American Airlines Launches AAdvantage Pass Bundle Of Miles And Status — But The $5,000 Price Tag Makes No Sense

American Airlines should do more merchandising. They should be selling more bundles. They should be packaging access to their status program, which wouldn’t just raise revenue it would also introduce more people to the benefits and get them on the hamster wheel – bought into the AAdvantage ecosystem.

Part of how you turn a money-losing flying operation into one that makes money is to figure out the offers and add-ons that your customers want, and give them the opportunity to pay for them.

So I was naturally inclined to like what American was doing with their new AAdvantage Pass™… until I saw the price. The airline now sells a package consisting of:

• 100,000 miles
  
• AAdvantage Gold status
  
• 15,000 Loyalty points

They were just selling miles for Black Friday at less than 1.9 cents apiece. They used to sell at that price regularly (and the miles were worth a bit more). I’d value the 100,000 miles at $1,300 – $1,500 but today’s price to buy 100,000 miles is $2,633.75.

This package’s cost? $5,000.00. The airline tells me,

Members can also gift the AAdvantage Pass™ — a great way to elevate travel for yourself or someone else ahead of the busy holiday season.

I don’t know. I’m not planning on giving any $5,000 Christmas gifts. But if I were thinking about how to best spend $5,000 on a loved one I’m not sure it would be this?

And the $5,000 doesn’t even come with the 40,000 Loyalty Points needed for Gold, so that it’s a real head start towards higher status. You only get 15,000 Loyalty Points!

The airline is overreaching here. Hopefully they’re learning. Maybe they’ll prove me wrong, and there are more buyers at the $5,000 price point than I think there are. I couldn’t recommend this at that price! If it doesn’t work, perhaps we’ll see a lower price or a shift in how it’s marketed.

It seems to me ‘buy 100,000 miles at regular $3,750 price and we’ll give you enough Loyalty Points for Gold status’ could be a compelling offer for some. It’s a great ‘AAdvantage starter pack’. It might generate more sales, and so be far more profitable for the airline, since a mile costs them about three-quarters of a cent.

$5,000 for this is just too much, and only 15,000 Loyalty Points is just too little. But dipping their toes into bundling and monetizing status is actually a good thing for the airline to do.