Another Year On The Executive Platinum Hamster Wheel...

If all elites like yourself would stop buying FC seats then you'd get it for free....like it used to be. Fools chasing status and not even getting regular upgrades anymore. Joke's on you!

I'm a loyal (hostage?) Delta flyer being based in ATL. But this year I earned AA Gold status without knowing...mostly through shopping portals, a little CC spend, and one AA flight I was able to secure this prestigious status ;). But it has me thinking that maybe I will go for a "real" level of status just by pushing a bit more CC spend to my AA card and maybe adding another AA card to get a sign-up bonus to juice my return-on-spend to do it. Delta pushing up their Diamond MQD requirement from $15k to $20k is also getting me to think about alternatives.

I was short about 12,000 loyalty points for Ex Plat. Fortunately I found a hotel in Tampa on bookaahotels.com that offered 15,000 points for a two night stay. A quick weekend trip to Tampa took care of the problem.

AA knew you would be back, the game is too fun not to play. The protection it gives you and your family at your home airport is also worth it.

The cool thing about loyalty points for me, was that I could not worry about flying AA across the oceans but still make EP with some flying, portals, rocketmiles and $40k spend for 50k LPs on the Citi AA card. I barely traveled for work (3 trips) and was done by the end of November. Being hub captive like yourself, I don't see any incentive to change.

I am one segment short of 30 and gave up this close. But I was able to get Platinum Pro with credit card and shopping portal spend since flying would be inconvenient with the time left.

I earned 302,629 loyalty points in 2022 but flew 28 segments, two shy of 30 segments. I have been EP for over 20 years and always earned systemwide upgrade stickers every year for my flying. This is the only year (under the new system) that I won’t be receiving systemwide upgrade stickers.

I follow the points/miles game every day but I can't for the life of me see how airline status is valuable for most people in 2023. If youre flying regularly for business, I totally get it, but upgrades are nearly non existent with the push to monetize revenue and especially for people like Ben that are hub captive to one domestic airline.

For someone that gets on a plane maybe a dozen times a year, its so much easier to pick the flights with the best schedule/price for paid tickets and not think twice. Transferrable points let me get wherever I need in business/first on redemptions, so wasting brain power on crappy status seems silly.

1) I simultaneously made sure I hit 30K points for Gold with some credit card spending, and I am on a Hyatt status pass match for Platinum right now. AA is purely secondary but I will continue to engage with it as they have a lot of options out of LGA/JFK.

2) In your case, I'm not sure what Executive Platinum gets you. You seem like you are doing well enough to confirm first class, either through miles or cash, wherever you fly. For business travelers, higher level of status gets you a chance at an upgrade on a domestic leg, higher earnings on flights, etc. That stuff seems like it matters less for you nowadays

Elites aren't necessarily the ones buying first class

I think AA has significantly downgraded EP status. I moved to United last year, doing a status match and by the end of the year getting rid of my citi admiral club card for Venture X. Because my decision to leave was later in the year, I easily qualified. However, here is what is poor, first, group one is now at least 20 to 25% of the plane, 2 forget about upgrades doesn't happen (though I get it from the airline stand point) and 3. and worst, the ep line is always a massive wait, I mean hours and hours, you can't just call and get help. United seems to want to make it more rewarding to be 1K. In fact, I may not make it, because while I'm a good customer, 54 segments is a lot.

Getting free Main Cabin Extra is valuable to me -- it's worth, to me, anywhere from like $25-50 on short domestic flights and a good bit more on long-haul international flights, and it's usually priced higher than that. If you fly a lot internationally, each visit to international first/business lounges afforded by status is also worth something non-negligible. Free checked bags are also valuable, and they can be obtained with credit cards but with status, you can forgo the $95 fee or whatever.

So there are tangible benefits that you could put a real cash value on. That said, I agree it can be annoying to try to fly the airline you're loyal to, but typically an airline or two are so dominant in particular airports that if you have a preferred airport to fly out of (like I do with Reagan/American), you rack up a lot of flights with them.

