Originally Posted by FullFare

I've had a lifetime plan for 20 yrs and have been satisfied with it. They don't sell the lifetime anymore (not sure if they regret having marketed it). But, God bless 'em, they didn't trash it (as they well could have) during the bankruptcy process.

There have been many other plan variants over the past years. I've bought multiple partial plans for my wife, kids, and even grandkids in the past---when they (AA) had unexpected intervals of marketing advocacy.

For the flexibility, it is great. Especially for booking a reservation, and then backing out of it, on a situation involving a popular time for a popular route.

It used to be quite valuable on overpriced routes like LGA-ORD. But there's hardly a route like that that I can think of that hasn't pressured AA, and almost any other carrier, to decrease price because of the likes of Jet Blue and Southwest. So, AAirpass not as valuable for that as it once was.

It's less valuable on long routes, like the trans-cons, where there is competition for low fares by many, many carriers. One thing they did to fight that was to provide "Instant Upgrade" buckets whereby we AAirpass flyers could surrender only our Y miles bucket, without paying the F premium (35%), but still getting full F credit for the route flown (AAdvantage bonus, eqp, and all, including the companion's). I book these all the time and truly do like it. One of the best things AA did, IMHO, with tweaking the AAirpass program.

It carries the AC with it, which is nice. I've got it (lifetime AC) for my wife and self on my plan.

So, my perspective is a little biased because I bought the lifetime product 20 yrs ago and am still savoring it. They used to treat us like royalty (AA agents) but now I'm not convinced that many AA agents out in the field, or on the phone anywhere, for that matter, have kept up that status for us. Many (AA personnel) give me a "duh" when I mention it. Too bad. But times change.

AAirpass flown miles accrue 1.5 points, as long as you don't book the "Plan Ahead" bucket (which is 1.0 points) and your companion's miles/points accrue to your AAdvantage pile. So, when I book LAX-LHR, even in Y, upgraded, I make mega-points on the run, well over 30K. And they only charge 80% or my miles for that type of int'l trip. A neat way to game the system and get to EXP in 3 round trips. Now there's a different kind of mileage run!

The main thing is to do the math about cents per mile, and see if that has a prayer of being in your ball park/budget. After that, factor in flexibility, the AC, and the once-illusory status of getting your butt kissed for being "AAirpass".

There's more, but I'll hold for now. Others may want to ad something.

Regards