My loyalty to any airline lasts 4-5 years. After that, my needs evolve, their business model evolves, and it's time to move to a better situation.
I had a four year run with AA this go around: PLT, EXP, EXP, EXP. The pmUS network was a great addition for what I was flying, upgrades were easy because I was buying even work travel 4-6 weeks out. Now the upgrades are going to rot because of CK and EQD based priority, and my travel O/D patterns are changing again to feature more Europe in Premium Economy and less Midwest to West Coast flying.
So it was time to move on. My plan has been
- Challenge to DL Platinum at the beginning of 2017. My upgrade rate is over 80% as long as I avoid ATL, although I fly a lot of CR9s which don't bother me in F.
- Ride out EXP when schedule or cost requires, then pick up BA Silver in 2018 Q2 to get MCE back at ticketing.
- Use WN for my more speculative personal travel under 800 miles where the redeposit is more important. Right now, I've been using AA miles as EXP with free redeposit.