those legacy industries and prioritizing industries where the demonstrated value proposition / demonstrated need to travel is greater or clear (as evidenced by those employees returning to travel quicker).

AAExecPlatFlier

A lot of good discussion in this thread — pros and cons. One of the most interesting points has been the “AA will loose $ if they don’t extend” and “I will jump ship if they don’t exist.”

We know that PP is historically an under represented segment and with the threshold bonuses for this year, I interpret this (and have heard) that AA is actively trying to increase this elite segment. Although probably from the Plat to PP. but with the pandemic, it is a great landing spot for those EPs that don’t requalify and can make PP. further, a PP can, as you know, get an EQD exemption. Taken together and looking at the incremental eqds/eqms between PP and EP, for many, it just doesn’t justify the incremental spend. PP is where it’s at and AA knows this and is marketing to it.

For the I’ll jump ship if they don’t extend. Well, we hear that all the time. Unless someone has top 2 elite levels on Ua or DL, Ans is deciding to concentrate their travel in another program, I don’t see this having a material impact.

will AA loose $ by not extending? Doubt it. But there is no way to know this. Remember, corporate contracts drive this business (well they use to!). What I have seen with one large account is an assurance that “special cases will be handled at the beginning of next year.” I take this to mean that AA will leverage the AAdvantage program and status even more at targeted accounts.

and speaking of targeting, I would expect both corporate and individual targeting for some kind of fast track back to your old status — again at the beginning of next year — after they have tried to get people to “buy up/buy back” status.

but is a kicker of 2x EQDs on targeted fare classes possible. Sure. But I wouldn’t do it till after Labor Day.

They have already reduced requirements. Rolled over flights from a time period in 2020. Put in place eqd waivers for all levels but EP. launched milestone bonuses. Improved PP. and early rumblings of some corporate “relief.” Thus, I don’t see them blanket extending status.

LovePrunes

Whoever is meeting the qualifications of butt in seat and SPENDING THE DOUGH is probablly all AA cares about. If it's an entirely new population of Exec Plats vs 2019 and before, I'm not sure AA does (or should) care. They're all about the $, I think that's pretty clear.

HaleiwaFlyer

With the airlines shifting towards US leisure travel destinations such as HI, I believe the focus is on leisure travelers who will buy FC/Business class tickets.

redtop43

Let's cut to the chase.

AA will do a promo of some sort the day after DL or UA does.

thunderdeacon

At the rate I am flying this year, I will have enough EQMs for ExPlat, but I will only make Plat based on EQDs; that's barely. I have a card, but I'm not going to come close to spending 30k on it this year.