There is one explanation other than a devaluation in mileage value right around the corner - getting as much revenue as possible before the end of the quarter/year to make the bottom line look better.

First, every airline figures that some percentage of miles will never be used - breakage it's called. Just think of the folks who fill out one of the cc applications on a flight, visions of free airline tickets dancing in their heads. A year later the first annual fee comes due and they still don't have enough miles for 1 free ticket, never mind 2 tickets for a couple or 3-4 for a family. So they cancel the card rather than pay the annual fee - thousands of miles gone to breakage each. Or even the very FFer who has a few thousand miles left every time he/she gets an award ticket - those extra miles in their account represent breakage.

Then they figure that most of the extra miles given out that will be used most likely won't be used this fiscal quarter/year which puts off the cost incurred by their use to at least next year.

I'll admit that I haven't looked at AA's award charts but if the mileage requirements are generally higher than US' I'd be looking at a strong possibility of devaluation compared to US' current charts, i.e. the higher redemption will probably be retained rather than the lower.

Jim