Originally Posted by
scubadu
You are correct, there was not a cabin bonus for discount business on QR previously, in terms of RDMs. However, in that case, as a partner flight, you did at least earn EQM/EQDs based on distance rather than ticket price paid. In the new LP scheme, where EQM/EQDs go away, cabin bonus is the method to award greater LPs based on class of service/fare code. So previously, the lack of cabin bonus on QR didn't really matter, at least in terms of crediting to AA for qualifying, but now it does kinda matter.
You get 100%
base LP for discount business (R), versus 25-50%
base LP for discount economy (and all of those are exactly
5x EQD). That
is effectively a cabin bonus! It's comparable to the previous QR EQM differential, 1.5 for discount business versus 0.5 for discount economy. And unlike EQM, you get the elite bonus as LP on top of that.
Originally Posted by
scubadu
It's unclear to me if one receives the 120% elite bonus (or whatever % for a persons elite level) as LPs on a partner ticket. My understanding had been that the elite level bonus is really the LPs you receive on an AA metal or code share, as I thought it was based specifically on the ticket price (e.g. 11 pts/per dollar spent for EXP), which AA doesn't necessarily know for a partner award.
My previous post may very well be incorrect (at least in the severity I implied) if you do in fact receive the elite bonus even on partner tickets. So perhaps things aren't as dire as I implied, but still not sure I like this new system (we have no desire to shift spend to AA credit cards in order to obtain increasingly worthless AA miles)
Whether AA or partner, LP = RDM. And for EXP, you can extend the equation further: LP = RDM = 11x EQD (with some exceptions: partner cabin bonuses with LP > 100% don't multiply with the elite bonus, so it can be a bit less than 11x).
I made many of these points above (post #10) but seem to have been overlooked.