[QUOTE]Originally posted by andrzej:
[B]...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?

BTW, I think there are a decent number of LT people.

If you fly 50K/year and are a LT PLT, then you have two options:

(1) Fly AA and utilize the PLT perks (100% bonus, upgrade options, etc).

(2) Fly another airline in couch for a few months and get an elite status on that airline.

I would choose (1) in most cases.

Some people may choose (2). Does AA change the program to try to capture this business (by requiring only 50K Q miles to LT PLT)? I don't think that would be a sound business decision as it devalues EXP perks; these customers are huge revenue generators.

As I wrote before, I am glad AA has the LT program because I will benefit from it. However, I think it would be smarter for them to take better care of the FFers who are currently flying 100k+ miles.

It is probably too late for AA to eliminate the AA LT statuses. It would outrage many AA customers.

Furthermore, EXP pax have great perks (and deserve them). I am sure many of them do their best to fly 100K+ miles on AA to requalify for this status.