{"id":243573,"date":"2025-05-15T19:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/airline\/why-do-i-keep-flying-american-good-question-let-me-explain\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T19:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T19:55:04","slug":"why-do-i-keep-flying-american-good-question-let-me-explain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=243573","title":{"rendered":"Why Do I Keep Flying American? Good Question, Let Me Explain…"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A few days ago, I shared my awful experience flying American<\/a>, where the carrier\u2019s handling of a delay was oh-so-bad, yet oh-so-typical for the airline. Some people (fairly) asked me why I still frequently fly with the airline, and am loyal to American. Let me explain, as the answer is a bit nuanced. <\/p>\n

The short answer is that I\u2019d no longer consider myself to be loyal to American. However, that\u2019s not to say that I don\u2019t fly the airline sometimes, and it\u2019s also not to say that I don\u2019t participate in AAdvantage, and even pursue elite status. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

Living in Miami, American is often the best choice<\/h2>\n

Let me start by saying that I\u2019d no longer consider myself to be loyal to American. Airlines have eroded the value of elite status to the point that it doesn\u2019t do much to impact my choice of which airline I fly. I fly the airline that offers me the best combination of price and schedule, whether paying cash or redeeming points. <\/p>\n

Truth be told, I don\u2019t do much domestic travel, as a vast majority of my flying is international. That means the domestic flying that I do is often simply positioning to major gateways, and then most of my international travel is on foreign airlines.<\/p>\n

Living in Miami, American is often the best option in terms of schedule. American flies the most places nonstop, so I\u2019m just going to fly on American over connecting on another airline, since there\u2019s huge convenience to flying nonstop. <\/p>\n

Like, I\u2019m not going to fly to the Caribbean by connecting in Atlanta with a 40-minute connection. For that matter, my most frequent domestic route is from Miami to Tampa, where competition is limited, and American has by far the best schedule.<\/p>\n

But honestly, I\u2019m not loyal to American, as it has probably been six months since I\u2019ve flown through Charlotte, Dallas, or Phoenix. That should tell you everything you need to know. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Next, American is often simply the best option in terms of overall value. Unlike Delta and United, American frequently opens up very reasonably priced first class awards at the last minute, and I have a sizable balance of miles.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, much of my travel on American is using Alaska Mileage Plan miles<\/a>, where I can redeem 9,000 miles for a one-way first class flight of up 700 miles, and 15,000 miles for a one-way first class flight of up 1,400 miles.<\/p>\n

In the case of my recent severely delayed flight from New York to Miami, I booked a few weeks out, and for a convenient schedule, my options were to pay 15,000 Alaska miles for American first class, or pay $600 for a Delta first class ticket. I\u2019ll let you guess which I chose.<\/p>\n

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So yeah, I book American when it\u2019s the best option in terms of fare and schedule. I don\u2019t go out of my way to fly the airline, and in all honestly, all else being equal, I\u2019ll typically fly another airline. American is my airline of choice when it\u2019s cheapest and\/or has the best schedule, and that\u2019s it. In other words, I\u2019m a rational consumer. \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n

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American has a robust network out of Miami<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I do still pursue some status with AAdvantage<\/h2>\n

I had AAdvantage Executive Platinum status for 14 years, but I\u2019ve finally dropped down to AAdvantage Gold<\/a> as of this year. However, I\u2019m going for status again. Not because I value it for flying American, but instead, because I really value oneworld Emerald status<\/a> for all my travel on oneworld partner airlines. <\/p>\n

I love the amazing lounges it gets me access to<\/a>, plus the priority treatment. The reality is that American provides the easiest pathway to earning this status. My desire to earn that status has little to do with American, and a lot more to do with AAdvantage:<\/p>\n