In March 2023, American Airlines rolled out a new program called ”Enhance with Miles,” which gives elite members the opportunity to gift elite status for a day… at a cost, and with quite a few catches. I wanted to provide an update, as American has just informed me that it has lowered the mileage redemption…
Continue reading: American Airlines “Status For A Day” Feature: Worth It?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The AA board of directors doesn’t need status for a day. They need to be a customer for a day. They’d immediately fire all AA execs.
I think they lowered them for the set expiring in 2026, I see that the new Gold gift for a day is 5,000 miles in my account now but last year's is still 15,000
Have been underwhelmed by AC status pass. Gifted AC Super Elite status to a friend last week, but they got very few of the benefits. They got one extra bag (to be fair, they had already paid for two) and AC lounge access. They didn’t get free seat selection (not included with status pass), any waitlist for upgrade (not included with status pass) or Conceirge assistance when the flight was cancelled (presumably also not for status pass). Free but underwhelming; but I would pay for a status pass that gives status benefits
@ Jon -- Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Do you (or anyone else) mind sharing the amounts for the other status tiers as well, beyond Gold? Appreciate it! 🙂
Delta (and Marriott) also allow gifting status to others (for a year) through their Choice Benefits programs.
How about earning miles to lose status for a day? a week? a month? I’d do that.
I get what your saying, but to me it makes complete sense that the only benefits are all before you get on the plane. You get business check in, security priority, extra bags and lounge access and priority boarding. There is no differnece bettwen 50k, 75k or 100k status passes, its all one status pass.
Do you get the higher level of points earning of the temporary tier? I was thinking about doing this before a long haul trip (but later learned, as you pointed out, that it wasn’t good on BA metal). My rationale was simply that gift high status to someone who otherwise has none could come out in the wash if they’re getting 11X points per dollar.
What an incredibly worthless and expensive benefit to offer. So you can gift someone EP status and it will move them up on the upgrade standby list from 35 to maybe 8. Worthless…..totally worthless. I am so glad I got off the AA hamster wheel. They’ve ruined what was a pretty good program that drove a lot of loyalty to a carrier who, frankly, didn’t deserve it.
Airlines run on very thin margins with large costs (leases, union labor, fuel, high taxes...). For the amount people are willing to pay for a ticket, the legacy three are doing a pretty good job with the revenue they collect.
My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that the status pass also moves you to roughly 50K status on the waitlist for upgrades.
ben, here's what's showing for the other levels for the set expiring in 2026:
platinum: 8,000
platinum pro: 12,000
executive platinum: 20,000
so can you use this to get into lounges. For example can i gift myself Platinum pro on a day i'm flying Qatar out of LAX and go enjoy the Qantas First lounge? Or can I gift my wife platinum status on a day 4 of us are flying out of T3 in LHR and we can all go lounge hopping and each bring a guest? You could come up with lots more examples.
As a longtime EP on AA, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually got upgraded on 2 of 4 flights last week. I will say that 1 of those didn't clear until I was already sitting in Main Cabin, and that was because #1 on the list didn't show up....AND HE WAS AN ON DUTY PILOT!!! I still literally cannot believe that Pilots are getting upgraded above loyal customers. It's literally the worst policy ever done by any company. Very, very frustrating as a loyal customer to see an employee get a seat you are eligible for.
The article expressly stated that the benefit is only usable on flights operated by AA itself. Your LAX example would not work. Your LHR T3 example, assuming an AA flight, would work. You just need to ensure that the boarding pass reflects the tier status.
Or maybe to make those higher up than you on the upgrade list lose their status for a day…
I'm gifting gold status to a person who doesn't have any status - in essence, they get a better check-in experience and don't have to pay for the bags that they were planning on checking (3 people in her party, each with 1 checked bag). Saves them $120 and only costs me 5k miles. A nice little bene for them.
The biggest benefit of Exec Platinum for a day is that you get 120% of the base status miles for that trip. I spent 40k miles for 2 passes on a recent trip in business class to Europe. I earned an additional 10000ish status miles (as well as the "net price" of the upgrade being 30k) which is much more valuable to me. AA is asking almost $3k to upgrade your status for the year, so this seems like a really good value if you need those miles to jump a level. One World Emerald appeared on my BA connecting flight boarding pass (bought as an AA code share, not sure if a separate BA ticket would have got this) so I got access to BA first lounge at LHR. Status appeared in my AA app several days before I departed and expired a couple of days after. I was wondering if that's how they use the existing system to implement the status upgrade benefit? It's possible you might get "free" status perks for additional flights if you have a trip with flights on adjacent days.
I think it works by giving you the upgraded status for a limited period. Your status changes in your AA account a few days before your "booked" day and expires a few days after. I guess that way you get added to the upgrade process automatically by their systems at the appropriate window. They have been doing temporary status match things for years so this is probably easy. The only exception they seem to have added is you can't use the temporary status to get a lounge membership discount.
Yes you do. And they are status miles. It's the most valuable benefit if you are flying on a high $ ticket.
So....bought this upgrade to EP in advance, TransAtl flight. Day of travel I'm 8 on priority list, only 2 open seats. There had been 11 Business seats 7 fays earlier when purchased with points. since in coach, charged for second bag. NO UPGRADE, Already a lounge member, not usefull Day Of. NO BENEFIT AT ALL, NOT EVEN A MEAL, lost points.
Sat in paid AA First by a pilot in normal clothes, noticed his chart case going overhead and ziplocked cap. Asked if he was deadheading: shocked he grimaced and pretended to take a call. I thought to myself-diden't they use to jump seat?
I'm interested in using the Hyatt AAdvantage Platinum Pro® status for a day.
12000 Hyatt points.
From what I read this should also get me into lounges that are part of one world.
I'm keen on checking out the Qatar first class lounge in Doha. Will this status work?
And, what date would I select? I'm departing on February 18 out of LAX and arriving in Doha on February 19 and then departing Doha February 20th.
Any idea if this would work using just 1 pass?
Do you earn the Platinum Pro AAdvantage points flight multiplier on the “status for a day” benefit?
How does the program deal with the fact that dates are different all over the world? For exampke, if I gift someone my status for the date of June 5, does it need to be June 5 in DFW (AA HQ), ORD (my home), Tokyo (where my friend could be trying to use it), or anywhere in the world?KTCHI