I'm starting to see how AA's screwing the short hops on EQMs with the multiplier happening on the base rather than the minimum mileage.
Up until the end of last year, you'd earn either 250, 500, 750, 1000, or 1500 EQPs based on fare. Pretty straight forward and fair.
Doesn't happen now though. My last trip had two shorter hops between ELP and PHX, coming in at 346 miles. I was on a P fare, so instead of 1000 EQPs I'd have had under the old system, I'm now getting 692. Round trip, I'm losing out on over 600 EQMs, or the reality is it's netting UNDER 1.5x under the old system.
So yeah, a trip that once gave me 10k EQMs now gives me 9300 EQMs.
It's a bigger insult if you're on a Y fare - you get 519 EQMs instead of 500 if you're on a discount coach. Ooo boy - 19 bonus EQMs for that premium!
It's worse on even shorter hops - like BWI-PHL which clocks in at a whopping 90 miles. ALL flights are 500 EQMs period. Granted, I'm not buying those segments by themselves, but there's no incentive to pay more for a short hop in F when a prop or an CR2 gives more bang for the buck.
If you live in a good chunk of the east coast, you're going to be less than 500 miles from most hubs. I have 3 hubs that are out of BWI that clock in at 350 miles or less (PHL, CLT and JFK). PHL is all but eliminated as a connection point unless I'm actually flying Y. The segment's just not worth it. CLT is worthless now (for me) going up and down the east coast, and JFK isn't much better.
If you end up flying a lot of segments under 500 miles, AA's really put the screws to you. There's no point in buying F or even Y fares.
I don't understand why AA decided to change the math. I mean, is it REALLY that much big of a deal to actually award multiples of the minimum?
They should just caveat that the multipliers really only apply on flights greater than 500 miles. Otherwise, their math is misleading.
I think AA didn't think this one through.