That runs contrary to my experience. The first programs my (still-living) family used started out as stay X nights get a night free kind of programs and each point was a night.

I would be surprised if there weren't less formal frequent guest programs long before commercial air travel which also used nights rather than nightly rate to track and reward loyalty.

That said, these AA/US changes, which resulted in this thread, aren't yet about a change to a penny/dollar-counting system for the "loyalty" program.

I do fully accept that the no-advance-notice shenanigans should not be a shock given the government-sanctioned reduced-competition environment that now has us with an oligopolistic US market where three big cartel kingpins run the show. Expect more of this going forward. And it's not like a little advance notice is going to improve matters generally -- most people in these programs aren't in a position to, aren't willing to, or are highly unlikely to expedite point/mile earning in huge volumes in a week, a month or even a quarter to avoid the devaluations.

I would be shocked if the new AA cares that much about being shamed or about avoiding shame on the blogosphere to do better in the future -- they are committed to devaluing the value customers get out of the point-redemption aspect of program participation and ultimately that is all that matters in this environment where they can largely get away with devaluations with impunity.

The airline program bloggers are more impotent today in guiding/inhibiting program changes than they were at this time last year. Not that they were all that potent last year, not even in the sphere where competition is more amongst loyalty programs (ie hotel loyalty programs).