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What a Joke.
View from the Wing wrote about AA’s CEO, Doug Parker’s comments on Mileage Running – a slap in the face of a large community who enjoyed flying, and earning status by making use of 1 mile flown, 1 mile earned. It’s that attitude that led me to drop any attempt to achieve status with American this year ( I’m currently Executive Platinum). I mean no status. I’m not even going to go after Gold. Why would I go for Gold when I can just challenge for Platinum later in 2018 ( you can’t do this if you hold any status whatsoever.) Another reason is I’ll end the year at a minimum with Alaska Gold, maybe 75k, and I’m planning on going after British Airways Silver or Gold ( depending on the results of my requested status match) so I can select seats, and have lounge access domestically. Regardless, I was till interested to see what my offer would be to Buy up to Elite Status.
Here’s my current progress
At the beginning of the year I thought that I would try for Top Tier in both airlines. My travel plans changed quite a bit, and Alaska also announced that earning on AA flights would drop dramatically. As a result, I did credit flights to AA somewhat, but for the most part avoided the practice.
AA’s buy up to Elite Status offer for Gold AND Platinum
Verdict: Not even close to worth it
American offers status challenges all the time. In fact, if you do them post July you’ll retain status for that year and the following. Meaning, if I were to challenge for Platinum in July of 2018 and meet the requirements I’d keep the status until Feb 2020. I’m not even sure I’d care to do that…if I get mid-tier status with British Airways I will gain access to Main Cabin Priority and Extra seating, and I can use all the Admirals clubs when flying domestically. The only real thing that I can see that would make AA’s Platinum status worth it is no $75 close-in booking fee, and use of 500 mile upgrades.
Gold…for $749 – ya, right.
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
$300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + 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
- $300 Chase Travel℠ Credit + Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel℠. Plus, get up to $300 in statement credits on Chase Travel℠ purchases within your first year
- 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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