Originally Posted by WannaTheater

For those that are playing the “book and no show,” and “boost to get status” games, you may be right. This is because the only “value” you are receiving for your outlay is points and status.

But for those that book hotels for necessary stays for business travel, or necessary stays for personal travel, I would disagree. For these cases, the value is the actual hotel room. The points are an incremental value.

While one hotel I generally stay at for work has taken a point hit, many others are where they were before the change. I will still continue to use AAH, as I see value in paying a comparable room rate and still getting 1000s of AAdvantage points. In its current state, RM is a different story- no longer an option to earn AA points.

AAH for earning points/status now seems to be about short sprints for moderate earnings, vs. hitting the grand slams. And also making it harder to buy status. While some extra planning and corresponding changes in how one uses the program will be required, it is still there and workable. Could be worse…. Could be giftcards.com through AAshopping (R.I.P)