AU Members with Frequent Flyer Affinity Status

[Palmetto]

Venetian Club on Silversea. Big deal!

 

[caravanman]

I have never flown in any work capacity, and although I join each airline mileage scheme, I never accrue enough miles to benefit. I did get a few free hotel nights though, from a hotel chain membership, which was appreciated. Flying economy class, the nicest was the Emirates A380, and the most unusual was a Burmese Fokker flight back in the 1980's.

 

[Palmetto]

.... to add some history to this, US Air was never great, but when they merged with America West and the America West folks took over, it went way downhill. So it was the America West folks in charge when they merged with American Airlines...

Interesting. Thanks for reminding us of that history.

 

[jis]

In these so called "merger of equals" in which a biiig fish, apparently swallow a small, it is often the case that the management of the smaller company basically takes over control of the merged company. It is not unusual at all for this sort of thing to happen. A similar scenario is where a very large division of the even larger company is essentially merged with a smaller company and the management of the large merged division handed over to the management team from the smaller company, often in preparation for a divestiture.. Sometime those two steps are carried out in one fell swoop called "merge spinoff" or something like that.

American Airlines was one such example. Arguably the United - Continental merger was another such, where Smisek from the smaller company became the boss of the merged company.

I have lived through a couple of the complex spinoff - mergers.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

MRTC = "Carty's Folly" - good while it lasted but unsustainable with everything else that happened to the airline industry in that period.

I think it was a great idea but maybe a bit ahead of its time and needed more marketing.

One nice thing that BA Silver (and Gold) status does is give you lounge access regardless of where you are flying & what class you're flying in. I don't know if the equivalent AA status grants this, but also got an automatic upgrade to MCE if you book the cheap seats, as well as 2 checked bags.

I don't know much about BA but AA status grants no access to business lounges last I checked.

.... to add some history to this, US Air was never great, but when they merged with America West and the America West folks took over, it went way downhill. So it was the America West folks in charge when they merged with American Airlines...

America West was the worst US airline I ever flew and felt their call sign (cactus) was the perfect nickname for such a prickly company. The merger with US Air somehow swallowed an intercontinental business class trip worth of monkey points.

I have never flown in any work capacity, and although I join each airline mileage scheme, I never accrue enough miles to benefit.

I've been told by someone who worked in the industry that most loyalty accounts never earn enough for a single reward trip. You don't have to travel on business but you do need to keep booking the same carrier even when it results in a worse route or schedule to get across the finish line before they move the goalposts.

 

[jiml]

I don't know much about BA but AA status grants no access to business lounges last I checked.

From the Points Guy:

Does AA Platinum get lounge access?
Mid- and upper-tier American elites (specifically Platinum, Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members) can access Admirals Clubs on qualifying long-haul international itineraries operated by AA or a Oneworld partner, no matter what class of service they are flying.

I can vouch for this always being the case since I made Platinum with AA. The added bonus, before they added complimentary alcohol in their clubs, was two free drink vouchers per person in the party (although you'd sometimes have to sweet talk the desk if your companion had no status).

 

[WWW]

How about cruise line status?
Have good status on several of them...

Platinum Plus on Norwegian - Yea ! Freestyle cruising
Alaska(3) New England(2) Western Caribbean and Panama Canal

Carnival - the party ship for young folks
Alaska Mexican Riviera Southern Caribbean

Princess - stuffed shirt senior citizen formal cruising
Pacific Coastal ship positioning

Holland America - relaxed senior citizen cruising
Alaska

*Note Carnival owns Princess and Holland America

Lots of interesting ways to combine cruising and rail trips !

 

[Devil's Advocate]

From the Points Guy: Does AA Platinum get lounge access? Mid- and upper-tier American elites (specifically Platinum, Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum members) can access Admirals Clubs on qualifying long-haul international itineraries operated by AA or a Oneworld partner, no matter what class of service they are flying. I can vouch for this always being the case since I made Platinum with AA. The added bonus, before they added complimentary alcohol in their clubs, was two free drink vouchers per person in the party (although you'd sometimes have to sweet talk the desk if your companion had no status).

Thanks for the clarification. My benefits list never mentioned this scenario and the AC sales pitch had a price for every status so I assumed it required a sub or pass. Lounge access is probably the weakest link in my flying knowledge. We only have a UA (ex-CO) lounge where I live and it's nothing special, but with Covid closures and AA's meltdown clogging the terminal with delays and cancellations I bet UA faithful wish the lounge was open so they had somewhere to sit!

 

[jiml]

Thanks for the clarification. My benefits list never mentioned this scenario and the AC sales pitch had a price for every status so I assumed it required a sub or pass. Lounge access is probably the weakest link in my flying knowledge. We only have a UA (ex-CO) lounge where I live and it's nothing special, but with Covid closures and AA's meltdown clogging the terminal with delays and cancellations I bet UA faithful wish the lounge was open so they had somewhere to sit!

The AA that I knew and quite liked is no more unfortunately. At the peak they were basically the #2 airline in Toronto after the 800-pound gorilla - Air Canada, which is a little unusual for a "foreign" carrier. They had a long and storied relationship with Canada and Toronto specifically. Now our AA lounge is closed and may never re-open. I have enough points for a BC trip for two to some international destination and then I'll re-evaluate.

Kudos on the new pic angle btw. You could have gone with "It's just a flesh wound".

 

[NS VIA Fan]

The AA that I knew and quite liked is no more unfortunately. At the peak they were basically the #2 airline in Toronto after the 800-pound gorilla - Air Canada, which is a little unusual for a "foreign" carrier. They had a long and storied relationship with Canada and Toronto specifically.....

It was American Airlines that started US Customs Pre-Clearance as an experiment at 'Malton' (Toronto Pearson) way back in 1952.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Despite the fact that much of the business travel market remains dormant here's an article about United making moves to become a more premium brand.

https://onemileatatime.com/insights/can-united-airlines-become-premium/
It's hard to know where this is going to end up but I welcome multiple airlines chasing the premium service market instead of watching everything devolve into a sea of no frills LCC's. Right now AA feels like a clumsy middle ground between LCC and Legacy with the bonus of routine cancellations and long hold times. AAdvantage probably does more for me than Skymiles would and AA staff have been friendlier than UA but DL's new SLC mini-hub might be a game changer.

 

[jis]

Apparently United's goal is to cut down the use of Regional Jets from 33% of domestic flights to only 10%

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/29/business/united-record-jet-order/index.html
In tandem they need to fix overall service quality and replace the grumpy subset of the customer facing personnel by more cheerful ones.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Apparently United's goal is to cut down the use of Regional Jets from 33% of domestic flights to only 10% In tandem they need to fix overall service quality and replace the grumpy subset of the customer facing personnel by more cheerful ones.

American is reducing and retiring regional jet use as well. On the plus side passengers are more likely to enjoy mainline features and amenities but on the downside there will be longer de/boarding, more middle seats to contend with, and fewer flights to smaller airports. This happens to be a net negative for my situation. Instead of flying directly to my destination in the middle of the day I'm stuck with predawn flights or arriving an hour or two away. Improving the temperament of UA staff will be a tough nut to crack but hopefully they get there. No customer deserves the attitudes I've seen on UA's high seniority routes.