American Airlines Extends Systemwide Upgrades

Interestingly, unless they extend status I’ll be (I think) a lowly lifetime Gold with systemwide upgrades

A data point: I haven’t flown since last March, but BA keeps extending my OWE status — now until Oct 2022.

I guess most airlines will similarly extend (and especially AA because of the JV with BA).

@Ben

I checked yesterday after Viewfromthewing posted that systemwide were extended through July 31, 2022 and mine still reflected a July 31, 2021 date. So this morning after seeing your story, I checked again and they still show July 31, 2021.

So are they only extending select customers systemwide or is this being done in batches and since I earned mine in November 2019 they just haven't reached that batch yet?

What about for those individuals who have systemwides currently attached to a reservation where the flight is in the future but may need to be cancelled due to a schedule change. Will they be redeposited with the new expiration date

Same for me. I am EP now, but will only be gold (based only on million miler) if status is not extended.

Started flying again last week (seemingly with very few business travelers), but will not do enough to keep status without lots of help.

Typical lack of strategic thinking on AA’s part. Great that they are once again extending expiring SWU’s that were due to expire in 2020, but really poor thinking in how not to reward those that did travel in 2020 and requalified for EXP who have SWU’s expiring in Jan ‘21. The unintended consequences of their decisions continue to mount. I also agree that they will be forced to extend status due to lack of international travel this far in 2021. Sadly I use the word forced as opposed to proactively caring for their most loyal flyers.

Mine typo: "meaning that systemwide upgrades issued in 2019 have a longer validity than those issued in 2019"

Sorry for typo, should read that EXP’s who traveled in 2020 and have SWU’s expiring in Jan ‘22.

Terrible experience on American. Four hour delay of flight 1798 DFW to CHS which returned to DFW, 2 hours after boarding!

Captain made announcement in flight that there was a maintenance problem and he was contacting tower for assistance. He came back on and said wheels would not go up,, but since still down, heading back to DFW!

Then he announced we flew by the tower to confirm that our wheels were still down and locked!! Two hours after boarding, we landed back at DFW!

Finally 4 hours later on a plane from the hangar, we departed again. In CHS more than 4 hours late!

"upgrades issued in 2019 have a longer validity than those issued in 2019."

Second 2019 should be 2020, right?

@BJ, I'm sure you would better continue on the flight because your inconvenience is more important than safety!