Originally Posted by
Dr. HFH
Between this and the 2015 Currency Promotion, AA seems to be giving away both miles and status. Is it simply trying to purchase the pax from competitors? This is going to make upgrades and awards that much more difficult for the next few years. While I certainly see the validity and reason that you treat all pax in a given category (e.g., elite status) similarly, wouldn't one think that the airline still wants to recognize the pax who earn status through actual BIS miles, actual segments or points (which come from actually paying for premium cabins/fares)?
Who will now qualify for (say) EXP who wouldn't have and what level of conflict with their use of EXP perks have with others? Neither concerns me much:
People who fly in business/first discount fares and manage 50k BIS but not 67k BIS --> they were buying business class fares so chances are it's mainly conflicting for upgrades into 1st. If you would get very upset at fewer upgrades from business class to 1st then you may be peeved but I don't think there''ll be heaps of impact of any kind as 50-66k is pretty slim sliver of people impacted.
People who fly full fare business/first and manage ~33k BIS rather than ~67k BIS. These people are paying full premium fare. A lot/often. Honestly, they are probably mostly flying the class they want to anyhow and probably not flying based on EXP status/perks. I guess some of them may wind up upgrading from biz to 1st with SWUs but the numbers are unlikely to be high.