ajf87

It's not AA's fault if you don't check your emails or read any points/miles blogs. I had an easy time jumping from regular Platinum to EXP. EXP's had an even easier time maintaining their status. I also live in Hawaii where American is the more difficult legacy to maintain loyalty with, as United has much more flights to and from the islands, and the travel restrictions were much more stringent than anywhere on the mainland. Still easily qualified for EXP and could have potentially made a play at 120k EQM for an extra pair of SWUs had I jumped at the $500/5k EQM offer earlier in the year. This was also without any extra EQM/EQD from card spend, only butt-in-seat on AA and AS. I'm quite happy with Aadvantage and wouldn't even think of shifting loyalty to United, which to my knowledge still runs four-abreast "business class" on some Hawaii routes and has a whole gaggle of elites out here I'd have to compete for upgrade space with. I also can't fly JAL in J non-stop to Tokyo for 55k miles with MP.... unless they want to route me via SFO or DEN in economy or some other such nonsense.

EDIT: Again, $15k in CC spend is all it took for EXPs to keep their status. That and checking their email. The average EXP household has to have at least $200k in income, that spend threshold is not a hardship for someone who flew enough to make EXP in 2019. If you don't have co-brand cards then you could have just gotten 2k EQD. You could buy that at a discount on AS with the right route and fare code combination...