discoverCSG

Has anyone had any success with finding other options than the officially announced one?

https://thepointsguy.com/news/american-airlines-500-mile-upgrades-conversion-process/

355F1

I literally just read this article and was gonna try and call them but I’m about to take off for PDX!!!!

MASTERNC

When will they convert these awards? I have another flight in June and was hoping the upgrades would still be available for my companion.

UASkif

Well, called AA advantage. They transferred me to sales. Waited 30m on hold and just disconnected

redtop43

I find it a bit puzzling too. I almost never fly with a companion but I am in late May/early June. I have 41 stickers in my account right now. If they take away my stickers I hope they won't be expecting me to use stickers for my companion's upgrade, if indeed we clear.

VegasGambler

I've never earned, bought, or used a 500-mile upgrade (the 10 that I have were complimentary, as a result of 2 different promotions) so I think it would be difficult to feign dissatisfaction with the 250 LP. Though, I do think it should be more. They should give 1000 RDM and LP for them.

Beltway2A

Has anyone had any luck doing this via Twitter or e-mail? I haven't had status in years, but have a leftover sticker or two. The RDM is probably more useful than the LPs.

FlyFreakquently

Agreed. If you follow TPGs valuations of 1 mile = 1.77 cents, then the $40 price tag per 500-mile upgrade should come out to 2,260 miles/LPs. 250 LPs per upgrade comes out to sad $4.50 value

IADCAflyer

Maybe as a trade off, they could have let those with stickers use their remaining stickers as a trump card to the upgrade status order.... We wish.....

FlyerBeek

It's actually quite easy to be dissatisfied for those who actually purchased their 500-mi upgrades. The 250 LP valuation is laughable. EXPs would be earning more LPs if they spent the equivalent amount of money purchasing airfare (not to mention actually get the benefit of flying). In my opinion (which doesn't mean much), at a bare minimum AA should credit the LPs associated with the elite multiplier for the cost of any paid ($40) 500 mile upgrades (for example, 440 LPs for EXPs or 280 LPs for Golds).

-FlyerBeek

chix

So does anyone have experiences this week with AA offering them miles for their unused 500 milers? I have 23 and would love to get 125k miles for them, but I don’t want to remain on hold for hours negotiating.

Frankly I question the fact that this member really got rewarded that highly. I think it’s bogus.

CLT

Basically every year I use my Amex credit to buy 5 certificates. I've been fortunate to have great success over the years with upgrading companions, so I usually got the value from the certificates. On the date they made the announcement, I had 11 purchased upgrades in my account, not including those given after flying the EQM requirement.

I wrote about this in a different thread last week, but here is my experience with this:

• I submitted a refund request and sent an email to AAdvantage CS requesting a refund of the 5 certificates ($200) I purchased in January 2022 using my Amex credit on March 1.
• I received a refund for one of the certificates on March 2 ($40) back to my Amex.
• AA CS got back to me via email on 3/30 saying they were not refundable and I would be getting loyalty points for each of my upgrades. I pushed back on the refund (and explained how I got a credit for one of them) and the agent agreed to submit a manual refund exception.
• An Executive Liaison called me last week to review the situation with me. I essentially said that if you were able to refund one, you should be able to refund all. He said he wasn't sure how that refund got approved, and it was probably a system error. He said he couldn't refund me, but he said he wanted to "make things right with me". I was expecting a voucher of some sorts, but the agent offered me 5,000 miles each for all the certificates I had purchased that were in my account (not those that I was awarded by flying EQMs), including for the one that was erroneously refunded.

So I walked away with 55k. I was more than pleased with the situation, and I was under the impression that this was an offer that was being given to the masses given how when I exclaimed my surprise at the offer, he said something like "yeah a lot of people are shocked, too".

I'm under the impression this offer is for purchased upgrades only, as he left my EQM-earned upgrades in my account intact.

Maxwell Smart

Same here, seems really high-- 125K miles for 25 stickers means 5K each? Wondering if either the mileage or # of stickers is incorrect.
I've got 27 in my account, and have dropped to no-status. 6750 LP's mean nothing, but would love to convert them into enough RDM's for domestic flight use.

VegasGambler

Yeah if I had paid $40 a pop for them I would be pretty upset

Maxwell Smart

Okay, I just got off the phone with the Advantage desk. I called to ask what options I had for converting my 27 500-mi upgrades:

1. She gave me the standard answer about them being converted to LP's.
2. I then asked if there were other options, since the LP's were not that useful to me while RDM's would be a much better option.
3. Her response was that this was her 2nd call in a row asking the same thing, and she would note on my account to have someone from their "resolution" desk contact me about what they might be able to do.
4. She did say that she had heard that some had gotten conversions to RDM's, but she didn't know how it was being done.
5. Interestingly, the phrasing she used was that I would be contacted in the next day or 2 with "an offer".

Thus it appears they have at least some sort of process involving options other than LP's, but have not advertised it officially, requiring a call-in.
Now to wait for my "offer"!