Dec 1, 2015, 8:52 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

American Airlines AirPass PrePaid Travel

NOTE: The program is Airpass; no longer named "AAirpass"

Link to AirPass front page

Link to aa.com AirPass contact and links page.

Quote:

Prepaid, Unrestricted Air Travel at a Fixed Rate

As an AirPass member, you won’t have to search for fares or pay extra for last-minute trips. Your airfare is pre-paid at a fixed rate and your account is ready when you need to travel to any of the more than 350 destinations in the combined American Airlines and US Airways network.

AirPass offers significant savings on fares (as well as guaranteed last seat availability) for flyers who know they will fly a lot but find themselves buying expensive last minute walk-up level fares.

AirPass, depending on level of purchase, includes status and may include up to Executive Platinum status and Admirals Club membership, or even Concierge Key, which includes both.

AirPass members get a courtesy drink and a snack if they're traveling in Coach, much as Executive Platinums do; unlike Executive Platinums, their traveling companion does also.

Quote:

14 Jan 2016 jmappleby said: "...they take credit via wire transfer at $10k (Gold), $20k (Platinum), $30k (EP). Concierge Key is available for $50k individual spend or $75k team spend."

AirPass can be for different classes of service, and except for "PlanAAhead Economy", book into Y, J or F classes (and in 2016 will earn AA Elite Qualifying Miles at Y, J or F levels) and for Economy AirPass flyers offers "instant upgrade" fares that book into A for First or D for Business. These may not be available on all routes, however, and the legal routes may change during your contract.

Quote:

Contact AirPass

AirPass Customer Service
800-433-6355
817-931-9029 - Fax

Monday - Friday
8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (CT)

Send us a letter
FedEX / UPS / Overnight mail
American Airlines
AirPass Customer Service
4255 Amon Carter Blvd.
MD 4106
Fort Worth, TX 76155

U.S mail
American Airlines, Inc.
AirPass Customer Service
P.O. Box 619616
MD 4106
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9616

You can get indicative pricing here: https://airpass.aa.com/vt-customer/c...ervations.html
The best deal seems to be the -UP fares, where you pay the standard economy, but book a confirmed seat into business

AirPass Prepaid Travel (née AAirpass, not Lifetime Airpass) Master Thread

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Nov 30, 2022, 8:42 am

#931

tismfu

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Dallas/Orlando

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 2,722

This is sad news for me. Now that JSX is on the Dallas - Orlando market, if this news is true, I’ll be even more encouraged to book away from AA.

Nov 30, 2022, 8:47 am

#932

scott56

Join Date: Jul 2014

Programs: AA Ck, Delta DM, Marriott ambassador , Hertz President, National EE, Hilton Diamond ,

Posts: 136

Quote:

Originally Posted by tismfu

This is sad news for me. Now that JSX is on the Dallas - Orlando market, if this news is true, I’ll be even more encouraged to book away from AA.

i go out of my way to fly out of Miami because of this. If it true, I’ll probably switch our corporate contract back to delta and start using FLL again with delta. Hoping it isn’t true or it’s going to be rebranded

Nov 30, 2022, 9:14 am

#933

metallo

Join Date: Jan 2011

Location: STL/ORD/MCI/SAN

Programs: AA CK MM, AC SE100K, BA Gold, UA 1K, DL Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum

Posts: 1,990

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.R

AirPass is reportedly being discontinued as of today

https://onemileatatime.com/news/amer...rogram-ending/

Wow. I really enjoy the Airpass program and just deposited additional funds earlier this month. I've become quite accustomed to the fixed pricing and use it to book the majority of my tickets.

Zero communication about this from AA so far, by the way.

Nov 30, 2022, 9:23 am

#934

scott56

Join Date: Jul 2014

Programs: AA Ck, Delta DM, Marriott ambassador , Hertz President, National EE, Hilton Diamond ,

Posts: 136

Quote:

Originally Posted by metallo

I emailed my rep. Really not happy about this. If it’s true. I wonder if it’s possibly a rebranding. When we spoke a few months back she said they wanted to rebrand the program. As soon as I hear I’ll give an update. We do mostly last minute and back up flights. This would totally suck

I got the official email. It’s true unfortunately

Last edited by Microwave; Dec 2, 2022 at 11:05 am Reason: Merged consecutive posts for readability

Nov 30, 2022, 10:38 am

#935

metallo

Join Date: Jan 2011

Location: STL/ORD/MCI/SAN

Programs: AA CK MM, AC SE100K, BA Gold, UA 1K, DL Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum

Posts: 1,990

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott56

I got the official email. It’s true unfortunately

I received it also. I had originally posted the email here, but I'm going to delete it (at least for now), as I'm not sure whether it contained individual/personal info. The FAQ linked by another poster below contains most of the details that were in the email.

Last edited by metallo; Nov 30, 2022 at 11:06 am

Nov 30, 2022, 10:44 am

#936

vasantn

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Jan 2001

Location: NYC

Programs: AA EXP / LT PLT / 3MM, Marriott LT Gold

Posts: 35,919

Wow. We have at least one Lifetime Airpass member here. I wonder how AA is going to handle them.

