Originally Posted by
PresRDC
My only real concern is that the new AAdvantage Program adopts 4 elite levels, lifetime platinums get the second tier from the bottom and this tier does not come with Oneworld Saphire status.
I doubt that AA PLTs, lifetime or otherwise, would be downgraded from OW Sapphire. Both UA & DL's 50k levels are roughly equivalent to Sapphire, so IMHO, it wouldn't be competitive to downgrade PLTs to Ruby.
As for the MM programs/lifetime status, AFAIK, 1MM on both AA & US are already equivalent tiers (AA Gold, US Silver), so there probably won't be many changes there in terms of benefits. This is only a guess, but perhaps the downgrades for PLTs would be to bonus miles (100% down to 50%) and priority (LT & 50k PLTs will fall below the 75k level).
I do wonder how they'll deal with the elite tiers during the transition and in the new program, since AA Gold /= US Gold and AA Plat /= US Plat right now.
Originally Posted by
NiceLanding
Having experienced both approaches at multiple airlines, I much prefer the 500-mile upgrade version as a lower-level elite and think that AA's hybrid version (unlimited upgrades for EXP, but must pay for companions) works quite well...
Agreed. My upgrades rates were decent with stickers and UA e-500s at all elite levels, even as Gold/2P.