I'm not even ex-splat, just plat pro, and I've been getting about 70% upgrades clearing this year (over about 35 segments). It's very route and time-of-day dependent but I've heard from ex-splats that have 95% upgrade success (and others with under 50%). The upgrades are there if you're on the right routes.

Sorry, that was intended as a reply to an adjacent comment.

I'm not even ex-splat, just plat pro, and I've been getting about 70% upgrades clearing this year (over about 35 segments). It's very route and time-of-day dependent but I've heard from ex-splats that have 95% upgrade success (and others with under 50%). The upgrades are there if you're on the right routes.

I think this is right. i do fly a lot, and I do have a choice airline, but I won't too much wiggling to make it work like I used to. To me the only benefit is the help line, when you are at the airport and there is an issue, being able to get help right away is important. But AA has not been able to do this.

In theory, the big benefit of status for a Want First? Buy First flyer is IROPS handling.

The big travel trend of the past few years is leisure/bleisure (WFH paying their way to a company get-together) flyers with no status deciding to buy F.

Why rich people worry about status on airlines I don't understand. You can just buy any business class flight with cash for same benefits.

Time is more valuable.

I should say, if you get on a plane less than a dozen times a year, then yes, airline status simply cannot be that valuable no matter how great the status is, so I agree with your perspective on that. As others have said, it's really not true that upgrades have become nearly non-existent; if they clear 50% or even 25% of the time that still represents some real value if you fly somewhat regularly.

307,384 Loyalty Points, out of which 248K from actual flying AA/OW

I am platinum going to gold now and I will miss main cabin extra for my family of five, although I have moved out of the USA so less exciting. Priority security and check in also good. Don’t really care about boarding early.

Ultimately I am much more focused on buying points, eg simply miles (wish I’d bought $20k worth), Alaska, LifeMiles and occasionally United or American. Gets me flying biz for roughly 1-1.2k$ for long haul one ways which I’m happy with.

Also credit card points although that now sucks being in oz.

You can earn MQD by booking Hotels and Car Rentals thru Delta

I could see it with car rentals, the value of elite vehicle status isn't all that high. Hotel loyalty can be worth something still though and you won't get nights without booking through the hotel chain directly.

I qualified for status for the first time in my life last year on AA (AA Gold), due to the reduced requirements because of the pandemic as well as the 16 month window to earn them. I was actually only 1500 EQMs away from Platinum status, but I wasn't able to do a mileage run last year. Meanwhile, in the past year, I've done 3 round-trips to the other side of the world in Qatar's Economy Class (credited to AA), as well as a round-trip summer trip to Toronto from Miami in First Class (which is more flying than I did last year in terms of distance). But I still only got 17,000 Loyalty points, and I need 13,000 more to earn Gold Status! If it were under the old program, I would have qualified for gold, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

But I did get an operational upgrade on Qatar into Business Class on a 3 hour flight back in October because of my status, which was incredible!

What exactly is a segmetns 😀

EXP status still has some value but from an upgrade prospective it's a far cry from what it is was and that won't change absent an economic meltdown-which you may be victim of. I'm flying the 772 LAX/MIA redeye tonight, number 2 on the list and the AC staff tells me there's a mileage upgrade ahead of me. Which means I'm top of the list from a status/complimentary upgrade prospective. Absent a couple no shows/misconnects I will be enjoying the evening in 14L. At least a PE seat.

Starting 3/1/2023, segment count is irrelevant. You are welcome.

I had to give up chasing hotel status in order to pip EP, by design. RM/BAAH made this very feasible suddenly.

For me I travel for pleasure and moderately for work, and the ground experience makes it so worth it for me. The first class check-in and lounge access for myself and then for myself and my partner when we travel together is super valuable, greatly reducing "standing in line" and "curb to gate" time, my least favorite things.

