MJChicago

Thanks for sparing me from watching the show Dave!

Wow, this thread just keeps on going.

As my last bit of real international travel was to Asia (paid J), I would just switch over to CX for those flights... versus doing the Narita shuffle with my upgrade to First on AA. And for my personal travel, you'll see me start to cash in miles instead of buying cheaply and upgrading (although I'll still do that with the VIPs).

The thing that really irks me is how crappy their premium product is versus the other options out there. I know why the other airlines don't allow upgrades at all or as easily - they actually have a product that's worth something, but AA's premium cabins are pretty far from premium.

But by far my biggest disappointment in all of this is the response to my letter to AA. I told them that I thought they should introduce a real premium product (which would not only justify but necessitate this change), or they risked losing the business traveler that liked to fly on the cheap for personal travel. The response (and not the first, auto response) from Gail Greene, was nothing more than the FAQ copied off of AA.com and pasted into paragraph format in an email. Not once was my concern about the quality of the product addressed. This is probably the first time I haven't received a real response to any of my compliments or concerns over the last three years of being EXP and a 1MM flier...