Casey Neistat is a well known YouTuber. That’s not to say that I know who he is, but he does have over 2.5 million subscribers on, so I feel pretty safe making that statement.
I’ve seen a couple of his videos in the past, as they pertain to American Airlines. For example, back in 2013 he uploaded a video entitled “Free Business Class Upgrades, everytime.” As someone knowledgable about miles & points you won’t learn anything new, but when geared at the average consumer, it’s pretty well done:
I was just made aware that today Casey uploaded a video entitled “breaking up is hard to do,” which is about him losing his Concierge Key status. For those of you not familiar, Concierge Key is American’s invitation only status level.
Here’s the video, starting at the 3min26sec mark, where he starts talking about American:
For those of you not interesting in watching, I’ll briefly recap the video.
He explains how he has been an American Concierge Key for a couple of years. Back then they got in touch with him and told him they appreciated all the nice things he has said about them, and gave him Concierge Key. And then just recently they contacted him and told him he wouldn’t have his status renewed, as it’s review on an annual basis. He’s terribly offended by this:
“And it’s not like I don’t earn it. Last year I flew the equivalent of around the planet five times, and with very few exceptions, I didn’t get on a plane unless it was American Airlines.”
Five times around the world is 120,000 miles. So what he really earned was Executive Platinum, which is American’s top published elite tier. Though my guess is he didn’t even earn 100,000 elite qualifying miles, as I’m guessing many of those miles were award tickets, and he also says some of those miles were on other airlines.
But he feels he deserves Concierge Key because he also says nice things about the airline. When he explained this to them, they apologized, and said that he doesn’t spend enough money with American. And that makes him realize that American is just another money hungry corporation, and doesn’t have a soul or heart:
“See I thought, naively, that American was a real company with like a soul and a heart, and they’re just another money hungry corporation.”
Presumably if he actually flew American the equivalent of five times around the world on revenue tickets, he’d still be Executive Platinum. But since he feels American “dumped him,” he’s instead trying to find a new airline, and vlogs about his trip on JetBlue.
Alrighty then…
Bottom line
I’ve known that American gives Concierge Key to some people who don’t spend enough to otherwise earn it (either because they’re celebrities, responsible for big corporate contracts, social influencers, etc.). And I’m sure the airline gets a lot of lip service in return.
But what we’re seeing here is quite interesting — American’s generosity and attempt to generate good PR seems to have backfired, as Casey (rather ridiculously, in my opinion) seems to think he’s entitled to Concierge Key for life because he says nice things about them.
Where do you stand on this?
(Tip of the hat to @MikeScottX)
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