Originally Posted by
rafernandes
Joined AA on May 15, 2005, Hit my first million on November 1, 2009 (did a lot of international flying)
Struggling since then to get to the 2 Million mark.. in the last 6 years , just managed 586k, will take me at least 4 years to get to 2 Million, and by that time I bet the program will no longer have LT Plat status and SWU and all that good stuff (:
It's much likelier that neither you nor I got that first million by "lots of international flying"; we got it because AA's liberal policy at the time (ended 01 Dec 2011) counted every mile from any and every source (even my 500,000+ Aviator miles from TWA) as million miler qualifying miles.
Like you, I'm near the half-million mark toward my next threshold - I may or not make it, and two SWU just won't actually make my day if I do.
If it takes you four years, you'll very likely get Lifetime Platinum, and you will be justifiably proud you did so "the hard way".
If they were going to eliminate the MM program, the ideal time to do so would have been earlier this year. It's a trivial cost to AA, yet provides them easy cachet and buzz - and a claim they treat their "loyal" customers with lifetime recognition, much like the other guys (even if AA don't provide any lifetime benefit beyond Platinum whilst the other two big ones do, iirc). Killing the MM program in the future will bring hordes of bloggers like hungry vultures to a kill and u,timately generate negative pufflicity AA don't want.