Yesterday, I wrote about how American (and other airlines) have largely waived elite status requirements for 2020. Following the announcements from American and other airlines, it’s finally time for me to address some of my upcoming travel.
Until now I’ve largely been holding off making changes to any previously booked travel. I’ve avoided making changes because I wasn’t sure what flights I’d need for elite status this year. I didn’t want to push something into 2021 only to find out that I’d actually need the miles. Instead, I wanted to wait until I knew, for sure, what American was going to do with the AAdvantage program in 2020. So, with that announcement out of the way, it is finally time to address my elite status strategy for 2020.
A Strong Start To 2020
As with most years, I decided to front load a lot of my vacation in January and February for 2020. I’ve actually front loaded my vacations for the past few years because that’s when travel is generally less expensive. I also don’t mind traveling toward the beginning of the year because it’s also a great way to escape chilly Chicago in the middle of winter.
The front loading largely began in January when I joined my girlfriend on a work conference in Hawaii. This started the year off strong as I earned about 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles and about $1,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars from that trip.
Next, my girlfriend and I took a vacation to Cape Town in February before the world shut down. I wrote about this trip extensively, but essentially we completely rebooked everything a week before departure. With the changes we flew from Oslo to Cape Town via Doha which covered a distance of about 15,000 miles. From that trip I earned about 23,000 EQM and $3,000 EQD since we flew with Qatar Airways in business class.
In addition to those major trips, there were also a few shorter flights thrown in which brought my total 2020 elite qualifying activity to $5,400 EQD and 46,000 EQM. For reference, that’s just shy of earning AAdvantage Platinum elite status.
Existing Travel Plans
Following the strong start to the year I also went a little crazy booking some flights for later in the year. Specifically, I booked another Qatar Airways business class trip and a British Airways business class trip. That trip was going to look something like this:
- Philadelphia to Doha to Kyiv with Qatar Airways
- Kyiv to Paris with Unknown
- Paris to London to Chicago with British Airways
- Chicago to London to Paris with British Airways
- Paris to Kyiv with Unknown
- Kyiv to Doha to Philadelphia with Qatar Airways
As you can see, that’s quite a bit of traveling. From those trips I was expecting to earn at least 39,000 EQM + $5,500 EQD. That, paired with what I’d already flown, would have gotten me about 75% of the way to earning Executive Platinum elite status. From there, I’d only need one or two other long-haul trips to reach top-tier status for another year.
In addition to the above, I also had one other trip booked with points. That trip involved a one-way flight from Abu Dhabi to London on Etihad’s A380 in First Class. I’ve been looking forward to flying Etihad First Class for years so I was finally excited to find booking award space on AA.com and I booked it. The plan was to figure out how to get to AUH and back to the U.S. later on.
Changes To Upcoming Travel Plans
Sadly, the first thing I did when American announced their changes to the AAdvantage program was cancel the Etihad First Class flights. Essentially I didn’t expect to take that trip later in the year and I also wanted all of my points back to use on something else. So, I canceled that trip and got a small cash refund and points back for both tickets.
The next changes that I’ll be making are to push out my British Airways and Qatar Airways flights into 2021. I’ll be making those changes because I really don’t “need” those flights to count toward status this year so I might as well use them to get another head start on next year. I’m going to wait to make change until May given that I don’t depart until June, but as far as I’m concerned, taking those flights in 2020 just doesn’t make sense. I’d much rather earn miles for those flights in 2021.
Should I Fly At All In 2020?
One of the things American announced the other day was reduced elite status qualification thresholds for 2020. Those new thresholds are outlined by American below.
Given these changes I’m already about 60% of the way to Executive Platinum for 2020. Therefore, I wouldn’t have to do much extra flying to again reach top-tier status. By earning Executive Platinum again in 2020 I’d earn 4 more systemwide upgrades which are worth about $500 each. So, assuming I can earn the remaining EQD for less than $2,000, it could be advantageous to continue flying in 2020.
Additionally, my girlfriend is actually a bit closer to Executive Platinum than I am. In fact, she’s about 95% of the way to Platinum Pro thanks to the relaxed elite status thresholds. Without a doubt we will work to get her to Platinum Pro because she’ll then get to enjoy complimentary domestic upgrades for the rest of 2020 and all of 2021. Having unlimited complimentary upgrades will be much better than us having to use 500-upgrades when traveling together.
After reaching Platinum Pro, it wouldn’t be that hard for her to earn Executive Platinum in which she would earn 4 SWUs as well. So, perhaps it will make sense for us to keep flying in 2020 for both of us to reach Executive Platinum status to earn an extra 8 SWUs for 2021.
Final Thoughts
Now, with all of that being said, there is still one big unknown. That is, we still have no idea of when things are going to return to ‘normal.’ I already know that it’s not going to happen overnight, but who knows if we’ll be able to go many places at all this year. It’s entirely possible that some countries will keep their borders closed for a long time to come.
If I can’t travel internationally, then I’ll mostly abandon any attempt to earn status for 2020. However, if a few good deals pop up in the later half of the year, perhaps it makes sense for us to push for Executive Platinum this year.
No matter what, I think it makes sense to take at least one or two flights to get my girlfriend to Platinum Pro status. That will make travel in 2021 much more enjoyable as we won’t need to worry about 500-mile upgrade certificates when flying American’s Transcon flights.
