Back in 2009 the movie Up In The Air shed light on the odd world of frequent flyer programs. The movie provided a rare glimpse into the world of points and miles that few had seen before. In the movie, I’ll never forget the scene when Ryan (George Clooney) and Alex (Vera Farmiga) sat down at a bar to compare membership cards.
The above clip shows just how proud of these cards people can be. Sure the movie is somewhat of an exaggeration, but it happens.
Personally, I think Elite status membership cards as a tiny trophy as a reminder of the year behind you. It’s a small token of appreciation for all of the early mornings, delays, cancelations, and missed events of the year. To some, these little cards mean a lot.
This is true if you fly 25,000 miles or 100,000+ miles. There is a sense of pride and appreciation that comes from receiving these little plastic cards. Sadly, it seems the days of receiving these physical elite membership cards may be numbered; at least for American Airlines AAdvantage members.
Earlier this year the ever knowledgable @JonNYC on twitter tweeted that American Airlines would no longer be sending out membership to cards to AAdvantage Gold and Platinum customers. Following that tweet there was some confusion. Some members reported receiving physical cards and there was some official feedback that the message was communicated in error. Now, it seems the error was the timing of when it was sent rather than the message being communicated.
American Airlines Discontinuing Certain Physical Membership Cards
I discovered the truth behind the error in a recent email to my girlfriend from American. See, thanks to a lot of long-haul flying already, she has once again qualified for AAdvantage Gold elite status. This is only her second year qualifying for Gold and she barely qualified last year. Previously she maintained elite status with United, but continues to slowly move her travels over to American.
Shortly after she qualified for Gold status, American sent her an email. The email from American welcomed her back to Gold status and congratulated her on the achievement.
Following the inspiring imagery above was the following text from American regarding her AAdvantage Gold membership card and experience.
As noted above, American has opted to discontinue the mailing of physical membership cards to AAdvantage Gold elite members for the 2020 calendar year. For reference, here is my AAdvantage Gold membership card that I received back in 2017.
While I’m sad to see American discontinue the use of physical membership cards, I’m not all that surprised. For a while now physical membership cards have been mostly useless. There was a time when you needed to present these membership cards to airline employees for check-in, etc., but those days are long gone.
The State of Airline Frequent Flyer Membership Cards
In fact, a few years ago I decided to find out exactly what I could use my membership card for. What I found is that Airline employees will accept membership cards as a form of ID. Likewise, you can still swipe these cards at an automated kiosk to pull up your itinerary. You can also present these cards to airline staff to get a free snack on an American Airlines flight when seated in the main cabin.
However, in that final example, the card is mostly worthless. American flight attendants now carry a mobile device that shows them if a passenger has elite status. So, when you order that free drink or snack, the flight attendant should already know that you don’t have to pay for it. Likewise, when presenting your card at a lounge, you also have to present a boarding card that usually has your status listed (I know there are exceptions when booking with miles or earning miles on another airline).
Basically, I haven’t used my physical membership card since writing that post back in 2017. I’ve instead continued to use my mobile membership card without fail when needed (which is less and less often as well).
Why The Change From American Isn’t Surprising
As noted above, the change isn’t all that surprising because these physical membership cards aren’t really necessary anymore. Additionally, American has been moving in a paperless direction for some time now. In 2019, American invested heavily in online welcome kits for elite members. I wrote about these online welcome kits last year when I first discovered them after reaching Executive Platinum status again. At the end of that post I explained how the Executive Platinum welcome kit was a lot smaller and less robust than prior year welcome kits. This was mostly because American instead put all of the information traditionally found in the welcome kit online.
So, when I first heard that American would be eliminating membership cards for certain AAdvantage members I wasn’t all that surprised. In fact, I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see American eliminate all membership cards over the coming years. The digital membership cards are just as useful, so why would American spend all that money sending out new cards and welcome kits each year?
Personally, it just doesn’t make all that much sense to send out new membership cards to all elite members each year. However, what I don’t appreciate is how American Airlines is presenting this change. The airline is trying to make it seem that this choice was about more than hard dollars and earnings per share.
American’s Obnoxious Claim Regarding Membership Cards
In the welcome email, American claims that it is making this change to help reduce their carbon footprint. However, who the heck is going to actually believe that? The only reason American is making this change is because of cost. American knows that by sending fewer membership cards and welcome kits that it will save so hundreds of thousands of dollars this year which will hopefully lead to an improvement in the company’s stock price. This move, is just another cost cutting decision that adds to the constant deterioration of the American Airlines brand.
I’m particularly frustrated about this decision because it puts the goal of a short-term increase in stock price over the brand image of the airline. American just keeps making incremental cuts that all continue to add up to a lackluster customer experience. The phrase that comes to mind is penny wise, pound foolish and that’s exactly what American’s management is these days.
Taking away things like welcome kits and membership cards might seem insignificant, but those small things mean a lot to certain customers. There’s a reason why United 1K members get so excited for their welcome kits each year and it’s not just for the free drink vouchers! I really hope that American enhances other aspect of elite status membership or it will be even harder to ignore the other airlines as they continue to improve the customer experience.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned before, this move is not unexpected. In fact, American’s been moving this direction for the past several years. What I find annoying is that American is trying to say that this is a change made because of their concerns for the environment! If the airline cared so deeply for the environment they would drastically reduce their route network. The truth is, American made this change for one reason; cost. I’d prefer American state that as the reason for the cut rather than trying to make a cost cut under the guise of environmental concern.
It’s sad to see American keep making all of these small cuts. It’s sadder still to see them making these cuts and still consider themselves a top-tier world class airline (Apex 5-Star Global Airline). I wish American would just own up to the fact that they aren’t competing directly with United and Delta anymore. Instead, American is trying to be a jack of all trades. It wants to appeal to the hard core business traveler and the low-cost infrequent flyer. So far, that strategy has not been working out for them as evidenced by a 50% drop in stock price since 2017.
Credit to @JonNYC for pointing out this change on Twitter
