With American Airlines elite upgrades becoming just as ephemeral as those on United and Delta, and with Southwest introducing lounges and making other changes to become more like American, I’m increasingly thinking that my flying and loyalty strategy changes.
- I don’t like the changes to Southwest’s business model! But they’re 41% of the departing seats out of my home airport in Austin.
- I’m an American AAdvantage Executive Platinum member and a Rapid Rewards A-List member (thanks to Chase). I’ve had good luck getting free extra legroom seats 48 hours out on Southwest, but that’s not what I’m looking for when traveling with my family.
- I’m thinking about whether I should aim for A-List Preferred status and prepare to get a new premium credit card that they will introduce with Chase.
Executive Platinum status doesn’t actually get me very much on American Airlines. I am not upgraded often. Platinum Pro status is oneworld emerald and comes with most of the benefits of Executive Platinum. And I’ve written that I believe the ‘sweet spot’ for status has become mid-tier, in American’s case mere Platinum, because that gets you:
- Confirmed extra legroom seats at time of booking
- And you still get free checked bags, check-in priority, enough boarding priority to avoid gate checking your carry-on, and some priority during irregular operations.
I do like being able to add segments to a reservation during weather, mechanical and other irregular operations events without giving up my existing flights – the ability to hold backup flights in my reservation, like an extra flight from Dallas to Austin in case I misconnect, is really helpful.
I can still try to make my original flight, without having to worry about whether there will still be seats left on a later one if I miss it. That’s supposed to be allowed for Executive Platinum and not Platinum Pro (EXPs don’t have duplicate segments auto-cancelled). But it’s not something I use more than a few times a year.
And I don’t mind an exit row aisle on a 3-hour flight with decent wifi. I just plug in, work and ignore everything around me. I’d still get free drinks if I cared about that (I don’t), the food up front isn’t that good. And being stuck in coach #15 on the upgrade list instead of #5 doesn’t change my experience.
Since it looks like Southwest will have a lounge in Austin next year maybe I really do want A-List Preferred for free extra legroom seats at booking for my family. And that may mean I need to lay off the non-business credit card applications for a bit so I can get approved for a Chase premium Southwest card with lounge access when that comes! Free extra legroom seats plus lounge access is probably what I need to make family travel easier from Austin.
Since I’m at 3.9 million lifetime miles with American I’ll soon hit Platinum Pro for life. It’s just that I still have enough ‘AActivity’ with them that I’m already at Platinum Pro for next year so I’ll still hit Executive Platinum. I just am not shooting for the 550,000 Loyalty Point Rewards level (200,000 or 250,000 is plenty).
Of course if they published ConciergeKey at 1 million Loyalty Points I’d change my strategy entirely and focus on that.
Currently there is no reason to be loyal to any airline when they now show no appreciation for us unless we spend BIG money on a seat. As we all know there are very few first or business class seats on most planes which means those seats cost less. Those are the very seats that the airlines no longer value, yet fill the majority of aircraft. Until CEO’s see value in every seat sold, which pay their salaries, loyalty by us should no longer be important.
May? We’re way past that. Domestic status is useless unless your employer is paying for it.
Since flights are generally full the airlines likely now view loyalty programs as a cost. Elites are an annoyance. Why spend money on customer retention when the seats will sell anyway? But that is a short sighted strategy. Customer acquisition costs are usually higher. And when the loyalty program is devalued, why would pax bother with airline co-branded credit cards? When that shoe drops, the airlines will find the financial waterfall of selling miles suddenly runs dry.
It’s sad, AA is such a hobbled far cry from what they used to be. Fewer and fewer reasons to have any loyalty to them.
Largely agree about Platinum being the sweet spot. Having complimentary MCE at booking is the most important status benefit for me.
This year I made the push for Platinum Pro so I could have some first class experiences on my international trips this year, but aside from that, the only real incremental upgrade from Platinum that I identified was complimentary confirmed SDFC. I didn’t push for 175k for SWUs.
Southwest doesn’t need a business model you like (it didn’t get you to fly them before!), they just need one you like more than American’s.
Sorry, correction:
Southwest doesn’t need a business model you like (it didn’t get you to spend on their credit card before), they just need one you like more than American’s!
Free seat selection on BA is a financially valuable benefit to me, as I fly a fair amount of BA Club World. But that only requires OW Emerald. And I like using AA miles to get BA saver awards. But upgrades for status are long gone everywhere.
@ Gary — Just buy whatever is fastest. Now that you are slim and trim (and I think not tall), you should be fne in a non-middle seat, especially if you learn to stop working constantly. A good friend of mine unexpectedly dropped dead at 59 last week. Think about that for a moment.
Not sure what the takeaway is here. You don’t want to chase AA status but you’re about to re-qualify for EP anyway and you’re almost PPro for life? I mean, great, no real reason to be more than PPro in the face of upgrades for tens of dollars, and you can enjoy OWE benefits on longer trips. And I’ll wager you’ll continue to keep the AA Executive Card for Admirals Club access?
And Southwest will match even AA Platinum to A-list Preferred, right? Just do 6x roundtrips in 120 days to maintain the status.
