Originally Posted by
VegasGambler
I would agree with this, but status bonuses are a huge part of earning on both airlines, especially with high status. And AS has made extremely difficult to earn high level status if you don't live in a place that is served well by AS.
I would continue to credit everything to AS if I could maintain my 75k status (and maybe try to keep AA EXP with partner spend alone) but I don't see how I can fly 12 AS metal segments in a year (never mind 24 segments for 100k). Once you lose that status bonus, the earning side does not look as good any more. It's hard to believe that you will get better value crediting to AS with no status bonus than you will crediting to AA with a 120% EXP bonus.
Plus if you don't have AS status and you are crediting to them, you don't get free checked bags, you aren't on the upgrade list, and can't pick MCE seats for free (and paying for MCE every flight adds up really fast). Plus with AA status you can pay for basic economy and still enjoy all those benefits.
I personally think earning on AS without elite status could also be easy if you fly long-haul business or first class a lot. Business class on AS partners usually have 150% bonus, so you get 250% of the mile you fly. If you fly in first class this could be ridiculous 350%. You only get about half if you credit those miles to AA. If somebody don't mind paying for checked bags or not getting upgrades, AS could be attractive. If China opens up I can fly two round trips to China each year, but clearly China will not be open in any recent time, plus it's not always easy to find business/first class of acceptable price no matter I fly on transpacific routes or layover at Europe or Middle East, so in this way AA is at least a better choice for me.