I’m sure many already know that I have been loyal to Continental (now United) for all of my life. However, since the merger, I’ve had quite a few frustrating experiences with United that’s causing me to reconsider my loyalty (related posts: United Airline’s Customer Service Continues to Fail and Wishing on a Star for a United Upgrade).
Well there seems to be a ray of light for us who have elite status with United who may be looking for a new favorite airline to fly with.
As of today, AAdvantage is willing to status match United Mileage Plus members as per this thread on FlyerTalk. This is huge for American Airlines; they using the on-going frustrations that United flyers are experiencing to their “AAdvantage” (appropriate pun) with hopes of creating new loyalty. I’ll certainly be taking “AAdvantage” (sorry had to do it) of this offer myself.
Thanks for speaking with me about a special opportunity to obtain American Airlines AAdvantage® elite status without meeting the standard qualification requirements. In order to proceed, please provide us with documentation reflecting the Premier level that you hold with United Airlines.
Please send us the following documentation. Simply “Reply” to this message, and for prompt service, do not change the subject line:
• A copy of your dated elite membership card reflecting your name and Premier status level for the 2012 Membership Year (.pdf, .tif, .jpeg, .bmp formats, not to exceed 1MB)
Once your documentation is accepted, you will receive an email within10 days confirming your new AAdvantage elite status, which will be valid through February 28, 2013. Your credentials will follow in 3-5 weeks. Please note the following status equivalents:
-  AAdvantage Gold® membership for Premier Silver
- AAdvantage Platinum® membership for Premier Gold or Premier Platinum
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum® membership for Premier 1K
We look forward to welcoming you aboard your next American Airlines flight and await your reply.
Regards,
Bill Russell
AAdvantage Customer Service
If you’re interested in matching your United status to American, you can contact AAdvantage Customer Service by calling them at 1-800-882-8880.
P.S. American Airlines’ AAdvantage Program took home two of what I think are the best awards last night at the 2012 Freddie Awards: Best Airline Customer Service & Program of the Year (Airline).
Who else is jumping on this offer?
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Great for UA flyers – bad news for AA flyers who now (potentially) have more competition on upgrades.
@New Girl, Increased competition was going to happen anyway given that they’ve been handing out DEQM and TEQM like candy. All this means is they’ve finally admitted that free elite status is their strategy for keeping customer satisfaction and revenue high during their bankruptcy. Whether it will turn out to be profitable is a different question.
“using the on-going frustrations that United flyers are experiencing to their “AAdvantage” (appropriate pun) with hopes of creating new loyalty” – unlikely a driving motive. When your airline declares bankruptcy what would you do? worry and potentially defect. This is just an action for AA to lure some other frequent flyers to replace these defecting.
I tried to get them to match my US status and didn’t have any luck. Wish they would have done it.
“@New Girl, Increased competition was going to happen anyway given that they’ve been handing out DEQM and TEQM like candy. All this means is they’ve finally admitted that free elite status is their strategy for keeping customer satisfaction and revenue high during their bankruptcy. Whether it will turn out to be profitable is a different question.”
Of course it’s profitable. Any mileage run for these elites to maintain status is considered to be the least essential type of flying, and thus, mostly free revenue of an otherwise empty seat.
But that only ends up upsetting existing elites when their status is devalued due to too many others in the same tier. And with how narrow the operating margins of airlines are, offering 100% bonus to too many people just makes the PNL equation very hard to break even (especially regarding those who attain high status with only deeply-discounted econ seats).
Even without DEQM promos, one can get to EXP tier by only spending $4000 annually on mileage runs. Those systemwide upgrade certs alone are worth that much.
I’m a defecting UA 1K, not happy with the enhancements, usually fly 200K a year, now I’m flying 100K on 2 carriers, AA’s getting some cash because of this!
Too bad that there is nothing for Silver Elites.
@DealSeeker, as a Silver Elite with UA, I was matched to AA Gold.