Trying yo understand status perks
Hey all. Just trying to make sure I’m on the right track.
I got my first status (25k) at the very end of last year, so this is all somewhat new to me. I’ve had a few trips this year and about to hit 50k, and I just signed up for the TD Infinite Privilege plan.
When work books me for a trip, I get varying results. It’s a government booking through AMEX Neo, so I’ve always gotten zone 2. I can usually select my seats, but more often than not, I can’t select preferred seats. Once or twice I was able to select an emergency exit row for free upon check-in, but it’s usually already full. So I was happy when I hit 35k, because it advertised preferred seats on booking instead of the 25k option of preferred seats on check-in.
But I haven’t seen that actually work out yet. I just had a trip booked for me, which I assume is the lowest fare because it wants cash+e-upgrade for me to try for business. No big deal because that rarely works out for me (I’ve gotten 2/10 e-upgrades work with my status). But they also charged $68 for an emergency exit row, and I thought this was a perk for 35k or at least with the premium credit card.
Is it just that my booking is the lowest level and doesn’t qualify for upgrades/perks, or is there something else that isn’t working?