American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

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VoiceOfReason
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Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 5:54 pm

American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by VoiceOfReason »

American Airlines just completely changed their status program. Going from a combo of miles, segments and dollars to strictly loyalty points that are earned by a combination of $ per ticket, cabin, and status.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thepointsg ... oints/amp/

I’m typically gold status currently, usually do 15-20 round trip flights per year. As gold status I occasionally get upgraded to first class. (~10-20% of the time) after using 500 mile awards.

One of the best perks to me is the upgrade to first class. The new program counts base spend on an AA branded credit card toward status achievement. If I did all my annual spend, plus travel on an AA branded cc I could get platinum pro status and upgraded to first 80-90% of the time.

However, the AA cards do not have great bonus accelerator categories like many of the other travel credit cards out there.

My question is does it make sense to go all-in on an AA branded credit card for all my annual spend to get status? Is anyone else considering doing something like that now that AA has changed the program?
dbr
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Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2007 8:50 am

Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by dbr »

See discussion here if you are not already reading FT: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/america ... tatus.html
DrGrnTum
Posts: 190
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Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by DrGrnTum »

Dr. of Credit also has a review on this.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/american ... -extended/

Scroll down to the end of his write-up and you can follow the discussions on what people think.

I frankly would not put all my spend on one card.
I put my everyday spend on cards that earn me Chase Ultimate reward points.
Chase Sapphire, Freedom and Freedom unlimited.
I can pool these points and they are a lot more flexible to use.
I also supplement my reward point total by signing up for new cards that offer a big sign up bonus.

The simplicity of one card does work for many.
You just need to decide if using one card meets your needs.
64415
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Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by 64415 »

I read through the details, and while I can easily achieve the top platinum status based on credit card spend, I would still have to fly 30 segments to unlock the benefits of the tier I achieved with credit card spending. That is a pretty tall order for the pure leisure traveler.
MBB_Boy
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Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by MBB_Boy »

Status is worthless if you don't have 500 mile awards - its why I hate the AA system and typically fly elsewhere.

Was excited to hear about a revamp, but it they are keeping that obnoxious practice then ill continue to pass
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ResearchMed
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Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by ResearchMed »

MBB_Boy wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:56 pm Status is worthless if you don't have 500 mile awards - its why I hate the AA system and typically fly elsewhere.

Was excited to hear about a revamp, but it they are keeping that obnoxious practice then ill continue to pass
Yeah.

DH has lifetime Platinum status on AA, but it's not worth all that much anymore, as far as I can tell, and this doesn't seem to change much.
Thus far, we've only used AA points on partner airlines anyway.

The one place we *have* used that status in when getting AA awards tickets on partner airlines, and it can sometimes allow us access to preferred seating areas, for example. It was that way on Cathay Business class, to get into that little sort of private Business section right behind F, with only 2 rows I think. One of those times, we managed to end up instead with two F tickets, which apparently isn't very likely nowadays. Not that there's anything wrong with CX J. :happy

But unless I'm missing something, that "status" isn't particularly useful. It's the awards points/miles that matter.
AM I missing anything, for someone who already has lifetime status and does *not* fly much AA to get actual flight credits?

IF adding more miles to DH's card would be useful, I could stop using mine and we could put all AA card spending on his, but it doesn't seem likely. And we often use (er, "used" in The Pre-Plague Days) Amex points as well.
Now, we'll be adding Chase points, but it's going to take us quite a while to rip through all the points we already have, given we aren't using them up recently.

RM
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Topic Author
VoiceOfReason
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Re: American Airlines revamps status program. Credit card strategy?

Post by VoiceOfReason »

MBB_Boy wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:56 pm Status is worthless if you don't have 500 mile awards - its why I hate the AA system and typically fly elsewhere.

Was excited to hear about a revamp, but it they are keeping that obnoxious practice then ill continue to pass
That’s the whole point. If by spending on CC combined with my typical annual travel I could get plat pro status which does not require any 500 mile upgrades and likely get upgraded to first on 80-90% of my flights.
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