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What’s been my experience as an American Airlines Executive Platinum?
This is my first year flying as an Exec Plat and I thought it’d be worthwhile to give an update on what I think so far. First off I’ve noticed a big difference from last year when I was just a lowly Platinum concerning upgrades. I’m 4 for 6 on comped upgrades, including an award ticket, and I honestly think I’d be batting a 1000 if not for a couple things – which I’ll describe later. People are just nicer to me. This could be psychosomatic, but on the phone and in person I feel like customer service is better compared to Plat, and WAY better than when I had no status 3 years ago. Here’s a quick look at what my experience as an American Airlines Executive Platinum member has been so far this year.
Upgrades: 4/6, but without extenuating circumstances I think I’d be 6/6
I’ve flown 6 times this year where my status may have given me an upgrade. My EP status also helped me fly standby the day before my scheduled flight: I was flying back from Japan at the beginning of the year and avail hadn’t opened for a continuation flight the same day as my arrival from Japan. I was supposed to wait til the next morning. I asked the desk agent to give me a standby flight for the same day rather than waiting until the next day when my flight was scheduled. Usually the rules only allow same calendar-day standby tickets. I think my Executive Platinum status bent the rules a smidge – and I boarded the very first flight I was put on standby for – now that was nice.
- IND-LAX – Upgraded to First Class
- I used BA Avios to fly. Usually I wouldn’t be eligible for an upgrade, but at the gate they bumped me after I showed them my EP boardingpass.
- LAX-JFK – No dice
- I was flying with my girlfriend ( who’s also EP) but it’s a tough route and we were 1,2 on the waitlist. I think had we been on separate record locators we may have been upgraded separately. I also think I would have been bumped up had I been on my own.
- JFK-LAX – bumped to Lie Flat Business!
- Cleared a day and a half early
- LAX-IND – Bumped to First
- Cleared the morning of before arriving at the airport
- IND-ORD – Bumped to First
- Cleared 2 days early
- ORD-LAX – No dice
- The whole IND-ORD-LAX itin was a rescheduled flight because of the winter storm. There were a lot of cancellations out of Chicago and so flights filled up very quickly and every flight I looked to book into had, at most 1 or 2, first class seats avail. Combining this with hub to hub flying didn’t bode well. I also didn’t book this flight very long ago. Had the weather not caused they delays I believe I would have gotten an upgrade.
- I was 1 on the waitlist when I landed and 2 by the time I got to my gate. HOWEVER
The food has improved – Salmon Nicoise – Fancy!
Phone bookings
I hit Exec Plat late last year. It came in very handy as I was booking a pretty complex routing back from Southeast Asia and when I called in to change my award ticket I got an incredible rep. She was knowledgeable, polite, funny, and knew exactly how to push the ticket through. I wanted to route from HAN-BKK-NRT-ORD-IND using Qatar, Japan, and AA. She had the rate desk push the ticket through without a hitch. My buddy, Dave, who doesn’t carry any status, had a helluva time getting the same ticket done on the normal AA line. In the end…I gave him my Exec Plat phone line and record locator to match. That made the process much easier.
2 months down, but I hope to make the cut again for next year
I’m not 100% sure I will as I’m trying to get both AA Executive Platinum and Alaska MVP Gold 75k. My strategy, at this point, is to lob all domestic tickets to AA while crediting international premium cabin tickets to AS. That EQD is a big issue, but my hope is I’ll have a few work flights that will be pricey and give me a boost. That, or I’ll do some crazy Qatar flight to earn a grip of EQM and EQD. I’ll keep you updated 😉
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
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 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, 2027.
- $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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