AA Customer Service
 

I’m a “million-miler” (having flown more than one million miles with American Airlines). I purchased quite a few Admiral’s Club day passes using AA Business Extra miles. The pass is set to expire June 30th. My next AA flight is Aug. 1st.

I sent an email requesting that the expiration of my pass be extended by 31 days. The answer was, “no.” So ... I emailed the head of customer service and cc’d several of the top executives, asking them to please reconsider. I received a follow-up call from an AA rep (who refused to provide his name) saying that they are not willing to extend the expiration.

Now before I get snarky comments (which I fully expect!), I want to be clear that I know I’m not entitled to special treatment, nor can I expect it.

The $59 value of the pass is not the issue. I was just surprised AA would not want to extend a simple courtesy to someone who has achieved lifetime gold elite and million miler status. As I said, of course they are under no obligation to honor my request and they have their policies. Still, I am surprised they would not want to do something so insignificant as a sign of appreciation for customer loyalty.

I was just surprised AA would not want to extend a simple courtesy to someone who has achieved lifetime gold elite and million miler status.

Yeah, it's sad. We have the same status with United and they routinely treat us like dog crap. Status seems to be meaningless anymore.

For some years now AA "customer service" has been increasingly oxymoronic. I don't know how many million milers there are with AA (probably in the millions) but even current EXP status holders are not comped very much if anything. In general, AA decided a couple of years ago to "update" the AAdvantage program to make it more "competitive" with other schemes such as Delta's Skypeso program. As a million-miler (and then some) myself I miss the glory days, but what's to be done?

If you're still a frequent flyer, enough to get FF status (beyond the lifetime Gold you'd have if you earned your MM status some years ago) then I'd investigate the British Airways program(me) as a possible alternative. While BAEC (the Executive Club) has plenty of flaws (most notably putting you in line for BA's outrageous fees and surcharges on award tickets) one of its strong points for frequent AA flyers is that Silver status on BAEC (Oneworld Sapphire, equivalent to AA Platinum) will give you unlimited access to Admirals Clubs in the US, whereas Platinum status on AA won't, unless you're flying on an intercontinental itinerary.

You achieve Silver status with BAEC by earning "tier points" that are based on distance flown and class of service. It's not terribly hard to achieve if you take a longhaul trip or two in premium economy or business class, and all AA flights will earn tier points. (You'll need four flights on BA or Iberia metal per year, but that could be as simple as a couple of hops between London and Amsterdam or Edinburgh.) Might be worth investigating.

MM/lifetime gold on AA doesn't get you much, if any status at this point. On a recent CA to NY AA flight I was on the upgrade list.... at #85.

Needless to say I didn't get an upgrade. I'm happy to have the MM status for group 4 (out of how many now?) boarding, but don't expect any more perks than that.

You probably get better perks with one of their credit cards, but even then it isn't worth flying their crappy planes.

I agree, Songdoc. It's a small gesture AA could make, for a "million-miler".
Not a surprise in today's business environment, I guess.