Rumor: American Airlines To Extend Systemwide Upgrades & Ease Status Requirements For 2022

Following last years blanket extension policy for American Airlines AAdvantage status and upgrades the carrier is rumored to soon announce new easements for their frequent flyers.

According to information allegedly revealed by an American Airlines executive during a customer call they will announce extensions to Systemwide Upgrades in early June and make status qualification easier.

When American first extended the validity of their status and instruments in April of last year they extended all existing status levels untll 02/2022 and the systemwide upgrades for Executive Platinum members until July 31, 2021.

With these deadlines coming ever closer now members have speculated about American coming out with a new extension policy or another goodwill plan.

According to this thread on Flyertalk a customer recently received a call from one of American Airlines’ top executives- AAdvantage President Rick Elieson – to iron out some grievances and this individual revealed the following key information:

… First big news – There will be a news release in the first week/early June that SWU expiration will be extended another full year …

All member populations of the frequent flyer program are to decline “precipitously” this year. There will be further revisions to obtain status for 2022. It may include threshold changes and/or accelerators/boost. More details would be released “early next month”, to coincide with the SWU news. …

There were further discussions in this call as the FT member outlines but those aren’t vital to the tier level and upgrade lifespan.

The most pressing matter would be the extension of Systemwide Upgrades which are now eight weeks short of expiring (July 31st).

After this the question moves to what happens to the status for members as a whole and overseas members in particular. It’s pretty much impossible for passengers to fly American Airlines to/via the U.S. these days based on border/immigration restrictions.

Conclusion

American Airlines is rumored to announce new AAdvantage elite membership extensions sometime within the next two weeks.

Let’s see if this is actually true and if yes what the details are. A simple reduction in elite requirements isn’t likely to be enough for international customers. There is stronger domestic travel within the U.S. again but those members who usually earn their miles with intercontinental flights won’t profit from reduced requirements especially as long as the U.S. and their home country has a travel restriction in place. Either airlines are willing to let these customers go or they have to extend them again.