second half strategy
 

Greetings,

I have a question for all y'all. I qualified for Diamond on DL and 1k on UA already this year. Would it make sense to try and qualify for exec plat on AA as well?

Here is my thinking on this for a frame of reference. DL does not reward activity beyond diamond. No added upgrades or anything. 360 doesn't seem like a great deal either. UA does have GS, but it is invite only. It seems like a waste of time to fly them and not get anything out of it but plus points. I guess plus points are great as far as they go, but using them is not exactly easy to use. I travel paid F pretty much all the time. I am sure I could hit exec plat in a few months. I was thinking having top tier status on all three airlines might have some advantages when it comes to schedules/fares. I could pick the cheapest/best schedule rather than dealing with sub optimal stuff just because its not my carrier. I would guess I have three international trips left this year to asia in paid F. I also fly every other week to various places including ORD (hence the AA thought). I also hit ATL, LAX and on occasion NYC.

PS. I know this is a first world problem. Paid F is great, but even with that the status still matters more. The airlines are just nicer to people with status.

Are you familiar with the new loyalty program at AA? Flying paid F will certainly help, but if you're coming from zero status it will take some money (not miles flown) to get to 200,000 points/EXP status.. It sounds like you travel a good bit, so you'd be wise to put your travel spend on an AA credit card and you'll rack up the points much quicker.

If you're buying all F/J, especially international, you could be invited to Concierge Key (like UA Global Service). The magic spend number varies from one person to the next, but generally something over $50K of AA premium fares helps.

I will probably have about 30k-40k a year in spend. Covid has been a boon for me - I got 3k PQP's from UA for being 1k last year. I have done about 27k so far this year. It seems like that should get me something with one of the airlines, but honestly there are just no guarantees. I don't think AA is necessarily better that UA or DL, but I do think that all the airlines are good in certain areas. I see some fantastic F fares over to asia on AA that I just do not see from either DL or UA.

I tried to status match to AA in 2020 but the flights got smoked by covid so I lost it. I think I would be starting over from scratch as AA probably wont let me do it again.

You could fly American but credit the flights to British Airways. Earn Gold with BA and have access to Business and First Class lounges even when flying domestic on any Oneworld carrier.

Not sure what extra perks you would get from having status on AA if you already pay for all F/J tickets. You could say lounge access, but you can get that with only a $450 Citibank AA credit card. If it was me, I would stick with DL (provided they have non stop flight times that work for you in your home city). You may not get extra status on AA, but DL's product (on-time performance, IT, staff training) is the best in the US airline industry. Either way, it is not going to have much affect on your air travel experience.

I used to fly AA LAX-HKG a few times a year before CoVid.

AA’s F is not worth anything on the 77W, IMO. J is a great place to be on that plane.

I’ve flown CX and SQ F so I do know what F is supposed to be. :)

Starting from scratch, you will need to spend $27,012 dollars on AA flights to achieve Executive Platinum. There will be some arbitage if you fly with oneworld aliance members and other AA partners but you will be an Executive Platinum Lite (no choice benefits) unless you also fly 30 segments.

You would earn 200K RDM at a cost of 13.56 cents each.

Of course, there are non-flying ways to achieve Executive Platinum if you are interested in gaming subscription services, paying for throw-away hotel nights with buying LP at 2 cents a piece on the front & back end, using an AA credit card at whatever lost opportunity cost or paying surcharges to pay for large ticket items through third parties that can't normally be paid directly with a credit card such as taxes, rent, mortgages, insurance & medical.

The good news is that once you attain Executive Platinum, you only need to spend $18,182 to maintain it. Just rememer though, without 30 segments, no choice benefits.

James

I went through the same thought process as you recently, since COVID provided the chance to get top-tier (non-invited) status on all three domestic carriers. Which airlines provides you the most efficient schedule that you like to fly, with the soft/hard product that works for you? For AA, you also need to fly 30 segments to get the true benefits, such as SWUs; hitting loyalty point milestones is not enough. Are you really going to hit 30 segments? My personal belief of getting AA EXP without the 30 segments is not really worth it, if you are already purchasing F. Lets say you do get AA EXP, are you going to fly them enough, or are you going to dread losing that status, and putting another extra layer of stress to re-chase it?

From the opposite view point, instead of spreading spend, and since you aren't looking at Delta 360, perhaps focus spend on one airline. UA Plus Pass 50k spend is automatic GS; 60k on AirPass is automatic CK. I've been pleasantly pleased with AirPass, and will renew again next year.

Based on my own experience (also purchase F; so upgrades don't matter), UA 1K was underwhelming. AA's EXP personalized experiences was much better than DL/UA. DL Diamond, probably the best in-flight recognition out of the domestic three.

30k to get to tier status?! Wow, they are really proud of that.

I like the foreign airline idea. I bet I could work LH or AF/KLM and get something. Tell me more about this BA idea? What do I have to do there and are there any shortcuts?

I strongly disagree that EXP is not worth it without the 30 segments. SWUs are a minor part of the EXP benefits IMO.

Not sure how Chasing loyalty points for EXP AA is worth it, for OWE, if the OP already pays for paid international F?

Exactly.
If you are already paying for F, then domestically the only thing you need from any airline is access to their lounges. With AA, that is made simple by getting the AA Executive card which actually gets you a discounted admission to their lounges. i cannot imagine that in someone spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on airlines would be hurt financially by a $450 once a year fee.

Flying international F already gets you lounge access so there is little need to contort your spending and allocation of trips to BA for AA domestic lounge access.

In your situation, the only thing that would concern me is schedule and performance on the route you are currently flying. Everyone has their opinion on each domestic major but for the vast majority of cases, they are surprisingly the same in all aspects.

If actually flying AA, being able to call the EXP desk is a huge benefit. Paid international first class tickets won't get you through to someone who has a clue how to do their job.

If you care about fancy lounges, several flights have J as their highest class of service (like most intra-asia or intra-europe flights). OWE allows access to the F lounge if flying one of those (on a OW carrier of course) while your ticket will only get you into the J lounge.

Honestly the rest of it is probably useless to someone who flies paid F. SWUs are only valuable if you can find upgrade space at booking (possible, but good luck) or are willing to waitlist and either risk flying the lower class of service (I'm guessing that that's not the case here) or willing to cancel the trip if they don't clear (I'm willing to do this, but apparently most people think this is crazy)

This is not exactly true. While flying F is generally the same airline to airline, there are differences. IRROPS is one example. F with no status is just about as bad as coach with no status. And access to the lounge doesn't make that better. If a top tier elite and I both have F with him on an upgrade and me on a full fare the top tier elite still gets preferential treatment. They also get the better CSR's in the call centers. Check in is easier if there are bags for top tier elites. On those occasions where I do not buy an upgrade I have zero chance of seeing one unless I am top tier elite. The list goes on.

Free agent is great from a schedule perspective. a flight to MIA from DEN is likely cheaper on AA than UA due to the reverse hub issue. But it is not the same as traveling with top tier status. I did the free agent thing for a while. internationally there is a big difference. The middle east and far east airlines are really much better than the european and american airlines. The network is miserable though. Flying QR to anywhere in the middle east is fantastic, particularly in F. But flying ORD to LAX? pretty much the same crappy seat with similar food and beverage choices. In the first case the airline matters, in the second it really doesn't.

Based on what you wrote, you should just get AA EXP, because the perceived preferential treatment matters to you with status. Like the other poster mentioned, look into BAEC as part of the one-world program, and if the tier points will work better for you than AA EXP.

I believe there are couple of threads on the pros/cons of doing BAEC vs AA EXP.