Between free best seats for us on economy tickets across OW airlines, lounge and food and the crucial times that I've gotten help from lounge agents for problems , it's made it a must-have for me. Even after having moved from the US to the UK.

But then again, I live in a hub city with regular visits to other oneworld destinations on other oneworld airlines and would probably be happy enough just being Emerald. But I've just come back from a multi-hop trip across the states and have had luck in getting every leg upgraded, including on Alaska to and from Hawaii, and using a systemwide for the long haul between London and Phoenix - I feel like I continue to get great value being EP!

I just flew round trip to LAX this last week on 4 segments. I have Gold status and surprisingly I was upgraded to 1st on two of those segments, one to LAX from DFW.

Ha Ben, had to laugh when I read this post. Saturday I was doing a quick turn to in order to cinch up 30 segments. I’m a new AA elite this year - I have been an Alaska elite for many years. Rationality aside, I’m looking forward to 1) not having a segment requirement this year 2) being able to achieve one world emerald regardless of how much I fly with AA/partners. Emerald really is nice when doing international travel.

I have the opposite problem. I'll make the 54 segments pretty easily, but my weakness is PQPs. A lot of my flights are shorter and cheaper (the bane of flying out of Chicago). I had no issue during the pandemic reaching the PQP total, but 18000 is going to be a bit of a stretch for me this year, even with the free 2500 PQPs UA gave out. I may need a mileage run or two on a very expensive short route with a quick turnaround.

I had the "opportunity" to keep Bilt United silver status and buy AA status for 2023. Each would have cost me about $1500. Figure that is a lot of economy plus upgrades I can just pay for if I want.

Good hustle Ben ! You hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer.

I was off my game this year and am down to Gold. Hopefully platinum next year. Based in an outstation ; Houston so the difference between being Gold and Platinum is getting upgraded 5% of the time vs 15% of the time. I still enjoy early boarding , seat selection , and accelerated earnings so elite status is good.
I had some great stays with Hilton this year and using Hilton Honors but moving forward Rocketmiles is the way to go. 2022 was not good. I ended with only 65,560 LPs. Pathetic. 2023 will be better.

I made exec plat this year-- mostly spend and portal. I hacked it hard last year because -- well it was a game. . Notably gift cards.com which seems to be shut down. Honestly not sure if I will have a chance in heck to make it this year without gift cards.com. Should I redo the swill wine clubs? Buy more dental impressions etc. Was this just a one time game that maybe got a little boring. I mean im already exec plat so im sure my motivation for achieving this again in 2023 will be....well, flat. Until Im not exe plat in 2024 and then maybe I'll be motivated to try again.

I easily made EXP this year through flying and purchased airfare only. Biggest benefit for me is getting rerouted in the event of cancellations and misconnects.

It was a smart move for AA to go to Loyalty Points. I got into the game and earned Plat Pro and was only 20K from ExPlat but thought it wasn't worth the spend as One World Emerald is what I wanted. I had flown 28 segments By Feb and had 4 short flights that I thought would get me over the "30 segment" hump until I realized that the fare class on Malaysian Air were not "qualified flight" segments for AA. For a measly $50 I upgraded fare class in economy and the flights became "qualified". The agent in KL got a kick out of my explanation as to why I would pay $50 for what appeared to her to be "nothing". Having Emerald status on One World does give lounge privileges which is the benefit of status I value most.

In regards to call center time I always use the AA chat function. Usually get someone pretty quickly and find it easier to type questions (eg can you book me on QF11) rather than talking. Usually get someone within a few minutes.

Only EXP get free upgrades on award tix, and you can share it with a companion even if they're on a different PNR. That's a big benefit. I also think SWUs are incredibly valuable. Sure, they're not always confirmable when you search, but that's what expert flyer is for. I always use all of mine. Maybe I'm weird, but exp is as good to me now as it's ever been.

