American Airlines Drops Executive Platinum Buy Back Price – Again

by Gary Leff

News notes from around the interweb:

  • Land side shops at DFW airport aren’t doing much business and will be allowed to exit their leases or limit their hours.

  • The first Loren Hotel in the U.S. is coming to Austin with views of Town Lake from every room.

  • As China’s debt-laden HNA Group sheds assets they want to keep the aviation businesses. If you want to understand how they grew so quickly, snatching up assets and major shares in companies like Hilton and Deutsche Bank, look no further than the relationship with HNA Chairman Chen Feng and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.

  • Australia’s government says loyalty program terms are confusing and programs use data in ways consumers don’t realize or like (in practice though most people give their consent for a few miles…).

  • Expedia’s CEO is out, here’s what may have gone wrong.


    Expedia Employees Wish Departing CEO Goodbye Through Dance, credit: Flickr: Juggernautco

  • As I’ve continued to fly, American has again lowered the price they’re asking for me to buy back my Executive Platinum status. Last year they went from $2645 to $1895. This year my price started at $2695 and is now down to $1445. I have another trip on American booked, that’ll push me over the top, so I don’t need to do this. But as I get closer to re-qualifying the prices are getting less and less crazy (though I have less and less need).

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Why buy back Executive Plat when you will be at the very bottom of the upgrade list? Your low EQDs will put you at rock bottom of the list. Doesn’t make sense anymore.

  2. RE: Expedia management changes

    Expedia is currently in the process of moving 4,500 employees from the Seattle burbs to the Seattle waterfront north of downtown. The new campus reportedly had a cost of $900 million. That project did begin in 2015 however.

  3. Jeez. I’m Platinum Pro until Feb next year but have only just now qualified for Gold in 2020. My offer is the same price – $1445 – but for Plat.

    I think I’ll pass.

  4. +1 Danny’s comments

    I’ve been EP for a few years now and my current 2019 YTD stats are 157k EQM’s and $19k EQD’s. Even with that amount (not just barely qualifying) I have been upgraded on only 15% of my segments. I’ve had more success internationally, but that requires careful study and monitoring of the number of available seats and they typically clear close to departure time (and I also burn a SWU certificate).

    Last week I was #7 and #9 on the list to/from LAX to Boston , this week I was upgraded on only one segment of four (and the segment I was upgraded on was not crowded with 3 others upgraded).

    Upgrades used to be a regular thing – even as Platinum – but AA has cut the number of F seats from 20 to 16, which makes a huge (negative) difference. It will be interesting to see if United and Delta begin to add an additional row of F seats. That would be a compelling reason for me to switch, particularly as I’m looking for another option with the Oasis retrofit. Hope they kill that, but don’t expect that to happen unless there is a management change (likely only after it fails and they lose business travel customers like myself).

  5. @DTG I was platinum on United this year and just did a review…I’ve been upgraded 35% of the time! (Including 4 segments where I used upgrade certificates…) Probably depends where you’re flying, premium transcon is a tough market. But I’m based in Denver so for business travelers it’s the only real game in town.

  6. I am currently Platinum but only $250 EQD from Platinum Pro. They offered me Platinum Pro for $1450 a few weeks ago which I, of course, ignored. Yesterday they dropped the asking price to $450.

  8. Well that’s great that they’re offering to cut the price of renewing your elite status! I am currently a platinum and have been upgraded To first or business about 90% of the time. I am only $440 away from requalifying for platinum once again. They offered me to re-purchase my status for another year as a platinum for $545. I would have definitely re-purchased the status however I do have a flight to Paris coming up in about a week. I think it’s awesome how American Airlines allows us to re-purchase our status at a reasonable price. I have noticed that some prices are not that reasonable and they are asking for too much. Based on what I have seen and heard from other blogs, the re-purchasing of the status is great for some people and not so good for others. In my case it would have been a great idea since I do get upgraded often as a platinum. Now that many people have not re-qualify for the higher status that they were used to, this is now going to allow me a greater chance for the upgrade. Many of my executive platinum friends who have jumped ship and have transitioned over to Delta and JetBlue are now achieving gold status on American Airlines which means I will be bumped up on the list higher than they will.

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