Originally Posted by
Antarius
You can earn EXP through spend but if you never or rarely redeem benefits, it costs AA nothing. Meanwhile, they make money through their partner channels.
I don't see this hurting AA much at all.
Personally, I don't buy that much stuff. I'm wearing a 14 year old shirt now! So my non-restaurant, non-travel purchases aren't that high.
I buy cheap tshirts too. The one I'm wearing now cost less than $10 and is several years old (not 14 though... maybe 5). I have high medical insurance premiums though, some utility bills (they get high in summer -- AC in the PHX area is no joke), the occasional medical or dental bill, and the occasional invoice from a contractor or other service provider. Also I now pay at Costco using tap to pay, with the eGift cards I got through the portal. Walking into Costco and not spending at least $100 is a skill that I have not yet mastered.
Plus I pay for all my online services using gift cards that I buy from retailers like Target and GameStop (through another portal when I use GameStop). Just yesterday, GameStop was offering 20% back on Rakuten (20 Amex MR pts for me since I opted into that instead of cash back) and I payed with a prepaid visa from giftcards.com bought through the portal, so I got 2000 MR pts, 300 LP & RDM, plus whatever I got from the CC used to purchase the prepaid Visa ... all for buying $100 worth of Google Play cards.