If you are Gold Guest List status on BA, AA is supposed to give you Concierge Key treatment (including pre-board). But they don’t always remember to do so. That’s probably why it feels a bit random.
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It is pretty unusual. While I am Platinum for Life on AA, that is a lowly status. But, I am Gold for Life on BA, which is equivalent to Executive Platinum for Life on AA. There is one higher status on BA, Gold Guest List, that I have had in some years, and I don’t want to fly enough miles to get Gold Guest List for Life. So, @Twoin18, I don’t think I am either GGL or CK unless they are treating Gold for Life like GGL. I have noticed that on certain BA flights they have Group 0 and I am included. I don’t complain. But other than lounges, I never count on anything.
With the acceptance of Teams/Zoom, I have to do much less traveling. I have a Brazilian client and in our pre-Pandemic engagement, we would travel every month to Sao Paulo, London, Tel Aviv or Miami. In our new engagement, the expectation is twice a year although the reality looks closer to 4 times a year. But, much less than 12 times a year. Pre-Pandemic, I had a client in London and another in Frankfurt that both expected/needed one visit a month. These were 2.5 and three year engagements. I tried to do them all in one trip but could not do it every time. In addition, I had other clients in the UK, France, Israel, etc. plus the Gulf and would often fly through London. I was working on one M&A deal and flying at the time AA to London and going first or business close to weekly. I had a three week gap and the crew in F when I boarded said, “Mr. Shawbridge, we have not seen you for a while.” I figured I was traveling too much. In contrast, I am working on an M&A deal now and have not met anyone in person. One trip total for that client (although it probably would have benefitted from some initial travel).
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Watching people at the Flair (which charges for overhead bin carry on bags as well as checked bags) check in line try to fit their oversized personal items and overhead bin bags into the sizers was entertaining, except for the fact that they made the check in line slow (even with online check in, they make you put your bags in the sizer before giving the boarding pass).
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Status is always a good news / bad news thing. The good news is you got top tier status. The bad news is you flew so much you got top tier status.
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Lesson learned (for us): make sure you get it renewed before it expires. My wife and I both have had Global Entry (which includes TSA PreCheck) for years.
I renewed mine 2 weeks before expiration and received confirmation of approval within a week.
My wife was busy with work and applied for renewal 3 days after expration. Her application has been pending for 4+ months now. She called their support line and they say current processing times are 12-14 months! No idea why it takes them that long, but it’s been a real pain for my wife not to have PreCheck.
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Yes @anomander. Status used to be from what they called BIS (Butt in Seat) miles. To be gold for life required lots of BIS miles as did Plat for Life on AA. Flights to US, UK, Europe, the Gulf, Australia, HK, China. That was a bit of a booby prize.
At this point, I’m happy for it to slow down. But, ShawWife and I have had a good understanding. We have taken great vacations over the years. Although I usually plan to fly both ends of a trip with her, there is rarely a vacation trip on which I don’t end up having to take one end or the other going someplace else. We are taking a 40th anniversary trip biking in Provence and spending a few days in Paris. A VC firm that invested in a company I co-founded is having a bash in Paris a couple of days later and I was contemplating attending but then my Brazilian client scheduled what had been a hard to schedule meeting for that same day in SP. So, I will fly from Paris to SP and she will fly home from Paris without me. We laughed because that has been our life for many years.
Fortunately, I have enjoyed a lot of my travel or have not minded it (flying in the US is not great but international flying is often much better). I have a hotel in London that I like. I used to leave suits and shirts there. I did the same in Frankfurt (though I can’t say I loved to stay there). If you are going once a month, they are nice to you.
Now it is from some combination of spend or only from spend. With JetBlue, I get status more from spend, I think. With JetBlue crumbling, I may need to use my accumulated miles/points.
Apparently, there are still airplane passenger fashionistas…
When it took over a year for our GE to be renewed, they said they were accepting expired cards and they did. We went to Europe and got back in with expired cards. I continued to use mine for Precheck with no problem.
Oh, OK, misread - I didn’t see that your wife’s card had expired. Shoot.
Ugh, hard to edit sometimes…
Deleted.
She should consider cancelling her application and reapplying. We applied for and for global entry in …… wait for it…… 8 days!!
Our D got her global entry in a few weeks, once she renewed her lapsed passport. Haha, only noticed it was expired because I told her to get GE—S’s CCard paid for her GE.
Unfortunately applying as a new applicant doesn’t work. It first asks if you’ve participated in the program before. If yes, you get directed to the renewal page.
Can she cancel/restart the renewal process? Just wondering since others beside myself seem to have had good luck with the system with a “new” application. Doesn’t sound like it would be any worse than the long wait she currently has, though there could be worth that. She’d be at the back of the pack again.
As an aside, I’ve heard there is also a new online passport renewal site that is supposed to be super fast.
I’ll ask her to look into it. Thanks.
Woah, we got lucky then. Wife’s GE expired while we were in the middle of a trip. (She only found out when checking boarding pass for the return flight, and saw that it had no Pre-check.) She completed the renewal app online from the airport on the way home, and GE was renewed 5 business days later. Her app was submitted 48 hours after her expiration, so they might have some grace period for renewal after expiration.
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Depending on where you enter, Mobile Passport Control app (MPC) can be just as good as Global Entry.
We arrived at JFK from Spain and our 18 YO didn’t have GE. He used MPC and actually made it through faster that my wife & I did using GE.
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Maybe. But it’s TSA Pre that’s more useful. My wife and I fly several times a year, but only 1 or 2 of those might be international flights vs the rest being domestic (where TSA Pre, bundled with GE, comes into play).
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Or just pay the $75 and get Precheck while waiting for Global entry. Bet some credit card will pay for it (United, AmEx).
When my sister was a world traveler and had millions of miles, she used to give them away because she said the last thing she wanted to do was travel more, even if it was free. She kind of went out with a bang as after she stopped traveling she took her H and D to Hawaii first class. Luckily her daughter was just 1 y.o. so didn’t get used to flying first class on a regular basis.
Off to Hilton Head tomorrow! (not first class until I get there and get to relax in my reserved beach chair)
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If you travel to Canada, you can also get the Nexus card at the same time. Useful both for flying and driving.
Also if you have a premium credit card (Amex Plat, Chase Sapphire Reserve etc.) they will cover the cost of Global Entry/TSA.