no1cub17

I won't even dignify that (I guess I just did by responding) - but that's ridiculous.

And ok even if JL remains available - that's one partner as opposed to infinitely more options with Star.

richarddd

One positive for aadvantage has been the ability to churn Citi credit cards for miles. I had thought it was harder to get miles for UA, DL, etc. Are there similar opportunities?

Paulchili

Hard to beat Chase Reserve card with 100K sign up bonus and 3 points/$ for travel and dining
Offer for online application for Reserve card expires 1/12.

richarddd

Yes, but that's a one time offer. It used to be possible to get multiple Citi 25k or 50k signup bonuses per year.

no1cub17

And now it's not, making the CSR by far the best travel rewards card out there. By a mile. AA's partners can't come even close.

rufflesinc

combine with freedom unlimited for non-category spend?

richarddd

Other than a one-time bonus, accruing significant miles with DL or UA requires significant spending (if you're not flying a lot)?

I agree that CSR is the best travel rewards card out there.

Paulchili

A lot of things "used to be" - including getting AA premium awards with regularity (and at lower rates)
You cannot churn Citi cards any more and even if you could - what would you do with those miles?

eponymous_coward

I don't really accrue AA (since most everything in that side goes in the AS bucket), but I come up with a few thousand a year or so (car rentals when a good bonus is going on, dining, random stuff). It would take a long time to get enough miles for J TATL/TPAC, but hey, a free ticket one way every few years as "money for nothing"... OK.

So I redeemed (originally) MIA-LAX(AA 77W)-SEA(AS) coming home from a cruise because "well, why not, at this rate I'd have a J ticket somewhere sometime in 2020 or so". One schedule change later, it became MIA-TPA(AA)-SEA(AS).

Then I decided to stay in Miami with friends at a pool for the day waiting for a flight, and it occurred to me that with AS status I could help get rum home for us by checking luggage for free. Checked for the trip (10 days out). Oh look, there's Y. Oh look, program rules are free changes with destination and origin staying the same. Ring ring, talk to CS, ticket changes easy as pie, I even get MCE as AS MVPG.

So I feel the pain about premium cabins longhaul being bone-dry a lot of the time (I can see that searching on alaskaair.com or aa.com, though I DID fly home from DUS on AA in J last summer), but the program still has some use, I guess. It was nice to see AA inventory available close in (within two weeks of travel).

rufflesinc

chase ink 5x at office supply stores means certain spend can earn a lot of points by buying gift cards. i have redeemed well over 1MM UA miles this way, and that's not including chase UR transferred to other partners. Even post UA deval, UA awards have been good to me.

sadly this might be coming to an end as the ink preferred shows.

richarddd

My problem is that my collection of AA miles is now virtually useless given the lack of premium saver awards and that there's no good way for me to accrue enough miles on other airlines to pay for multiple premium awards per year.

I have been seeing AA metal J availability JFK-LHR, but only for same day travel, which makes planning a bit difficult.

shimps1

While Citi has cracked down, it's still possible to get multiple AA cards if you look hard enough. There is a link floating around that does NOT have the 24 month wording for the AAdvantage Plat Select Mastercard. I signed up for one 12/17, and again on 12/29, and both bonuses are confirmed by CSRs. Combine that with a SM asking to get matched to a "60k offer that I saw online" and the AAviator card, in about 3 weeks I've gotten 160k of AA miles on $6100 spend.

oysterhead43

thanks for the tip, found the thread on reddit (LINK), applied and was approved.

looks like the 50k bonus will go thru even though I currently hold two Citi AA cards. I've had great luck with international sAAVer availability in coach for my family of four. These bonuses are key to our summer vacations.

Question: what's an SM?

duranza

secure message

sdsearch

I have my doubts that SPG transfer ratios will change in the next year or so, given the SPG will go away as such not much longer after that. And then it depends on whether "Marrwood" ends up partnering with UA (as Marriott currently does) or DL (as SPG currently does) as to which one of those is likely to have a "better" transfer ratio from "Marrwood". (The current Marriott->UA "better" transfer ratio is very tied to its tie-up with UA on various things including elite status. It didn't exist before that tie-up.)