As of Nov. 30, American Airlines is no longer accepting new or renewed AirPass memberships, the airline confirmed to BTN. The program was an all-inclusive, prepaid membership starting at $10,000 that offered flexibility, VIP privileges and elite status.
Current AirPass holders can use it as normal until March 2024, US SVP and chief customer officer Alison Taylor told BTN. Lifetime AirPass members can continue to use it after that date, but “under the auspices of a UATP card,” she added.
“The reason we’re shutting down Sun AirPass is that it doesn’t work very effectively with partner airlines, and that’s been a disappointment,” Taylor said. “We’re streamlining everything we do, and AirPass was very manual at times. It wasn’t in our new modern retail world.”
AirPass holders with expired contracts can request a refund, according to American.
The Dime Company on Wednesday reported that American would end AirPass. However, Taylor would not confirm a Dime Company report that the carrier was placing restrictions on its invitation-only ConciergeKey elite status for corporate accounts.
“That’s not really accurate,” Taylor said. “We have not made any decision on reducing CKs for corporations.”
Taylor denied that AirPass’ discontinuation reflected an increased emphasis on leisure travel at the expense of the corporate segment, which has been slower to recover. She said this had not been “at all” part of the company’s discussions.
“Corporate is very important to us, whether it is a larger complex global company or one [small or midsize business]”We saw during the pandemic the increase in the SMB customer and in leisure as well. But our large corporates are back to over 75 percent compared to 2019, so we will continue to be focused on them. AirPass decision it’s about simplicity, and everything has to be about self-service and digital, and we’re already able to offer the same services because of [New Distribution Capability].”
