Originally Posted by metallo

I suspect a lot of that is leisure travel. There is clearly more premium demand now for this segment of travelers, and don't forget about the "TOD upgrades" that are sometimes sold even weeks out on AA these days.

I'm not sure how all of the pandemic-related changes will affect CK qualification, and there may still be other factors. For instance, one report suggested that a reason for the recent elimination of Airpass was to reduce corporate Airpass CKs, but AA denied that and said it was inaccurate. If something like that is happening, it's possible AA could be restructuring the CK program and raising the bar / limiting the number of members or perhaps even seeking out a different type of member (e.g. heavy AA credit card spender), but obviously no one here really knows at this point.