When American Airlines knocked out the ORD-DEL flight a short while after they entered Chapter 11 protection, I was slightly crossed with them. And I had good reason to be, I had just started to earn top-tier status with AAdvantage due to the OneWorld MegaDo, and was planning to make American Airlines my regular flight for travels to the USA, and switch to the oneworld network for going places outside my base at BOM.

With this move, I was still going to be able to use the oneworld benefits, by taking a one stop flight via London on BA or Brussels on Jet Airways, but I was going to be unable to use my upgrade benefits fully, which are valid when flying on American Airlines metal only. Also, all of a sudden I could not book award tickets online since American Airlines could not support partner award redemptions online.

Gladly, I noticed on Lucky’s blog the other day that AAdvantage has now added the functionality to book British Airways award space via the AA.com website. That instantly meant that I could now book my AAdvantage miles from India to travel not just to the USA but anywhere that BA went, using the AA.com website, which is a significant addition of functionality for me since I don’t have to Skype or call international to book an award ticket.

Now that makes life so much easier, and helps me keep my commitment with AA for the times to come. This means I no longer have to go on an award space ‘hunt’ to Europe and I can book away directly using the website. Thanks Maya Liebman for moving to become the CIO of American Airlines.

On the AA wishlist now, is if they could convert the upgrade vouchers to be used on partner upgrades as well, like United members get for Lufthansa… then nothing is stopping me from stepping up my commitment to American Airlines!

There, I said it…

Related Posts:

• American discontinues its only flight to India, what is next?

• 130 hours to AA Executive Platinum

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If you do not hold status with American Airlines but wish to get some status on American, you might just want to take a look at this.

As per this post on Flyertalk, if you register on AA.Com/offers with the promo code HVCAA till 29th February 2012, you could be enrolled for an expedited status challenge with American Airlines. You have to fly 10,000 base miles or 25,000 base miles on American’s metal to get upgraded to Platinum or Executive Platinum on AAdvantage. This is a targeted offer, so I am not sure yet if everyone who registers will be able to get it honoured or not. But read on…

By flying 10,000 base miles on American Airlines or American Eagle, you could get AAdvantage Platinum status, which offers your double RDMs and upgrades. That is 20% of the miles you need to do via regular means.

By flying 25,000 base miles on American Airlines or American Eagle/American Connection, you could earn Executive Platinum status which offers you unlimited upgrades while flying domestically and 8SWUs for international upgrades along with double RDMs. That makes it 25% of the annual requirement. This is the status I earned on American Airlines via the EXP challenge for OWMD.

AA does not usually do public challenges for EXP, but if they decide to honour this, you could be in for a sweet surprise.

What is more, by registering for this promotion you get to earn double miles for all your flying between 8th February 2012 to 31st May 2012 on American Airlines.

Status earned by registering for this offer will be valid till 28th February 2013. I will post more details as and when I get them. If you anyways expect to get the status via the DEQMs promo or other AA promos, you might want to hold on to those since status earned will be till February 2014 in that case.

Get cracking people!

The American Airlines flight AA 104 was uneventful at the back of the plane, with a largely empty cabin which accommodated a lot many passengers from the MegaDo bunch onto their own fully flat seats by occupying a whole row to themselves. All the action was in the First Class where there was a special dinner on-board for a chosen few flying F, with the new president of AAdvantage, Suzanne Robin. We were lucky to have arrived in LHR an hour early, with the tailwinds in favour (the same Atlantic ones which came in my way to arrive at JFK from Brussels after a fuel-stop).

Here is a little bunch of pictures from the back of the plane:

Yeah, it was a boring flight, but the crew was good and wanted to take care of all of us in the back. So, while I was happy to be on my Exit Row seat and try sleeping, one of them told me there was a lot of space at the back and I could take a bunch of seats and go off to sleep more comfortably. It was indeed more comfortable!

Arriving at LHR in comfort and spending time at the LHR Arrivals Lounge

When we got into London, American was upping the game again. They organised to get everyone through fast track immigration and invited us to the American Airlines Arrivals Lounge. While EXPs and First Class travellers were already eligible, everyone was invited in as well.

Once over, the visit to the Arrivals Lounge started with a quick shower at one of the 29 shower pods that were waiting for us.

All set after a refreshing shower, we set out for breakfast. And there was quite a bit of it to explore.

Since the first event with British Airways was planned to start after 1:30 PM and most of the group visiting was staying at hotels in or near Paddington (Hyatt Churchill was the host hotel), a bunch of us decided to stay back at the Arrivals Lounge till the afternoon and get some work done, grab a bite, get some sleep or just unwind!

We were now all set to arrive at British Airways to take a peep into their HQ and be hosted by them later in the afternoon!

Get yourself a chance to get some MegaDo Swag if you enter the contest here!