FlyerTalk Forums - Admirals Club and TWA Ambassadors Club

This is a copy of a letter which I sent to Mr. Donald Carty, Chairman and CEO, American
Airlines. You may want to send or post your opinions, too.

April 30, 2001

Mr. Donald Carty
Chairman and CEO
American Airlines
P.O. Box 619616
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616

Dear Mr. Carty,
I was very pleased to learn that American Airlines has acquired TWA. I'm sure that this transaction was the result of extensive research and planning by your management team. However, I just became aware of a proposed Admirals Club membership policy which, I believe, will be difficult to communicate to your potential TWA customers and which may, in fact, make it more difficult for American to attract TWA's top tier business travelers.

According to the Admirals Club office, they do not plan to admit lifetime members of TWA's Ambassadors Club beyond 2003. As you may recall, when United acquired Pan Am's routes, they welcomed former Clipper Club lifetime members into their Red Carpet Clubs on the same lifetime basis. While I'm sure this was a considerable expense, it resulted in loyalty and patronage by Pan Am's top business travelers.

The Admirals Club office offered me a legal explanation of their proposed policy which quoted lawyers and spoke of "acquiring only selected assets" with "other assets remaining part of the TWA estate." I hope you will agree that, while they may be accurate, such explanations will not be well received by travel industry publications or the TWA traveling public.

May I please suggest that you ask the Admirals Club management team to reconsider this policy. I suspect that the cost of extending Admirals Club benefits to a number of TWA lifetime members would be quickly offset by the ongoing revenue stream from these elite travelers.