American releases updated AAdvantage Elite Benefits Guides
This has been one of those travel weeks when the lack of a quality internet connection has made keeping up with the blog a bit of a challenge, so today’s post is shorter than most.
American just posted updated versions of their AAdvantage Elite Benefits Guides to their website. When I received my 2013 card back in January I received a copy of the benefits guide from last year. These new 2013 guides have American’s new logo and branding, and more fully explains Main Cabin Extra benefits. Other than that, I didn’t spot anything new from last year’s guide.
You can find the latest information on American’s AAdvantage Elite program here. Follow these links to download a PDF of the new membership guides:
2013 Advantage Executive Platinum Guide
2013 AAdvantage Platinum Guide
If you’re curious, you can compare them to last year’s guides. Here are links to the 2012 versions that I’ve archived with Google Docs.
2012 Advantage Executive Platinum Guide
2012 AAdvantage Platinum Guide
If you spot anything new that I overlooked share your discovery in the comments section.
Whoa, here a noteworthy downgrade for Golds:
2012: Upgrades may be used for yourself and one travel companion in conjunction with purchased, published
Economy Class fare tickets, and are not valid for use with an AAdvantage travel award, any free ticket or
opaque fares
2013: You can request a complimentary upgrade for one companion whenever they are traveling with you on a full-fare ticket* for travel in the Main Cabin. † Companions traveling on any other eligible fare can be upgraded using 500 mile upgrades.
Never mind the last comment, I misread it.
i have 300k AA miles that have been unused for at least 2 yrs, not because I don’t want to but because how painful and difficult it is to redeem these for international award flights. You have to call and waste 1 to 2 hour on phone for an agent that is impatient in listening for choices and options. The aa.com won’t show most of their so called oneworld partner flight. BA sux due to fuel surcharge rip off so i hate to see it on aa.com.
AA doesn’t want to list all the partner flights online for award reservation because they want us to waste our miles on domestic trips. I love united.com and have been very happy cos they list all their partner flights online for award booking.
Jim,
That’s great but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the blog.
bloggers should do something good like telling AA about listing all the partner flights for award redemption online rather than begging us to apply for cards using their link for commission all the time. I am not saying this blog but most other bloggers
As a million+ miler on AA, ‘have been profoundly frustrated at the lack of availability of seats for either 50k, 62.5 &/or even 125 ‘anytime’ rewards. ‘have over half a million miles and couldn’t obtain ‘anytime’ awards – let alone Saver-awards, to any destination in Europe on AA in June – nor upgrade awards. Let’s not even go down path of the landing-fee and fuel surcharges with AA/LHR. Also, in speaking with numerous Award personal, ‘have found each that I’ve spoken to of late are working from their homes. Some didn’t even know the basics of the AA {let alone One World} hubs in Western Europe. Is it any wonder that so many of the other ‘legacy’ carriers are eating AA’s lunch? It’ll be most… interesting to see what happens to the values of our ‘Elite-status’ upgrade-capacity, &/or award ‘value’ are once the merger is implemented &/or when more Economy-plus configurations enter service.
@ Lie-Flat – I’ve noticed that this year award inventory for late Spring and Summer seems to be constrained. My assumption is that since American introduced the new 777-300ER on many of the transatlantic routes, that AA is either selling more seats or holding on to them with the expectation that they’ll sell. I have a buddy that is trying to book a trip in June so I’ve been monitoring availability – they’re holding onto J and F MileSAAver awards until 10 to 14 days out.
As for not being able to find any 125K anytime awards, that’s unusual. What route and what dates are you wanting to travel?