I don't know if everyone knows this, but there is a way to get higher status on Air travel in their rewards program. Before my 3 year hiatus I was Executive Platinum and got free upgrades whenever I traveled. My status dropped all the way to Gold because I basically stopped flying around doing business. I have 1.5 million miles/points accrued over the lifetime of the program which makes me permanently Gold, so I will never drop below that.....but that is a 50% shot at upgrades when requested. To get to the Platinum level, usually you have to accrue 50,000 miles or points in one year, that is a fair amount of travel, but there is a way to get there more quickly. You can call in and request to take the platinum challenge, and all you have to do is get 10,000 points or miles in a 3 month period. If you are going to Europe or Japan etc, it happens in one trip. After this weeks trip to North Carolina I will be at 9600 points in only about 6 weeks. Getting platinum means you get a lot better chance at upgrades, and you earn more miles etc as you travel. Personally, as soon as I hit 2 million miles or points overall, I will be permanently platinum and won't have to take challenges overall. In our household we charge EVERYTHING on our AA credit card and pay it off each month, for every dollar we spend we get 1 mile or point. It adds up rather quickly.....and it is how I get 1.5 million to date. Currently I have over 500k miles in my account and am planning to take the family to Europe soon in first class for free. If you have to travel.....please take the time to take advantage of what is out there.....if you can figure the system out, you can travel in a much better class of service. And that is a lot more fun... DD
I did this back in 2001 on AA. It's a great option if you are traveling every week to the same location, as I was for a project at work at the time. I travel less now, but have managed to stay silver on Continental and get the occasional upgrade. Continental is much better about upgrading people than AA or Delta, I've found. What I do now is just buy a Y-class fare, and you almost always get to sit in first class. It's bad enough flying commercial, but if you do, first class is tons better.
Exec platinum was 100% upgraded. Platinum was about 90% upgraded Gold is about 50% That is what has been my experience to date. DD
I have been traveling internationally every week for the past seven months for work and still don't have status on an airline. Too bad it was a Chicago to Toronto flight...
DD, I've earned over 1mm and have gold status but have now moved to Htown...I get about 20-30k a month via work charges, so I'm glad to hear I can get platinum status when I hit 2mm..except I was planning on killing this card and start earning continental miles for convenience of flying..is there a benefit of having platinum if I rarely fly American except on frequent flier miles?
I only fly continental or southwest, but thanks for the tips. Platinum Elite on continental is nice, but hard to get unless travel once a week or internationally several times. I am silver elite, and have been upgraded 3 times this year, but too many people are silver elite so odds are not in my favor.
We do the same thing with my parents' Northwest Airlines credit card. We were all able to fly first class to and from Hawaii and Italy (on separate occasions). I guess it's not really free since nothing truly is anymore, but there weren't any additional fees. Pretty damn close to free if you ask me.
They started charging for the platinum challenge. 150 bucks. At least that is what they told me when I tried to sign some family members up a few weeks ago. So its not worth it unless you travel a lot. I've had status with AA for about 10 years now and have been exec platinum for the 3 years so I know a lot about their programs. Here are the main benefits of their levels. Gold - 50 percent bonus for every mile flown, get to board early, gets to stand in first class line at the ticketing counter. admiral club use on international flights platinum- get treated like human being by staff. 100 percent bonus on miles plus all gold benefits, exec platinum - free upgrades on domestic flights if available (I've only flown coach domestically about 5 legs in the last 3 years), 8 free system wide VIP upgrades to upgrade you or someone else on any AA leg which I use to upgrade on international flights. Use of first class lounge on One world international flights ( The cathay and quantus first class lounges are like nice restaurants with table service with free food and drinks). You can also get other airlines to match your status up to their second tier in most cases.
Ok, after 6 weeks, I am not Platinum, it just needs to post on my account, now I will call them back and ask to them to review my account and set up an executive platinum goal. I have a few trips to Europe and Canada in the next couple of months to take care of that. WOOT !! Platinum is back...72 hour notification...1-1 bonus miles....and only 500k more until permanent platinum. DD
