That's the question I pondered this afternoon as I sat on my flight, delayed for over an hour, waiting for the weather to clear. I've been dabbling in travel hacking lately so I'm looking into where I want to obtain my "free" status.
So this is how it came about. I flew American Airlines. I hardly ever fly American but they just so happened to have the lowest prices this weekend for direct flights to and from NYC. When I bought the tickets I got to the page where you pick your seats and I was a bit surprised and miffed to see that if you wanted to pick ANY type of seat, you'd have to pay an extra charge; otherwise, you'd be assigned a seat at check in (just like they did in the good 'ole days). Forget that! I'm cheap. I'll take my chances at check in.
I always check in for my flights as soon as the online check in opens. I suppose this is habit from flying Southwest. For those not familiar with Southwest's seating, it's festival seating... like first come, first serve. First one on the plane gets to choose whatever seat they want. The way they determine who gets to board first is by whoever checks in first. No shit, when they first started flying you would show up at the gate and check in, then get handed a plastic boarding pass with a number on it. You then lined up by number and turned the passes in when you got on the plane. It didn't matter if you were 90 or had a baby or had crutches, you lined up by number. First one to the gate got to board first. Things have changed a bit from the 1980's. Now you can pay extra to be one of the first 15 people to board. After that, they will let the people with babies or those needing assistance board... after the first boarding group of 30. I have learned that if you check in as soon as the online check in starts 24 hours before your flight, you will almost always be in that first group of 30... at least that has been my experience.
So back to American. I checked in as soon as the online check in opened. This is the seat I got in the seat lottery.
Looking at the seat map of my plane I realized these seats (Hubs got the seat next to me) would have cost me an extra $22 each had I picked them out on my own. The seat map is from SeatGuru. Yellow are seats people had warnings about, red is bad and green is good. I got the exact seats I would have picked out on my own - closest to the front with someplace to stash my stuff. It's a small plane so the row of single seats has no overhead compartment. The pair of seats in Row 3 obviously has no seat back pocket or place in front of you to stow your stuff that you want during the flight.
Then I saw my Boarding Group. Six. Are they boarding from the back of the plane? How can I be in Group 6 when I'm in the fourth row of seats on an 18 row plane? Status explained it all...
Boarding groups 1-4 were all based on status rather than where you were actually sitting on the plane. Looking at American's website, they had all manner of status. I used to think dance competitions were the only place you saw ludicrous levels of placing but now I see it's everywhere.
From lowest to highest on American's status pole, you have...
Platinum Select or Executive World Elite (for having one of their credit cards)
Gold (25,000 miles or points)
Platinum (50,000 miles or points)
Platinum Pro (75,000 miles or points)
Executive Platinum (100,000 miles or points)
Next level should be Super-d-duper Perfect Platinum Diamond Titanium...
So what does status get you? The nitty gritty break down in HERE. To be fair, I understand there are frequent travelers that can optimize on some of these benefits. For me though, I don't fly American enough for it to make a difference. I say this because you can also buy status rather than fly your way to status. If you are Platinum or above you can pick your seats for free. Me? I got a preferred seat at no extra cost with no status by checking in early.
The early bird gets the worm... at least this time!
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