People will likely have noticed that I haven’t been riding on Delta as much this year. Because of this, I’ve been experiencing other airlines and found that American Airlines is likely the best fit for my current travel needs. With the recent changes to the Delta Medallion program, I decided to check out American Airlines Instant Status Pass.

Bottom Line: American Airlines Instant Status Pass is their version of a status match or challenge. This allows me to somewhat transfer my Delta Medallion status to American. My experience matching to American Airlines was easy, the process took about a week to process. In total I spent less than 10 minutes on the phone and gathering all of the necessary information.

American Airlines Instant Status Pass

Contacting American Airlines

The first step in the AA Instant Status Pass process is to call American Airlines. I contacted AA via their regular customer service line. I told the agent I’m interested in a status match from Delta and she told me she’d transfer me to the correct department. She also noted that I was the 4th or 5th call she’s had with the same request.

Once I was on the call with the AAdvantage Loyalty group, I was asked the following questions:

1. What current status do you hold?
2. What was the most recent AA flight you’ve flown, destination and date?
3. What is the next AA flight you have scheduled?
4. What AAdvantage Status would you like to match to?

I answered all of the questions and I was told that they would send me an email. In that email they’d need some documentation. The total call to American took less than 5 minutes. I was pretty pleased with the whole process.

Providing Evidence of Existing Status

Within an hour I received an email requesting I provide:

1. Your phone number:
2. Date of your next AA flight (if applicable):
3. Desired Status:
4. Current Program:
5. An attached copy of your other airline’s 2022 year end summary supporting your earned status listing your name, membership number and elite qualifying miles, segments and dollars
6. An attached copy of your other airline’s current 2023 membership card – expiration date of January 2024

I created the requested screen shots, filled out the information requested, and replied to the email. A few days later I received a response, apparently I had made a mistake with my date range on my year 2022 flight history. I generated the correct report with the right dates and sent it back.

Approval for AAdvantage Instant Status Request

Just two days later, and about a week after the process started, I received an email notifying me of approval for the Instant Status Request! The status match process from Delta to American was very easy. Because of my Delta Medallion status, American also waved the usual fees for the status request. I was allowed to then chose a start date for my AA Instant Status Pass. As I had a flight coming up in the next 6 days, I asked for my AA Platinum Pro Status to start on the same day.

My new AA Platinum Pro Status is valid for 4 months. In those 4 months, if I want to keep that status I need to earn 42k Loyalty Points. I’m not sure that will be possible, but I see no reason not to request the highest level status that AA will offer. Even if I fall short, I can still qualify for AA Gold or Platinum for lower Loyalty Point levels. I’ll earn more points with Platinum Pro than other levels so there’s really not a downside.

Retain AAdvantage Instant Status

Per the rules of the AA Instant Status Pass, there are 3 phases.  Each phase of the Instant Status Pass is 4 months long. If you meet the loyaly points goals
every 4 months, you keep status and move on to the next phase.

13k -AAdvantage Gold
25k -AAdvantage Platinum
42k -AAdvantage Platinum Pro
67k -AAdvantage Executive Platinum

So I’m aiming for 42k loyalty points in the next 4 months. However, if I fall short and for example only earn 25k points, I’ll keep AA Platinum.

AAdvantage Instant Status Pass Final Thoughts

The process to match my Delta Platinum Medallion over to AAdvantage Platinum Pro via the Instant Status Pass process was pretty easy. In total I spent less than 10 minutes of effort to call and then email the American agents. The turn around time was just over a week from start to finish. I’m a little bummed to leave Delta, they have treated me well, but between the high costs, reduction of benefits, and AA’s expanded presence at GSP, it’s time to try something new.

Over the next 4 months I need to earn 42k loyalty points, I’m not sure if I will, but that’s ok, if I fall short, I can still earn another AA status.

In the past few weeks I’ve been on a couple AA flights, included a CRJ900 First Class experience I really enjoyed. I’m looking forward to checking out AA’s service offerings a little more deeply and seeing if the AA Status is worth the effort or if I’ll just go fully “free agent” and wholly abandon Airline Status.