Let's also hope that this indicates that by October we should have details about the 2017 program, and if indeed AA will follow UA and DL, or be the holdout and keep its current EQP variant of revenue-based elite qualification. For AA, the biggest issue that arose from its competitors going revenue-based was the RDMs accumulated by full and premium fare customers which resulted in the bonus program introduced earlier this year. If this can be addressed in some other way than a multiple of the $s spent (ala DL and UA) there's no reason to go for a pure revenue-based model and thus give AA a competitive advantage among some frequent fliers.

Having been rather generous with Challenges and Challenge/Status Matches, AA knows how many top tier elites its attracted from UA and DL, and if the revenue they've generated makes it worth keeping the current model. From a bottom line perspective, AA is making more money than ever, so there's little need alienating a significant chunk of regular customers.

So let's wait for the next shoe to drop...