charlesfromage

I've found a few old threads that touch on this a little, but what is the current speculation on what will happen with Centurion US Airways elite status after the merger with American?

The Centurion card already lost Continental status post merger. Could they really afford to lose US Airways Platinum Preferred as well?

It sounds like US Airways is really the one taking over American, despite the fact that they are keeping the American name. Most people assume that they will be a oneworld partner, however.

I don't fly US Airways a whole lot, but it was a nice backdoor for United et al. Getting AAdvantage Platinum would be a big step up, but losing another airline would probably be a deal breaker for me.

UAPremExecflyer

There is no situation.
Everything is pure speculation until the merger is announced, (assuming it is) approved by regulators and then officially closes.
Only then -- many months down the line -- will mileage program(s) and credit card link(s) start to emerge.

Centurion

No one knows. Centurion members got status on American for a little while via TWA but past transactions really do not matter.

mia

Agreed, regardless of the name or dominant management team the combined airline would not be welcome to remain in Star Alliance. It would probably take US Airways 18+ months to extricate itself from its Star Alliance contracts, which suggests there wouldn't be meaningful status changes until 2015.

American Express already provides OneWorld status in some other markets through Cathay Pacific. If they were not able to reach an arrangement with the new American Airlines they might be able to extend the CX benefit to USA Centurion cardholders.

S.Bling

Note, however, that CO exited the ST alliance quite suddenly and quickly.
They moved to *A well before the merger with UA completed (some might opine it was before the merger even began its initial practical implementation).

Not that one can necessarily draw conclusions from the CO/UA case, as many things aren't similar (e.g. neither US and AA are MR partners, but both are Plat/Cent lounge partners - in CO/UA's case the former was a full partner for both and the latter was an influential enemy of both).

A purely speculative gamble on my part would be that US leaves Amex altogether (indeed leaves the aviation world and is merged into "new AA", like CO left the aviation world and was merged into "new UA") and that Cent finds an elite-partner replacement such as CX for the USA, giving Cents OW status and enabling the continuation of AA lounge status (also in OW) but not MR status.
UA/Chase would stymie any attempt to add *A status once US is gone, so the only addition to the ST of Delta would be an alternate OW status with a foreign-based airline...
That's where my chip would go on the table.

mia

I wouldn't call it "sudden", but it happened faster than I remembered, nine months. Announced 1.29.2009, effective 10.25.2009.

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Co...er-1650722.php

I_Can_Fly_US_Airways

Given Citi Banks relationship with AA, me figures that Barclay's Bank Mastercard & AMEX will be shown the door soon after the two carriers merge!!!

nall

Why would they get rid of lounge access privileges? Both US & AA take Amex Plat now.

some dude

Hilton has both Citi and Amex cards. Delta has relationships with both Citi and Amex. I don't think Citi is nearly as anti-Amex as Chase is.

kcmj1234

Unfortunately, this seems what is going to happen. I hope Amex can provide Oneworld status to Centurion Members.

tangfish

This is probably going to be tough for some of us Centurion members. After the loss of CO the US Air *A Gold has been really helpful. I for one end up on a lot of *A flights and am not looking forward to losing my connection with that alliance entirely. But, these sorts of things are small beans to those making decisions in the airline consolidation age.

stevenshev

Does this mean no more Star Alliance Gold via Cent? I feel as if they need to do something about that, but, judging from recent experience, I'm not too optimistic. Any insight/speculation?

AtlanticBeach

A much greater loss would be if there is no status on the new AA. That would leave DL as our only domestic option as comped elite passengers and devalue Centurion benefits.

The lack of banking relationship between UA and Amex makes future *A status highly unlikely. Even if Amex tried to provide elite status on a foreign *A carrier, UA would probably exert force to prevent such an agreement.

My daughter is an AA Ex Plat and former US CP. She says that international redemption on OW is the easier option although BA fees are higher than LH.

UAPremExecflyer

Everything - except for today's announcement that the boards of the two airlines agreed to merge - is speculation.

mia

stevenshev's question has been appended to the discussion in progress.