Yesterday, I received an email from American Airlines confirming what I already knew. After 29 years of life, I had become the most basic type of elite human according to the American Airlines AAdvantage travel reward program.
Here is the "main text" of the email with my AAdvantage number obscured:
The benefits appear meager, although TPG values them at $970 a year.
To accomplish this achievement, I collected over 3,000 EQMs (Elite Qualification Miles, i.e. miles flown, sometimes adjusted according to fare class, with a minimum of 500 per segment) and EQDs (Elite Qualification Dollars, i.e. U.S. dollars spent, sometimes with a multiplier).
Last year, I was close to reaching the qualification threshold, but failed when I became utterly hosed due to a misunderstanding of the complex terms & conditions for earning EQMs. What a bummer that was (as tweeted):
My mileage request to
@AmericanAirhas been denied due to "invalid codeshare". My dreams of becoming #elite in 2017 crushed.Turns out my flight #IB5063 was only marketed by
@Iberia, and was operated by@vueling, which isn't a@traveloneworldaffiliate. http://web.archive.org/web/20171214141522/https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/partner-airlines/iberia.jsp
After that incident, I vowed to never chase elite status again. To rub salt in the wound, American Airlines gave a lab mate of mine Platinum status out of the blue. I struggled so hard to earn status by the book and failed due to a technicality. Meanwhile, they were handing out higher statuses to those who put in no work. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who's ripped about this practice:
So let me get this straight. I spent $6,000 and flew 50,000 miles to earn Platinum. I need another 50,000+$6K to requalify while someone with this offer can do it for only 12,500+$1.5K. I got 0 free upgrades for my earned status while they get 20? And now there's a whole bunch of people tied with me for upgrades for the next 3+ months that didn't earn it. What a crock.
A good life lesson: you can't expect life to be fair... plan accordingly. While I took a vow of #noloyalty, as I started accumulating EQMs with American in 2018, I couldn't resist the temptation to "level up".
Overall, I've been happy with American Airline's service, despite some bumps. As a non-elite passenger up until this point, much of my success has relied on being a nice & charming individual (i.e. good old fashioned social engineering). Now I will have an introductory level elite status badge next to my name!
Critique
Flying consumes much fossil fuel! Bad for planet! Shame on 