AA Concierge Key / ConciergeKey / CK members lounge (master thread) - FlyerTalk Forums (2024)

fly747first

Join Date: Dec 2004

Location: East Coast

Programs: AA CONCIERGE KEY & 1MM, HILTON DIAMOND

Posts: 11,970

I completely agree with you, but don't let AA get to you. Remember that at certain thresholds you can select AAdvantage miles and use those to fly 5-star airlines like Cathay and Qatar. If you do that, AA will actually have to pay partners for the award you redeemed.

enviroian

Join Date: Nov 2003

Location: Wesley Chapel, FL

Programs: American Airlines

Posts: 30,102

That sounds so satisfying doesn't it??

platbrownguy

Join Date: Jul 2004

Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE

Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold

Posts: 6,711

Welcome to FT!

But man, DL sure sucks on a lot of their planes. Maybe it's because I know AA better, but I have a much better sense of what I'm going to get on AA vs. tiny footwell and general lack of persional space on DL lie-flats.

fly747first

Join Date: Dec 2004

Location: East Coast

Programs: AA CONCIERGE KEY & 1MM, HILTON DIAMOND

Posts: 11,970

Can you keep a secret? It feels heavenly to do it!

LIH

Join Date: Feb 2016

Location: ORD | LGA | 2E

Programs: UA GS 1.6MM UC | AA CK 0.7MM AC | Bonvoy Ambassador | Hyatt Globalist | Hertz PC

Posts: 1,058

I think the value of CK depends highly on your flying pattern.

I take ~100 flights a year, maybe 15-20% of those are INTL with 80-85% domestic. I fly OAL for my INTL fares. Everything is booked up front for me so I can maintain both GS & CK pretty easily. I have found CK to be wildly superior for domestic travel. If I flew something closer to 50/50 INTL/domestic I may not feel that way, but then again, I also wouldn't be qualifying for CK then if I was holding all my INTL bookings away from AA.

DL is not a viable option for me ex-ORD. AA is absolutely mopping the floor with UA ex-ORD right now on all things service/experience related.

cyber1k

Join Date: Oct 2003

Programs: BA GGL, AA EXP and former CK, DL Plat, UA Gold MM

Posts: 493

I thought I was alone. What happened when airlines tried to outpace one another to get you and me excited by the little things?

I find myself trying to actively dodge the abysmal onboard catering on my AA F transcon regular flights. I feel the loss of AA abandoning Flagship First Dining at LAX. And now even at the beautiful Chelsea Lounge at JFK you have to negotiate a bizarrely cumbersome ordeal to access a shower now as much as you need to work it to get a pour of a genuinely premium glass of champagne. On Saturday, I watched a german co*ckroach running across the floor at JFK Chelsea Lounge and just wanted to leave.

Add a bunch of little stuff together, and my gut feels like AA doesn't desire to offer anything special or premium at this time. It's all feeling more and more like smoke and mirrors.

The lounge food at LAX Flagship I once looked forward to is low quality garbage despite the creative names and recipes... it is universally and consistently poor. And that transcon F plastic amenity kit you refer to is so useless and depressing that i find myself tossing it aside without opening it each time I'm onboard.

I only recently took a DL domestic F flight from MSY to LAX and was shocked that the onboard meal surpassed the quality of anything I've experienced on AA in F in the past 3 years. The takeaway of all these little things leads me to think AA has abandoned customers like you and me.

I will miss the expedited Flagship entry lobby at hubs LAX and JFK, the AA people I've known for years, but not the onboard product or downward trending experiences that is on a deliberate path toward something uninspired. I no longer have any reason to keep the AA world elite mastercard.

I'm not convinced any of these airline loyalty schemes make sense at all anymore. I feel like a detective who is reaching the ah-hah moment figuring out objectively that none of it amounts to much at all. You helped with that.

