Behind Closed Doors: Unveiling the Actual Perks of American Airlines’ Highest ConciergeKey Status
by Gary Leff
Real estate investment influence and course sales bro Pace Morby, followed by hundreds of thousands on social media, lays out how well-treated he is by American Airlines as a ConciergeKey member.
- “They’ll pick you up at our house, you don’t have to check-in, they just take your bags. They drive the golf cart to the front gate.” You don’t get free rides to the airport. You do have to check in. Sometimes you’ll get a golf cart when connecting at certain hubs.
- He claims they pick him up at the plane and drive him to his next plane when connecting. That part is possible, sometimes, on short connections – but never guaranteed.
- “I have a full-time employee at American Airlines that’s dedicated just to me. They’ll text me.” You get texts, sometimes and when traveling from certain cities, but from whomever is working at premium services.
The benefits of ConciergeKey are published publicly. What this guy says is not how it works. It is not how any of this works.
Concierge Key is the status that American Airlines gives to its top spending customers and top corporate travel influencers. It became legendary when George Clooney was portrayed as a Concierge Key member on a quest to earn 10 million miles in Up In The Air. The benefits of this status include top priority for upgrades (and no cash copay when spending miles for upgrades); airport escorts and even occasional vehicle transfers on the tarmac; access to Flagship business class lounges (and, historically, regular invites to First Class Dining); and a next flight guarantee to ensure they get to their destination.
I was a ConciergeKey member. Here’s the welcome kit I received as proof.
ConciergeKey was amazing. Benefits I took advantage of,
- Emails to reservations for things I needed. I received text messages and was met at gets when dealing with delays.
- No cash co-pays on mileage upgrades.
- Met at gates with a golf cart when I had long connections. (I never received a tarmac transfer, currently a GMC from one gate to another on tight connections at hubs.)
- Use of business class Flagship lounges when flying domestically, even on arrival, as well as Flagship check-in. At New York JFK this means access to the Soho lounge on domestic trips, and Chelsea on international.
- Guaranteed next flight, they actually booked me onto a sold out flight to get me where I was going when my flight was cancelled.
Chelsea Lounge, New York JFK
There have been two primary ways to earn ConciergeKey status: spending a lot of money on airline tickets, and being an important customer who influences a lot of travel (for instance, an executive with a big corporate customer). Corporate contracts may come with a certain number of ConciergeKey memberships.
You cannot qualify for ConciergeKey with a specific amount of flying or a published amount of spending. Over $50,000 has historically been enough – at least buying a $50,000 ‘AAirpass’ of prepaid travel would come with the status. Spending alone isn’t the only driver. Margins matter more. For instance spending $50,000 and flying 300,000 miles isn’t likely to earn ConciergeKey, while there are members spending $45,000 to fly no more than 100,000 miles who will make it.
American has run ‘challenges’ for Concierge Key membership. A targeted fast track has included four spend levels for American Airlines flights that had to be met during a 90 day period. Different members received different amounts, $10,000; $12,000; $14,000 EQDs; $16,000. (Those are annual run rates between $40,000 and $64,000.)
Concierge Key is also given out to decision-makers of big corporate contracts. There are also more than one tier of Concierge Key. There are a handful of members (perhaps a dozen) that are tagged ‘Do Not Miss’ because of their commercial importance to the airline.
