American Airlines is out with its renewals and new invitations for ConciergeKey status, which American Airlines gives to its top spending customers and top corporate travel influencers. It’s the status that George Clooney had in Up In The Air. They are also out with two options for customers who didn’t make it to get back into the secret club.
I held this status briefly and the best thing about it wasn’t:
- top priority for upgrades
- being met with golf carts and driven to American’s international business class lounges on domestic flights
- being driven across the tarmac if you had an especially tight connection.
The best thing about ConciergeKey was getting confirmed on sold out flights when a flight is severely delayed or cancelled – American being willing to bump another passenger to get you where you’re going.
Last year, American Airlines offered many of their ConciergeKey members whose status wasn’t being extended the opportunity to buy back that status for $10,000 or 1 million miles. Some members were offered $5,000 or 500,000 miles.
Last month, the airline started sending some customers targeted ‘Instant Status Pass’ offers to earn ConciergeKey: trial status for four months, and earn at least 250,000 loyalty points in each of three consecutive four-month periods to keep it through March 2027 – at no charge.
For those ConciergeKey members on the bubble who didn’t make it back into this coveted status for the 2025-2026 member year, they’re being offered a choice of either the buy back or the challenge. The offer comes with a personal phone call.
The challenge is the much better deal for most. It’s a four month status extension for free, whether they try to extend the status or not. And it’s a guarantee of earning ConciergeKey status for 750,000 total loyalty points in a year. You may or may not earn it with that much activity otherwise.
- The uncertainty of what it takes to earn ConciergeKey is a real disincentive to try to earn it.
- I’d actually shoot for a million loyalty points if I knew it would earn ConciergeKey status. I had the status briefly, and it made flying American Airlines a totally different experience.
- I’d even say it’s worth paying $5,000 for outright if you’re using the status regularly. $10,000 seems like a real stretch.
I easily earned over 415,000 loyalty points last year and made a concerted effort to stop since it would have taken some effort to reach the next loyalty point reward level of 550,000. But I would only need to do an incremental couple hundred thousand points – spread out in equal chunks across each third of the coming year – to meet this challenge. (Sadly it was not offered to me.)
I would prepay bills; pay property taxes, income taxes, rent or mortgage by credit card; take advantage of every trial offer in their shopping portal; buy and liquidate gift cards; booking all hotels and even some no show stays through AAdvantage hotels; reimburse work meals only at AAdvantage dining restaurants.
The hoops are worth it. I actually miss the calls and texts from premium services as I set out for the airport, being met at gates and thanked for my business, and the proactive monitoring of my flights with someone meeting me when I’d land with a tight connection either to help me make it or with a new boarding pass and escort to the Flagship business class lounge.
United’s Global Services has declined. Delta 360 members report being unimpressed, even compared to standard SkyMiles Diamond status. While there will always be some ConciergeKey members who complain that they don’t get recognized the way that they used to, I find that this status is one thing that American Airlines really gets right.
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