by Gary Leff
Yesterday American Airlines shared the news with customers who would become ConciergeKey members for the next year. AAdvantage members saw the status update in their account – as happens each year, before receiving an email and (for new members at least) receiving a phone call.
Concierge Key is the status that American Airlines gives to its top spending customers and top corporate travel influencers. It became legendary when George Clooney was portrayed as a Concierge Key member on a quest to earn 10 million miles in Up In The Air.
The benefits of this status include top priority for upgrades (and no cash copay when spending miles for upgrades); airport escorts and even occasional vehicle transfers on the tarmac; access to Flagship business class lounges (and, historically, regular invites to First Class Dining); and a next flight guarantee to ensure they get to their destination.
Those who were on the bubble for ConciergeKey renewal got a one-month extension so that their status lasts through the end of May, and will receive a challenge to keep the status. Others see their status downgraded.
Many of the current low five figure number of ConciergeKey members were stressed over what would happen after the expiration of their status at the end of April. American Airlines changed how they assess this status – and when.
- The normal AAdvantage status qualifying year runs March through February. Everyone gets their new status March 1 (although late February activity that takes a little while to post can lead to some adjustments a bit later).
- ConciergeKey status was changed to run through March 31, so that activity March through February could be evaluated just like it is for normal AAdvantage status.
- Since ConciergeKey isn’t automatic based on published criteria, and is therefore a more manual process, American gave themselves a tight turnaround – take data through March, evaluate it, and update accounts all in April. So customers were buying travel not knowing what their status would be in a week before yesterday’s update.
Status is no longer just based on ticket spend. Historically it might take around $60,000 in spend mostly on premium cabin tickets to qualify for ConciergeKey status, although that’s never guaranteed (and seems to be the case that customers in smaller markets may not have to spend as much as someone based in, say, Dallas).
There are plenty of reports now that someone with around 750,000 or more in Loyalty Points from flying getting renewed – and also reports of customers with very little paid flying (if any at all!) but millions of dollars in credit card spend. It’s unclear what the minimum amount of spend is there, but $5 million on cobrand cards seems to do the trick. Small business owners can be ConciergeKey members while redeeming miles for all their travel.
I was a ConciergeKey member but didn’t get renewed last year.
ConciergeKey was amazing. Benefits I took advantage of,
- Emails to reservations for things I needed. I received text messages and was met at gets when dealing with delays.
- No cash co-pays on mileage upgrades.
- Met at gates with a golf cart when I had long connections. (I never received a tarmac transfer, currently a GMC from one gate to another on tight connections at hubs.)
- Use of business class Flagship lounges when flying domestically, even on arrival, as well as Flagship check-in. At New York JFK this means access to the Soho lounge on domestic trips, and Chelsea on international.
- Guaranteed next flight, they actually booked me onto a sold out flight to get me where I was going when my flight was cancelled.
Chelsea Lounge, New York JFK
It’s also possible to become a ConciergeKey member as an important customer who influences a lot of travel (for instance, an executive with a big corporate customer). Corporate contracts may come with a certain number of ConciergeKey memberships. In some sense there is also more than one tier of Concierge Key. There are a handful of members (perhaps a dozen) that are tagged ‘Do Not Miss’ because of their commercial importance to the airline.
