Last year American AAdvantage introduced a 75,000 mile elite level between Platinum and Executive Platinum called ‘Platinum Pro’.
The name is so bad (and by the way several people on the AAdvantage team agree) that I listed changing it as one of the things American needs to do to fix the airline alongside offering saver availability and focusing on the needs of business travelers rather than the airline operation as though passengers aren’t a part of the equation.
Platinum Pro requires 75,000 miles flown or 90 segments and a minimum of $9000 in elite qualifying dollars. Platinum Pros receive an 80% bonus on earned miles from flying and unlimited complimentary domestic upgrades (rather than needing 500 mile upgrade certificates on flights 500 miles and over).
Platinum Pros now also get confirmed same day flight changes. (HT: The Forward Cabin)
That means Platinum Pro members — like Executive Platinums and ConciergeKey members — will be able to change to an earlier or later flight on the same calendar day with the same origin and destination without paying a $75 fee for US domestic trips (including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) as well as Canada and the Caribbean, and without paying the $150 fee for New York JFK – London Heathrow trips. It’s not available for other international travel.
Rules don’t allow you to change connecting cities (so those options won’t be presented online) but I’ve had success with some agents who still have the ability to do it. “E” bucket inventory has to be available on the flight you’re changing to, something you can look up yourself on day of travel using Expert Flyer.
So more people have access to same largely useless policy.
Yee-haw.
This SDC benefit on AA is pretty limited – wasn’t an easy adjustment for me coming over from UA.
I am still waiting for the day they will finally realize that imposing same routing restriction is nonsensical.
Is it within 24 hours or within the same day only? UA has the best SDC policy and it has been basically the only reason I choose UA as an elite.
@ray within 24 hours of the new flight time, but with the following restrictions:
-E must be available (it’s a separate non fare booking class akin to R for UA upgrades)
-origin and destination must be the same (no co-terminals)
-routing must be exactly the same, including connections
-must be same calendar day except for certain red eyes that departs after midnight
-number of flight sectors must be the same
So yes if you are flying on Monday but want to change to Tuesday that is not allowed. A flight can be wide open, but if there is no E inventory then you won’t be able to change to that flight.
Nearly worthless benefit for me.
i second @Ray’s comment. UA’s immensely useful SDC feature gives it a huge unspoken advantage, something that won’t show up on “feature comparison tables” between elite tiers if they think all SDC are created equal.
AA making it free is barely a change at all when considering how rarely the proper bucket will actually be available when you need them. It is as useless as the Southwest “free-standby-just-pay-fare-difference-to-full-fare-Y” benefit.
I totally agree with you guys. I just became executive platinum with AA a couple months ago. I had a flight from DTW-ORD-STL. My original layover was quite long (I think 3 hours) so I called to try and see if I can get on the earlier flight from ORD-STL especially since my DTW fight was running on time and the original STL flight was running a bit late. They help desk told me no because I couldn’t just change the second leg, I had to change the entire itinerary (ie either leave Detroit early or later) for them to be able to change my second leg of the flight. Even though it was on the same day, same connection, same terminal and they had plenty of available seats… Just nonsense
Nothing could be worse than Globalist
@WJM I didn’t have any issue, but with connection most of the time they will require that the first leg must have “E” bucket available too (if you one to change the second leg), they do not require to change the first to another time, just have E available on both legs and change only the leg you need/want.
I have used this benefit in the past and I like it, most of the time I will find E available as long there is at least more than 3 seats ( Y) available for sale. I used only when the flight I want to take is more expensive that the others on the same day, or if I see I need more or less time at the destination, is just 1 click/call away.
Now the only difference between ExP and PLT Pro is 4 swu and free redeposit miles fee, plus the lounges overseas, since now AA give you the same Flagship Lounge access as Sapphire.