<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by andrzej:
Let's say I'm a mid-level status flyer for years with AA, and one day I reach the coveted 2MM and become Plat for life. I never flew more than 50-60K miles per year all these years. Now I will have that status no matter what I do. What would stop me from changing to another airline, trying to reach some mid-level status there? After all I know I will never fly 100K required for ExPlat, so why bother? So my point is if a lifetime Plat could reach ExPlat(on a year to year basis) by flying 50K per year, it may encourage the person to keep flying AA, because it's a reachable point for that person, and after all the person did give AA plenty of business for years, so it's not like it's some sort of comp. </font>
A good point. The same issue applies to earning status every year, not just to LT. Say I reach 50K miles in September and requalify for PLT, but know that I will not make it to EXP by year's end. At the same time, I have status with AS and want to maintain it. Makes sense for me to switch to AS for the remainder of the year.
Not entirely hypothetical since last year I had 70K miles with AA.