Kara Peters Case

Prior to Covid, I used to travel all the time for work and was almost at Platinum status. When my company finally allowed traveling again in April, I noticed that I lost my status. I called and was told that I needed to travel by March to keep it the same. I asked for an exception since my lack of travel was due to Covid and was told to call a different number.

I did call several times because the wait time was so long and when they called me back, the representative told me that she could fix it for $400+. (that's not fixing IMHO). I sent an email which I keep getting a follow up email saying that due to covid, there is a delay in the response but no actual response.

Here's my question... Has anyone had this issue? Anyone get their status back without paying more money?

I know this probably sounds like "First World" problems but I was loyal to AA for my points (both personal and work) and even have their credit card but if this how they are going to treat their travelers (not even talking about all the flight delays and cancellations that I have been through), there are MANY other programs I can start from the beginning with again.

enviroian

During covid, AA offered many incentives and ways to keep your status. I'm sorry it didn't work for you.

777lover

many people have realized that they have fallen to no status. Last year — you must have missed the 100s of emails they sent, they had two promo ways to keep your status — spend X on a credit card or spend $2k on travel through Dec 31st.

and of course they extended status for the 2021 travel year. But for 2022/23 you needed to either qualify organically or through one of the two promos.

what the agent may have been referring to is the buyback offer that they have each year.

nole1

As others have stated, AA offered several different ways to keep/extend status over the last 2 years. While it's unfortunate you lost your status, this one is on you for not paying attention to it for 24 months.

xjaehyun

I don't have status with AA and even I got a bunch of emails about keeping status.

MarkOK

Yep, and it sounds like they are offering another chance (by buying it for $500).

To the OP -- The whole status earning system is different now with AAdvantage. Read into it. Platinum can be regained through a variety of means, flying not required.

AB Dada

Platinum is "easy" to get using an AA credit card and LP chasing.

75,000 LPs on aadvantageshopping or dining or any of those sites isn't untenable.

As others have said, you ignored 2 years of offers. This is 100% on you, but you can get status back quite quickly.

USFlyerUS

And, paying $400 is actually a pretty good deal.

enviroian

Agreed. I would have jumped that as about as quickly as getting a C1 notification from EF.

rjburns

You are not missing much. You have the credit card so bags are free. Use the $400 for upgrades where you need them. You won't get many upgrades with Gold status anyway.

VegasGambler

For Gold? OP was "almost" Platinum.
Much easier and cheaper to just earn Gold by getting LP.

JJeffrey

Yes, some others have had this issue...

Full downgrade from EXP to general AA?

cyb2888

I'm not the most avid of posters but whenever I see these threads on here from fresh accounts of a persons name. I wonder if people think this is like Reddit or something where you can farm imaginary internet points via posting "feel bad for me" posts like this. I doubt we'll see another post from this person but I must say I chuckle when I see these posts.

But to respond into the void to a person who probably won't see this : my company did the same, I went from EXP to no travel in 2020 and 2021 but I bought myself a round trip transcon in business to meet the 2k spend and now I still have EXP. Should read those emails

travelinmanS

So now you have EXP but you don’t have $2k. I’m not sure that’s a fair trade off.

JFKEWR

With the new Loyalty Point system, you can pick up your status fairly easily. To be honest, I never re-qualify my Platinum Pro status so fast ever before