Originally Posted by
ps9a
I'll feel very lucky if they keep the MM benefits for existing AA MM'ers. I don't think there's much chance they calculate all earned miles on US prior to Dec '11 to combine with the lifetime AA balance. US miles have been far too easy to acquire for too long IMO-- even easier than AA miles.
Under your outlined scenario, I'd cross the 4MM mark without ever flying 50k eqm's in a given year on either airline. I don't think they wanna hand me lifetime EXP or Concierge Key for my loyalty to their respective shopping malls (though I'd be ecstatic if they did).
I don't actually see any winning scenario for AA's MM program until the generation of flyers who accumulated huge balances under the pre-2011 mostly drops out. The benefits have not been upgraded at all to reflect the increased difficulty of reaching the milestones for newer members (like me), yet any increases would disproportionally benefit those who earned under the old system with no expectation of receiving such benefits. It doesn't help to now be integrating a group used to an even stingier MM program (based on the difficulty of achieving similar benefits).
As much as I object to COdbaUA's cuts to earned "lifetime" benefits, their current MM program, now based on pretty strict new earning rules, still looks more attractive than AA's. The only decent solution I can see, which is probably not politically acceptable, is for AA to completely replace the MM benefit structure and adjust downward inflated MM mileage accounts, but grandfather old benefits for anyone who already earned or will soon earn better benefits under the old program.