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In October last year Iberia announced that it would be introducing a Premium Economy product into its fleet and, in January of this year, the airline opened up reservations for its new product on flights between Madrid and a number of US cities for travel starting as early as May.
With all that in mind you would have thought that, by now, American Airlines (Iberia’s OneWorld partner) would be able to tell us how may Redeemable Miles/Elite Qualifying Miles/Elite Qualifying Dollars we will earn if we book Iberia Premium Economy and credit the flight(s) to AAdvantage. Sadly it appears as if that’s too much to ask.
The other day I spotted what appeared to be a pretty reasonable Iberia Premium Economy fare for travel between New York and Madrid and, as I really want to try out the new product, I decided to see how many AAdvantage Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) I’d earn from the trip.
A quick look at the Iberia earnings table on AA.com didn’t tell me anything:
Not only is there no mention of the Iberia Premium Economy cabin but there’s also no mention of fare code “T” which is what Iberia Premium Economy books into.
I decided to take to social media to see if the American Airlines Twitter team could shed any light on the matter:
The response wasn’t exactly promising:
I was pretty sure that this was nonsense (specifically in the case of Iberia PE) so I thought I’d prod them again just to get them to have another think about what they’d written:
The AA Twitter team didn’t cover themselves with glory with their next response and, after I gently pointed out their mistake, they said they’d DM me “with more info”:
Sadly, when the DM finally came through, this is all it said……
….and, unsurprisingly, I still haven’t heard any more.
I suspect that the Iberia Premium Economy earnings will probably turn out to be the same as what we already earn if we book British Airways Premium Economy and credit the flights to AAdvantage…..
….but it would be nice to know for sure.
It doesn’t say very much for the efficiency of those running AAdvantage that just days before the first Iberia Premium Economy seats start flying to New York (3 May) we still can’t be told what miles we’ll earn for any flights we credit to American’s rewards program.
I’d call it pathetic but then I’d be running the risk of overusing that word every time I discuss AAdvantage nowadays. Sadly, what was once a fantastic loyalty program run by people who appeared to know what they were doing now appears to be a program on a rapid trajectory to insignificance and run by the clueless.
What a waste.
