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Buy status with American for 2017
Opened my email and found a ridiculous offer to buy status. I don’t mean ridiculous in a good way, I mean ridiculously expensive and not worth it with this much time left. If you’re interested there are a few different offers floating around to buy status with american for 2017.
My Offer: Executive Platinum for $1499
Now, I don’t think this is too bad of a deal if it’s December 31st and you’re a lot of EQM away from hitting Executive Platinum, but we have over 6 weeks left. Plenty of mileage run time left if you need those EQM. If you don’t want to mileage run and get this offer…aside from First Class Lounge access internationally, a bevvy of other upgrades opps, you would get 4 System Wide Upgrades. That’s $750 per roundtrip upgrade. Of course…if you’re in paid business and an upgrade is avail you could use these for a First Class upgrade as well.
However…I’m roughly 3500 EQM away. Not worth it to me, especially because I’ll hit it over thanksgiving.
Here’s what someone with roughly 88k EQM received.
Here’s what a buddy of mine with Platinum received to Extend his Platinum Status for 2017. He currently has roughly 25k EQM
In case you aren’t familiar AA status levels. Here’s an an overview:
In all honesty, I don’t think one of these offers is a great value proposition. I suppose you could make an argument that if you’re significantly short, can’t mileage run, and offered $2500 and knew you’d use the SWUs – it’s not terrible. Here’s my thinking: with 4 SWUs you’re essentially buying roundtrip business class upgrades for $1200 each, and that’s not awful.
BUT, when you look at some of the mileage run opportunities out there to get over the hump organically…not such a great deal. Luckily, I’m really well positioned and don’t need to take any of these into deep consideration.
Please, lemme know if you end up buying status!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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