It’s hard to believe 2018 is nearly over. At this point in the year, anyone seeking to attain airline elite status should have a fairly good idea of where they’ll end up. However, some will end up short of their goal. In some cases several of us will fall very short of our goal and have to settle for a lower tier of elite status than anticipated. Others will end up just a few Elite Qualifying Miles, Segments, or Dollars short of their goal.
It’s falling just short of the next highest tier of elite status that hurts the most. For example, if you fly 100,000 miles, but are just shy of the $12,000 EQD required for Executive Platinum. Likewise, it’s painful if you earn $9,000 EQD, but fall just short of the 75,000 EQM required for Platinum Pro. There is no worse feeling that falling just short of an elite status.
American Airlines Offering Buy Up Options For 2019 Elite Status
Thankfully for those who fall just short of a tier or elite status American is now allowing buy up offers. For those of you who don’t know, Buy Up offers allow you to buy up to the next highest tier of elite status. Generally the cost is fairly significant and you could reach the requirements for less by flying, but these offers are geared toward those unable or unwilling to do year-end status runs.
Unfortunately buy up offers aren’t available to everyone. Only those who fall “just” short of an elite tier qualify. To see if you qualify, start by visiting American’s AAdvantage elite site here. On this page you’ll find fields to enter your AAdvantage account number, last name, and password. By logging in you’ll see if a buy up offer is available to you.
Once you log in you’ll find the buy up offer currently available to you. These offers change frequently based on your current elite status, EQD, EQM, and EQS. So, if you are going to accept an offer, hold off until all upcoming travel is completed.
When I first logged in I had earned enough EQM to qualify for Executive Platinum again, but was short on EQD. The offer was essentially to pay the remaining EQD to attain ExPlat. However, as I logged in to write this post I have already reached ExPlat so no offer was available.
What Buy Up Offer Should You Expect / Should You Take It?
In general, if you are short on the EQD requirement you can expect to pay the remaining EQD to qualify for elite status. So, if you are at $8,000 EQD and need $9,000 for Platinum Pro, you can expect the buy up offer to be about $1,000 – $1,300. If you are short on EQD and EQM/EQS the offer will be a bit more.
Also, keep in mind these offers are only available to those who are “close” to the next highest elite status tier. Those who just made it over a specified threshold will most likely not have a buy up offer available to them.
Generally, I’d say these buy up offers are not a good deal. If you only need EQM you can easily find a cheap international flight to earn enough EQM to qualify. Likewise, if you only need EQD you can find an inexpensive premium cabin flight to qualify. So from a cost perspective these offers never really make sense.
However, if simply don’t have the time to complete a status run I think the offers are worth considering. That being said, I’d only consider taking the offer if I expected next years travel to increase. By falling short this year you essentially didn’t travel enough to make status worth it. So, if you aren’t going to travel more next year then I don’t really see the point in paying the buy up offer. If you do expect your travel to increase and expect to make good use of the improved benefits, then I think the offer could be worth it.
Final Thoughts
While I usually wouldn’t recommend anyone take the buy up offer, I think it’s good to know that they exist. I’m sure there are a few situations where it makes sense to pay the price of the buy up offer, but I personally prefer earning status by flying.
It’s also worth mentioning that if you accept a buy up offer you will NOT receive a refund if you end up flying enough to qualify organically. So, if you are going to accept a buy up offer I’d recommending waiting until the very end of the year unless you have no chance of flying again in 2018. After all, you wouldn’t want to pay for your elite status twice!
Finally, if you do accept a buy up offer, you’ll enjoy your new benefits immediately after purchase. Those benefits will then be valid through Jan 31, 2020.
Although I didn’t have a buy up offer this year, I documented all of my buy up offers for 2018 here.