Nov 30, 2022, 10:49 am

#937

metallo

Join Date: Jan 2011

Location: STL/ORD/MCI/SAN

Programs: AA CK MM, AC SE100K, BA Gold, UA 1K, DL Plat, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum

Posts: 1,990

Quote:

Originally Posted by vasantn

Wow. We have at least one Lifetime Airpass member here. I wonder how AA is going to handle them.

The lifetime program is completely different -- I doubt it will be affected.

Nov 30, 2022, 10:57 am

#938

HaleiwaFlyer

formerly wchinchen

Join Date: Sep 2013

Location: Honolulu

Programs: AA CK, BA Gold, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 1,599

https://airpass.aa.com

They have an FAQ section about the sunsetting of the program.

metallo likes this.

Nov 30, 2022, 12:31 pm

#939

bassiur

Join Date: Dec 2003

Location: SPI. EXP 7 million miles

Posts: 77

Airpass to be discontinued March 31, 2024

I received an email today stating that "American Airlines is discontinuing the AirPass program effective March 31, 2024. Rest assured, we will continue to honor our travel agreements with our lifetime members".

Nov 30, 2022, 12:54 pm

#940

DrBillAtwood

Join Date: Apr 2006

Programs: AA ExP 5MM, DL Lifetime Medallion 2.3MM

Posts: 68

End of AAirpass

Having been an AAirpass member for almost 20 years, I'm saddened by this. There are a number of odd problems with AAirpass, but it can be a great program. In the last few years I've found the best use of it is for international flying when the ticket prices have soared. Often, AAirpass has saved quite a lot of money. The BIG surprise is ending the ability to add additional funds with no notice! I had just extended my contract till the end of 2023, but would have liked to be able to add more money. Also interesting, they just added free wifi as an AAirpass member on all flights. That was just a few days ago. I assume that will continue till the end of the program. As someone who changes flights all the time (because of changes in circumstances), ending AAirpass will potentially hurt. I can't believe they did a focus group on this first. Why not fine tune it as a program instead of cancelling it? AAirpass members have to be some of the most lucrative fliers on AA.

Nov 30, 2022, 2:54 pm

#941

arlflyer

Join Date: Feb 2013

Location: DCA

Posts: 7,770

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBillAtwood

AAirpass members have to be some of the most lucrative fliers on AA.

In terms of individual revenue, yes, but in terms of contribution margin, not so much. The whole allure of Airpass fares is that they're generally pricing below retail, particularly when there are really big price spikes. Back in the day when there was a bunch of capacity this was fine, but these days with every flight basically selling out and prices extremely high, AA probably looked at the numbers and decided that these fliers had too high an opportunity cost.

I've gotten a lot of use out of the program and will be very sad to see it go, but it seems like this is the direction every loyalty program is going these days...less about individual big spenders and more about how they can maximize the dollar value of every single ticket or hotel night. Maybe if the economy softens and utilization goes down, then we'll see companies rethink this.

Nov 30, 2022, 2:55 pm

#942

scott56

Join Date: Jul 2014

Programs: AA Ck, Delta DM, Marriott ambassador , Hertz President, National EE, Hilton Diamond ,

Posts: 136

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBillAtwood

I wish there was a way to convince them to keep it. We still have time until it’s completely gone. My rep pretty much said business travel dropped so much it’s no longer worth it for them. I loved having the status , and the biggest benefit was booking multiple flights and
being able to choose. Or being able to just cancel

always a chance a new program comes out.

Last edited by scott56; Nov 30, 2022 at 3:47 pm

Nov 30, 2022, 4:49 pm

#943

GoBirds

Join Date: Nov 2022

Programs: Frequent AA Flyer

Posts: 176

This is really bad news for my travel profile. I fly AA exclusively due to my home city being pretty much controlled by AA, and I fly frequently to Europe in J on fairly short notice, so Airpass has been very valuable to me, particularly as premium fares have skyrocketed the past 18 months or so. I'm quite surprised they chose to do this so suddenly, with no advanced notice, and more importantly no opportunity to add funds to our accounts prior to the announcement. As others have said, I'm going to have to hope they choose to replace Airpass with something that offers similar benefits, though I'm guessing that's unlikely, as I would have thought they would announce a replacement at the same time as they made this announcement.

Last edited by GoBirds; Nov 30, 2022 at 5:14 pm

Nov 30, 2022, 6:50 pm

#944

ChrL

Join Date: Oct 2012

Programs: AA EXP, PriorityClub Gold, SPG Gold, Hertz Gold fivestar

Posts: 486

Sad to see it go.

The increased flexibility (no change fees) on normal tickets took away quite a bit of the value of airpass. But I still liked it for not-too-expensive YUPs to europe and the faster-than-exp helpine to contact during delays.

Nov 30, 2022, 7:21 pm

#945

scott56

Join Date: Jul 2014

Programs: AA Ck, Delta DM, Marriott ambassador , Hertz President, National EE, Hilton Diamond ,

Posts: 136

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrL

im really going to miss it when those fees come back. Hoping for a Airpass 2.0 or something similar