In another thread, when the re-classification of domestic F to I fare class, still mostly called, and printed on the BP's as First, just had been implemented, I speculated what the reason was for this change. For AA it was just a lot of work, and probably ditto costs. The AA FFP travellers haven't seen any change, regardless of what the cabin officially is called, passengers and GA/FA alike, still call it first. The earning of EQM and EQM did not discriminate I-fares, so the Aadvantage flyers didn't come short, as I-class on domestic 2-class flights earned the same as F/A did before.

IMHO, the only winners of this change were BA and AY, who had FFP based on more on segments and fare class. Especially for AY+ members, this reduction was a harder blow, since AY doesn't have F themselves, but just as for BAEC members, roughly 33% reduction of earned TPs/miles. 210->140 and 60->40 for BAEC members domestic 2-class "First", distance over and under 2000 miles respectively.

When something strange happens, and without any obvious reason validating it, it can be beneficial to have a conspiracy theory ready. IMHO, it's more plausible that the AA change was requested by BA, maybe in collaboration with AY. Not familiar with the number of Elite members in AY+, but at least from what has been reported here, there is still many BAEC members qualifying for higher membership levels not only by flying QR, but to and/or within the USA with AA. The number of Golds have allegedly increased, but lacking official statistics I'll abstain from elaborating on that.

Re the second change with AA, limiting the allowed number of segments, I was not surprised, i.e. having the system flagging pax flying 16 segments on a LAX-PTY r/t will of course trigger a response from the revenue dept. So that change was not aimed at any special group/country/FFP, I interpreted it as pure self-defence.