Well I am just off of a segment run to hit 30 segments and the SWU. I earned the 200k points a while ago. Just booked web special awards with 2 connections each way and I am done. Who know what this year will hold. Need to reevaluate.

Will we get a trip report for this too??

I decided to stop at Platinum Pro. Same considerations but different conclusion from you. SUVs used to be great, but have now become mostly a source of stress and frustration, at least on the international routes I tend to fly.

Darn, I didn't notice that my autospell program had changed SWU to SUV above! Please edit if possible.

I would argue that earning 22% more RDMs is among the biggest features of EXP over PRO.

So did you pick the miles as a perk. I was tempted by the upgrades but then the realization set in that you just get 3. Not 4 like they used to give. Sucks. I took the miles

Was at 275k points and 26 segments with one trip left so I ended up routing with a connection instead of direct. All points were from travel no spend. Nice to see I’m not the only hamster on the wheel.

you deserve at least the Emerald status

Yup, I fly weird routes and get upgraded probably 80% of the time as a challenge earned PPro with very low rolling LPs

Ended with 282K LP. Segments in the 50's. I have been finding when traveling on non-peaks times I have mostly been #1 on the upgrade list. And have cleared with a companion sometimes 4 days out. And I have gotten upgraded on reward ticket to Hawaii.

So ExPlat has been good for me. On UA as 1K I find that I can be way down the upgrade list with all the GS.

With the 30 segments gone, I bet Ben keeps going for EXP and will shift spending to AA cards.

I have to agree that the AA Exec Platinum status doesnt hold as much value anymore. I live in DFW so I dont really have a choice when it comes to flying (at not if I want to try to get there in as few hops). Have been AA Exec Plat since 1998 - 25yrs. And it used to be reasonably easy getting systemwide upgrades for my international flights - until 2021 I never had any systemwides wasted including when I hit 2M, 3M, 4M and 5M miles. However in 2021, I was able to use 5 of 8 upgrades and in 2022 only 1 of 6. I was put on the waitlist each time and its not like I fly during peak seasons - most of my flights are in Oct - Mar. Also I have logged in and searched for alternate flights 2-3 days before and after, but never is anything available even when first/business class is 0% occupied. Anyway my work is nice enough to pay business for international travel so I have started to explore some other airlines (ex Turkish Airways, Air Canada) even if it means a stop over.

You made it. I was well more than 10 years ExPlat. But when they announced 2023 hurdles, that snapped it. I give up. The more we stretch the more they will make us stretch. It was fun until these last few years, and beneficial. Now it becomes, to me anyway, the rigged casino. I had been splitting flights AA and Alaska. Alaska stayed sane. Not greedy. Also OneWorld. So I will still fly on AA, but with the other guys. I wanted badly to stay on, but they broke me. I would have had to invent segments and stay in hotels or take flights that just were too much added cost and twisting away my own hotel loyalty plans. Good for you. AA wins. I am done chasing a carrot that is now on a stick, one I cannot reach. Disappointed with AA. Loyalty goes both ways. Oh, and they did not send me any $ offers to make it. Enjoy!

Just getting home from my 2 segment run on 2/28. SMF to PHX and back. Lol

If I fly one airline often enough I may consider working to get the lowest premium status to get the benefits that are important to me. Problem is 1) you could have had a better return charging those charges to other cards and 2) the points are constantly devaluing.

Same. I ended this cycle with 291k LP and roughly 40 segments. I received upgrades on every domestic flight and had no issues using 6 SWUs internationally (save for that August 31st phone jam, when my "lost" SWU was later returned). So I'd say I'm pleasantly surprised by how things went.

I actually entered the year thinking I'd have trouble requalifying, because I don't have or want any AA credit cards. But the hotel booking sites came to the rescue. They can be pretty lucrative when the rates aren't wacky.

I got 5 SWUs: 1 for reaching PlatPro and 4 (2 x 2 choices) for reaching EXP. This new cycle is where they're getting stingy with the SWU thresholds.