Again, thanks for sharing your insights on what looks like a beneficial AA exit plan. Maybe the grass isn't greener at DL for a premium customer, but at least my brain will appreciate the change.

Last edited by cyber1k; Feb 6, 2024 at 8:17 pm

HaleiwaFlyer

Join Date: Sep 2013

Location: Honolulu

Programs: AA CK, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 1,412

I came to AA late, and was always a DL flyer since my teenage years. After experiencing AA for a few years now; I believe AA has an identity problem and has no direction from management. Maybe it's a ship that has been redesigned, remodeled, and helmed by too many people without a clear destination.

I can see some of the residual bright points of AA, but AA is losing their lasting vestige to be above UA/DL on being premium: elimination of F, focusing on the wrong hubs (US Airway's, rather than AA hubs...looking at you LAX, which gets no love, but the dump PHX gets more attention), and infrequent flight schedules limited by their hub/spoke model.

DL/UA all have their issues. Best way to describe Delta, is that during COVID and currently, they have become a penny pinching airline, much more than AA has. I will tell you, AA did not cut much inflight costs during the height of the pandemic, serving full dinner meals, while DL served water and biscoff cookies for the longest time from HNL-continental US, and was the last airline to return full service for passengers. Only recently, has DL returned to full service meals while ridding their last COVID related inventories of paper box meals. Don't let the shiny SkyClubs and some new planes fool you, they were planned for implementation preCOVID, but alot of services and products have been watered down since COVID and never returned. Delta is just a mediocre airline that has alot of bells and whistles that cosmetically look great, but is superficial. Delta does offer random "delight" services, and you can get a tarmac transfer as a Diamond for tight connections or just randomly. UA has a solid network and schedule, but their AA CK equivalents are getting their benefits cut and watered down. UA is also penny pinching without any expressed plans to update their aging Polaris cabin at this time.

I think the days of airline loyalty is outnumbered, since we are at spend based programs now. Why not just buy the flight you want and purchase the perks you want in the first place?

jhalapin

Join Date: Jun 2013

Location: FSD

Programs: AA CK, DL SM, UA PS, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Titanium , Hyatt Globalist, Global Entry, CLEAR

Posts: 460

<Snip>

You're not alone. I've moved my primary spending away from AA. I've probably taken 30 ish flights since October, 2 on AA. I've never viewed loyalty as a one way street, but AA seems to have installed one way check valves on almost every point of service that has severely degraded both customer service and the onboard experience.

YMMV

HaleiwaFlyer

Join Date: Sep 2013

Location: Honolulu

Programs: AA CK, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 1,412

I haven't been a CK for long; what do you feel are the biggest changes (good or bad) to the CK program compared to the past 5-10 years?

jhalapin

Join Date: Jun 2013

Location: FSD

Programs: AA CK, DL SM, UA PS, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Titanium , Hyatt Globalist, Global Entry, CLEAR

Posts: 460

I was CK by corporate nomination for 3 years (2016-19) and re-qualified this year from last years LPs. The CK team used to be a lifesaver for me. They had the authority to do almost anything for Keys (and usually did).

When I rejoined the program this year I was surprised that the level of service had fallen so much. One of my first calls to the CK line was to get rebooked out of MCI because my flight had gone mx and was delayed 8 hours. There were 2 or 3 additional flights out of MCI that day and I called in and tried to invoke the next flight guarantee. CK agent had no idea what I was talking about and told me all the flights were full and the next flight they could get me on was the following day (Saturday). I again tried to invoke NFG and was told that "we don't do that".

Luckily I had saved the cell phone of one of the DFW CK agents and blind called hoping someone would pick up (they rotate phones and not all are used everyday). I got Tracee on the line and she was appalled that I had such a bad experience. She got me on the next flight out of MCI (sorry guy or gal that got bumped for me).

