A few weeks ago American Airlines started sending AAdvantage members buy up offers. These offers allowed AAdvantage members to buy up from their current elite status level to a higher level for 2018. Additionally, when a member takes AAdvantage of the offer they’ll receive status within 24 hours of payment.
When I received my first offer I was a lowly American AAdvantage Gold elite member on the brink of qualifying for Platinum status. Then after a serious of ridiculous flights I quickly broke though Platinum status and achieved AAdvantage Platinum Pro status. During that time I received a second buy up offer which was honestly fairly terrible. Today, I received a new and hopefully final buy up offer to AAdvantage Executive Platinum status and thought I’d again share my new offer.
My AAdvantage Executive Platinum Buy Up Offer
Since I recently qualified for Platinum Pro status, new this year, my new offer is to buy up to Executive Platinum status. Executive Platinum status represents a significant improvement in benefits over Platinum Pro. That clearly showed when I checked my most recent buy up offer.
I currently have 10,801 EQD and 94,008 EQM so I’m very close to qualifying for Executive Platinum status on my own. I actually have the flights I need already booked, so there is no reason for me to take this offer. However, I still think the offer is solid and would consider taking it if today was 12/31/17!
My new buy up offer is to pay $1,795 to unlock Executive Platinum status today through the end of January 2018. While $1,795 is a lot of money, I believe this represents a competitive offer. The offer represents just about the same amount of money I’d need to spend on flights to qualifying organically. So in American’s eyes, I’d spend the same amount of money buying flights as I would by accepting this offer. That’s not bad.
Exceptional Executive Platinum Benefits
I especially like this offer because if I miss out on Executive Platinum this year I’ll miss out on earning my 4 systemwide upgrades. Systemwide Upgrades basically allow travelers to upgrade one-way of a trip (up to 3 flights) from economy class to business class when available. I’d argue each systemwide upgrade is worth about $500 making the set of 4 worth $2,000. That alone makes this offer worth considering.
Another reason I’d consider taking this offer are the free same-day confirmed flight changes. I’ve often overlooked this benefit, but have started to realize how valuable this benefit is. This benefit allows you to literally book the cheapest flight on any given day and then get a confirmed change to a more attractive flight on the day of travel. I do this all the time by standing by on earlier flights, but this allows you to also select flights after your scheduled departure time.
For example, Thanksgiving weekend return flights to Chicago are $150 cheaper at 6am than they are at 3pm. Thanks to this benefit I should be able to book the 6am flight and then change to the 3pm if available. There are approximately 10 flights between Chicago and St. Louis daily, so I shouldn’t have any probably finding at least one seat on a flight that day. It’s hard to place a specific value on this benefit but it could be worth thousands if maximized often.
Final Thoughts
While I haven’t loved my past buy up offers, I’m actually intrigued by this one. This is the first time I’ve seen a buy up offer that I actually believe makes sense. If I were this close to EXP at year-end and couldn’t qualify by flight I’d definitely take this offer. Luckily though I still have a few more flights to take this year and should qualifying organically. Either way I’m still quite impressed by my most recent buy up offer to buy up to Executive Platinum status.
