Originally Posted by
Austin787
Used to be loyal to AA, and had status for the last 10 years. When booking a flight, as long as I'm comfortable with AA's price I don't look at the other airlines. I would even take a connecting itinerary on AA over a non-stop on a competitor.
Devaluation of AAdvantage and cuts in the onboard product have made AA no better than its competitors (and in some ways AA is arguably worse), so no incentive to stick with AA. Being a free agent is a wonderful thing - I focus on convenience, product, and price and book the airline that offers the best combination of those things.
Exactly.
For years I ignore Delta with the perception Delta peso is not worth anything despite Delta actually has much more convenient flights and comparable prices, sometimes even cheaper than AA's for places I need to go.
Then 2.5 years ago I actually discovered Skypeso was not nearly as bad as perceived, and actually much better than AA's miles when I was trying to find award seats to LHR without having to pay the BA scam fee. I was able to find VS availability almost everyday in the peak of travel period between June and August at Saver price! What a shocking discovery! Sure, DL wanted 65K? at that time versus AA's 50K but if there is no seat, what good is the cheaper price?! You cannot buy anything with it...
Being a free agent is definitely a wonderful thing.