Originally Posted by
Deltamaybe
Thanks Pbarnette. Any thoughts on general availability of upgrades on AA?
No clue. I don't have AA status, just BA status. I've just found myself on some domestic AA flights a fair bit this year, mostly in F, but some in Y. Overall, I've been pleased.
Originally Posted by
Deltamaybe
Any thoughts on the pending merger with US Air and how that might affect the rewards program for the next couple of years?
Well, the merger may not go through, so a bit tough to speculate. But, personally, I feel that all the programs will head in the same direction of decreased availability of reward flights and increased mileage costs for many redemptions.
Robust reward availability is a symptom of a lack of capacity discipline at an airline, so as long as the airlines are all drinking the same Kool-Aid on that front, I see them all moving in the same direction with regards to reward availability. Maybe if AA goes through with their pie-in-the-sky plan to increase capacity by 20% without a merger then they might have some near-term reward advantage, but my guess is that they won't hit those targets or the increases will be focused on areas of significant unmet demand, such that the impact to reward redemptions would be mooted.