First Experience as EXP - AA is flooded with Elites
Nov 9, 22, 7:04 am
#61
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2022
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Programs: AA EXP , Alaska MVP100K, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 54
To be honest, the more I get involved with these programs I am more and more looking at the route of being a free agent. I, like many others, hpay for upgrades about 50 - 60 percent of the time anyway. Alaska is very reasonable with their F fares, American not so much.
A recent change in my work might have me relocate to Utah, so maybe my AS status will be better served there as this market is pretty much owned by DL
Nov 9, 22, 7:07 am
#62
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2022
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Programs: AA EXP , Alaska MVP100K, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 54
I am flying DEN to LAS tomorrow via PHX. I took the in app offer weeks ago so this flight only curious how many are on the actual list. Alsp paying more attention to the group 1 boarding numbers.
Nov 9, 22, 7:20 am
#63
Join Date: Feb 2022
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 707
If you read my past posts, only reason I really chased it was to be higher on the Alaska upgrade totem pole. I no longer fly trans con and getting 75K or 100K on Alaska was near impossible because they do not hand out points like candy. As an EXP on AA I get better treatment on AS than I would of as a MVP Gold. I actually much prefer AS as an airline and I am rather confident they will also come up with a similar points scheme.
To be honest, the more I get involved with these programs I am more and more looking at the route of being a free agent. I, like many others, hpay for upgrades about 50 - 60 percent of the time anyway. Alaska is very reasonable with their F fares, American not so much.
A recent change in my work might have me relocate to Utah, so maybe my AS status will be better served there as this market is pretty much owned by DL
To be honest, the more I get involved with these programs I am more and more looking at the route of being a free agent. I, like many others, hpay for upgrades about 50 - 60 percent of the time anyway. Alaska is very reasonable with their F fares, American not so much.
A recent change in my work might have me relocate to Utah, so maybe my AS status will be better served there as this market is pretty much owned by DL
But you did it on cc spend and that's what will drive a higher number of elites. If AA simply required $18K BIS spending the number of EXPs would thin after March 2023. But complimentary upgrades are likely going to go away anyway. There will be co-pays just like in essence there is now with the upgrade offers.
Nov 9, 22, 7:28 am
#64
Join Date: May 2017
Location: SIN
Posts: 852
Hard to say, but I think the bar was simply set too low. I totally cheated the system and first one to admit, the bar is set too low. They need to revamp this or they are going to lose lucrative customers. I took one flight, several hotel stays and lots of credit card spend and hit EXP in essentially 8 weeks.
Nov 9, 22, 8:09 am
#65
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA ExPl, DL PM, UA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium, probably some others
Posts: 3,223
Simple if they stopped handing out points like candy, there would be less elites. Being an EXP should be a rather rare thing, really any top tier should be. I am Alaska 100K Gold, which I will lose this year and reason I chased status with AA, but the 100K gold is rather rare, its hard to hit. I have a 100 percent upgrade as a 100K and this includes routes SAN - JFK and SAN to LIH
Nov 9, 22, 8:18 am
#66
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Roswell, GA
Programs: AA EXP 2.8m,Lifetime PLT, Hilton Diamond, IHG PlLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 3,112
as a long time EXP, when you actually had to BIS to earn EXP... I can tell you that AA is flooded with elites that dont even fly AA,
because AA has opted to go in this direction... buy..buy..buy and spend spend spend.. on everything but plane tickets..
because AA has opted to go in this direction... buy..buy..buy and spend spend spend.. on everything but plane tickets..
Nov 9, 22, 8:35 am
#67
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Wanting First. Buying First.
Programs: Lifetime Executive Diamond Platinum VIP with Braniff, Eastern, Midway, National & Pan Am
Posts: 14,349
If all of AA's elites never flew AA, upgrades would be easy, no?
Nov 9, 22, 8:40 am
#68
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 10,097
Nov 9, 22, 8:47 am
#69
Join Date: Feb 2022
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 707
Depends. The question is how many EXPs are mainly on cc spend. Yes maybe they only fly once a month but if there's enough of them then it impacts upgrades. I've seen post here of people with like 440K LPs. That would likely be due to heavy cc spend.
When you see upgrade lists of 25 or more people for a 738 clearly they're either flying again on heavy cc users.
When you see upgrade lists of 25 or more people for a 738 clearly they're either flying again on heavy cc users.
Nov 9, 22, 9:15 am
#70
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,556
U need to understand two issues.
1. You needed to call and have the status in all of ur PNRs to EP as u booked them when not EP. You will never know what your true position was or if you would have cleared. If you had any more PNRs booked when you weren’t EP, please call and update them!
2. the credit card warriors are greatly affecting the upgrade list. They don’t travel much, but when they do, they generally are at the upper part of the list. I see from above that you are a lite flier and attained EP status only through cx spend.
but think u will find that #1 is your main issue
PNRs
1. You needed to call and have the status in all of ur PNRs to EP as u booked them when not EP. You will never know what your true position was or if you would have cleared. If you had any more PNRs booked when you weren’t EP, please call and update them!
2. the credit card warriors are greatly affecting the upgrade list. They don’t travel much, but when they do, they generally are at the upper part of the list. I see from above that you are a lite flier and attained EP status only through cx spend.
but think u will find that #1 is your main issue
PNRs
Nov 9, 22, 10:07 am
#71
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 101,085
One way to reduce the flood of elites is to limit elite status to being only based on actual flight miles credited to AA accounts. But AA doesn't seem to care to go down the path, and so AA's frequent/big spender program flooding the market with AA elites will probably end up used by AA as an opportunity to eventually gut the program benefits for the majority of AA elites too.
Nov 9, 22, 10:18 am
#72
Join Date: Feb 2022
Programs: AAdvantage
Posts: 707
One way to reduce the flood of elites is to limit elite status to being only based on actual flight miles credited to AA accounts. But AA doesn't seem to care to go down the path, and so AA's frequent/big spender program flooding the market with AA elites will probably end up used by AA as an opportunity to eventually gut the program benefits for the majority of AA elites too.
Nov 9, 22, 10:24 am
#73
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: MIA and VRN
Programs: SEN LH Hyatt Globalist AA EXP
Posts: 595
I am based in Miami, this year my EXP upgrade success has been around 60-70%, however on a recent MIA-LGA I was around 12 or 13 on the upgrade list. It is a popular route, and the list was about 30 people long.
Nov 9, 22, 10:25 am
#74
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AA EXP, IHG Diamond, IC Amb
Posts: 5,287
I was #8 once on an award ticket PHX-LAX. That is the lowest I have ever been. On a paid ticket....I don't think I have have been lower than #5 or 6, and that was once between DFW-PHX.
