Originally Posted by
Fine Art Landscape Photographer
If you're a subscriber to cable company for 19 years and you pay them $100/month for certain package - do you think that call them and tell them that as a loyal customer you deserve to get the same cable package but now you can only pay $50/month. If you have season tickets to certain team for 19 years and you continue paying $10,000 per year for them - do you think if you reach out to team and tell them that you had surgery and had to take some time off from work and because of that all you can afford for 2019 season is $5000. Do you think the team will eat $5000 or will they just sell your tickets to someone that is capable of paying $10,000.
With all due respect, those examples are not even close to OP's situation.
Fly a lot in 2017, the resulting perk is EXP status in 2018. If you do not fly at all in 2018, you are effectively not getting the perk you earned. That is why some airlines (and hotels) accept to move your perk from 2018 to 2019 if you are not travelling in 2018 especially if it's a medical reason and you will resume being a frequent customer after that. They are not giving you more benefits, they are simply shifting what you earned by one year.
For cable TV, if for some reason I am going away for an entire year, I will stop paying and I won't get the service during that year. When I come back, I resume paying, and the service resumes too. As it should be. Different timing than for airline status.
For season tickets, if you have surgery after buying your tickets, you will have no problem selling them to someone else for that year. Then renew the next year and attend games.
Bottom line, if I was the sole decision maker at AA, I would give OP status. I think I earn more goodwill by doing so, which benefits AA in the long run. Unfortunately I do not call the shots!