American Airlines Launches New ‘Five Star Essentials’ Service
American Airlines has announced the launch of its new Five Star Essentials service, which aims to simplify the airport experience. Customers traveling in any cabin on an American flight can book the Five Star Essentials service for domestic departures and connections at select airports in the country.
“Five Star Essentials is another way to help ease the journey for busy families or anyone who simply needs an extra set of hands to navigate through the airport,” said Clarissa Sebastian, Managing Director of Premium Customer Experience and Onboard Products. “We know the airport can sometimes be time-consuming or nerve-racking, especially if you haven’t traveled in a while or are traveling during the holiday.”
Five Star Essentials
For now, American Airlines’ Five Star Essentials service is available at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Miami International Airport (MIA). Customers purchasing Five Star Essentials will be:
- Greeted at Priority Check-in and provided assistance in checking in for flights, selecting seats and checking baggage.
- Accompanied through the Priority security lane and assisted to ensure luggage and personal belongings stay together and organized.
- Escorted through the airport and to their gate.
Five Star Essentials starts at $149 (includes up to two adults and three children or pets) and can be booked starting today. Reservations can be made 72 hours in advance of the flight. AAdvantage members can use miles to book Five Star Essentials for 15,000 miles for up to 2 adults and 3 children and 2,500 miles per additional person.
Conclusion
The list of “perks” that the Five Star Essentials package offers doesn’t seem to live up to that $149 price tag. I’m sure they will find some passengers willing to pay for the service, but I’ll pass.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
I will say there could be a good use case: If you know ahead of time it will be a tight arrival for your flight at a busy period. You know you are checking luggage as a non-elite and one or more in the party do not have PreCheck.
Is it a wide use case? Nope. Will those non-elites have any idea this exists? Probably not. But, if I knew that I was showing up to the airport this Friday or Saturday only an hour before takeoff and had luggage plus a spouse and 2-3 kids in tow, it could absolutely be worth it, especially assuming the agent escorting you has even a modicum of ability to hold the plane for a couple minutes so they don’t deny you at T-15.
This was exactly my thought: big family, possibly a pet traveling with you (which really slows you down at security, and you can’t go through pre-check with an animal–they’ve turned us away all 3 times), and short connection.
But people probably won’t know about it in these situations.
Could I pay extra to not wear a mask instead? Asking for a vaccinated friend.
No.