Again, when I joined again this year I almost always got a meet and greet or cart ride to the FSL/AC. If not I *always* got at least a phone call or text letting me know my next gate and time and that they were following my flights. That lasted from April until about June. Once June hit I don't think I had any contact from a CK agent for 3 months (with a couple of exceptions) and that included LHR where they have ALWAYS had someone meet and pre-board Keys. I literally flew 12 of those 14 weeks, including several trips to LHR and AMS. I felt abandoned.

Given that I always purchase premium cabin seats I no longer saw the value of loyalty that was one way. So I started flying airlines/schedules that made the most sense for me. Sometimes it's AA, sometimes one of the other domestic airlines. These days I almost always fly non-domestic for TATL or TPAC flights. Finnair or BA to AMS these days, Royal Thai to Bangkok, Iberia from Europe to South America etc.

Sadly, I miss the excellent service that the CK team used to provide. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Had I kept flying exclusively on AA this year I would likely been over 1.5 million LPs and would have certainly re-qualified from my small home airport.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Last edited by jhalapin; Feb 7, 2024 at 4:36 pm

enpremiere

Join Date: Aug 2015

Location: The FT AA forum, until it no longer wants me.

Programs: CK or bust

Posts: 1,913

Perhaps just coincidence but in the last month as a CK, I rarely had interactions with agents (even through ORD and DFW) in addition to oddball phone CK line calls regarding moving flights that were delayed or covered by waivers (on American metal).

Certainly an odd path going forward but perhaps the program just isn't as important to the bottom line as it used to be and the system-wide CK headcount is a reflection of that.

Not sure that I stand a chance of getting picked up again this year even with quite a bit of premium travel on AA metal and well over a million LPs.

jhalapin

Join Date: Jun 2013

Location: FSD

Programs: AA CK, DL SM, UA PS, HH Diamond, Bonvoy Titanium , Hyatt Globalist, Global Entry, CLEAR

Posts: 460

I can't imagine that could be true given that Keys are supposed to be *the* most valuable, highest spending and most profitable peeps in the Advantage program (if you believe the conspiracies surrounding nomination).

I think the whole customer service organization is in disarray and the CK agents have fallen with the rest of the organization. There are some *outstanding* CK agents that would literally take a bullet for you, but I think they have been stripped of most of the "powers" that gave them the ability to be super men/women. Given the fact that AA has just trimmed DFW and PHX by 600 or 700 customer service people and outsourced those positions, it's not going to get better anytime soon.

To say that I'm disappointed in AA leadership is quite the understatement. But I digress.

All that said, Delta and United are only marginally better CS wise. Delta has the best onboard experience (IMHO), but they both have the same MX and delay problems as AA, but they seem to recover more quickly and I like that Delta proactively throws miles at you for the smallest inconvenience. It speaks to Delta's philosophy regarding customer service and AA no longer has that philosophy or seems to care that their most profitable customers are moving away from the airline.

Last edited by jhalapin; Feb 9, 2024 at 11:49 amReason: I can't spell worth spit.

nogoodideas

Join Date: Jul 2022

Posts: 5

I have had one call very recently that was "meh," but the agent clearly wanted to do a good job, and I think I educated her a little along the way (not in a snarky way, but in a positive way). I really think that being a team player with them through agent this transition will make life better for everyone in the long run. Now, my husband (gold status) had a really frustrating one earlier this week, but it also resulted in an agent learning something. But even on that call, the agent wanted to do a good job and seemed to want to help; he just didn't seem to know what to do and/or how to do it. Of course we all want high will/high skill agents, but I'll take high will/low skill over the reverse any day, since that profile of agent will bring in someone else if they need to!

Marioparty

Join Date: Apr 2023

Location: DFW

Programs: AA CK, 4 MM Miler, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum Elite, Avis President's Club

Posts: 43

AB Dada

Join Date: Apr 2020

Posts: 256

Three flights in the past week, 2 of them had their phones showing meal photos, but I had a preorder for 1 so it didn’t apply to me.

I am digging it.