American Airlines was the first airline I gained elite status on, and for a while, I was able to fly the majority of flights on American (particularly helped by having my most frequent work destination at the time be the Dallas/Fort Worth area). However, by early 2012, my work travel destinations had changed, and travel American Airlines was less feasible for a substantial portion of my trips. I was able to maintain my status for a while, but United became my new preferred airline, and my share of American flights began to diminish.
Because of the substantial lead I’d built up with American, it still took me until this month for AA to dip below 50% of my total flights. I’ve decided to commemorate the occasion with a chart.
The flight that originally pushed me over 50% was a personal flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to San Jose, California on 15 June, 2009. AA peaked on my first Hawaii vacation’s final flight on 15 February 2012; just after that was when I started favoring United. However, AA was able to hold onto its majority until I flew from Chicago Midway to Orlando on 4 July, 2014 for a quick weekend vacation. Oddly enough, despite most of my flights being work travel, all three of those milestones occurred on personal flights.
It will take me a while longer to hit 50% on United—50% of 300+ flights I have now is much harder than 50% of the very few flights I had in 2009!