I do think the largest benefit of status at this point is extra legroom economy seating. AA has not excelled at providing copious amounts of MCE seating, but obviously has first class. Southwest is certainly committing to extra legroom seating right now, but who knows exactly what that looks like once they introduce first class?
Jeb Brooks has a Southwest “hub” hopping video out today. Less than half of his flights arrived on time. And his conclusion was that if price and schedule was similar, he’d still pick a legacy carrier. Sounds about right.
At 360k rolling 12 month Loyalty Points I get upgraded around 85% of the time. I am based in Philadelphia. The key is getting over 300k loyalty points to differentiate yourself from other EPs
The sweet spot for Southwest is a Priority or Performance credit card. Status adds very little benefit. That’s why I decided in late 2025 to book points flights only and not to pursue A-list in 2026. I had A-list Preferred since its inception but that will end on December 31. Southwest says a credit card is enough, so that’s what I will do.
@Peter — When you realize that Gary needs to post about 5-6x a day, you start to expect clickbait-y posts like this, which make little sense in reality. He’s still very much loyal to AA, even if they kicked him out of CK. (Fingers crossed that they welcome back our dear thot leader soon!)
Sure, Gary probably flies Southwest, occasionally, as it is a Texas-based airline, and he’s got more options out of Austin, than, say, DFW, which is nearly all AA. (Meanwhile, WN is hardly competitive anymore in the NYC area, only a few random destinations like MDW, STL, etc. from LGA. I’m just pleased I finally found something to use that CSR $75K $500 credit on.)
@1990 while true that DFW is dominated by AA, Dallas travelers actually have far more options in total than Austin, although it requires using Love Field which is an excellent airport. DAL is almost entirely Southwest and ranks 32 in pax traffic among USA airports. AUS is 29th (source:FAA). Incidentally, both AA and SW are headquartered in the Dallas Ft Worth metro area.
@1990 – I have very much enjoyed not responding to your idiotic garbage in general lately but your comment here was so stupid that it was just too painful to go unchallenged:
“Gary probably flies Southwest, occasionally, as it is a Texas-based airline, and he’s got more options out of Austin, than, say, DFW, which is nearly all AA.”
I suppose you do not realize that 98% of all flights out of Dallas Love Field are comprised of Southwest Airlines, with an average of over 200 daily departures. Outside of rush hour, it is about 20-25 minutes from DAL to DFW by car. So, out of Dallas in general, Gary would have far more options on Southwest than he would out of Austin, not fewer.
Glad to be of service in educating you. God knows you could use a whole lot more of it.
@Mike Hunt – wow- what a stupid thing to say! As you even quote, what 1990 said about DFW was almost exactly correct, though I might quibble and point out that AA is only 82% of DFW’s traffic- is that really all?
I suppose you are too dumb to understand that DAL and DFW are completely different airports? Book a lot of flights into NRT only to realize that your ongoing flight is out of HAN? I’d love to go on business trips with you, “Sorry, Boss, I’m going to miss the meeting because I flew into ONT instead of LAX”…
Hey friends, pardon my delay. Thank you, @What a Hunt! and @DFWSteve. And, yes, @Mike Hunt, I am aware of DAL (in addition to DFW).
@1990 – “What a Hunt!” Nice try, idiot. You f’d up, made a completely idiotic comment without thinking it through, and then you tried to cover it with a stupid fake user name. NOBODY is falling for it. At some point, you need to come to terms with the fact that your understanding of how the world works is astonishingly shallow. Within the past 24 hours, someone described your worldview as being at a middle-school level. That wasn’t an insult, it was a completely accurate assessment.
What continues to amaze me is the confidence. Most people with such little grasp of economics, incentives, or human behavior would at least have the self-awareness to hesitate before lecturing others. You seem entirely unburdened by that problem.
Honestly, watching you try to explain complex issues is like watching someone confidently give directions while holding a map upside down. It raises a genuine question: how do you navigate ordinary life? How do you make decisions, hold a job, or function independently when your judgment is this consistently detached from reality? If I learned you were operating under a conservatorship, it would explain far more than it would surprise me.
@Mike Hunt — Believe it or not, @What a Hunt! was not me. As for the rest, textbook projection.
I wouldn’t touch WN with a barge pole right now, given all of the issues with seat selection going missing and aggressive seat enforcement (even when common sense dictates otherwise).
Now, if AA published CK at 1m LPs? I’d park my spending there, run almost all of my business’s points across their AA card, and actually start crediting paid AA flights to AA*. But that – and the contingent lounge, etc. access would be the price of me ditching DL.
*This has become a bit of a bad joke – I’ve credited exactly one paid trip to AA because the lounge access provided by anyone not based in North America is substantially better.
I’ll add to this – on the one hand, I have a good idea of when I’ll get upgraded and when I won’t. But I think there might be a point to some programs giving you some incentive for straight premium booking and/or waiving your upgrade list spot. If they’re going to sell 90% of F/J, then something like explicit bonus miles/status qualification for just paying up front (DL is sort-of flirting with this with the “Extra” category) seems like a path that should be explored. Another thing I’d be down for is additional guaranteed upgrade certificates/coupons/whatever as an optionn in lieu of “unlimited complementary upgrades”.