RDP

As the title indicates I am about to lose my Gold status as I only have 48,090 miles. My question is, should I care? Situation is:

Most of my long haul flights are revenue CX J (well, I to be exact....).

I fly for leisure usually and having the guaranteed seat option that Gold seems to offer is not a make or break issue for me.

Given then two points above should I be concerned about another benefit of having Gold that I should rush out and do a mileage run for? I have one thing I want to do next year, but I believe that while I will not be the first in line for inventory availability that I should be able to pull it off if I am flexible:

1. Buy I fare
2. Upgrade it using miles to F
3. Buy Partner Ticket, upgrade them to F as well.

Any thoughts?

thanks,
RDP

midlevels

If your lowest class of travel is Business Class, then Gold won't do much for you except give you additional baggage allowance. Is that worth whatever you have to pay to maintain status?

Silver/Gold only really help people who travel in W/Y class. Otherwise you get all the benefits anyway.

Award waitlist is better with Gold, but I also agree that if you are flexible on dates, then redeeming awards is not usually a big deal even with no status at all.

Who knows, since you travel mainly in paid J, they might even renew your Gold status anyway despite the shortfall as it's a nice goodwill gesture that actually costs them very little.

alphaod

Well you'll still have lounge access, priority baggage, priority boarding... but you lose on seat guarantees (if you use that at all), priority waitlisting of awards, and lounge access with domestic flights in the US.

RDP

Initially they comped me into the MPC program at Silver from *A Gold, then later that year they slid me Gold as I didn't make the Dec cut-off. I'm not so sure they would do it twice in a row, but, I guess I could ask given that as you point out I only fly revenue J (well, I class to be fair...).

RDP

midlevels

Ah one other point which I forgot is that if you fly on BA, CX Gold will allow you to select seats for free, whereas otherwise even revenue paying Business Class passengers (except full fare) need to pay to reserve seats.

Awesom Andy

Given you're flying mostly in J, then the seat guarantee for Y probably isn't of much use to you, and with mostly CX fares, you probably don't venture out to other OW partners very often. Probably not worth the extra cost or effort to retain, I think.

Cathay Boy

As others said, you're not missing much by not making GO. I wasn't GO long enough to notice any better service in-flight as I am DM, but I would venture to guess not much either.

So I wouldn't sweat it out.

Short hair Francis

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The only thing I've really noticed huge difference for Mama SHF who is a GO now vs. her SL days is the pick-up time for MPC.
Right away - 2 mins for GO, SL is like 10-20 min wait always.

And she uses the lounge benefit when flying AA in the US a good amount, those are the 2 thing I strive for maintains her status.

You won't need status for lounge though if you fly Paid J mostly

dek526

AA gives you lounge access when flying domestic in the US?? did something change?? I've flown countless times domestically on AA and have never been granted lounge access unless I'm flying internationally.

Short hair Francis

She uses her CX GO to access lounge for AA domestic.

I reckon she has more AA flight than CX these days.
Always using my EVIPs LOL

77W_12A

Being that you're CX Gold, you should have access to AA lounges on US domestic flights. I've been using the AA FL lounge at LAX on domestic flights without any problems.

dek526

interesting...do you just walk into the lounge and flash your bp for them to verify? i think i asked a while ago and the checkin agent said that they only grant lounge access when flying internationally. damn i've been screwed for the last 10 trips flying to hnl. then again the AA lounge is pretty weak as they only give you 1 drink (when i last flew to pvg).

Short hair Francis

Yes, you've been screwed the last 10 times

I wonder which LAX AAngel gave you that bullcrap.

Card + BP will do the trick.

The lounge access for int'l flying is a rule for AA Elites only.
Doesn't apply to any other Oneworld program

dek526

what a mofo!!! tx for the heads up.... will have to hit up the lounge next flight out to hnl and jfk to grab my 1 drink voucher

djday

As CX GO, you have access to OW Business class lounges:
http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/oneworld-benefits

BP only (if your CX status is already printed upon) should be fine, but I normally show my MPC card just in case. When in doubt with regards to lounge access, I would trust the knowledge of the Admiral's Club staff (who deal with access questions constantly) over the check-in staff.