As a CK member at AA for the last 7 years and EXP and “chairman preferred” on USAir for 20+ years before that. I am both happy and surprised by the new program. Sure, I qualified for EXP with 237k LPs as of yesterday, but that was mostly through credit card spending. I just don’t fly as much anymore in the post covid era with mainly zoom calls. It still says, CK on the AA app and it does not have an expiration date, so I have no idea if they let me keep the CK status this year (don’t expect to).

So happy to keep EXP at least, but totally in the dark on next (2023) years CK renewal…

If you lived the status, it would make more sense to you. It's not the same. It's meant to earn your loyalty and a well planned program does that very effectively.

I've requalified until March 2024. Happens in May last year itself!!!

Moved to an AA hub city and picked up exec platinum. How is it possible that AA consistently tells me I need to call reservations to make a change to my flights and then has a several hour hold times for their exec platinum line?! The airline is a joke, if I weren’t forced to I’d happily never fly it again…

I agree, the lower tiers are a better bang for your buck. Stop at either 75k or 125k.

Invest the time and money elsewhere.

Wish I had seen this before 2/28. Missed exp by 39 k loyalty points.

Can we just agree that the new program is awful for us? If you are a corporate flyer and must use their cc for purchases, it’s really a sham especially as domestic first class outside of a MIA or JFK to LAX isn’t really first class. Pre flight beverages are offered 20% of the time. The snacks on anything short of 2.5 segments is the same basic stuff. internet should be free instead of the $59 I spend a month as should Admirals Club which is roughly $50 a month more. The 120 segments with spend was a fair system for their most loyal customers

I had my executive platinum renewal wrapped up by early February only to see it derailed by phenomenally ineffective AA customer support, forcing me to qualify by wasting $1449 dollars on another ticket on February 28. I used my AAdvantage Executive Platinum Card to make purchases on the AAdvantage Eshopping site where I received not only the 1 mile per dollar from the card but also a range of 12 to 25 miles per dollar for purchases and one $79 purchase for 6,200 miles. Similar to Ben, I needed one inexpensive trip to bring my 29 segments to 30.

One 15 miles per dollar vendor has failed do post my January 28 purchase worth about 15,000 miles. I did numerous calls, chats, and emails multiple times to each of these customer support entities: AA EShopping, Executive Platinum Support, AAdvantage Customer Service, AA Customer Relations, and the vendor. Nothing has been resolved. I inconveniently delayed my segment trip, wondering whether I would have to make it cost $1,500 dollars instead of about $300. Finally on February 27, I did the segment trip for $362 and booked a $1449 trip for late afternoon February 28 in case the 15,000 mile Eshopping purchase might post at the last minute in time to cancel it. I had to take that flight.

I was assured numerous times that even if the 15,000 mile purchase posted weeks after February 28, it would still count as a January 28 transaction. I did not want to trust that advice after 31 days of repeated support failures. What if some unknown glitch asserted that that transaction is ineligible. Ben, do you know whether I have any way to get compensated for my wasted time and money.

I’ve been flying AA since 1995 and can tell you that I get no benefit from loyalty. Recently I flew to Europe and went United/Lufthansa which would have been unheard of a few years ago. There is no upgrades ever because they value CC spending now more than butts in seats. They have really watered down the elite experience to the point where it makes no sense to make concessions to convenience in the name of loyalty points or segments. They have destroyed the product.

Call and they will push you over. They did it for me a couple of years ago!

Not 39k. That's 20% of the total!

This year was a 14 month window, not 16.

Systemwide are never called "stickers." The latter refer to 599 mile domestic upgrades.

500 not 599

The sign-up bonuses do NOT earn Loyalty Points.

Why would one pay their own way to a work event???

I have executive platinum status on American which expires on March 1st. I have 146,584 loyalty points> I anticipate adding an additional 23,000 before March 1st. Total around 169,000. Will American let me reach executive with a cash payment.

Do you have other suggestions??