Buy your own American Airlines 737 NGX for only $79
Sorry about the headline, but I couldn’t resist. This is way off topic, but it’s a slow AAdvantage news day anyway, so I thought I’d share this video of the new American Airlines 737NGX 3D Model that was developed by McPhat Studios for release with Aerosoft’s new PMDG 737 NGX software add-on package for Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
It’s shocking how good 3D flight simulation has become on the desktop. For a little perspective on the advancement in technology, here’s a screenshot of Microsoft Flight Simulater 98 (photo credit John Bell on Flickr):
If you’re interested, Aerosoft PMDG 737 NGX was released December 16, 2011 and retails for EUR 59.99. More info here.
Wow, great video. It’s so good you can almost see the (duct tape) speed tape on the engine 🙂 – http://boardingarea.com/pointsmilesandmartinis/2009/11/american-airlines-customer-service-duct-tape/
I need some knowledge from AAdvantageGeek. Currently Chairman’s on USAir would like to switch alliance to American. How can I get them to match my status or allow me to challenge to Executive Platinum?
Thanks,
Corey
Hi Corey – Thanks for the question. Unless you’re a corporate travel manager, it’s probably pretty tough to get a status match from American. There are reports in the forums of it happening from time to time, but they’re rare.
I think your chances of an Executive Platinum challenge are much greater. They don’t normally offer an EXP challenge, but earlier in 2011 they quietly offers top level elites from other frequent flyer programs the chance to qualify for Executive Platinum. One reason to be hopeful that they might allow it, is that there have been reports of some AAdvantage Gold and Platinum member being proactively bumped up a tier despite not having qualified for the upgrade in status. American hasn’t said anything about it, but the speculAAtion is that because of the Chapter 11, they’re doing this in order to keep their best customers loyal (it appears that it may be tied to Elite Qualifying Points rather than Elite Qualifying Miles). They’ve offered Double Elite Miles for the month of December and January, so they’re being pretty aggressive (4x if you live in California, Texas, or Illinois).
It wouldn’t hurt to contact them and try. Rather than Facebook or Twitter, I’d first try to reach out to them with an email. Your request has a much better chance of being escalated up through the system and landing in the inbox of someone that can make it happen. If you don’t hear back if a week, I’d call in to customer service with the tracking number that you get when you submit your email.
I’d avoid contacting their Twitter or Facebook team. They get lots of requests and only handle the routine stuff. Anything like an exception to their Elite program will have to come from someone higher up their customer service chain.
Let me know what they say after your hear from them. Thanks for writing and good luck with request!